Five Fasting Facts that Favor Fat Loss
There was a short time in my life when I taught 13 fitness classes per week. You could easily assume I must have been in some super-hero-kind of shape but you’d be wrong. I did have amazing aerobic capacity, which means I could talk and exercise at the same time, but I wasn’t leaner, lighter, stronger, didn’t sleep better, or less stressed than when I did a reasonable amount of moving. How curious!
This phenomenon occurred because my number one goal was teaching frequency to help promote a program I was trying to sell. It wasn’t because I was trying to compete in fitness, lose weight or gain strength. I was trying get in front of as many people as I could.
Because I was teaching a ridiculous amount of classes every week, my hunger levels were very inconsistent. I ate when I wasn’t hungry (because I thought I’d run out of energy) and couldn’t eat when I was (because I thought I’d be sick while teaching with food in my stomach). That triggered more stress and less sleep and more hunger. It wasn’t a good prescription for feeling healthy by any means.
In order to change our physiology, lose fat, gain strength (and not exercise twice a day), we have to move enough to trigger growth but not so much that our muscles and organs have to give up energy to burn. We would like to assume that if we moved a whole bunch, that our bodies would use any stored fat for energy (the exercise-your-belly-off-theory). What typically happens instead, is that our body uses energy at the rate it has access to it. When we eat frequently, our body always has energy and some in excess. We use what we need and everything else gets put away in our fat cells. But if we don’t eat for a period of time (like with intermittent fasting or timed eating), our body can access stored fat for use when we need the energy instead of only our last meal, and therefore improve our body composition. If we eat frequently, our body can’t get to the stored fat because insulin won’t let it. Instead, our body will slow down its mechanics and work only at the speed of our meals.
This may seem like a frustration if you’re not interested in lengthening the time between your meals, but it’s really an amazing miracle of our physiology. The homeostasis of our metabolism is wired so that if needed, it will preserve itself, even at the expense of having to be more energy efficient and less metabolically active. Amazing.
So, let’s get to the facts of fasting and fat loss (that wasn’t just a click-bate headline!). There are so many benefits to eating less frequently, that it’s curious how we’ve been so long convinced that meal frequency was necessary, and downright crucial, in order to be healthy and lose fat. It seems quite the opposite may be more real and sustainable.
My beginning story is a good example of how this doesn’t work for fat loss. I was exercising 2-3 hours a day, eating 5-6 times a day of nutritious foods, and didn’t have any changes in my physiology. How can that be? Well, you would be right to say that I was over exercising (who wants to live like that?) and you’d also be right to say I was overeating (because I definitely was). But I also didn’t gain fat. Why? One reason could be that my metabolism revved up because of all the exercise and so did my eating frequency and quantity (and if you’re wondering, increased exercise without increased eating also is a lose-lose situation that most often leads to injury and burnout, and let’s not even talk about the hormone stressors that like that concoction). Obviously, I was still in homeostasis.
So if overexercising didn’t create change, and eating frequently didn’t create change, and neither did the combination of the two, what does? For most people, it’s less frequent eating and a reasonable amount of exercise, especially weight training.
Fasting is a rhythmic and flexible eating frequency that maximizes our chemistry by allowing our bodies to use stored energy (why else do we store energy except to use it when we don’t eat?). When insulin is lowered in our blood (by not eating for a bit) all kinds of other reactions take place in our brains and liver that signal our fat cells to release energy. These reactions create enough space for our body to have plenty of sugar and fat to burn (glucose and ketones), while also keeping hunger abated, our metabolism fueled and the end result is that we feel great.
We have plenty of energy, clear thinking, improved digestion, disease prevention, ease of schedule and finances, and the ability to continue a lifestyle of health that we actually enjoy. Fasting puts food in perspective; we enjoy it, but it doesn’t dominate our thinking with tracking, counting, measuring and weighing. We enjoy food and use it for nourishment and celebration, and then we have time for other more important things in life.
5 Fasting Facts that Favor Fat Loss:
Infrequent eating allows our blood sugar and insulin to decrease (this is a good thing unless you have type 1 diabetes) so that our liver can break down stored fat for energy use and reduce inflammation.
Fasting doesn’t have to mean eating nothing. Several foods can still be consumed “during a fast” that won’t affect insulin. (this can be a comfortable way to tip your toe into more consistent and longer fasts if interested)
Fasting for various lengths of time creates the best rhythm and results for most women and can easily be adjusted for our hormone cycles (this is a hugely important issue for women of all ages, but especially pre-menopausal). If you’re a woman who has tried fasting and felt miserable, this is likely part of the reason. Fasting in the wrong time of your month can feel awful, but during the right time of the month, it will feel amazing.
Fasting can be integrated into any eating style. Well-timed meals can be more important for fat loss than well-planned meals, ie. we don’t need to be a chef to eat well. (we all know junk food won’t work for any healthy life, right?😊)
A fasted state is energetic and focused. We’re more likely to exercise well and increase productivity while not losing time prepping and eating food. A feasted state can feel heavy, sleepy and low energy, especially from processed foods (because our body is working incredibly hard to digest; post-Thanksgiving meal anyone?)
So what if you’ve heard a lot of negative criticisms of fasting, are stuck at an unhealthy weight and don’t know what to do besides counting calories and macros or increasing your exercise. My advise is to try less frequent eating and don’t even call it fasting! I’m always happy to help guide you, and it’s much, much easier with some coaching. BUT, don’t let that stop you from trying. It’s better than being stuck. It’s free. It’s simple. And you can stop at any time. Zero risk.
Of course, if you’re a woman and are don’t want to study the nuances of our physiology with fasting, I’ve got a program just for you. Formula3 is a 12-week course designed around women. It’s for women who are ready to find food and fitness freedom. Schedule a call with me today and we can decide together if we’d be a good fit for your fitness.
