Hi. It’s Fitness Coach Will Levin (61 years young) here to talk about a feature of Older Guys Fitness 40+ Fat Burn program: Intermittent Fasting. The reason I am so enthusiastic about intermittent fasting is that I use it myself and I know it works. The science backs that up.
WHAT IS INTERMITTENT FASTING?
Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern in which you eat for a certain period of the day and don’t eat for the rest of the day. The periods of eating and fasting vary, depending on what you feel works for you. Importantly, intermittent fasting is not a crazy, unhealthy crash diet, where you don’t eat for several days. It is safe and has numerous health benefits, including fat loss.
There are variable eat-fast formulas for doing intermittent fasting. With the 5:2 method a person consumes around 500 calories on two non-consecutive days per week and eats normally for the other five days. Another variation is where a person fasts for 24 hours once or twice a week and eats normally the other days. Probably the most popular method is the 16/8 where a person eats for 8 hours each day and fasts for the rest of the day. To me, the 16/8 method is the easiest to implement and that’s why I employ this method. The important variable in all of these methods is that there is a long period of fasting. It does not matter so much which method you choose, it is the fasting periods which cause fat loss.
HOW DOES INTERMITTENT FASTING CAUSE FAT LOSS?
First and most importantly, intermittent fasting causes changes at the cellular level, increasing production of the human growth hormone and decreasing insulin levels. Increased levels of the human growth hormone assist in fat loss. And insulin is responsible for converting glycogen in your liver to glucose in your bloodstream. Glucose (carbs) is our primary source of energy. When insulin levels are decreased by fasting, your body relies on fat (rather than glucose) for energy, which causes fat loss.
In addition to affecting the human growth hormone and insulin, intermittent fasting stimulates the release of the fat burning hormone norepinephrine, which results in an increased metabolic rate. An increase in metabolism results in increased calorie (and fat) burn. (See RESOURCES for supporting evidence)
Having said all of that, it is important that during the eating window of intermittent fasting, you maintain your calorie deficit goal. With Older Guys Fitness 40+ FAT BURN, you will need to maintain your caloric deficit while implementing intermittent fasting. (It is not a starvation diet, I promise. Your body adapts and you get used to it, like mine did.) That, along with cardio, HIIT training and resistance training is the optimum fat loss formula. Check out my 40+ Fat Burn program.
FREE HIIT WORKOUTS
Older men carry too much fat in their bellies. Not only is this unattractive and demoralizing, it is unhealthy, creating a risk of Tyoe 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke. I offer FREE HIIT WORKOUTS to help you burn belly fat.
