Should You Do Intermittent Fasting?

Should you do intermittent fasting? Is it worth it?

Today, I’m going to give you the pro’s and con’s of intermittent fasting so you can decide if it’s right for you.

Should You Do Intermittent Fasting? (Breakdown)

Let’s start with the benefits of intermittent fasting.

The benefits of intermittent fasting

1. It’s simple

You don’t have to log in your food on a macro calculator. No need to weigh every gram you’re about to eat. You don’t need to take a pill or buy overpriced supplements. 

None of those things. 

In fact, it’s the complete opposite. You do nothing. You take a break from eating.

One of the biggest, if not the biggest, determining factor when it comes to your success is adherence. Can you stick to whatever you’re doing long term?

If your diet requires you to carry around little Tupperwares because you have to eat your 5 to 6 meals. That just sounds extremely inconvenient. 

Or maybe you have to follow complicated recipes or strict meal plans. Who’s got time for that?

Instead, what could be more simple than not doing anything? If you just skip a meal instead?

There’s no prepping, no cooking, and no clean up afterwards. It’s simple. Simple is good. Which means you’re more likely to stick to it long term.

Intermittent fasting is the epitome of the KISS principle. It stands for Keep It Stupid Simple.

2. It flat out works

I try to mention this concept as much as I can when I talk about intermittent fasting because this is key. 

You need to be able to wrap your head around this concept. Especially when I talk about the con’s of intermittent fasting in a second here.

Because you have at least 100,000 calories worth of stored energy in the form of body waiting to be used. That’s what it’s there for. It’s not just there for looks. 

When you fast, and the minimum effective dose here is 16 hours. Your body, being the super computer that it is, will tap into your almost unlimited fat stores and burn it for energy so you don’t die.

This fat burning switch is controlled by the hormone insulin. That’s why a lot of experts consider insulin the master hormone. I’s the hormone that controls your body weight. 

You need to keep it moderated if you want any chance of losing fat. 

The problem is, we’ve completely gone away from that. For example, 3 out of 4 American adult is in the overweight or obese category. 

88% of those, so that’s almost 9 out of 10, have some form of metabolic dysfunction. Part of metabolic dysfunction is insulin resistance due to poor dietary and lifestyle choices.

That’s where intermittent fasting shines. One of its benefits, and there is a laundry list of it, is that it improves insulin sensitivity. 

All you need to know is that every time you eat, your insulin goes up. 

Again, it’s a storing hormone. When insulin is high, you cannot access your body fat and burn it for energy. You just can’t. It gets locked away and insulin is the key. In short, high insulin blocks fat burning. 

The good thing is, the reverse is also true. Every time you don’t eat, when you fast, insulin goes back to baseline. Your fat stores gets released and becomes usable energy. This is how fat loss actually works. 

Yes, it’s calories in versus calories out. But you need to factor in hormones like insulin for example, to get sustainable results.

And from a practical standpoint, it’s so much easier to create a calorie deficit if you just take out one of your meals.

3. You save money

This is just simple math. You’re eating fewer meals which means you’re going to be spending less money on food.

This was such a pleasant surprise when I started doing intermittent fasting. Especially now that I only eat one meal a day. 

I spend a fraction of what I used to spend on food. 

This means you can invest some of that money you save on buying higher quality food. You can buy organic vegetables, pastured eggs, and grass fed and grass finished beef for example. 

I don’t even think twice about buying high quality foods these days because I know that I’m investing in myself. I’m investing in my health. And your health is absolutely worth it. 

Just ask any sick person what they would do in exchange for a clean bill of health.

4. It’s flexible

You can simply pick an intermittent fasting schedule that best fits your lifestyle. 

I mentioned earlier that the minimum effective dose for intermittent fasting is a 16 hour fast. So you’ve got a 16 hour fasting window.

And you can just look at your day and see where you can best fit that 8 hour eating window. 

For a lot of people, it’s easy to just skip breakfast. For others, they’d rather eat first thing in the morning and skip dinner. That works just as well.

As long as you complete 16 consecutive hours where you’re in a fasted state, and that includes your sleep, you’re fine. 

You can also mix it up. Maybe you skip breakfast on certain days and you skip dinner on other days. You can also play around with longer fasts.

But start slow on this. If you’ve never skipped breakfast in your life, there’s going to be an adjustment period. Think of fasting like a muscle. The more you work it, the stronger it gets.

5. It allows you to feast

Back in the day, we’d go through periods where food was scarce. Feast and famine.

Nowadays, you can have access to food with just a push of a button using an app, 24/7. You don’t need to leave your house anymore to get food. We spend too much time feasting. We eat like it’s our job. 

Fasting is the great equalizer to this.

I’m not saying that you should use fasting as an excuse to hit up an all you can eat buffet when you break your fast. But it definitely allows you a little bit more flexibility to enjoy the occasional treat and not have it affect your weight loss goals.

6. It gives you more time

We make around 200 food related decisions every day. That’s a lot of brain power spent on food. 

Add in the time we spend preparing, cooking, eating, and cleaning up afterwards. No wonder people say they don’t have time.

Intermittent fasting cuts into that because you’re simply eating less frequently. Which then frees up some of your time to do other things like exercise.

Now let’s get into the physiological pro’s of intermittent fasting.

7. It’s muscle sparring

Contrary to popular belief, you are not going to waste away when you fast. In fact, it’s the complete opposite. Your body holds on to your precious muscles during your fast. 

Again, this process is controlled by your hormones. When you fast, insulin stays low, and it unlocks your almost unlimited fat stores that you can now use for energy.

This graph perfectly illustrates that. Protein oxidation, which is the blue line, after day zero stays flat. Which means your body doesn’t break down muscle when you fast.

While fat and ketones, which is the usable energy when fat gets broken down which is that green line, stays high. All that means is your body predominantly uses fat for energy when you fast.

And this stays consistent even after 30 days of fasting. I’m only asking you to fast for 16-24 hours here.

Let’s look at this other graph. Fasting after 24 hours has been shown to increase testosterone by up to 180% and growth hormone by up to 2000%. 

Those hormones are crucial when it comes maintaining and building muscle. 

In fact, a lot of experts consider growth hormone to be the real fountain of youth because of its anti-aging effects. And you can get that boost FOR FREE when you fast.

Do you know what actually makes you lose muscle as you lose weight? A calorie restriction diet. 

8. It’s the perfect complement to a low carb/ketogenic diet

If you’ve been following my channel, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of a very low carb, moderate protein, high fat diet. Also known as the ketogenic diet. I’m also a fan of the carnivore diet.

Why? Because those diets moderate your insulin levels. And I just spent the first half of this video explaining why that’s crucial for fat loss and improving your metabolic health.

And if you combine it with intermittent fasting, then your body will only have to produce a minimal amount of insulin to store all the nutrients every time you eat.

I forget the doctor who said this but your health and longevity is directly tied to the amount of insulin your body has to produce in your lifetime.

9. Fasting triggers autophagy

Think of autopahgy as a cleanse on a cellular level. Your body looks for old, damaged, and worn out cells and clears it out to produce new healthy cells.

What triggers this amazing process? Fasting.

Some experts even believe that autophagy is the main reason why fasting could help prevent cancer. Because cancer cells are mutated cells. Some even say that a yearly 7-day water fast is the best way to do it. 

I actually did one last year with my Mom. It was such an amazing experience. If you haven’t seen it, make sure you check it out.

10. The benefits of intermittent fasting goes way beyond weight loss

If the benefits of fasting could be put in a pill, it would be the greatest blockbuster medication of all time; right next to exercise.

• Can reverse type 2 diabetes (Again this is from improved insulin sensitivity and better blood glucose control)
• Reduces inflammation
• Could prevent Alzheimer’s disease which is now being called type 3 diabetes (which is caused by inflammation nonetheless)
• Boosts your brain
• Increases your metabolism and energy
• Builds your immune system

Again, it increases growth hormones, it builds muscle, and so much more.

You get access to all those things for free if you just take a break from eating.

The potential downside: Con’s of intermittent fasting

Now, this would be completely biased if I didn’t talk about the cons of intermittent fasting.

1. I’m not going to sugar coat it. It’s going to suck at first

And it’s mostly because we’ve taught our bodies to expect food at certain times during the day. Like eating first thing in the morning.

But there’s no science that proves that eating first thing in the morning is somehow beneficial to the human body. None. 

The term “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” is just a marketing ploy.

The word breakfast in itself literally means “break-fast”. 

It’s the meal that breaks your fast. Which means you get to decide when you eat your “breakfast.” There’s no rule that says you have to eat first thing in the morning. You can have “breakfast” at noon.

When you start fasting, you are going against a lifetime of eating habits. I mentioned earlier that there’s an adjustment period. 

Start slow. You’re not metabolically flexible yet. I would even go as far as saying that you shouldn’t start with intermittent fasting. Fix your diet first. There are levels to this

When people say that they get headaches or they get hangry when they fast, that is the definition of metabolic inflexibility.

2. Not everyone’s results will be the same

We live in a world where instant gratification is the name of the game.

It’s easy to see someone else’s weight loss transformation and expect the same results for yourself. But intermittent fasting is not a magic bullet. This is where bio individuality comes into play. 

Your genetic predisposition to store fat plays a key role when it comes your results. It also depends how long you’ve been holding on to the fat you’re trying to lose.

You can bet that someone who’s been overweight for 8 years is going to lose that weight on a different rate than someone who’s been overweight for 8 months. 

That’s just the reality of it. The longer you’ve been insulin resistant, the longer it’s going to take for your insulin levels to go back down to baseline. 

It takes a little bit of time to flip that metabolic switch. But best believe it’s going to happen eventually. It’s just not going to happen overnight.

3. It can be used as an overcompensation tool

Like I said earlier, intermittent fasting is a great tool to have at your disposal to give yourself some flexibility when it comes to having the occasional treat.

But this isn’t a give an inch, take a mile scenario.

You can’t fast and still eat junk every day. It doesn’t work like that. You have to be sensible about it.

This is why I always talk about making sure you have a good relationship with food in a lot of my videos.

4. It’s possible to overdo it

What I mean by this is some people have a competitive nature and they think more is always better.

In terms of the length of a fast, the benefits start to taper off after 48 hours.  And I don’t even recommend doing it for that long simply because it’ll definitely start to interfere with your social life.

Unless you’re in the obese category, I would stick to 24 hours as your longest fast.

In terms of what you eat, less isn’t necessarily better. 

Yes, you still need to be on a calorie deficit even when you’re fasting. Only this time, it’s actually going to work in a more sustainable way because you’re also factoring in hormones.

What you don’t want to do is double down and severely under eat during your feeding window. 

You want to make sure you’re eating a lot of nutrient dense foods and you’re getting enough protein in your diet. If not, that’s when you start seeing people’s hair fall off. 

Try eating grass fed beef liver if you can. It’s widely considered to be one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet.

5. You’re going to be met with a lot of negativity

Ask any random person on the street about their thoughts on intermittent fasting and they’ll most likely tell you that it’s bad for you.

But nothing could be further from the truth based on the benefits I showed you earlier.

And I have a separate video where I debunk a lot of these other popular fasting myths so make sure you check it out. 

But the human body is designed to fast. A lot of religions have some sort of fasting integrated in their beliefs. It’s been around for thousands of years. 

Fasting actually heals the body. Animals inherently know this. Think of your dog whenever it gets sick. It doesn’t want to eat, right? 

Hippocrates, the father medicine, said, “To eat when you are sick is to feed your sickness.”

And according to Benjamin Franklin, “The best of all medicines is resting and fasting.”

As always, if this was helpful, share it with a friend who could benefit from it as well!

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