Have you ever heard of Intermittent Fasting?
I’ve been studying Intermittent Fasting since 2007. That’s when I discovered that 30% of the self-made millionaires in my study used it to stay lean (thin).
What is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent Fasting is the reduction in the number of meals you eat during a 24 hour period from three meals to either two meals or one meal. Viewed another way, Intermittent Fasting requires that you avoid eating any food for long periods during the day – typically 16 hours stretches.
Why Engage in Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent Fasting burns body fat and provides the cells in your body with 20% more energy.
How Does Intermittent Fasting Work?
Every cell in the human body requires either Glucose or Ketones in order to survive. Each cell in the body has thousands of mitochondria residing inside their individual cells. These mitochondria are the power plants of every cell. The mitochondria within each cell absorbs either glucose or ketones and then converts glucose or ketones into ATP. The mitocondria then use ATP as fuel to power their cell and keep it alive.
We get glucose from most of the food we eat. Carbohydrates, for example, are packed with glucose.
We get ketones from body fat. Ketones are stored in fat cells throughout the body. An interesting thing about ketones is that, when converted to ATP by mitochondria, they produce 20% more ATP than glucose. So, ketones provide cells with 20% more energy.
When your body begins to run out of glucose, the vagus nerve sends a signal to the brain, informing it that the body needs more glucose. The brain then sends a signal to the stomach, through the vagus nerve, to start eating. Your stomach then begins contracting. We call those contractions, hunger pains.
If you ignore those hunger pains and forgo eating, the body will send a signal to the liver to release the glycogen (stored glucose) it has on reserve. After about five hours, the liver will run out of glycogen.
The next signal by the brain will be to the muscles to release any stored glycogen. When the muscles release all of their stored glucose, the brain finally instructs the body to start burning fat cells in order to release the ketones stored in those fat cells. Naturally, this shrinks the size of your fat cells and you start losing weight.
The longer you go without eating, the longer you stay in this Ketogenic State and the smaller your fat cells get.
The second you eat food, you revert back to the Gluconic State and your body stops burning fat cells.
One-Meal Intermittent Fasting Example
Let’s say you go to bed at 9 pm. At some point during the night, typically about six hours during the sleep state, your body will run out of glucose and the liver will produce what’s needed until you wake up and begin eating.
If you sleep eight hours a night, that means you will wake up around 5 am. If you do not eat anything in the morning, the body will continue using up the stored glucose in the liver.
If you do not eat lunch, at around 1 pm your body will enter the Ketogenic State and start burning fat cells to fuel the body and the brain. If you eat your dinner at 6pm, your body will have been in a Ketogenic State from 1pm to 6pm, or for five hours – five hours of burning fat!
Here’s another interesting thing that happens when you engage in Intermittent Fasting – your stomach begins to shrink. FYI, if you have a hiatal hernia, as I do, you will see a noticeable reduction in your stomach, which will not stick out as much.
When your stomach shrinks, it takes less food to fill it up. When your stomach senses that it is getting full, it sends a signal to the brain, through the vagus nerve, to stop eating. This means you will consume fewer calories as you don’t have to eat as much food in order to feel full.
Remember, every time you enter the Ketogenic State, you force your body to burn fat cells. Every time your body burns fat cells, your fat cells shrink. The key to losing body fat, therefore, is to remain in the Ketogenic State for as many hours as possible. You do this by reducing how many meals you eat every day. Some people who engage in Intermittent Fasting can get by with one meal a day, others require one small non-carb meal at lunch (i.e. salad) and one normal meal at dinner time.
Tom Corley is an accountant, financial planner and author of “Rich Kids: How to Raise Our Children to Be Happy and Successful in Life”, “Effort-Less Wealth”, “Change Your Habits Change Your Life”, “Rich Habits Poor Habits” and “Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals.”
Nice one. Thanks.