When we decided to look into the intermittent fasting diet, we put the word around the office for who would like to be the ‘guinea pig’ for the article and give the intermittent fasting diet a test run. There was resounding silence! When we rephrased the request to ‘who wants to go on the diet that is the best way to lose weight?’, there was a much better response – until we explained the intermittent fasting rules!
Let’s delve a little deeper into the pro’s, con’s and myths of the intermittent fasting diet. Firstly though, what exactly is intermittent fasting?
Intermittent fasting – the rules
Intermittent fasting is not a new concept. The general idea has been around for hundreds of years often steeped in religious practices, with many recognising days or months of intermittent fasting for a variety of reasons. But, the concept of intermittent fasting for nutritional or weight loss benefit is reasonably new.
Intermittent fasting diets require you to go without food, or fast, for specific hours in the day, eg. 16 hours of fasting with an 8 hour eating window. Or, a weekly approach, with 5 days of eating and 2 days of fasting (or minimal calories) in the week. There are a number of complicated variations to this, but you get the idea – eat some of the time and don’t eat some of the time.
Intermittent fasting – how it works for weight loss
When we eat and digest food it is turned into molecules that end up in our bloodstream to use for energy. Carbohydrates, especially refined sugars (think white rice and flour) are easily and quickly broken down into sugar (glucose) for our cells to use as energy. If we don’t need or use all of this available glucose we get from food, it is stored as fat!
Essentially, if we use up all of the freely available glucose and need more energy then our bodies can call upon our fat stores to release their stored glucose. The concept of intermittent fasting promotes the use of this energy model. If the length of time between meals is sufficient, the body is expected to burn fat for fuel as the freely available glucose has been depleted. If this happens on a regular basis, you lose weight.
It seems so simple, just don’t eat for certain periods of time. Easy, right?! Maybe this really is the key to the best way to lose weight. I mean, if you only eat for 5 of the 7 days of the week, that 30 percent reduction in calories spells automatic weight loss. So then, why wouldn’t we do it?
A recent study found that alternate day intermittent fasting was comparable to a regular calorie restriction diet for weight loss, weight maintenance and cardio-protection. In fact, it actually had a much higher dropout rate than regular calorie restriction. This leads us to consider the actual pro’s and con’s of the intermittent fasting approach to dieting.
Pro’s of intermittent fasting
- You will lose weight initially when intermittent fasting (as with the initial stages of any diet regime). This makes sense for the pure fact you are eating 30 percent less than you were prior.
- There are promising studies into the positive impact of intermittent fasting on improving outcomes of lifestyle diseases and protecting brain function. Unfortunately, these results have mostly been in animal studies that don’t always correlate well to humans!
- It’s pretty simple to follow. In fact, there seems to be no advocacy for they types of food you should eat or how much you eat as long as you stick to the ‘off-limit’ times. This can be great for those who enjoy routine without so much considering the benefits of good nutrition and overall health.
Con’s of intermittent fasting
- Willpower is heavily relied upon. And let’s face it, who has that strong will power to fight off hunger pains, while possibly suffering from light headedness and headaches from lack of food.
- It doesn’t necessarily prescribe healthy foods. The temptation to gorge on sweets and highly processed foods with the intermittent fasting parameters of ‘eat whatever you want’ as long as you stick to the time limits can lead to other health issues, like nutrient deficiencies. It makes creating healthy eating habits more difficult and undermines optimal body function.
- Lack of energy is a major complaint, not only on fasting days but throughout the regular eating periods too.
- Doing intense exercise on fasting days is not recommended. Making it even harder to fit regular exercise into your already busy week.
- It can make your social life difficult. Food is often the centre of our social circles, so if events fall during your fasting period then you may find your weight-loss support network is not all that supportive! Not to mention missing out on that late-night romantic dinner, family suppers, dinner meetings with your colleagues or maybe even sharing meals with your family. Not so fun!
- Psychologically, the idea of fasting makes intermittent fasters prone to ‘stock up’ on calories, that is, overeat at times of feasting which undermines any weight loss.
OK, so let’s ‘weigh in’ on this argument and most recent trend. What’s our view?
Is intermittent fasting the best way to lose weight? Simply, no. There is no single magic pill, wonder diet or quick fix that fits every person in every situation. Full stop. Good long-term nutrition habits beat fad diets and ‘strict rules’ every time.
“Intermittent fasting (IF) is the name some nutrition experts give to the practice of occasionally going for extended periods without eating. This fancy name implies that IF is the exclusive domain of the nutritional elite. It’s not. In fact, we all do some form of IF every single day, except we don’t call it that. We call it sleeping.” – Dr John Berardi, Precision Nutrition
Just because a particular nutrition idea – like paleo, raw food, keto or intermittent fasting – worked for your aunties best friend’s husband doesn’t mean that it is sustainable or that it will work for everyone. Jaclyn Reutens, Active8me dietician expert from Aptima Nutrition and Sports Consultants says “The success of intermittent fasting is solely due to an overall reduction in the calories consumed and not because of an earth-shattering change in your metabolism to burn off fat more efficiently.”
Jaclyn warns “Intermittent fasting is a fad diet. It works, because of the time restricted calorie deficit, but only for the short term. It is impractical to eat during an 8-hour block everyday. Imagine if you had a business dinner and had to skip breakfast and lunch because of the timing. Life need not be so complicated. Eating healthy is simple but dieters like to find a unique and novel way of eating which is usually unsustainable.”
As humans our nutritional needs are determined by our physiology, which is extremely adaptable under a number of different nutritional conditions. The best eating plan for you, is one that is nutritionally balanced, that YOU can sustain for the long term. The best way to lose weight is to simply take in less calories than you will use throughout the day. Weight loss = Calories in < Calories burned.
Something to think about
When considering an eating plan, how often have you considered your lifestyle factors? Think about your work and family commitments, your stress levels, access to fresh foods and cooking abilities, or just general life demands. How do all of those areas make a specific diet extra challenging?
At Active8me, we have taken all these things into consideration for you. Giving you flexibility and options that best cater to your lifestyle and to weight loss success. Check out one of our customised plans to suit your needs and tastes. Not to mention all the added benefits of tailored exercise programs and workouts, mindset lessons, data tracking and even the ability to chat to a coach!
