Have you heard of Intermittent fasting?

It’s an extremely popular strategy for improving health and losing weight. Lots of people do it and notice improvements to their body shape, and it can also improve your overall daily performance. 

What is Intermittent fasting?

In a nutshell ‘Intermittent fasting’ is where you spend a certain period of time not eating. For example, this could be an 18 hour period each day where no food is consumed e.g. you eat at 12pm and 6pm but then you don’t eat until the following day at 12pm again, meaning you’ve fasted for 18 hours. 

Some people will only have one meal per day. In fact famous fitness model Greg Plitt used to do this….

It seemed to work for him! 

Most people eat 3-5x per day, and over consume calories – hence gain weight over time. The ‘Intermittent fasting’ way of living can be a great strategy for weight loss because you only have one or two opportunities to eat each day. 

You are more likely to eat less overall calories because you’re eating fewer meals – so therefore you lose weight. That’s providing you get your portion sizes and calories correct!

3 Major Benefits of Intermittent Fasting…

I like doing intermitting fasting because…

#1 Spend Less Time Cooking 

I’m a busy guy, I’m a personal trainer in Sheffield and complete on average 30 PT sessions per week, I write fitness blogs for companies and my own site, I have a son who’s 2 years old and lots of other things I try to juggle. Cooking 3-5 meals per day takes up way too much time. I prefer to just have two meals per day – it’s far more convenient for my lifestyle. 

#2 Feel less sluggish 

Fasting is excellent for improving your gut health. I find that fasting is better for overall energy because your body spends less time digesting food. Every time you eat your digestive system is placed under stress, it has to work hard to breakdown food and if you’re constantly grazing on food and eating lots of meals its easy to feel sluggish. 

Ok, to begin with it can be a bit of a shock, especially if you’re used to eating 5 meals per day and then go down to 2! That said after 1 week you’ll be far more used to it. 

#3 Great Results 

I’m the type of person who can quite easily eat 4,000-5,000 calories per day – I love food! The trouble is that eating this number of calories is a fast way to pile on the pounds lol! 

When I only eat two meals per day I can’t eat the same number of calories over two meals – it’s just too much!  Therefore I eat less and lose body fat!

I can usually only manage around 1,200 cals in one go – so if I do that twice per day that means my total number of calories for the day is 2,400 cals (at least 1,600 below my previous calorie consumption when I eat 5x per day!) Like I said less calories = means more weight loss! 

I like to do intermittent fasting for 4-8 weeks at a time when trying to lean down, my other favourite diet for weight loss is the ketogenic diet – try my 28 Day Keto Challenge. 

How to do intermittent fasting for weight loss? 

To get the benefits of intermittent fasting, I’d recommend starting with 2 meals per day – one around midday and one in the evening. Try doing an 18 hour fast, so, for example, you could eat your meals between 12-6pm and then the rest of the time you don’t eat. 

For men i’d give yourself a calorie target of 2,000-2,500 calories per day and for women 1,500-2,000 calories. Use the app MyFitness Pal and track the food you consume.

You could split your calories down the middle i.e. for men…

1,000 calories for lunch + 1,000 calories for dinner

For women…

750 calories for lunch + 750 calories for dinner

If you wanted you could eat less at lunch and more at dinner, or vice versa! It’s what works for you. I tend to be hungrier at night so eat more of my calories at dinner time.

Alongside the Intermittent fasting i’d recommend doing exercise each day, a simple plan would be to do…

• Monday – weight training for 30-45 minutes
• Tuesday – 30 minute walk
• Wednesday – weight training for 30-45 minutes
• Thursday – 30 minute walk 
• Friday – weight training for 30-45 minutes
• Saturday – 30 minute walk
• Sunday – 30 minute walk

Then repeat! 

The exercise will increase your output and the fasting will reduce your input = weight loss!

Is Intermittent Fasting for me? 

It’s not for everybody, and there are plenty of other ways to lose weight. REMEMBER… that as long as you create a calorie deficit you will lose weight – regardless of what diet you’re on and what food you eat!

I wouldn’t recommend everybody to do Intermittent Fasting, but it can be a great way to improve health and lose weight, especially for those of you out there who have busy lives!

Any questions just drop me an e-mail – get in touch with Nick today!

Thanks for reading,

Nick 🙂