I've been a proponent of Intermittent Fasting for a long time now.

When I first stumbled upon it in 2012 on the now-legendary Leangains.com, it seemed like a simple answer to a complex problem.

How could someone eat in a way that helped them lose fat, retain muscle, and support long-term health without having to obsess about tracking everything they ate?

Of course, calories would still count, but maybe you didn't always have to count the calories.

The founder of Leangains, Martin Berkhan, had the rare combination of 6-pack abs and a 600+ lb deadlift. So, I decided to try what he suggested and was immediately hooked.

The style of fasting Berkhan introduced to the world was the now ubiquitous 16/8. Where you fast for 16 hours of the day and then consume all your calories within the remaining 8 hours.

So, if you've ever wondered where that whole 16/8 thing came from, well, now you know.

But fasting as a whole is nothing new.

Whether by choice or not, humans have been doing it since the dawn of time.

However, what is new is all the clinical research showing its potential benefits for health and longevity.

Fasting can regulate your blood glucose, help manage cholesterol, rid you of stubborn body fat, and even help you live longer.

It's also been shown to reduce inflammation, lower blood pressure, reduce the risk of cancer, and even promote the growth of new brain cells.

It's almost like fasting provides a "reset" when we do it right.

When we enter a state of hunger, not only does your body start burning body fat to use as energy, but it also starts breaking down damaged and deformed cells via a process called autophagy.

These types of damaged cells can potentially turn cancerous, so you can see why cleaning them out might benefit you.

So fasting might be one of the best things you can do for your long-term health.

The most potent effects only start kicking in at around the 16-hour mark. So, to maximize the positive impact, you need to go a little longer.

And, as someone who tends to be a tad excessive between 2015 and 2018, I took it to the extreme of doing semi-annual fasts of 5 - 7 days in duration.

Although this is a healthy thing to do now and then, it is also highly disruptive to not only your own life but to everyone you live with as well.

So, it's not a good fit for most people.

Then, I started experimenting on both myself and with a handful of my clients, doing just a single 24-hour fast once per month.

This is long enough to reap the deep cellular health benefits as well as create a nice calorie deficit to help promote fat loss.

We ran it from Sunday dinner to Monday dinner.

These days being strategically chosen because most people eat more over the weekend, so they'd have plenty of gas in the tank come Sunday evening.

Monday is usually the busiest day of the week, so they would have plenty to occupy their minds so they wouldn't become overly obsessed with counting down the seconds until dinner time.

And it worked fantastically.

Not only did they almost universally find it more convenient than doing the 16/8 every day, but they also enjoyed a nice little bump in weight loss progress without changing anything else.

On average, it was a pound or two more over their regular rate of progression on the weeks they fasted, which for such a simple step, is a very solid result.

And remember, this was just one fast per month.

The only reason we stopped was because of the great unpleasantness of 2020.

But recently, I've brought it back and started doing a 24-hour fast every week.

It's been even easier than I remember. I've had tons of energy and felt fantastic during the fasting window. I'm gonna keep it rolling for at least the next several weeks and am considering asking a few clients at the gym to join me.

Oh, and if you perform some high-intensity training during your fast, you can get a 1 + 1 = 3 effect.

The combination of the training and the fasting working together to increase each other's positive effects to a level greater than the sum of the individual parts.

Fasting also gives you a chance to reestablish your relationship with food. Instead of being the servant to your cravings, you take back control and decide when and what you want to eat.

And if that doesn't make skipping a couple of meals sound appetizing, I don't know what will.

Stay Hungry,

Adam

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