How Intermittent Fasting Can Make You Stronger

A while ago I wrote about the benefits of intermittent fasting – how it helps to prolong the release of human growth hormone (HGR), which naturally occurs during REM sleep. The longer you fast for, the more HGR is released. HGR supports muscle repair and growth, including your vital organs and also bone health and other musculoskeletal components – joints, cartilage, ligaments and tendons. HGR is dubbed “The Fountain Of Youth” hormone – in that it keeps you young. Fasting helps to balance hormones, and stimulate autophagy which is the process that removes toxins and estrogenic chemicals from your body – so as men, we love this as it means testosterone will increase with less estrogen. Hugh Jackman followed an intermittent fasting routine to build and maintain his physique for Wolverine. Hell, if it’s good enough for Wolverine, it’s good enough for me!

Simply put, fasting is quite a cool thing, and our ancestors used to do it all the time without thinking about it. It’s only in our modern world where we think we need to break the fast with breakfast as soon as we wake up. This is a societal and cultural trait, rather than a basic human need. It won’t work for everyone, and it’s up to us to find out what works, but from personal experience, extensive research and from talking to others who do it, they’ve realised great benefits – very effective weight loss where most weight is from fat and not from muscle as well – as is the case with most fad diets with BS calorie restriction, less stress, increased muscle definition, fewer carb cravings (which lead to fat gain), and a lower appetite and elongated energy levels. It really helps you tune into your body and exactly what it needs, rather from acting out of habit. In this article, I’m featuring the world renowned creator of the Fast Diet, Matthew Mosley.

1. Intermittent Fasting Is Based On Years Of Research

“There are loads and loads of animal studies going back over 80 years, human studies now going back over about five or six years. And I’ve counted 11 clinical trials of intermittent fasting. There are also [observational] trials on Muslims [who fast] during Ramadan.”

2. ‘Starvation Mode’ Is A Myth

“You know the origin of the starvation mode theory? It was a study done in the 1950s where they took a bunch of young men and asked them to live on approximately half their normal calories and they followed them for six months and they obviously lost dramatic amounts of weight. And when their body fat went down to five percent, they started to experience significant problems. Now that is a really, really radical fast for a really long period of time. That is nothing like simply cutting back your calories for two days a week. It’s a completely different experience.”

3. Medical Discovery Often Begins With Self-Experimentation

“Until you look at it, you don’t realize how many of the great discoveries were carried out by people doing experiments on themselves. There’s a sort of heroic element to it, but also a moral element: these doctors kind of went, “Look, I should try it on myself first.” And actually the first ever long-form documentary I made 20 years ago was about an Australian self-experimenter who was convinced that stomach ulcers were not caused by stress, but by bacteria. So he swallowed the bacterium, developed ulcers and discovered that you could cure it with antibiotics and won the Nobel Prize. There you go.

I think it’s much harder to do now, but actually when you talk to doctors you find that an awful lot of them have tried stuff on themselves. You discover that most of them at some point have tried something on themselves — dermatologists have taken biopsies from their own arms or whatever.

It’s kind of, in a funny way, the moral thing to do: that before you impose it on a rat or one of your fellow human beings, if you really believe in it, you should give it a go yourself. But then obviously, you have to do proper clinical, randomized, double-blind and controlled trials. And they understand the limitations: just doing something on yourself doesn’t really prove anything, but it’s kind of a starting point: you try animals, yourself, a few patients and then you do proper trials. That’s how science progresses.”

4. Intermittent Fasting Helps You Lose Fat, Not Muscle

“There is one advantage that intermittent fasting appears to have over a standard [calorie-restricted] diet: studies suggest that when you do intermittent fasting you lose almost exclusively fat. This is what [researchers] Dr. Krista Varady found and what Dr. Michelle Hoffman found. A standard diet you lose about 75 percent fat, 25 percent muscle. With this, it’s between 85 and 100 percent fat. So when I did it, I lost 19 pounds, nearly all of it fat. My body fat went down from 28 percent to 20 percent. That is important because if you’re going to be doing a diet, you don’t want to lose muscle because the muscle is metabolically active — and muscle makes you look good. Muscle is what you want to preserve at all costs.”

5. Not All Fasts Are Created Equal: Intermittent Fasting Is No Juice Fasting

“I think juicing is a terrible idea. The biggest problem is that it removes the fiber. And the really good thing that’s in fruits and vegetables is the fiber. Fiber reduces your risk of bowel cancers — all sorts of cancers — and it also keeps you satiated and it also stabilizes your glucose levels.

If you take an apple and you eat it, you get loads of fiber in it, it fills you up. Studies show that having an apple before your meal means you’ll probably eat fewer calories in that meal. If you drink apple juice, basically, almost all the skin has been removed and all the vitamins are in the skin. A glass of juice is really just a sugar hit. And that is going to make you feel hungry, it’s going to make your insulin levels go up. It’s going to be empty calories.

And what’s been happening in the last 20 years in the U.S. and also in the U.K. is that people get a huge amount of calories from fluids. They get it from fizzy drinks, but they also get it from smoothies and fruit juices. There are so many calories in those drinks — so much sugar. People think because it comes from an orange that somehow it’s healthy. But actually, when you eat an orange, you’ve got to peel it, it’s got loads of fiber. Once you juice it, all of the good stuff, pretty much, is gone. There are some vitamins, but mostly what you’re getting is fructose.”

6. Dementia Is A Nutrition Issue

“One of the researchers we work with, Dr. Mattsen, has got these mice who are prone to Alzheimers and dementia. And they normally develop dementia at the age of one, which is about middle age for a mouse. When they’re in a fasting state, they go to about two, which is the equivalent of a 90 year old. But if they’re put on fast food diet, they develop it at about four or five months, sometimes six months. So you see the impact of junk food not just on your body, but on your brain. And I think that’s probably one of the more shocking and surprising things.

And I am genuinely worried and most of the people I talk to, scientists, are worried about where we are going. People are living longer, but as we live longer, the risks of dementia climb and how are we going to cope with that? Because you can live with dementia for 20 years and it is an appalling, appalling condition.”

 

Continue reading original article on HuffPost

I’m not sure I fully agree with the point about juice cleansing/fasting – we can get all of our micronutrients from plant based foods, mostly vegetables, nuts, seeds, grasses etc and some fruit. Fruit is high in fructose, which is sugar and causes insulin spikes and therefore fat retention, but the results people have had from juice cleansing, such as those who followed Joe Cross who created Sick, Fat, and Nearly Dead, the results speak for themselves. Joe Cross suffered from obesity, inflammation, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and an autoimmue disease which meant he had hives all over his body. His doctor kept on putting him on more and more medication and at tipping point, he was taking 8 different prescription medications. This is outrageous!!! He decided to take his life into his own hands, rather than listen to his doctor who signed a Hippocratic Oath and cured everything through juice cleansing and came off every single medication. He was monitored weekly with his blood pressure, hormones and vital measurements and proved that he was getting healthier by the day. Similar results have happened for other people all over the world. I don’t seem to remember many complaints of lack of fibre. Just saying! Love the article above nonetheless – hence why I’ve featured it!

Hugh Jackman’s thoughts on Intermittent Fasting:

Hugh’s 16/8 intermittent fast regimen involves doing all his eating for the day during an eight-hour window and then not eating at all (except for water) for 16 hours. Jackman typically consumes all his calories between 10 am and 6 pm.

“There is a lot of science behind intermittent fasting or having a period of each day when you are not eating,” said Hugh. “So you eat for an eight-hour window and then don’t eat for 16 hours.”

Jackman added: “There’s a lot of research saying that it’s better for your heart, cancer and many, many things to give your body a break. But during those eight hours I eat 6,000 calories and that is kind of brutal.”

Intermittent fasting has been touted for its ability to produce rapid weight loss and burn fat more quickly than conventional dieting. It has also been called a powerful anti-aging diet because it reduces the oxidative and metabolic stresses that damage cells. The health benefits of IF was detailed extensively in the bestselling health books, The Fast Diet and The Every Other Day Diet.

Read whole article here