The Top 5 Reasons You Need to Try Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting has a wealth of benefits and everyone who is passionate about optimizing their physical and psychological health should at minimum, have an understanding of it. But ideally everyone should try it for themselves. At first people can be spooked by the word “Fasting”, but trust me it’s not that bad. Intermittent fasting consists of anywhere from 12-20 hours of fasting for girls and 16-20 hours of fasting for guys. The rest of the time in the day is your eating window. What many don’t think about it, is that thousands of years ago during the times of hunters and gatherers, human had no choice but to intermittent fast because they didn’t have the luxurious access to food we have today. Our bodies still have not fully adapted to having an abundance of food at our fingertips!
A Day in the Life of a Faster
Jack's story: the middle image is 9 days in
The most basic, and easy application of the intermittent fasting schedule is this: skip breakfast and cut out snacks in order to create fasting and eating windows. A typical day for me while intermittent fasting looks something like this:
- 9am (Fasted State) - Wake up and work out (You burn significantly more calories in a fasted state)
- 10am-1pm (Fasted State) - Drink Green Matcha Tea / Black Coffee (No-Calorie drinks are allowed during the fasting period)
- 1pm-7pm (Fed State) - Eat 1-2 Big meals. (Focus on getting your essential fats and proteins in first)
- 7pm- 9am (Fasted State) - During this time I am mostly asleep which makes fasting for 16+ hours easier.
Without further ado, the top 5 reasons you need to try intermittent fasting
1) Weight-loss
Because you are cutting out snacks and skipping breakfast, your eating window during the day can be quite small although it’s usually enough to get 1-2 nice big meals in. Also, due to the small amount of eating time, the average person eats a calorie deficit causing weight loss. Read more here.
2) A clear mind
Your gut is considered your second brain. Your brain uses the most blood in your body and your stomach uses the second most blood in your body. When you eat, the stomach and digestive system need blood in order to process food, and that ends up borrowing blood that would normally be used for various brain functions. This causes brain fog and the sleepy feeling you get after eating a lot. (link to source, or give some type of scientific proof) By fasting for 12+ hours you give your digestive system a break, allowing more blood to go to your brain, and providing you more clarity throughout the day.
3) Better digestion
Your stomach does a lot of work! Constantly putting food in your system will cause you to allows be in what is called a “Fed State”. This means your digestive system is hard at work. By fasting, you allow your digestive system to have a break which in turn will make digesting much easier.
4) Pack On Lean Muscle
By intermittent fasting your body will begin to produce more testosterone as well as human growth hormone which are both essential in building muscle. So not only will you cut fat faster but you will pack on lean muscle faster,
5) Live Longer
Your body is like a phone battery. If you leave your phone plugged in too often with out letting it go down to 0%, your battery life will decrease because the phone battery adapts to that situation and doesn’t know how long it can last. Our bodies are similar. If we never allow our bodies to run on empty, our bodies lose track of their longevity and endurance capacity. By intermittent fasting, studies show that you will increase your lifespan simply because you body is being used to its full potential.
Thanks for reading 😉 - Anthony Sandi
