Intermittent fasting has become very popular over the last few years but it is nothing new. Martin Berkhan, some call ‘The God Father” of intermittent fasting, started his Leangains protocol in 2007. Ori Hofmekler published “The Warrior Diet” in 2001, which promotes intermittent fasting with just one large meal in the evening comprised of whole foods. Evolutionarily speaking, human beings spent a lot of time in the fasted state during our hunter gatherer days. Any time I can improve my health by doing things more naturally, I go for it.
I was using a more lax intermittent fast (14:10) throughout 2017 until I heard Dr. Rhonda Patrick on the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast in December, where she mentioned most of the health benefits of IF are obtained when following the 16:8 fast. Being the experienced doctor that she is, PH.D. in Biomedical Science, and an expert on nutrition, I took her advice at face value.
At the beginning of the year I decided to strictly follow the 16:8 intermittent fast, where you condense your eating window to an 8 hour period and fast the remaining 16 hours in the day. As a Trainer, I usually have some down time midday, so I break my fast at 12:00pm and eat until 8:00pm. I basically skip breakfast and eat two large meals during that eating window.
Waking up most days at 4:00am means that I am 8 hours into my day before my first meal. I do drink black coffee as well as one serving of Branch Chain Amino Acids throughout the morning. This helps curb my appetite, wakes me up, and gives me a little boost for my fasted morning work outs. There is some debate whether or not coffee/ BCAAs break the fast but they are 0 calories each, I don’t see the harm in their consumption.
I am constantly asked about my diet in the gym. People are always interested when I tell them I have been intermittent fasting and they ask why I do it.
One of the main reasons why I like to IF is because I do not have an appetite in the morning. Growing up I never ate breakfast. The last thing I want to do in the morning is eat a large meal.
I hate meal prepping, and filling my fridge up with Tupperware. I hate leftovers, especially reheated chicken. IF eliminates the need for meal prepping and allows me to make each meal fresh.
Most of my clients’ training sessions are every hour on the hour. I do not have time to eat a whole meal in between sessions. IF eliminates this problem.
It simplifies my eating habits, only concerned about two large meals a day rather than the recommended 5-6 small meals every few hours.
As well as a slew of health benefits… that I could never seem to remember when asked about them. Have you ever done something because it was good for you but you didn’t really know why it was good for you? That was me and IF. I knew I liked it for the practical reasons mentioned above and I remembered hearing it somehow benefited natural growth hormone levels, insulin sensitivity, and promoted longevity but I did not understand the specifics.
I decided I could use this post to help spread the word on the usefulness of IF and help me learn the specific health benefits so I could properly explain them the next time I am asked. I looked into it. What I thought would be reading through a few pub med studies turned into a deep dive of numerous studies on intermittent fasting and time restricted feeding.
Before I started my research I knew there were a few studies done on mice that showed the positive health impacts of intermittent fasting. As I started to dive in, I couldn’t help but notice the majority of studies about intermittent fasting were performed on mice. These studies are referenced very often by proponents of IF. I’m not a doctor but i know this much: I’m not a mouse. I understand the data can be extrapolated and used to hypothesize what could happen to humans in the same scenario, but these human studies still must be done.
The intermittent fasting studies I found that were actually performed on humans had their own design flaws. Some of the samples sizes were very small (9 men), the duration was short (3 weeks), and some of them considered two day fasts as intermittent fasting.
The most relevant study I found was an 8 week study on the effects of a 16:8 time restricted feeding on basal metabolism, maximal strength, body composition, inflammation, and cardiovascular risk factors in resistance-trained males. Their results concluded that an 8 hour eating window paired with resistance training could improve some health related bio-markers, decrease fat mass, and maintain muscle mass.
Maybe the benefits of IF are overstated, or maybe the scientific evidence isn’t there yet.
Clearly, there are a lot of studies that need to be performed on humans proving the efficacy of IF.
All that being said, just because there aren’t human studies showing these benefits does not mean they don’t exist. You don’t need a scientific study on every single thing you decide to do in life. You are allowed to do things however you see fit. If something works for you, keep doing it.
I’m going to continue using intermittent fasting because it makes my life easier. And who knows, maybe i’m getting some unknown benefits from it that have yet to be scientifically proven.
Talk again soon,
Shane