Intermittent fasting 101

Happy Friday!!

I've been such a blog slacker lately but you know what I don't regret it! I was just not feeling it so I listened to myself and laid low. It was good and allowed the free flow of fresh ideas to enter my brain. I just read an article that was featured in the Crazy Sexy Life weekly newsletter about how big-time business people do this on a regular basis to keep their edge. I believe it too because I produced some big ideas while I was laying back that I might have shrugged off if I was just go, go, go. I will be talking about one of these big ideas soon. I'm a little apprehensive to talk about it but I'm going to anyways because I value every readers' opinion (the nice one's anyways!). Also, starting June 1st I will be back working at the office at the coast so my blogging schedule is going to change as I won't be able to blog during the day as much. I will also be taking full advantage of the beautiful summer weather so I'm thinking early morning blog sessions are going to be happening in my near future. Are you changing the pace on your blog for the summertime?

Today I wanted to talk about a type of fasting that I am going to be experimenting with during my transformation contest called intermittent fasting. Brad Pilon is the author of Eat Stop Eat and he explains intermittent fasting or IF as a style of eating where a person alternates between periods of fasting and non-fasting (eating normally). This may seem self evident but I want to stress the word "alternate." This type of fasting does not go on for days (or months) like a juice fast can, in fact, its most effective when completed over a 24 hour period. Brad suggests 1-2 days per week of fasting. I am going to try one day a week. Actually once I hit publish I'm going to start my fast (noon to noon).

If we go way back to the cave men era I'm sure you wouldn't find them eating 3 square meals a day (plus 2 snacks!). They ate when they killed something or found a patch of berries, seeds, greens etc! This is basically a natural form of IF. Did we find obese or overweight cave men? Nope (at least I've never seen one). So, I guess you could say IF is a primal form of eating and I think we have a lot to learn from it! I'm sure you have heard the phrase " you need burn more than you eat" when it comes to weight loss. Yes, the only way to lose the pounds is to create an energy deficit. Yet, society is stuffing their mouths like food is going out of style and our waistlines have gone up an average of 5 inches over the past four decades.Yikes! We are constantly in the "fed" state and that has certain implications to our health, especially for those trying to lose weight. Brad explains it is hard for those to lose weight these days because of this constant fed state. The body is used to storing extra calories when we eat over our needs so that we can use this energy when we do not have food available to us in the future. This makes sense to me, does it for you? I'm going to assume yes and continue.

You may be wondering if your metabolism will be effected if you don't eat for those 24 hours? Well, there is tons of research on this subject but I want to just share two little research tid-bits with you. A study of women who ate half the amount of food they normally ate for 3 days saw no change in their metabolism. Another study made people fast for 3 days and their metabolic rate did not change. Crazy hey?

Weight loss is not the only benefit of IF, many other studies have found the following health benefits:

• Maintenance of skeletal muscle mass
• Decreased blood glucose levels
• Decreased Insulin Levels and increased insulin sensitivity
• Increased lipolysis and fat oxidation
• Increased uncoupling Protein 3mRNA (protein involved in fat burning)
• Increased norepinephrine and epinephrine levels (trigger release of of glucose from energy stores, cause feelings of alertness, releases fatty acids from your fat stores)
• Increased glucagon levels (maintains blood sugar levels, increases fat burning, decreases the production of cholesterol, and increasing the release of extra fluids from the body)
• Increased growth hormone levels ( prevents muscle loss during fasting, releases stored fat, keeps metabolism elevated during the fasting process)

***Benefits were noted from Eat Stop Eat

Sounds only too good to be true, right? If IF sounds like something you would be interested in trying please read up on it to make sure it is right for you. And if you have medical complications make sure you check with your doctor before you jump in. I've read many testimonials from people who used it and it greatly improved their health and helped them lose excess fat too!

I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow! I also have a recipe to share with you called scrumdidilumptious bars. Hopefully Willy Wonka won't mind that I used one of his candy bar names:)

Have a wonderful weekend!