The Truth About Intermittent Fasting

This will ruffle some feathers, but:

If you’re looking to get in shape, intermittent fasting is pretty much one of the last things that you should do.

Not because intermittent fasting in itself will not work. For some people, intermittent fasting might indeed work. The true reason is that for intermittent fasting to work, it needs to go along with the fundamental principles of weight loss.

1. Fundamental Principles Of Weight Loss

And unless you understand the fundamental principles of weight loss, it will be very hard for you to lose and maintain the lost weight.

And the fundamental principles of weight loss are super simple. And that is calories in versus calories out.

This is a fundamental law of thermodynamics that we are all subject to. So, the only way intermittent fasting will ever work is if it gets you in a caloric deficit.

Forget the ‘hormones’ intermittent fasting apparently changes. It doesn’t do anything of that sort. This is marketing talk.

2. Focus Your Efforts Correctly

What is my problem with intermittent fasting then?

A lot of people push themselves into certain windows of intermittent fasting, completely misunderstanding the entire fundamental principles of weight loss.

Due to that they’re expending their limited time and energy on things that MIGHT just work. Versus things that ALWAYS work.

The reality is that you can not be in a significant enough caloric deficit while intermittent fasting. When that happens, you’ll lose no weight. Even worse, you’ll blame yourself and start to believe that you’re inadequate.

Then you become the perfect target for the fitness industry, selling you further supplements that you need to ‘change your hormones’.

When the reality is simpler than that: It is and always will be calories in vs. calories out.

Action step:

Spend all of your efforts analyzing your nutrition. Are you taking in more energy than you’re expending? That’s why you’re gaining weight.

Use a tool such as MyFitnessPal or Cronometer to input your nutrition info for today. Then focus on foods that have a low caloric density.

Meaning: They satiate you even while providing you very little calories.

Potato is one of these foods. You can basically eat a pound of potato a day and not gain weight. Most vegetables are similar.

Spend all your efforts on finding the foods that you like and have a low caloric density. Then, input them into your nutrition so you’re in a regular, consistent caloric deficit.

And voilà, you’ll lose weight simply and predictably.