The (very) comprehensive guide to intermittent fasting

Let’s be honest, the first time you hear about fasting, it’s SCARING! And yet, when you start to take a little interest in the ketogenic diet, you see it coming back everywhere! We hear the terms intermittent fasting, OMAD, 16: 8, among others. Little by little we let ourselves be overcome by the sad feeling that we need a doctorate to be able to understand all this. And as if that weren’t yet complicated enough, we then remember everything we have heard said so far: “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day”, “you should never skip a meal. , we will starve and eat 25 times more at the next meal ”, etc, etc…

We went through all these stages, it was neither easy, nor clear, nor obvious. So since we are nice (😉), we will try to make things simpler for you on the subject. So you can, if you wish, approach the experience in the most complete of relaxations. What’s more, stress is one of the biggest enemies of weight loss. Intermittent fasting, one of its greatest allies. So let’s start at the beginning.

What is intermittent fasting?
In the end, the name is quite explanatory. Intermittent fasting is voluntarily abstaining from food, for a limited period of time. We all do it a little already, thanks to sleep. If I finish eating at 9:00 p.m., go to bed, sleep, and then eat breakfast at 7:30 a.m., I just did 10:30 intermittent fasting! Easy !

In practice, we will still try to aim for periods a little longer than that. Otherwise it wouldn’t be worth talking about it 😉. The goal is to reproduce the eating rhythms for which humans have evolved.

Indeed, today it seems normal and obvious to us to eat three to five meals a day (with snacks), it must be understood that, from a historical point of view, we are living in a time that is certainly wonderful, but also deeply abnormal.

Humans, for the vast majority of their evolution (which dates back approximately 2.5 million years), have lived by eating WHEN HE COULD. Sometimes it was two meals a day, often one, sometimes less. Whereas we modern humans, if we ate whenever we could, we would eat all the time! And for many of us, that’s exactly what we do: p. With intermittent fasting, we try to regain our natural eating cycle, the one for which we are adapted, the one for which we have evolved. You will see later that there is A PACKAGE of science to support the fact that this is ideal for us 🙂

But then, if my little 10:30 am fast / sleep is not enough …

How long am I doing this?
Some fasting methods have been implemented for health, bodybuilding and weight loss programs.

However, there are no strict “rules” on fasting times. The only thing to know is that the benefits start to be visible after 12 hours of fasting. In fact, that’s what our grandparents usually did (from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.) and oddly, obesity was still very rare at the time!

Unfortunately, this is not necessarily enough to improve insulin resistance (we tell you a little more about this later in the article 😉). Then, it’s up to you to decide how much time you want to do in addition to the basic 12 hours. Some people will fast 14 hours each day, others 27 hours once a week, and still others will push for several months. from a medical point of view, children do not do this on your own!).

Nonetheless, for those who prefer, there is lingo that is often used by fasters. We will therefore explain to you what each of the terms that you may have already seen pass if you are interested in fasting 🙂

The “classic” intermittent fasting, called 16: 8 or sometimes “Fasting”
The 16: 8 is called so because it consists of fasting for 16 hours in a row and eating in an 8 hour period.

In fact, this method of fasting was brought up to date by bodybuilder Martin Berkhan. He created the LeanGains method of exercising during intermittent fasting and then eating after exercise.

A study has shown that the 16-hour fast in the practitioners of bodybuilding, allowed an identical gain in muscle mass, and a loss of fat mass greater than those not practicing the fast, with equal calories and daily macros. In practice, how do we do it? We (and certainly many others who practice intermittent fasting) what we do most often is fast after dinner from 8 p.m. and then after dinner.