Intermittent fasting to lose weight really can’t be beat and if you eat low carbs in between fasts you will turn in to a fat burning machine. . . literally!
Quit playing around with the fad diets and magic pills.
Try intermittent fasting and get that hot body that you had back when you were younger. Your guy or girl will love you for it!
[I'm not saying that fasting will get you the guy or girl of your dreams, but don't we all feel better when we are in shape and confident, regardless of what we have on? ]
There are many reasons why intermittent fasting works so well, below is a list of my top 3 reasons.
Top 3 Reasons Intermittent Fasting Works
1) Intermittent Fasting Cuts Calories
By doing an intermittent 24 hour fast, you will cut your calories significantly, while still being able to eat each day. Obviously cutting your calories is key to losing weight and keeping it off. Remember there are two key components to losing weight, eat less and exercise more. Intermittent fasting takes care of the eat less part of the equation.
2) Easy To Stick To
Fasting is effective because when done properly, it is incredibly easy to stick to, which is the biggest knock on most diets. If you don’t stick with a diet, it’s not going to work long term, regardless of what you are eating. Most diets are incredibly hard to do more than a few weeks or a month at most, and most people don’t last longer than a week! They soon quit and are off to find the next biggest fad diet, only to do the same thing over and over again.
3) It Allows You More Freedom With Your Diet
In between fasts, you can eat whatever you normally would. Of course, the better that you eat, the more weight you will lose and the healthier that you will be. That being said, if you change nothing about your diet and just fast two times a week, you are going to lose body fat. It’s that simple. You will lose weight and still be able to eat the way that you like to eat.
Intermittent fasting helped me lose 25 pounds!
I started intermittent fasting on January 1, 2010 and went from 201 lbs down to 176 lbs and have stayed at this weight since May 1, 2010. It is now July and I am ratcheting it up a bit and will go down to around 170 and see what my abs look like. These are my three top reasons why intermittent fasting to lose weight has worked for me. If you haven’t tried intermittent weight loss fasting, I urge you to check it out below.
Intermittent Fasting Update:
I wanted to update this post that was originally done in July 2010 to let you know of my recent progress.
It is now March of 2011 and I am around 166lbs! I have maintained this weight for around four or five months now. Through the holidays and the winter blahs, I have been able to get leaner than I’ve been since I was in my twenties, and easily maintain it.
It has been around 14 months since I first started fasting for weight loss and I am more convinced then ever of it’s incredible effectiveness!
In fact I wrote a short report on intermittent fasting that I would like you to read.
Inside you can see a picture of me leaner than ever as well as see how to get access to a video that I made on intermittent fasting.
Click on the link below to check it out.
No opt-in required, just click on the link and quickly learn more about intermittent fasting!
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{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
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Kelly,
I used to be a “6 meals a day” kinda guy and found it to be an enormous inconvenience. These days, I eat two meals every day, and eat until I’m full. Unlike the diet advice given out by most people that suggests you stop when you are only 80% full. Oh yeah, I do one full day of fasting every week and it is WAY easier than caloric restriction.
Darrin´s last [type] ..In Search of the Best Abs Exercise
I couldn’t drop my bodyfat down below 10% .. I tried everything heaps of cardio but it stuck to my guts.
Then I read about fasting and tried it out … and yeah you guessed it! it stimulated something in my body and caused to break the plateau I was in, was able to lower close to 8% … I now use it as a monthly “hit” to reignite my fat burning.
Raymond – ZenMyFitness´s last [type] ..MMA Core Workout-The Secret for Granite Abs
ESE really got me down to where I am today, as well as helped me maintain my weight loss easily.
My favorite part of ESE is that no one knows how I am losing weight (unless I tell them) I tend not to advertise the things I try until I feel confident that I will succeed, with Intermittent fasting I can diet without anyone noticing.
Kelly,
I couldn’t agree more that intermittent fasting is the simplest and most effective way to reduce calories. My eating plan consists of Primal lower calorie meals Monday through Friday and ESE plus higher calorie cheat meals on the weekends. Using this routine, I have been able to drop down to about 7% body fat, so I can attest that it works!
Alykhan
Alykhan´s last [type] ..The Jersey Shore Workout is More Than Just Working Out
Kelly,
Congrats on losing all that weight. I’ve had a similar experience with ESE and don’t foresee stopping any time soon.
Dave
Dave – Fitness Training Tips´s last [type] ..Plyometric Training Exercises- How To Jump Higher to Dunk
Kelly
Totally agree. The reason ESE has worked for me is that I have more discipline in fasting once or twice a week than I do with cutting out foods I love.
Kevin
Kevin´s last [type] ..Intro to Dharma Fitness Path
Darrin,
The one thing that I love about fasting is the time that I save not having to prepare food. I usually leave in the morning early and don’t get home until around 6 or 7 pm. The days that I am eating, I need to pack a lot of food since I won’t be home till late. It is a lot easier to just grab my jug of ice water and go instead of getting my breakfast and lunch together.
Raymond,
I am the same way. I just use fasting every once in a while to give me a jolt or get me back down if I eat a little too much. It makes holidays and picnics a lot more fun, not having to be so strict with the food.
LD,
That’s true. I lost all of that weight and nobody knew how I did it either. They never saw me cutting food back and whenever I went to lunch or dinner, I still ate whatever I wanted.
Alykhan,
Fasting is one of the best things that I have learned in my adult life. It literally has made such a positive impact on my life and made it so much easier. I feel bad for people that will not give it a try. I think once they would, they would be amazed with the results like everyone else here.
Dave,
Thanks my friend. It definitely feels great! I remember back in 1997, I did a natural bodybuilding show in Pittsburgh. (I know, I know, I was trying to be a meathead!) But to get down to the weight that I needed to be at, I was so freaking miserable for 12 weeks. My wife was like, “You need to quit this diet. It makes you in such a bad mood!” With fasting, I am now super lean, but I don’t have the mood swings and am not a miserable prick! lol. By the way, lucky for my physique, I sucked at being a bodybuilder and gave up!
Kevin,
True. It is far easier to not eat for one or two days a week and eat normal the rest of the time versus a strict diet all of the time. I have been reading more and more about the health benefits of fasting and how it effects your insulin. It just keeps getting better and better! I hope to meet Brad Pilon from eat stop eat one day, so I can shake his hand! His system has made such an impact on my body and my life!
Nice post.
I’ll definitely have to give this a try now. I bought the e-book but was too scared to give it a shot.
I trust my fellow bloggers to steer me in the right direction. Guinea pig #3344 signing on.
It’s all in your hands people!
C.
Clint,
Yeah, you really should check it out! It has given me so much freedom and more than that, it really gives results. Intermittent fasting the Eat-Stop-Eat way has worked wonders for everyone that I know, that actually tried it. By the way, you have a kick-ass look to your site. I will be checking it out often. Good job, my friend!
Kelly
I like the concept behind ESE, and it’s good see that many people have benefitted from it as is evident from the previous comments. I am looking to give it a try.
The problem for most people on the fast day is making sure that they don’t over eat on the one meal. This use to be my problem as I would go the 24hrs and then eat way more than I normally would almost completely missing up the whole fast. I have been able to eat what I want when I want and that includes drinking alcohol following fasting approaches.
-Thomas
Thomas – Waist, Hips, & Thighs´s last [type] ..Can You Tone Fat Away
This is very important because your body’s aerobic capacity will determine how your body deals with physical, emotional, and mental stress. When you lower your capacity for work, as you do in this type of exercise, you are lowering your long term health, as well as decreasing your burning fat.
Oh another tidbit from Kelly! That is true though when you fast you eliminated alot of other process food. I try to stop eating stop that are processed because I figured my body probably can’t break it down as well.
Leslie
For good health it is good to reduce the amount of sweets or junk food that we eat. For fast weight loss, we should completely eliminate junk food from diet, even if it is only for a short period of time. This means that instead of a snack, we can grab an apple or an orange instead of a chocolate bar or a bag of chips. With candy and other sweets being high in calories, we may find a significant decrease in our calorie consumption by eliminating them from diet.
25 lbs is amazing Kelly.
I think that eating whatever you normally would in-between fasts is huge for a lot of people. This definitely one of the top reasons this fasting method works for so many people.
Jeff – Get This Ripped´s last [type] ..Stretch Workout To Get Stronger And Recover Faster
Hi,
About 3x aweek I workout 2x aday,for health resons,on IF when would eat?
2-also do Ifast or fast my 18 hrs the other days?or 24hr?
3-How many days do I eat,how many do I Fast
Gary,
There are many ways that you can do intermittent fasting, which is one of the reasons that it works so well. You are not stuck to one rigid way of doing it. I can tell you what has worked for me is to fast twice a week, usually Tuesdays and Fridays. I will eat my normal dinner on Monday night and then I won’t eat again until dinner on Tuesday. I do the same thing on Friday. It usually works out to be around 22 hrs of a fast.
This would be 2 days of fasting per week and 5 days of eating normally. In between fasts, just eat as you normally would. Of course you would want to eat as healthy as you can, but don’t get too hung up on what you are eating on your non fasting days. Try just eating normally and see what kind of progress you make and then just adjust it from there.
I only fast a few days a month now because I am as lean as I want to be and don’t need to use fasting as a weight loss tool as much as I did before. If you are serious about losing weight through fasting, you should check out Eat-Stop-Eat by Brad Pilon. I learned IF from him and it has worked incredibly well. You can get more information here, http://fitnessoverhaul.com/eatstopeat
Eliminating junk foods is a good start to lose fat. This totally means to replace this with healthy fruits such as apples or orange. This way we can avoid starving while reducing weight.
25 Lbs in 5 months is awesome! I have to say great job… I had gone through a similar experience last year. I’m only 5′-8″ and weighing close to 190lbs, I looked like a little meatball, lol… I started dieting and exercising again in March 2009, and by August 2009 I had lost over 20 lbs, and was able to see my six pack again. Do not want to go back there again!
Jose Perez – Best Workout Routine´s last [type] ..Our Burn Fat X10 Review
These are some good reasons for someone to lose weight. Maybe this post can motivate them to trim those pounds and stay healthy. Thanks for sharing.
25 lbs – congrats! I’ve just started and have noticed a huge difference. I get even better results when I add in some HIIT at hour 23.
Darren
Darren@Moreprimetime.com´s last [type] ..How to Lose Weight Running
There are many opinions regarding whether the fasting is good for health or not. What I feel is it is good for heath as it allows the digestive system to rest and heal itself at least for one day. It is good that having 5 or 6 small meals or snacks spread evenly throughout the day, with no single meal exceeding 600 calories and where each meal or snack contains a little protein. It definitely have create an impact on your weight lol!
Intermittent fasting is a great diet strategy. Although I’ve never used IF, I have had a couple friends use it with some success, so now I’m really starting to learn more about it. Being that it’s January I suppose I’ll have to slip into some kind of dieting phase to strip off the winter flub, so IF should work for me this time around.
Project Swole´s last [type] ..Intermittent Fasting- A Primer
@Project Swole
You will definitely see results with intermittent fasting once you give it a try. I have been doing it now for over a year and love it! As an update, I am now around 166 lbs and have stayed at or close to this weight since November, including no substantial weight gain through these past holidays! Not too many people can say that, unless they are counting calories and really watching what they eat. I didn’t do any of that, just used fasting twice a week with a cheat meal on Sundays.
Try it out, you will be glad that you did!
-Kelly
If I fast 2x a week, do I still do 16-8 split of not eating on the other days?
Gary,
No. I eat normally the other days of the week. Normal for me is around four or five meals, spread throughout the day. I keep my carbs low and try and get them from fruits and vegetables, although I am not super strict with this. When you are implementing fasting, you do not have to be strict or worry as much about what you eat. That’s the beauty of it.
Try it out and let me know if you have any questions. As you do it, you can make adjustments along the way. I added a cheat day on Sundays and actually get better results than when I don’t cheat.
-Kelly
For medical reasons I need to workout 6x aweek ,when should I fast or eat?I workout around 5pm after work.I want to make this work.my goal is to lose 60lbs
@Zorach,
I have found great success fasting twice a week. I would eat dinner as my last meal on Sunday and then fast until the following dinner on Monday and do this same sequence on Friday. I usually have a cheat day and eat whatever I want (cookies, cake, ice cream, nachos, etc.) on Sundays up until dinner. I have actually made better progress by adding the cheat meal. I am sticking around 166-168 Lbs. now and still feel real strong.
I would workout as you normally do and try fasting just once a week and see how it goes, or do a mini fast just ubtil lunch instead of dinner. Try it out and let me know how it goes.
-Kelly
How do you feel about using a BCAA surge immediately before and after going to bed? I wake up around 7, fast til noon, train around 4, start fasting again at 8, and go to bed around midnight. What is your opinion?
Intermittent Fasting´s last [type] ..Intermittent Fasting- Meal Planning
If I eat all my calories by supper after a fast,how does fastin help you lose?
@From zorach,
The key is that you don’t eat all of your calories after a fast. You eat as you normally would if you didn’t fast. If you skip breakfast and lunch, then eat a normal dinner. Don’t try to catch up with your calories or you are defeating the purpose of the fast. Although if you only eat one meal, such as the warrior diet, you will still see results.
The key is to eat less calories than you are using on a consistent basis. If you do that, you will lose weight. Intermittent fasting helps you to do this.
-Kelly
@intermittent fasting,
I’ve never tried a BCAA surge before bed, but I do take Scivation Xtend every day and drink it on the days that I am fasting. It tastes great also, especially the blue rasberry from bodybuilding.com.
How has it worked for you?
-Kelly
One thing I would really like to comment on is that fat burning plan fast can be achieved by the appropriate diet and exercise. Ones size not merely affects the look, but also the quality of life. Self-esteem, despression symptoms, health risks, plus physical abilities are affected in putting on weight. It is possible to just make everything right and still gain. If this happens, a medical problem may be the perpetrator. While an excessive amount food instead of enough exercise are usually responsible, common health concerns and widespread prescriptions might greatly add to size. Kudos for your post in this article.
Kelly, do you think you are going to drop more weight or just maintain at 166lbs?
Yavor´s last [type] ..How to Unleash Your Pull-up Work Out Potential with Lat Activation
How do I find out more about your program?
Wow!! I love it!!
I have found that fasting even just once a week has not only helped me loose weight but freed me from the bondage that food can have over my lives!
I started fasting for” religious ” reasons…prayer and fasting…in doing this I saw not only a clearer mind to focus but weight change!!
I wasn’t tired or anything and functioned as normal if not better!!
I’m 42 mother of 5…which includes a set of 2 yr old twins…and I have never felt better. I weigh 135..goal of 125..and I’m 5’1…I work 5xs a week…but before fasting the weight took forever to drop…on the days I fast I don’t really workout..perhaps I will.
Thank you for your insight and I will defiantly add an other day of fasting to my week [=
Deanna
I had no idea that intermittent fasting worked for weight loss. I always thought the body would go into “starvation mode” and actually begin to hold onto every last calorie that it can. Thanks for clearing this up, if I may add for people to avoid whole grain and drink nothing but water once they do begin eating again, this will also help the pounds that are lost to stay off for good. Thanks again for the info!
Hi there, I came across this post whilst looking for info on intermittant fasting. Very interesting and encouraging to read about your great results.
I have found the whole fasting idea amazing yet I am really confused by the staunch opposition I get when discussing it with friends and colleagues.
Unfortunately, educating the ill informed in’t always possible…is it?
Doing intermittent fasting maybe hard at first but you’ll eventually learn how to control your hunger. And just like what the other posters have said, this works better compare to any diet plans. You just do this twice or thrice a week and it promises to make you lose some pounds.
Great post, and great to see someone else that has made brilliant gains with ESE and other forms of fasting. I love the fact that you can be “on a diet” without having to pick and choose things from the menu which give it away to friends and family. I’ve also been remarkably healthy since I took it up full time – not had a cold or fever in over 2 years! Great post!
As a Jewish dude i used to fast 3 times a year from age 13.
I recommended fasting to everyone ….it’s hard but it is worth it
Good luck
John´s last [type] ..Six Pack Shortcuts Review
Intermittent fasting always came naturally to me. Some years ago, when I was a teenager I used to feel guilty about it because I had read that my body would go into starvation mode. The problem was that every time I tried to eat many meals per day, I always ended up putting on weight, because it seems that eating frequent meals increases my appetite (for some weird reason). Now I know that starvation mode needs 2-3 days of fasting to kick in.
I’m a firm believer that every diet works, and that you should pick the diet that best fits into your lifestyle. I’ve tried various types of fasting, but it’s difficult to do now that I’m married, with kids, and have family dinners. While doable, it’s more difficult, and I can get similar results through other diets. There’s no doubt though that fasting can be an effective weight loss method.
Tony – Coach Calorie´s last [type] ..To Have a Pre-Workout Meal or Not – That is the Question
I can totally understand the point of fasting in terms of being able to stick to the diet. It’s a no brainer in that respect.
The idea though of getting the body of your dreams – usually this includes building some muscle, which when combined with a calorific deficit will make muscle building high intensity workouts hard to do. If you fast on your days off training, then maybe your muscles will not have the opportunity to fully rebuild themselves.
The point of having 6 meals a day is supposedly to increase the metabolic rate, however that shouldn’t mean eating more calories, just eating less more often. Eat what your body needs, not what some book tells you. How does the book know your build, or body type?
I can see the benefit – I struggle not to eat every few hours when I’m doing intense training – I think I would black out if I didn’t eat for 24 hours. Perhaps there is a happy medium we could find here?
David´s last [type] ..How To Get A Six Pack Fast!
I’m a big fan of intermittent fasting and i wanted to respond to David’s comment. No, if you are in good health then there is no reason taht you should pass out because of a 24 hour fast. this whole idea that we need to be constantly eating is pure social conditioning. Rather than hypothesizing about “what might happen” if you fasted why not give it a try? People (including myself) are getting great results with IF!
Curt@How to Get In Shape Fast´s last [type] ..Intermittent Fasting Diet
I’ve got to say, I’m not a big fan of fasting, since I never got results with it.
But I found your story to be very inspiring! And will give fasting some renewed attention and try it on some of my clients!
Mike Chang´s last [type] ..Six Pack Abs are not easy to get
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