Q & A: Can Intermittent Fasting help me lose weight for my beach trip? Is it safe? Will it last? Will I lose muscle?
A: That’s 4 great questions.
Can it help weight loss? Yes. Intermittent fasting (IF) helps people lose weight by reducing calorie intake. IF imposes structure by a defined eating window (8hr per day is popular), and/or a defined number of meals (2 or 3 are popular), and/or prohibiting snacking.
- Most clients find 3 meals and no snacks in ~10hr window effective and doable.
- Some prefer eating 2 meals per day, which usually means skipping breakfast because most are hungriest at night.
- Fewer still prefer 24hr fasts. Usually, weight loss requires 1-2 fasts per week, and 1 to maintain.
Is it safe? Yes! Our new American pattern of unlimited snacking is unhealthy, and therefore unsafe. Pushing back against unhealthy behavior is necessarily safe.
- Since the US obesity epidemic began (early 1980’s), mealtime calories have gone down.
- The extra calories driving national obesity are from skyrocketing snack intake (and the physical activity we longer do).
Will the results last from Intermittent Fasting: Health and fitness rented vs owned, so your results will last as long as you are consistent.
- All diets work as long as you work them. Some are unsustainable, and it’s own can of worms.
- All diets work one way – calorie deficit.
- An inconvenient truth is “calorie deficit” is synonymous with “craving.”
- A 24 hour fast allows us to experience real hunger. Most of us haven’t felt hunger in so long that we confuse cravings and urges with hunger.
Will I lose muscle? Word on social media is, “if you don’t eat every 3 hours your body gets ‘catabolic’ and burns muscle instead of fat.” This is a myth.
- It takes 60 hours without food before your body begins turning to protein for fuel. 16 hours, 24 hours, or even 48 hours of fasting is not 60.
- You only burn calories from bodyfat after burning the calories you’ve eaten. The idea that waiting too long to eat blocks fat loss makes less sense than telling a broke person that they wouldn’t be broke if they spent more money.
- Muscle mass does decrease with weight loss (no matter what dietary changes) if you don’t do strength training. They key to preserving your muscles, which are your metabolism, is strength training at least 2 days per week.
Josef Brandenburg is the co-owner and a coach at True 180 Personal Training, Charlotte’s most effective studio for women. We are changing the way fitness is done to get you the results you deserve whether you are Intermittent Fasting or not!