Recently, a client asked me a question about fasting. Have you ever thought about fasting to lose fat?
If your goal is to lose fat and preserve lean tissue, there are some principles that are important to understand before you start experimenting with fasting. (I am a big proponent of fasting, but I think it should be viewed as an advanced tool.)
Consider the following:
1. Reduce your caloric intake by approximately 500 calories a day.
A pound of fat has about 3,500 calories. By reducing your calories by approximately 500 calories a day, you should be able to lose approximately a pound of fat a week. Do not reduce your calories more than that. A pound a week of fat translates to 10 pounds in 10 weeks!
How many calories do you need to maintain your weight? You can estimate that here.
There are many free apps that can help you count your calories. After you have a good idea how you should eat, you can stop worrying about counting calories. In fact, once you start eating properly, the calories should take care of themselves.
2. Eat enough quality protein.
Muscles need a signal to start muscle protein synthesis. That signal comes from an amino acid called leucine. We need to have 2.5 grams of leucine in the blood to trigger that muscle-building anabolic response.
If your source of protein is animal-based, you will be getting plenty of leucine. If you are vegan, consider supplementing with branched-chain amino acids, or essential amino acids, at mealtime, to make sure you get those 2.5 grams of leucine per meal.
Stimulate muscle protein synthesis two or three times a day (ideally three times) to minimize muscle loss. When we cut calories, we need to increase protein, to make sure we are losing fat and not just weight. Otherwise, 10-50% of weight loss will come from your lean tissue. You must avoid that!
3. Timing is the key.
The same diet could produce completely different results because of when you eat your food.
Have a high-protein meal or shake (40-50 grams of protein) as your first meal. This is important. Muscles are particularly sensitive to protein after an overnight fast. Plus, it will rev up your metabolism for the rest of the day.
Wait for 4-5 hours, do not snack, and have another meal or shake. This time you can have less protein, maybe 20-30 grams. Wait for 4-5 hours, and have your last meal or shake with 40-50 grams of quality protein.
Get most of your calories earlier in the day, not later.
If you eat only twice a day, eat regular meals and make sure you get at least 50 grams of protein per meal. If you eat three times a day, you can replace one of your meals with a protein shake. (At NET, we sell one of the cleanest protein shakes available, if you're interested).
You will likely lose more weight in the first week, mostly due to water loss. After that, a good rate of weight loss is about a pound a week.
Play with those principles first. Try it for a month or two, and you'll likely see some good results. Then consider integrating some form of fasting into your lifestyle, if you want.
We have a machine at NET that does a very detailed body composition analysis. If you want to see what is happening with your body—including your body fat, lean tissue, and the muscles in your arms, legs, and torso—just let us know.
For more information, check out another post we wrote a few weeks ago on the topic of diet. Also, in a few weeks, we will be doing a group fitness and diet challenge. Stay tuned, and good luck!