Intermittent fasting has gained popularity as a method of body composition manipulation, around March/April there is a rise in people trying out intermittent fasting for 4-8 weeks to quickly lose that extra bit of bodyfat to get ready for the summer.
There are two types of dietary protocol, intermittent fasting where you essentially starve yourself in a 6-10-hour window in a day, or continuous energy restriction when you decrease your calories per meal.
If we compare intermittent fasting (IF) and eating smaller meals (CER, continuous energy restriction) there is no decisive winner onto which weight-loss protocol is more effect for body fat% reduction. One study by Keenan et al. (2022) discovered no changes between IF and CER, both groups exhibited decrease bodyfat% and increases in lean body mass% when combined with weightlifting. The reason for these results are because a caloric deficit at the end of the day you will lose weight no matter how you do it.
Why intermittent fasting?
Because we prefer things simple and ‘black and white’, if most people attempt to reduce their calories by eating smaller meals, they’ll intuitively snack unnecessarily by making compromises with themselves in their head, i.e. “That one extra spoon of peanut butter won’t hurt, will it?”. There is a physiological reason behind this behaviour, and it is related to post-meal insulin state where your body craves more energy. There is no opportunity for this if you set a rule to simply not eat within that timeframe.
How to do intermittent fasting effectively?
- Use a 6-10 hour window preferably after breakfast
- Like with any diet, only do it for no more than 12 weeks if you are in a healthy BMI range
- Keep your protein intake high if your goal is to keep/increase your muscle mass
- Water doesn’t count – so drink water!
References
Keenan, S.J., Cooke, M.B., Hassan, E.B., Chen, W.S., Sullivan, J., Wu, S.X., El-Ansary, D., Imani, M. and Belski, R., 2022. Intermittent fasting and continuous energy restriction result in similar changes in body composition and muscle strength when combined with a 12 week resistance training program. European Journal of Nutrition, 61(4), pp.2183-2199.
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