Jade Teta ND, CSCS

Most people can remember when they were in the best shape of their lives, especially if they are currently far away from that place. I can remember three times in my life when I was in what I consider the best shape of my life.  One was at the age 18, another was at the age of 23, and the next time was at the age of 27.  During each of these times I was able to achieve a body fat of around 6 to 8% without really working that hard at it. In other words, I was not a food Nazi or an exercise fanatic. As a matter of fact, the time I can remember being the most fit (at 27)  was when I first discovered 3 key elements that almost everyone who hopes to burn fat is ignorant of.  The first thing I discovered was short duration high-intensity exercise.  Up until that time I was doing 1 to 2 hour workouts and believed to get results I had to eat less and exercise more.  I did ok on those protocols, because I was young and the will to look good outweighed the will to eat and sit on the coach.  The next thing I discovered was that it was not about how much I ate but more about what I ate.  During this time I decreased all starchy foods in my diet and focused on lean protein (egg whites, lean steak, fish, chicken, turkey, etc), vegetables, berries, and limited (5 to 10 bites) potatoes, oats, and rice. I stopped eating pasta, bread, cereal, cookies, crackers, and all sweets. I actually ate all the time and rarely was able to eat the high volume of these foods.  For a long time I thought that these 2 things were the key to my success, but when I look back all the way to the first time I was able to achieve these results at 18 as well as at 23 and 27, there was something else I did that I was not even aware of: I was doing some element of fasting.

The first time, it was really by accident.  I was experimenting with all kinds of diets at the time including a vegetarian diet.  I was also in my first year of college and on the campus eating plan and got tired of the same old cafeteria food day in and day out.  I also loved to sleep.  So some days I would not eat all day long.  I remember kind of liking not having to worry about food.  I also remember the next day waking up with a ravenous hunger and a light energized feeling like I could take on the world.  I would do this “day fasting” once or twice a week at most and sometimes would not fast at all. The second time I experieinced this fasting effect was at 23.  I was in my last year of college and as well as doing my own training and personal training a few clients, I was bartending several nights a week. I would normally work all night Friday and Saturday night and sleep most of the day on saturday and sunday.  I remember my last meal used to be at 3 in the morning at the Waffle House on saturday night, then I would not eat anything all day Sunday.  I was in incredible shape despite the smothered, covered, diced, sliced hashbrowns and pancakes.  The third time I experienced this was a similar situation while in medical school.  Keoni and I used to work 12 hour shifts personal training on Saturdays. There was a period of three months during this time where I also bartended and would work until 3 in the morning at a downtown Seattle nightclub, then sleep for three hours, and then be at the gym at 6am to see my first client.  I would work until 6pm that night personal training and then be back at the bar within a few hours to bartend that night until 3am.  Because my saturdays were so hectic I would usually fast all day on saturday and most of the day on sunday.  My last meal would be around 5pm on Friday evening and then I would not normally eat again until about 2 or 3 on Sunday.

So why am I boring the hell out of you with these stories? Because I wanted to share with you a system of fat loss that I have used that works and is a little different from what most people do. The reason I want to share this with you is that you are going to be hearing a lot more about this. Research is beginning to show that alternate day fasting (ADF), where you eat one day and don’t eat the next, has many health benefits on aging and fat loss. However, there is a right way to do this and a wrong way.  This may confuse many adherents to the fat loss lifestyle who keep their physiques by eating frequent small meals all day long.  And in my opinion, that is still the most effective way to achieve fat loss for 80-90% of people who are trying to achieve it.  However, there is a certain subset of people who do very well on an ADF diet.  Here are the things that I have learned from my experieince and the research on this topic that may help if you want to try this aproach:

1. 1 to 3 days of fasting per week (non-consective days) is best.  The alternate day fasting approach may work well for mice and humans under laboratory conditions, but it is often difficult in the real world and usually not required unless you do no exercise at all.  Choose 1, 2 or 3 days per week, i.e., Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday to fast.  I have seen the best results with fasting on a day that is a busy day.  Long travel days, busy days at work, or those days where you just want to sit on the couch and watch movies all day.

2. You must do high-intensity exercise.  Fasting and not doing exercise is a great way to burn off muscle and fat.  However combining intense exercise is a great way to assure your metabolic messengers are helping to spare muscle and burn fat.  Interestingly the hormonal effects that are seen during fasting are similar to the hormonal effects achieved with high-intensity exercise training.  However, both can be overdone and require a smart eating plan to assure you burn fat and not muscle.

3. Fasting does not always mean fasting.  For those who have blood sugar disorders or cant go without food, a good approach is to simply have a reduced calorie day. I have had some of my weight-loss-resistant clients achieve this by doing three whey protein shakes in water for the whole day.  Their calories stay very low, their energy stay ups, and they are able to maintain their muscle mass.

4. Don’t fast for more than 1 day and make sure your eating according to your hunger the following day.  The fasting  technique can be dangerous for some who take the success of this approach to mean the calorie model is right and therefore try to skip meals and eat less everyday.  This is a HUGE mistake.  This approach does not work on the level of calories, it works on the level of hormones.  When you fast for a short period of time growth hormone and other growth stimulators are elevated along with stress hormones and actually work to help your body burn fat.  If you prolong your fast, you run the risk of elevating stress hormones to a much greater degree which will soon take over and strip your body of muscle instead of fat

There are many good things about this approach, but in general it is best avoided by most beginners of the fat loss lifestyle.  I have found it most beneficial for those who have reached a plateau in their fat loss goals, for those with certain diseases,  or for those who have developed environmental toxin exposure and use the fasting as part of a detox.  We at Metabolic Effect will likely be writing more on the research of this approach soon, so stay tuned.  For now, if you are interested, here are some links to articles on pubmed. The first link is a more recent article on this topic by me.

http://wp.me/pi9kx-9u

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T8P-4VJ4FJB-4&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=94154154507b4bfbb11e8b410afe5383

http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/92/3/865

http://www.jlr.org/cgi/content/full/48/10/2212