Saturday, April 2, 2011

The Intermittent Fasting Method As An Alternative To Traditional Exercise

Why Intermittent Fasting Is Better Than Intense Exercise For Weight Loss

In this article were going to explore the idea of intermittent fasting as an alternative to doing traditional exercise for weight loss. As we will see in this discussion, the two are not so different and can be a good way to speed up the effects of fat loss.

Periodic Fasting

Exercise requires that you exert yourself to burn calories, intermittent fasting simply requires that you do not eat for a certain period of time. The duration of these fasts usually last around 24 hours and only need to be performed just once or twice a week.

A huge plus for using intermittent fasting as opposed to traditional exercise is the ability to lose weight without having to hit the gym. This is good because it will save you a bunch of time. Even better if you have a busy lifestyle that prevents working out a lot.
It also means that with this method, diet becomes a major determinant in your weight loss progress.

Your diet and nutrition plan should do the majority of the work. What makes this method work is the fact that it focuses on the diet and not the workout. Working out is only a tool that enhances your weight loss. This holds true because diet is a major contributor of hormone levels in your blood. These hormones play an integral role in either losing or gaining weight.

Periodic Fasting Versus Intense Exercise

When examining traditional weight loss, are goal is to get a calorie deficit. Now there is a couple of ways that you can create this calorie deficit. It doesn't really matter how it's done as long as you do it. The main methods that have been used forever are diet and exercise. You can use either one of those or you could both in conjunction. A preferable method would be to use both of the methods together. However, since were trying to compare them against each other were going to keep them apart.

Your insulin blood hormone levels will drop when you exercise. We can also observe that your human growth hormone blood levels do get bigger with exercise. Insulin is like a vacuum cleaner that acts to suck up calories and store them in your body. It is important that your insulin be as low as possible for weight loss to happen.

It has been studied and shown to be true that by fasting for just 24 hours can create the same hormone blood levels that exercise does. So in order to reproduce the effects of intense exercise, all you need to do is fast for 24 hours just once or twice a week. It sounds hard to do but after a couple of times doing it you will get used to it.

This is great news for those that don't have the time or don't even like to exercise.

Remember, using intermittent fasting is a great method for losing fat, but I recommend you use them both. The method works by itself, but you will see much faster results by combining them. I hope that this article has helped you better understand how intermittent fasting can help you lose weight faster.

Joe Kirin is a professional in the area of Fat Loss and frequently writes for his site  http://myfatlossmethod.com. Read about my method for super charging your fat loss here at Fat Loss Method

Thursday, March 31, 2011

How To Use Periodic Fasting To Super Charge Our Fat Loss

What Is Intermittent Fasting?

In a nut shell, intermittent fasting means that you give up  eating food for a short time. The worst case scenario is that you would be going without eating  for no more than 24 hours per fast. 

There are many studies that show that 24 hours is the best time for weight loss due to lowered insulin levels and naturally high HGH levels.

A large amount of fat loss has been linked to larger than normal human growth hormone levels in man today.   


1. By Utilizing Intermittent Fasting  

2. By Performing Intense Exercise 

In this article were just focusing on the use of intermittent fasting as  a way of speeding up fat loss. It has been shown that using this method  also does not have adverse effects on metabolism. In fact, it has been  quite the opposite. It has been shown that intermittent fasting can  actually improve your metabolism and not cause lean muscle loss. The findings are quite different from what is reported in the health industry as a whole.  

Why Intermittent Fasting Is A Great Method For Fat Loss 

For the previously said reason of increasing your bodies natural levels  of HGH. By simply fasting for a periodic amount of time, you can naturally raise your HGH levels. This is one of the key factors affecting your ability to lose your fat. 

To Lose More Fat You Need To Increase HGH In The Body. 

A Great Reason For Utilizing Periodic Fasts 

Another benefit to using a periodic fast is that it will help you create a big calorie deficit. 

In studies done by Brad Pilon, author of the Eat Stop Eat program, he has shown that practicing short periods of intermittent fasting as much as twice a week for only 24 hours at a time can lower weekly caloric intake by as much as 30%. 

These are powerful reasons for using intermittent fasting. Using this  method is a simple way of losing weight without having to kill yourself  in a gym everyday. I hope that you will further explore the method in  your everyday life.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Can Intermittent Fasting Provide Similar Effects As Intense Exercise


How Does Intermittent Fasting Compare To Intense Exercise

Everyone knows or should know how it feels to exercise intensely. The common method of losing weight is to create a calorie deficit and that in turn will allow you to lose weight over a certain period of time.

Well, in this post were going to explore two different methods that both cause a calorie deficit and see how they compare with each other.

The findings might surprise you.

What Is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting is a method of fat burning by which the person on the fast does not ingest calories for a short period of time. Usually, the duration of the fast is only between 22 and 30 hours. A safe bet for a good time period would be only 24 hours at a time.

By performing an intermittent fast only once or twice a week, you can reasonably expect to create a daily calorie deficit of around 30%. This is significant and can amount to some serious progress.

The main proponent of using intermittent fasting for a calorie deficit is Brad Pilon. He studied the effects of intermittent fasting for his graduate work and found that using this method did not cause him to lose any lean muscle mass or become harmful to a person's metabolism. In fact, he found that the use of this method actually could improve a person's metabolism.

Lots More Intermittent Fasting Information


eat stop eat

What Conditions Need To Be Met For Losing Weight To Occur?

In terms of eating, your body can only be in two states. Fed or Fasted.

Each time you eat food, your body releases a hormone called insulin into the blood. Insulin allows your body to absorb the food that you have ingested and broken down into the blood.

When you are in the fasted state, insulin levels of the blood are very low. This is because there is no food to be absorbed and it is not needed.

It has been found that insulin is a key hormone for controlling weight gain. When you are in the fasted state, your body can more easily release free fatty acids (FFA) and it is not likely that you will store fat. However, it is almost impossible to lose weight when blood insulin levels are medium to high. Insulin is the gate keeper, no weight can be lost until insulin levels are low.

So to review, what needs to occur for weight loss? We need to keep insulin levels low or we are not going to lose any weight at all. This is why intermittent fasting works well as well as intense exercise. They both cause insulin levels to drop to levels that allow for weight loss.

Intermittent Fasting VS. Intense Exercise

What has been shown in recent studies is that using an Intermittent fast is very close to intense exercise when it comes to fat burning power.

When comparing insulin levels in the blood, they are very low with both exercise and fasting. This is a big requirement if you are going to lose any weight. So going on a short intermittent fast lowers insulin levels in the blood and intense exercise also lowers insulin levels.

It has also been shown that an intermittent fast can raise a person's natural levels of human growth hormone in the blood. HGH is another key hormone in human's that has been studied quite a bit lately in research. It has been found that higher than normal levels of the hormone play a pivotal role in shredding fat. This hormone is also elevated with intense exercise. So far were neck in neck between intermittent fasting and intense exercise.

Finally, the amount of Free Fatty Acids released as a result of intense exercise and intermittent fasting are again very similar. They both act to increase the release of FFA's and it increases the action of fat burning.

So as you can see, intermittent fasting and intense exercise are about equal when it comes to their effects on fat burning. What you can do to maximize the fat burning effects of these methods would be to combine them. Exercise 3 to 4 days a week intensely and use intermittent fasting 1 to 2 times a week. You will see some amazing results from doing this.