Hey you, step away from the steak and put down the protein shake. If your goal is to get lean and jacked (and whose isn’t?) then you’re doing it all wrong – or so some experts say. Diet gurus and booksellers rely on catchy names for their (often mad) methods. But this approach doesn’t hinge on a miracle supplement or come with a gimmick – unless you count not eating as a gimmick.
It’s called intermittent fasting. In a nutshell, you spend long periods of time simply not eating anything. It may fly in the face of regular diet advice but it comes backed by hard science and is being pushed by some of the foremost nutritional experts around.
WHAT IS INTERMITTENT FASTING?
Intermittent fasting (IF) can be briefly described as going for periods of time without food. It doesn’t sound exactly good for you, but controlled fasting is said to provide a number of health benefits and is popular with the fitness community for its effectiveness in changing body composition. Need to drop some fat, but keep or even gain lean muscle? IF promises this and more through a combination of changes in metabolic rates, hormone balance, and even the body’s natural anabolic processes (responsible for muscle building and repair).
Nutrition expert Dr John Berardi, who has worked with MMA fighters including UFC welterweight champion Georges St Pierre, knows much about IF. He underwent nine months of personal experiments to see the effect it can have on the body. “Intermittent fasting is nothing new,” he says. “Humans have fasted for most of their history, whether it’s during the typical overnight period, during more extended periods of food scarcity, or for religious reasons. What is new is that clinical research on IF’s benefits for health and longevity is beginning to catch up.”
REASONING
Fasting bucks against everything we’ve been told about nutrition. Conventional diet advice suggests we should eat small, regular meals to stabilize blood sugar levels and ensure energy throughout the day. So how is it possible for us to feel healthy without food or operate through our daily lives? And what about training? Advocates of fasting say that by cycling one’s food intake concentrations of epinephrine and norepinephrine go up – two hormones that increase the flow of blood to fat cells and release glucose in the body as energy.
Fasting also raises the metabolic rate (how many calories your body burns to operate) and releases fatty acids for energy instead of using sugars from recently ingested food.
“These claims run counter to today’s popular nutritional recommendations, which assert that small, frequent eating – grazing, if you will – is the best way to control appetite, blood sugar, and body weight,” says Dr Berardi. “I think IF can be a cool approach to solving a few health- and body composition-related problems. However, as a trained scientist, I am trying to keep it real. While IF research does look promising, this area hasn’t yet evolved to the point where we can say with certainty that the benefits come exclusively from fasting.”
BENEFITS
So now we know what’s going on inside the body as a result of IF, but how can it make us better athletes? A lack of food is usually only associated with weight cutting, which brings with it hunger, moodiness and a lack of strength. All in all, a whole heap of unwanted physical and mental turmoil.
IF is best suited to those looking to change their body composition, as the most immediate effects are that it reduces body fat. When combined with a good resistance training program and a little intense cardio, IF strips fat from your body.
And if you make sure to take BCAAs before training and eat immediately afterward it’s completely possible to build lean muscle at the same time, which is almost unheard of on most fat-loss diets.
PITFALLS
If you go ahead with an IF program you’re likely to experience hunger and headaches when initially adapting to the new regimen. These pass relatively quickly, but you’re likely to notice some negative effects in the gym.
Studies of Muslim athletes (who fast annually for the religious festival Ramadan) found it takes time for the body adapt to fasted training. More experienced athletes tend to have fewer problems, but it also depends greatly on the type of exercise. The studies noticed that short-medium, intense runs (200-400m), and repeated power-explosive movements suffered, but agility, overall endurance, sprint performance and single explosive movements (like a throw or takedown) stayed about the same.
DOES IT WORK FOR FIGHTERS?
A cautionary note: IF probably isn't a good move for active fighters who train multiple times a day or for those with extremely busy and stressful lives. It’s more suited for recreational practitioners or those in the off-season.
Master kettlebell trainer and BJJ black belt Steve Maxwell is an advocate of calorie-restrictive diets and says it’s not unusual for combat athletes to operate without food: “You want to be fit, sure, with glycogen in the muscles and liver, but no undigested food in the belly. Athletes have been operating for eons under fasted conditions. Look at wrestlers; wrestlers have starved themselves since the beginning of weight-class sport.”
Joel Jamieson, a physical conditioning expert who has worked with Rich Franklin and many other top MMA fighters, is less enthusiastic. “I think it could be effective for physique goals, but I’ve never felt compelled to have a fighter use it. I know some people have certainly used it with success and perhaps it could be used with combat sport athletes, but I find that given their training volumes and intensities, it’s not difficult to get them to drop weight if necessary with pretty standard nutritional strategies.”
Dr Berardi acknowledges the effects of IF, but says it’s one of many effective methods of controlling your weight. “It’s equally plausible that eating fewer calories than you burn and eating a diet lower in processed foods, chemicals, and pollutants may offer most of the same benefits as IF. Add in a good exercise program and you might be able to match benefit for benefit.”
