6 Ways Intermittent Fasting Helps You Lose Weight Fast, & Keep It Off For Life

Fasting is one of the easiest ways to target fat burning and keep yourself trim for life — without too much effort.

Through my own experience, I have found myself in a place now where I don’t have to worry about weight gain.

It’s a nice feeling to know that all I have to do is fast, eat well, lift weights, and my body will look after the rest.

Fasting also helps diminish inflammation markers in your body, disease, signs of ageing and settle digestive or gut issues.

It’s simple and can be as easy.

The best lifestyle protocol for weight loss is ‘Intermittent Fasting.’

So why do I eliminate the term’ diet?’

Because short term plans don’t work well and are likely to lead you back to where you started — and possibly worse off.

Weight loss and maintenance result from diligent commitment and a significant amount of work (more so initially when you start).

But, as you begin to familiarise yourself with how your body operates, things become a whole lot easier.

That’s why intermittent fasting is my favourite lifestyle plan.

It doesn’t matter what kind of life you lead; fasting works for absolutely everyone and anyone.

Our bodies were made for periods of feast and famine.

Therefore, we have an evolutionary connection to this method.

Far too many people eat more than they should, disturbing our body’s natural ability to combat disease and ailments.

Six ways intermittent fasting helps you lose weight fast and keep it off for life

One: Lowers your insulin levels

Making you more insulin sensitive.

Low insulin levels cue your body to switch to burning stored fat instead of glucose (1).

Two: Boosts your metabolism

When your resting metabolism increases, it helps you burn more calories throughout the day, even when asleep or at rest.

Three: It kick starts ketosis

Ketosis usually happens under extreme limitations of carbohydrates.

Intermittent fasting provides a shortcut towards this ultimate fat-burning state.

Once the body is drained of glucose, the primary source of our energy — it is forced to burn through fat reserves for energy through a process called ketosis.

Ketosis has the power to reduce inflammation markers, burn through extra fat and drop weight at a faster rate.

Four: By burning visceral fat

It’s the stubborn fat we have on our bodies. It’s allocated deep around the abdominal organs.

During a 6-month fasting duration, people on an intermittent fasting diet could shed 4–7 per cent of their visceral fat (3) (4).

Five: Reduces inflammation

Lowering inflammation markers is the key to weight loss and improving your longevity.

You also have the added benefit of reducing your risk of Alzheimer’s.

Fasting decreases oxidative stress and inflammation across the whole body.

Six: Improves cholesterol

Fasting impacts your cholesterol by decreasing your levels of LDL and VLDL cholesterols.

You should be concerned with the levels of this particular cholesterol.

An increased risk of cardiovascular disease is a lot more apparent for those suffering from obesity — but keeping your cholesterol levels in check benefits your health long term.

To get the most long term fat loss benefits (and health ones, of course!), here are some added tips that will turn you into a fat-burning machine

3 added tips to get the most out of fasting

One: Eating lower carb

Get most of your carbs from the cruciferous veggies you are eating, as well as limited amounts of low glycemic carbs, such as oats & sweet potatoes.

Doing this will make it a lot easier to get into ketosis.

Two: Use MCT oil

Try having 1–2 teaspoons of MCT oil to break your fast before ingesting any food. Better yet, include it in your black coffee when fasting has ended.

Nourish your body with good fats and boost your fat-burning potential even more.

Three: When breaking your fast, eat high-quality protein, veggies and fat

It’s crucial that when you break your fasting, you are only filling your body with nutritious foods.

It can be tempting to eat something processed but do resist this urge.

Instead, pre-prepare your meals, so you just heat and eat.

Key take away

Don’t forget that fasting works well with time.

Allow yourself at least a month to get into a habit of feeding and fasting. After that, you can choose to fast for 12–16 or 20 hours.

I fast from lunchtime — 12 and won’t eat again until 5 am.

It allows me time to re-feed after training, as I find I’m a lot more hungry before lunchtime.

Fasting allows your digestion time to regenerate during the night.

If you have gut issues (as I do), this method works perfectly to decrease inflammation markers in the gut.

Don’t forget to alter the duration of the fast daily so your body does not become accustomed to it. Changing it up also allows you to eat more and satisfy your hunger (especially when you train hard).

Give it a try.

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