If the experience and knowledge that I’ve gained through working almost two decades in the fitness industry as taught me anything, it is to be open minded. Very often when a client asks me a question pertaining to training or nutrition, I will often begin my reply with “it depends”. That’s the reality of human physiology and making adjustments to improve your body composition. There aren’t many clear and cut absolutes or definitive answers. Recently I have been receiving quite a few questions about intermittent fasting from my online clients who work with me on their nutritional plans.
With that said, I figured it would be a good idea to give you all my overview and my own insights into intermittent fasting and justify why I in fact actually disagree with it.
Optimized Energy
If you’re not eating for one half of the day or even longer depending on the Intermittent Fasting protocol that you are following, this means that you’re almost certainly going to feel drained and tired for periods of the day. This can effect mood, focus, and performance in the gym. I don’t know about you, but I’m only interested in results. Therefore when it comes to my own clients I take a serious hands on approach in relation to making their life more productive. This fitness life is a lifestyle after all.
I don’t see the point in following a diet which is going to leave somebody very low on energy for long periods of the day. If you train with us in the gym or are following one of our customized online training programs, then there is absolutely no way that your performance levels and ability to combat fatigue will be where they need to be if using Intermittent Fasting, this I guarantee.
Digestion
If you follow me on Instagram or view our daily Facebook posts, you’ll notice that I often make reference to digestion and gut health due to the fact that it is the gateway to your body. If your gut performance isn’t working correctly, then everything will suffer as a result. If you imagine somebody is consuming 3,500 calories a day and that they have 400g of carbs to consume within part of those calories, and they are using Intermittent Fasting, they might have to end up consuming 200g of those carbs just in one sitting alone to ensure they get all their required macronutrients within the allotted time that they are given to eat.! Not only is this going to be very difficult to do, it will leave most people feeling very lethargic which in turn will dramatically effect mood and performance.
Cravings
When you follow a diet which causes your blood sugar levels to go through peaks and troughs as aggressively as Intermittent Fasting does, it will often lead to cravings for sugar. We’ve all had that feeling where you’ve not eaten for a prolonged period of time and you start to crave something that’s high in sugar to fix it. The reality is that while in an overall energy deficit to lose fat, you do not want to be battling with cravings that will only make your restricted diet that much more difficult to get through. Therefore following a diet which encourages this doesn’t and never has made sense to me whatsoever.
Muscle Loss
Most of my clients understand that they should try to eat every 2-4 hours if possible, as a means of triggering muscle protein synthesis in a bid to fight off catabolism and encouraging anabolism. This is even more important while in an energy deficit. Intermittent Fasting leaves large windows of time where you are far more susceptible to catabolism. As a result, not only could you lose fullness, size and definition in your muscles, your metabolism could eventually suffer as you lose metabolically active tissue.
Old School Meets New School
I do understand the train of thought that most people prefer to eat bigger portions in one sitting, even if it means going without food for longer periods of the day, especially in North America. However from a health and muscle building/fat loss stand point, I can assure you that this is far from optimal. I grew up with parents who taught us to eat three square meals a day. When I was a teenager I was lucky if I even ate one meal a day. As an adult who has somewhat of an understanding of the muscle building and fat burning process and who wishes to keep my blood sugar levels stable throughout the ENTIRE day, I understand the importance of frequent smaller meals and incorporate this style of eating into all of my online nutritional plans, regardless of my client’s health and fitness goals.
So does Intermittent Fasting work? Maybe for some people. But I’m sure as hell not willing to risk shutting down my metabolism or damaging my thyroid to find out.
Yours in Good Health,
Nick Cosgrove