10-hacks Fasting

INTRO TO

INTERMITTENT FASTING For those who are new to the concept of intermittent fasting, you are likely to hear a small voice inside your head saying, “This can’t possibly be healthy” or questioning, “I should eat something, right?” - it’s so deeply ingrained in us that eating frequently is necessary that doing the contrary can cause some apprehension. However, let me be the first to tell you that this feeling quickly subsides as soon as you see for yourself that, in fact, we do quite well by eating much less frequently instead of eating by habit. So that’s why before I share my top 10 hacks for successfully adopting intermittent fasting into your routine, I want to quiet your inner overeater by busting some of the most common myths surrounding the practice of fasting. That way you can rest assured that you are on the right track for fat loss and the numerous other evidence-based health benefits intermittent fasting has in store for you.

“So, what is intermittent fasting exactly?” Well, The first thing that you need to know is that intermittent fasting is NOT a diet. You still eat your normal amount of food, you just eat it in a smaller time frame, referred to as your “eating period.” According to research, one should fast for at least 16 hours in order to experience the full benefits from fasting. This intermittent fasting protocol is referred to as “16-8” which translates to a 16-hour fast followed by an 8-hour eating period. Trust me, if 16 hours sounds daunting, hear me out: All you have to do is stop eating at midnight, go to sleep, wake up, skip breakfast, and then start eating at 4:00 pm. Then, once midnight rolls around, you just stop eating. Reaching a 16-8 intermittent fasting schedule is really that simple.

“I thought that skipping meals would make my metabolism slow down and cause fat gain... How does fasting help with fat loss?” Here is the truth: if you are eating food every 2-3 hours from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed, you are chronically suppressing fat oxidation (a.k.a. fat burning). Meaning, you will never give your body a chance to burn anything other than the food you are eating and you’ll have a hard time losing fat. This is the big myth that the food industry and big supplement companies don’t want to admit, because if they did, people would consume far less and they would make far less money. Now, here’s where fasting comes in - fasting (going periods of time without eating) dramatically decreases your insulin levels. This is exactly what you want because lipolysis (the process whereby your stored fat is broken down for energy) will finally be able to occur. Basically, not eating tells your body to rely more heavily on its fat stores so that you can finally burn off the unwanted, stored weight.

Key points to remember: * You burn fat when you are fasting. * You burn food when you are eating. Your metabolism will not slow down and you will not enter into starvation mode if you fast either. It is ludicrous to equate starvation with skipping breakfast or not eating for 16 hours, or even for two days! According to a 1987 study by K.S. Nair published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the earliest evidence of a lowered metabolic rate in response to fasting occurs after 60 hours (with an 8% drop in resting metabolic rate).

“Are you sure going long periods of time without eating is healthy? Won’t I burn off muscle?”

“How am I going to fight hunger cravings? What if I fall off the wagon?”

As far back as the 1930’s, scientists have been exploring the many benefits of a “fasted” lifestyle approach. During that time, one American scientist found that significantly reducing calories for set periods of time promoted longer, healthier lifespans while reducing the risk of common diseases.

Good news: you won’t have to worry much about hunger or binge eating While the idea of fasting may make you think of “starving,” intermittent fasting is more about cutting way back on calories for short time periods. Doing so will affect your hunger and cravings over time in a positive way.

Many researchers conclude that fasting may also increase the body’s responsiveness to insulin, which regulates blood sugar and helps control hunger - both of which contribute to enhancing health, improving weight loss, and quality of life.

This is because as your body adjusts, you become satisfied more easily with smaller portions because your stomach capacity shrinks along with your appetite.

As for your muscle - several studies on intermittent fasting have also shown that a certain protein-synthesis boosting hormone (Human Growth Hormone) dramatically increases as a direct result from fasting. Having higher levels of this hormone helps with muscle building. Bigger muscles means more strength and more endurance and, as you can tell, these are characteristics that every guy looking to put on lean size would cherish.

“If I am skipping meals, won’t I feel sluggish? I don’t want to have low energy or have difficulty focusing…” Fatigue, brain fog, and inability to stay on task are common symptoms that people experience daily which are, believe it or not, made worse by fluctuating your blood sugar levels constantly throughout the day (eating every 2-3 hours is largely the culprit of this). However, researchers are convinced that intermittent fasting may hold the key to changing that. Studies show that when we allow our bodies to reach the fasted state, a hormone called Norepinephrine is released - or better known as the “fight or flight” hormone. This hormone keeps the body and mind in a heightened state of alertness, sharpens your focus, and contributes to feeling higher levels of energy during the day. Lower insulin levels and increased amounts of norepinephrine (a.k.a. noradrenaline) together have been shown to increase the breakdown of body fat and facilitate its use for energy.

Falling off the wagon tends to not be a concern when following a fasting program because, technically, you don’t need to change anything about your diet to experience the benefits… Meaning, you still can enjoy the foods you love, just in a smaller window of time. Making it very appealing to many people.

“Ok, so what makes you such a big advocate of intermittent fasting?” That brings us to my own personal transformation journey. You see, not too many years ago I used to be a “Average Frustrated Dieter (AFD).” I was a slave to doing hours of cardio, I brought bland-tasting chicken and broccoli Tupperware boxes everywhere I went, and I even carried one of those giant meal prep coolers packed full of those cute little “bodybuilder” meals. But, my body always looked the same. I was 270 pounds and extremely unhappy with the lack of results I was seeing, especially since I was putting in just about all the time and effort I could afford to while also managing my career in Health Care. Thankfully, I kept learning, reading, and applying different techniques. Which then lead me to one the most groundbreaking discoveries I had come across at that point in my life… Intermittent Fasting. Now, I’m not the typical “guru” type or anything like that so please don’t feel like the fasting lifestyle is something that I just came up with myself. Truth be told, fasting has been a practice and way of life for thousands of years across many cultures and within many religious texts. My only goal is to share with you the science behind how and why this pattern of eating has stood the test of time and give you the simple tips I used for adopting intermittent fasting into my own routine, thus allowing me to have the body and health I now have today. With the correct understanding of fasting and the tips to make it a part of your weekly schedule, you’ll be able to see and feel the benefits for yourself.

Intermittent Fasting Hack #1

Make it flexible for YOU. The common perception with most diets is that they aren’t convenient or easy to stick to, because you have to be on a strict eating schedule, eat certain foods at certain times, and avoid many of the foods we love - especially in the later hours of the evening. The beauty of choosing intermittent fasting over traditional diets is that you have the power to create your own schedule and make fat loss work for you, instead of the other way around. This eating plan was made to create freedom. Not inhibit it. So, the trick is to determine what time frame you are busy (the most productive hours of your day) and what time frame you are relaxing. Try to schedule your fasting schedule to where you are fasting during the busy hours of your day (when you don’t necessarily have time to be worrying about eating every few hours anyway) and save your eating period for when you are free to actually enjoy food and be social. For example, if your mornings are incredibly busy, you can apply the “16-8” fasting schedule like so: Cut yourself off from eating at 10:00 P.M., sleep, wake up, skip breakfast, and resume eating at 2:00 pm. Then, once 10:00 P.M. rolls back around, stop eating. An alternative to that would be if you work a night shift and are busy during the evening hours, simply reverse the timing. The key to this hack is to arrange your food intake schedule so that you are fasting during your most productive time frame and enjoying your eating period when it makes the most sense for you. I recommend establishing your personalized fasting game plan for the week before diving in so that you can transition in seamlessly. As long as you are fasting for the full 16 hours and following that up with an 8-hour eating period, you can make the schedule as flexible as you want!

Intermittent Fasting Hack #2

Give it a good 3 weeks.

According to research, it takes approximately 21 days for our bodies to metabolically adapt after making a change to our eating pattern. In other words, you wouldn’t have given intermittent fasting an honest try because you didn’t given your body the time it needs to adapt. That being said, in order to determine if intermittent fasting is for you, I recommend that you give it an honest 3 weeks. Now, that’s not to say that you can’t experience immediate results from intermittent fasting. In fact, within the first few days of fasting you will experience: * Appetite suppression. * The cellular walls of your stomach shrinking. * Much more satisfaction with smaller portions of food. * Improved focus & concentration. * More energy. * Less bloating as fasting can dramatically decrease inflammation. So, here’s my second hack for making the commitment to follow through with fasting for at least 3 weeks: Take it slow. Try implementing the “16-8” fasting schedule on just 3-4 days out of the week (preferably on the days you are the most busy). On the days you are fasting, try to eat at least three times during your 8-hour eating period and on the days you aren’t fasting feel free to eat how you normally eat.

Intermittent Fasting Hack #3 Don’t tell people you are fasting. Even though intermittent fasting is becoming more prevalent as an actual lifestyle, there are still a lot of skeptics and uneducated people out there who have no idea about the benefits of intermittent fasting. Many of these individuals are stuck regurgitating the outdated bodybuilder “bro science” that they’ve been accustomed to hearing and reading about from magazines, trainers, and fitness icons of generations past. Therefore, hearing about an alternative approach to getting into great shape tends to ruffle their feathers. Trust me - I’ve been there and done that when I first started using the fasting approach. But here’s the thing: You don’t need to subject yourself to feeling discouraged by what others will say about fasting when you have the science behind it on your side. The research-proven facts associated with the fasting lifestyle speak much louder than trivial opinions. So, my advice for those who are just getting started is to keep it to yourself and let the results do all the talking (because I promise, within no time, the results will speak for themselves!).

Intermittent Fasting Hack #4 Drink plenty of water during your fast and add a little bit of pink himalayan sea salt. An empty stomach will make you feel hungry, and here’s why: We all have stretch receptors which are nerve cells that make up the wall of our stomach lining. When your stomach reaches a certain level of “emptiness” the stretch receptors send a signal that your fuel tank is low, telling your brain that you are hungry and then reminding you that it’s time to nourish your body. Inversely, when you fill up your stomach with food, the stretch receptors send a message to your brain signalling that you are now full and you need to stop eating. From this naturally-occurring process, you can biohack hunger during fasting periods by filling your stomach with water. Drinking at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water during your fast will allow you to suppress the hunger signals because you’ll be keeping your stomach in a “full” state. Plus, staying hydrated while you fast is incredibly important for encouraging your metabolic fat-burning processes. To take things a step further, I recommend diluting ½ of pink himalayan sea salt to every 32-ounces of water you consume. This is because when you go long periods of time without eating, you are depriving your body of certain minerals that are critical to our vital hormone processes. Pink Himalayan sea salt contains over 84 minerals and trace elements including calcium, magnesium, potassium, copper, and iron, so it does much more than your average table salt which is why I recommend this as the preferred choice.

Intermittent Fasting Hack #5 Try caffeine or a fat-burner supplement. Coffee and tea are both approved drinks to consume while you fast. As natural sources of caffeine, these beverages will increase your metabolism, boost your energy levels, as well as help curb food cravings - which will be key to avoiding any hunger pang signals that you may experience during your first few days of fasting. Coffee lovers beware - no artificial sweeteners or creamers should be used in your coffee during your fasting period. These food products contain sugar and even the “sugar-free” options contain sucralose that can cause your insulin levels to rise. You can also make fasting easier by using a fat-burner supplement. Fat-burner supplements typically contain stimulants such as caffeine, green tea extract, green coffee bean, and white tea extract - all of which create a thermogenic effect within the body to enhance metabolic pathways for fat loss. My tip is if you’re looking for a fat-burner, choose one that has ingredients proven to support your Leptin hormone levels - this is your master appetite-regulating hormone. When you have optimal levels of the Leptin hormone within your body, hunger signals are minimized. And, lucky for you, the natural herbs that are proven to support Leptin sensitivity can be consumed while you fast!

Intermittent Fasting Hack #6 Distract Yourself. While you are first getting accustomed to fasting, your body will initially signal to you that it is hungry. Rather than give into it or dwell on it, distract yourself. Do something to take your mind off it. The best practice, as I touched on earlier, is to set up your fasting schedule so that the time frame when you are not eating is during the most productive time of your day. Whether you are in college and in class for the bulk of the day or work a 9-5 job, position your fasting period to be during that busy time frame so that you keep your mind distracted from eating and on the task at hand instead. Here are some other easy ways to distract yourself from feeling the need to eat: Knock out your chores list. Household chores such as cleaning or gardening keep you focused on something other than your hunger. Maintaining a cleaner, more organized home and having a well-manicured yard translates into other areas of maintaining a healthy lifestyle as well. Go for a walk: Brisk walking, like most other forms of exercise, can also help to keep your hunger levels low. It not only by provides an enjoyable distraction, but also encourages your body to start burning stored body fat as a means for energy. Play a sport or engage in your hobby. Playing a sport or engaging in physical activity are great ways to trick your body into fasting and exercising because your mind is focused not on the exercise or the fasting but on the activity itself. The physical activity is merely a side effect of play. Engage in short, intense exercise. Engaging in bouts of short and intense exercise throughout your fasting period is an obvious way to keep your mind from thinking about your hunger. Intense exercise, such as full body workouts, suppresses hunger, boosts muscle, and blasts fat. About 20 minutes of intense exercise during your fasting period is ideal.

Engage in short, intense exercise. Engaging in bouts of short and intense exercise throughout your fasting period is an obvious way to keep your mind from thinking about your hunger. Intense exercise, such as full body workouts, suppresses hunger, boosts muscle, and blasts fat. About 20 minutes of intense exercise during your fasting period is ideal. The bottom line is that in order for your fast to be productive, you have to keep your mind focused anywhere else besides on your hunger. So, don’t let yourself get bored - the busier you are, the easier your fast will be.

Intermittent Fasting Hack #7 Don’t unintentionally break your fast early by consuming something you thought was ok. Plain and simple, fasting truly means this: You are not consuming anything. In order to optimize your insulin levels for maximum fat burning, you have to make sure you aren’t putting anything into your body that can cause your insulin levels to fluctuate (defeating the purpose of fasting all together). That means no creamers in coffee, no BCAA’s, no diet soda, no juice, no fruits, vegetables - nothing that has calories or trace amounts of sugars (even artificial sugars or sugar alcohols can cause you to break your fast). The safest and best bet is to keep your fasting periods simple by sticking to water, black coffee, and tea (again, no creamers or artificial sugars). If you are just craving some flavor, feel free to add lemon, lime, or cucumber slices into your water for a natural flavor boost. If you are taking supplements such a BCAA’s, Omega-3’s, probiotics, protein powder, or a greens powder, you should always consume your doses when you break your fast, not during. Your body will be highly sensitive when you break your fast and will absorb the nutrients from your supplementation much more rapidly, making them that much more effective.

Intermittent Fasting Hack #8 Train fasted with Time-Under-Tension. Training fasted has mixed reviews amongst fitness gurus. While some swear that you will be losing muscle by training when you’re in the fasted state, science tells us an entirely different story. Sure, some forms of exercise such as prolonged bouts of cardio or extremely rigorous weight training can cause muscle tissue to breakdown during the fasted state, but those aren’t the methods of training that I recommend. Instead, I am an advocate for “Time-Under-Tension” (TUT) workouts. TUT refers to how long the muscle is under stress or resisting the weight during each set. Therefore, the work you put in is measured in seconds instead of a rep count. The first big benefit you’ll get from monitoring your time-under-tension is an enhanced metabolic response. The more time-under-tension you’re placing that muscle under, the greater the growth hormone release will be - perfect for both increasing muscle definition and burning off body fat. Second, working on bringing up your total time-under-tension is that it’s going to help the muscles learn to deal with a higher level of fatigue.The more stress you place on the muscle with each rep you perform, the more you’ll deplete the muscle of the resources it has, resulting with its increased ability to deal with fatigue. This is a very effective strategy that many people use to see high degrees of muscle growth while following a fasting program - especially because you don’t have to perform vigorous weight lifting workouts to achieve hypertrophy (muscle-building).

For optimal results, try performing a TUT workout first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. Performing a time-under-tension workout while you’re in the fasted state will allow your body to use stored body fat as it’s primary fuel source for getting through the workout, meaning you’ll be able to reach your ideal sculpted physique much faster. If you’re not sure how to get started with a TUT workout, you can follow my ShredFast at-home training course which consists of nine body-sculpting, time-focused workouts that are all only 20 minutes each and require no equipment whatsoever.

Intermittent Fasting Hack #9 Stick with full-body workouts to maximize fat loss. Every guy who has ever picked up a fitness magazine or followed advice from a trainer is familiar with the idea of isolation training and exercises: arm day, leg day, chest day, back day, shoulder day, etc., the list goes on and on... The concept behind training one muscle group at a time is to force as much blood flow into that area as possible - this is what Arnold Schwarzenegger refers to as “the pump.” This pump effect allows for vital muscle-building nutrients and oxygen to be delivered and concentrated into that one area in which you are training that, in turn, can give the muscle the nourishment it needs to perform, grow, and recover. Now, I’m not saying Arnold was wrong - this is a tried and true method for building muscle since the dawn of golden age of bodybuilding. However, when it comes to maximizing weight loss, isolation training takes the backseat compared to the fat-burning power of full body workouts. Here’s why. When you are forcing blood into just one area of your body for extended periods of time (i.e. isolation training) you are short-changing the body’s major fat-processing system known as the lymphatic system. It consists of a huge network of organs, ducts, and vessels which produce and transport a clear-like fluid called “lymph.” This fluid circulates throughout the body picking up unwanted substances like toxins, bacteria, and, yes, even fatty acids to filter them out of the body.

When we are in a fat-burning state, our lymph carries the fatty acids to the liver our main fat-burning organ - for further metabolic processing. In order for optimal fat-burning to occur, our first priority must be to encourage a full-body flow of lymph fluid. You see, when we perform strict isolation workouts, what really happens is that we are concentrating the lymph to be stuck in just one area of the body. Meaning, all of the fatty acids that we are freeing up during our workout don’t actually get shuttled to the liver to be processed and burned off. Instead, the fatty acids just hang around in one area and settle back into storage. Therefore, in order to expedite the fat-burning process of our lymphatic system, it’s important that we incorporate upper and lower body movements into our training. Contracting muscles in all areas of the body will greatly enhance the flow of lymph fluid which means more fatty acids will be delivered to the liver to be burned off as fuel. Now, this doesn’t have to be complicated at all - if you love isolation training, you can keep performing isolation workouts, however, start incorporating exercises like jumping jacks, burpees, or some kind of full-body movement into your routine between sets to encourage a consistent flow of lymph for optimal fat-burning to be reached. Or, go ahead and check out my complete ShredFast training course where I’ve already programmed the full-body workouts for you.

Intermittent Fasting Hack #10 Break your fast the scientific way. For most, breaking a fast correctly is more difficult than fasting itself. Which is why it helps to have a strong mindset when you are about to break your fast. Don’t try to eat enough to make up for the fact that you haven’t eaten. Calories still count, regardless if you’ve fasted for many hours. This is another mental game - your mind will reason that you have to consume lots of food to make up for the meals you’ve missed or in attempt to hold you over for as long as possible into your next fast. This is not the case. You can and should eat a reasonable amount of food during your eating window based on your current weight and goal (which tends to be about 3 meals). Now, since we have only a narrow window of time to get all the proper nutrition and calories, it’s tremendously important to consume foods that provide the greatest nutrient density and focus on foods that are satiating. Although intermittent fasting does not imply that you need to follow any specific diet when it’s finally time to eat, it’s a no-brainer that your diet should keep processed foods, empty calories, and junk food to a minimum - this is even more true during the time frame in which you break your fast.

This is because after you’ve gone a long period of time without eating (like a 16-hour fast for example), your body will be highly sensitive to anything you put in it. So, if you break your fast with pure junk, it can cause your fat-burning hormone processes to come to a screeching halt and lead to metabolic chaos in the form of fat-storage - exactly what you don’t want. Therefore, the absolute best way to break your fast is by eating a specific combination of macronutrients that enable your fat-burning hormones to remain optimal during your eating period. Based on research, the best macro combination consists of 25 grams of protein with about 15 grams of fat. This combination will allow your insulin levels to gradually rise instead of spiking, allowing you to avoid any unwanted fat storage signalling to occur as you begin your eating period. In my complete Science Based Six Pack Intermittent Fasting program, I’ve detailed over a dozen different macronutrient recipe combinations for you to break your fast with so that you don’t have to do any guesswork. I call it my “Fast Break Strategy,” and it’s one of the stand out factors in my personal fasting protocol that makes all the difference in experiencing rapid, long-lasting results.

Now that we’re through a lot of the science stuff, let’s get into the reality of situation… Why Should I Consider Intermittent Fasting?

Accelerate your weight loss goals.



Simplify your day.



Rather than having to prepare, pack, eat, and time your meals every 2-3 hours, you simply skip a meal or two and only worry about eating food in your eating window. It’s one less decision you have to make every day, allowing you to enjoy bigger portioned meals (thus making your tastebuds and stomach satiated) and STILL eat fewer calories on average.



Save time and money.



Rather than having to prepare or purchase three to six meals a day, you only need to prepare two meals. Instead of stopping what you’re doing six times a day to eat, you simply only have to stop to eat twice. Rather than having to do the dishes six times, you only have to do them twice. Rather than having to purchase six meals a day, you only need to purchase two.



Promote stronger insulin sensitivity and increased growth hormone secretion.



Higher brain function.

Although we know that not all calories are created equal, caloric restriction plays a central role in weight loss. When you fast, you are also making it easier to restrict your total caloric intake over the course of the week, which can lead to consistent weight loss and maintenance.

Two keys for weight loss and muscle gain are mastering your insulin and growth hormone release. Intermittent fasting helps you create a double whammy for weight loss and building a solid physique by doing just that.

Increase your focus and productivity. Studies have even show fasting to be beneficial for serious brain health conditions including positively counteracting conditions like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and dementia.

Watch Your Free Beginner’s Guide To Intermittent Fasting Presentation Today At ScienceBasedSixpack.com!