You’ve heard the preachers, including me, talk about how important it is to eat every 2 to 3 hours. And how important breakfast is.
But are we right?
- Does fasting help or hurt fat loss and muscle building?
Two counter-approaches contradict the above recommendations:
a) Intermittent Fasting (complete fasting for at least 24 hrs once a week or so)
b) Semi-Fasted Cardio (first thing in the morning after about 12 hours of not eating)
Today we’ll cover the pros and cons of intermittent fasting. Then next week we’ll cover “semi-fasted cardio”.
Here’s today’s outline:
- Pros and Cons of Fasting
- Roots of Fasting
- Fasting for Fat Loss
- Fasting for Muscle Gain
- Making Fasting Easier – 10 Tips
Let’s start with a summary, then follow with the details:
Pros And Cons Of Fasting For Fat Loss And Muscle Gain
Pros For Fasting
- Possibly very effective for fat loss, as studies show increase fat burn compared to carb burn, during fasting (much more detail on this in the rest of the article!)
- Easier, for some people, than being in slight caloric deficit each day
- Most people get a natural “high” on those days; better attention; surprising increase of energy
- More time for life; less time cooking, eating, and doing dishes
- Increased natural growth hormone: potentially good for muscle gains (much more detail on this in the rest of the article!)
- Disrupts the body’s expectations about food, thus preventing diet plateaus (hypothetical)
- Confidence – any time you try something difficult, and then turn that into a habit, you will feel more confident in yourself; this will lead to you accomplishing more over the course of your life
- Bragging rights – most people are impressed with someone who has the discipline to fast one day a week
- Potentially clears the body of toxins and waste
- Anecdotal benefits to a whole range of health issues, from reducing arthritis and migraines to improved skin and hair
Cons For Fasting (more…)
Continue reading about What You Need To Know About Fasting for Fat Loss, Muscle Gain
Have you ever listened to the Get-It-Done-Guy’s weekly podcast?
You need to. It’s hysterical.
Oh, and actually practical too. Tips for getting things done. He gets extra points for the clever show name.
But really the reason to listen is to laugh.
Stever (no, that’s not a typo) is both insightful and funny.
Last week he had a great podcast you can listen to here: (more…)
Join the forum discussion on this article, or comment below.Continue reading about Sticking To Your Diet And Fitness Plan
Remember when we asked you to Take Your Worst Picture Ever? Well it’s time to take it out. If you haven’t taken it yet, or are new to World Fitness Network, we’ve got reminders at the end of this post…
What Do You See?
That old picture of yourself – is that what you still look like? Have you made any progress? Have you made enough progress? I’m not here to lecture you – I’m here to help you lecture yourself.
If you think you’ve made good progress, skip to the Take a New Picture section and then compare.
If you haven’t made progress, do these things right now:
- write down every excuse you can come up with; don’t hold back!
- now rank those excuses by their “power”; the stronger their power over you, the closer to the top of the list they go
- for each of your top 5 excuses (more if you have the gumption), write down at least one action you are going to take to eliminate it as an excuse moving forward
- take your top 5 excuses and share them with someone who cares about you; ask them for their advice on how they think you can eliminate those; don’t share the previous step with them – you want original ideas
- take the combined list of approximately 10 ideas to combat your 5 major excuses, and tape the list to your bathroom mirror
- every day (especially on your workout days) recite that list out loud; if you get embarrassed reading it out loud, good! you’ve got to break through some barriers if you want to eliminate those excuses
- now act!
And time to take a new picture:
Haven’t Taken Your Picture Yet? Or Need To Take A New Picture?
Did you fail your self-evaluation? Or are you just now planning to get in shape, but haven’t quite started yet?
Or even if you’ve made progress, you now need a new benchmark – a new picture.
Go into your room and take all your clothes off. That’s right, strip down to nothing but your briefs, your Spiderman Underoos, your boxers, your lingerie, whatever you are wearing underneath. (more…)
Join the forum discussion on this article, or comment below.Continue reading about It’s Time to Look At Your Worst Picture Ever, And Take A New One
- How much protein is too much protein?
You eat lots of protein, right?
I mean, you hear from everybody that to gain muscle, you need to eat a lot of lean protein.
Even if you aren’t trying to gain muscle, you still hear how important protein is.
And we’ve written about it a ton here, here, and here.
The basic rule I use: if you are fat, eat at least 1 gram of protein a day per lean body mass (your total weight minus your fat weight). If you are not fat, then eat about 1 gram per total bodyweight. And this assumes you are lifting at least 2x a week.
So for the average man, this is at least 180 grams a day. (more…)
Continue reading about How Much Protein Is Too Much Protein?
Today was the last day of my trip – whew! 6 airports and two destination cities, plus business conferences, was quite a challenge.
I learned a lot myself by writing all this down for you – the act of writing gave me a few insights I might have otherwise glossed over so thanks for indulging me. I hope you learned something as well.
If you have any lingering questions about what to do for fitness on the road, or how to eat right when traveling, this is the post to reply to. I’m also including links at the end to all the previous days’ posts, plus some of my earlier posts on traveling. Let me know what you think!
On to the summaries… (more…)
Ready for Day 6 of my week-long business trip? No, I’m not going to start talking about the business issues – but hopefully the past several posts are giving you ideas you can use the next time you travel. You are probably also seeing that while I’m far from perfect, (more…)
There are many articles on this site dealing with food – some of our most popular deal with junk food here and here.
Others deal with protein.
And of course, we recently dealt with eating for muscle gain vs eating for fat loss.
But one question that (more…)
Continue reading about What To Eat Before And After Your Workout
Are you trying to lose fat? Or to gain muscle?
That probably seems like a big question, huh? In fact, I get questions from readers all the time asking things like “what are the best guidelines for eating when you want to lose fat?” or “I’m trying to add a (more…)
Continue reading about Eating To Gain Muscle Or Lose Fat – It’s Almost The Same
