What does fasting do?? Well for one, it’s not starving yourself. A lot of people don’t actually know what it is or why do it so here are my thoughts and practices….
I looked in to fasting after reading up on Hugh Jackman’s training for his Wolverine movies. Yes, I had heard of it before but was in the head space that it was a spiritual or a religious thing. Yep, I was wrong.
When we sleep we are fasting, so we do it regardless and the whole thing about breakfast, well, just break down the word… we break our fast with our first meal of the day. S o to get extra benefits from fasting all we need to do is push back what we consume first. For example instead of eating at 8 AM you eat at 11 AM or if your last meal at night time is at 8 PM than eat the next day at 12. This is known as a 16/8 eating patten. Fast for 16 and eat in a 8 hour window. Very simple and very effective.
The 16/8 is the most common and the easiest way to get in to fasting. I’m not saying you need to do it every day, maybe twice a week but if you do it for say 5 days a week, you’ll see more of a difference in your body shape.
It has more to give as well, it lets you free up some time to get on with other stuff! Training when in a fasted state can really boost your weight loss or muscle growth as it can help you to generate more of the natural growth hormone. HGH helps with looking younger, burning body fat and many more benefits but for now lets stick to just these two. If we add in resistance work, weight lifting, then we can increase it by 2000%!
Of course what we eat does matter, you don’t want to come out of a fast and eat junk. Your body will absorb what you give it and it will work better for you if it gets nutritional dense food. Bone broth is great for this or if you want to really make the most of it than take on a Keto lifestyle. Get more greens down, kale, spinach, sprouts and yes broccoli. Come on, you are an adult eat your greens!!
There are different types of fasting, the 16/8 right up to the OMAD which is one meal a day. Hang on….. One meal a day???!?! Yes some people and athletes do this. I tried it myself for just over a week and it wasn’t that bad. It did give me a lot of time to train, work and even catch up on more new courses. One thing to remember is not to cut calories…no way, no how. Eat a healthy nutrient rich meal plan and enjoy your food. Cutting calories will not help but when we eat can.
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I have just done a 72 hour fast, 3 days. The first day went fine as I had lots to do and keep myself busy. I admit cooking dinner for my wife and son was weird as I knew I wouldn’t be eating it! Didn’t stop my mouth from watering…yep I’m a good cook.
Day two was a bit different, I felt the hunger but didn’t get hunger pains just more of an awareness. The biggest thing I noticed was my energy levels, they were right up, not just for a few hours but nearly all day. Again I was sensitive to cooking but it wasn’t as powerful.
On my final day I didn’t feel any hunger at all and I was bouncing of the gym walls! As witnessed by my clients, I was getting more excited about their workouts than them! I have noticed my skin and hair feel better, smoother… and I’ve been burning body fat like nothing before. My abs are actually sticking out! Well now about to eat a lovely mixed salad with tuna after drinking my bone broth.
Will I do an extended fast again?? Definitely!!!