Intermittent Fasting

George St-Pierre, retired UFC world champion, talked about his experience with intermittent fasting (16:8). Being a world class athlete, George has access to high quality body scans and nutrition facilities. After five months, the scans showed that although his weight was the same, his body had decreased body fat, increased muscle mass and increased bone density. During this period he maintained the same strict training schedule. George's only regret was that he had not started this during his active fighting career.

Balance

The best thing about intermittent fasting or fasting in general is that you can choose how long of a fast to do. The typical starting point for beginners is 16 hours fasting, 8 hours feeding. With this you'll give your body the time it needs to process foods and actually build a stronger you. The thing with eating is that it spikes up your insulin and gets your body fueling up on your immediate food and not your stored fat.

Mental Clarity

Ever notice how sluggish you feel every day after lunch? It doesn't take much to connect the dots and conclude that eating puts your mind in a lethargic state. For some people, intermittent fasting is a way to unlock as much focused time as possible. Doing a 18:6 or 20:4 fast allows you to minimize the time your body and mind are recovering from a meal.

Extreme Fat Loss

I tried fasting for three days. Unfortunately, I only managed 32 hours but even from that experience I lost some weight and felt like I had pressed the reset button on my body. I can only describe the meal I had to break the fast as spiritual. It was as if I were out in the wild for 5 days and had just stepped into a hot shower. Every grain of rice was a blessing.