fasting has become a very popular strategy for burning fat while maintaining muscle and improving overall body composition but if you're not informed like many people fasting can actually set you back make you gain body fat lose muscle mass and even worse end up less healthy than where you began now even though it's my favorite approach to dieting I'm sure there are many things that you haven't been told so today I want to go over eight things that you probably don't know about fasting even if you've been practicing it for some time now and if you're
thinking about fasting I definitely recommend watching this video first so you can avoid some of the common pitfalls and mistakes first let's start with a new study that shows that intermittent fasting increases the risk of heart attacks by 91% this is actually something that you probably already heard since it's being sensationalized all over the mainstream news the thing that nobody is telling you is that this study is complete attention grabbing garbage let's start with the sample size out of 20,000 participants only 414 of them were intermittently fasting meaning we're comparing those 400 people to over
11,000 people that are on a more standard breakfast lunch and dinner type of diet this makes the study extremely flawed to begin with anyone who understands something known as statistical significance understands that the data is borderline useless from the GetGo but on top of that 27% of the fasting participants were smoking which is more than 10% higher than the sample of participants that that weren't fasting in case you don't know smokers are 2 to four times more likely to develop heart disease so we already know that these people were less healthc conscious realize that many
people that don't eat throughout the day aren't healthc conscious people again this completely skews these results add to all of this that the study is an observational study which has people reporting what they ate based off of memory and finally one last reason why this study should be completely disregarded is that almost all other studies on fasting have found the exact opposite effect that fasting enhanced all kinds of biomarkers related to Health and Longevity another thing that you may not realize is that fasting actually causes changes to your hunger perception this is important to understand
because hunger cravings are the most likely Factor that'll make you quit when first starting to fast if you've been eating breakfast lunch and dinner your whole life you're probably going to experience intense hunger cravings for each of those meals that you skip many people will quit before they comprehend that they not even experiencing genuine hunger instead they're experiencing habitual and emotional eating triggers these triggers are so ingrained within you that even on a biological level your body will release hunger hormones like grin let's say at 2 p.m. every day if that's the time that you're
used to eating lunch the beauty of fasting is that if you give your body time to adapt the hunger pangs will subside your habitual and emotional eating cues will become more muted and even at a deeper level you'll develop physiological adaptations such as decrease ground levels at those key times of the day your body will also improve its capacity to use stored fat for energy rather than relying on food all day long you just need to give your body time to adapt without quitting and without binging which brings me to my next point that can
be obvious for people with experience but not so obvious for those of you that are beginners and it's the fact that fasting does not automatically guarantee weight loss or fat loss in fact it can completely backfire and cause the opposite weight gain obviously you're not going to put on fat while you're you're not consuming calories but you can easily gain fat when you break your fast through a phenomenon known as compensatory eating this is where the increased hunger and appetite that you'll experience after fasting can cause you to consume more calories than you would have
ever consumed if you simply didn't fast at all it's pretty easy to understand that if you binge on high calorie foods like ice cream and pizza after your fast you can quickly negate any potential calorie savings that you achieve during your fast just because you've restricted the amount of time that you're allowing yourself to eat every day does not mean that you'll lose fat understand that it's not the time restriction itself but rather the fact that the time restriction will hopefully help you create an overall calorie deficit which is the actual source of the fat
loss and to create that calorie deficit the foods that you break your fast with matters a lot now a lot of what you might have heard or read about breaking your fast is unnecessary over complicated and not based in reality for example you might have heard that you must have MCT oil after your fast to burn more fat this actually is going to do nothing except add extra calories another one is to avoid vegetables after your fast since your digestive system needs to warm back up to eating harder to digest foods this is once again
completely untrue for short-term intermittent fasting protocols and even if you were to do a prolong fast I would still highly recommend that you do the exact opposite of this advice first of all your digestive system is perfectly capable of going for long periods of time without food followed by a feast it was part of our Evolution second when you come out of a fast you're you're going to be hungry priority number one when you break a fast if your goal is fat loss is to reduce hunger before binge eating or consuming excess calories vegetables happen
to be extremely low in calories while also being very filling if you're concerned about digestion don't eat them raw after fast and cook them but the point is breaking your fast with vegetables is actually ideal because first of all even Bland vegetables with no seasoning will taste a lot better after fasting because fasting helps to reset your palet and you'll actually be hungry as well and second of all the vegetables will fill your stomach decreasing the possibility of mindlessly binging on high calorie foods and snacks the other thing that you'll want to prioritize after your
fast is protein like chicken fish eggs meat and so on these are the two things that you need to keep in mind break your fast with veggies and protein after you've taken the edge off your appetite with veggies and protein you can then move on to other Foods it's that simple no need to over complicate it another thing that no one tells you is that fasting can lead to dehydration if you're not reminding yourself to drink water throughout the day this is due to three main issues that you can run into the first is that
when you fast you're going to feel less thirsty in general which will make you less likely to naturally drink water eating leads to an increased desire to drink more water through a variety of psychological and physiological mechanisms this is especially true if you eat salty foods but even regular meals with regular or lower amount of salt will increase your thirst when you skip these meals you'll be a lot more likely to not crave a glass of water as much along with decreased thirst some people experience increased urination while adapting to fasting this is especially true
if you drink coffee to help suppress your appetite during a fast since coffee is a natural diuretic and the third issue is your electrolyte balance now this is really not going to be an issue if you're just practicing short-term intermittent fasting but if you do a prolonged multi-day fast electrolytes like sodium potassium and magnesium play crucial roles in maintaining fluid balance nerve function and muscle contractions within your body if you don't replenish these it's possible to disrupt electrolyte balance leading to symptoms of dehydration such as fatigue dizziness headaches and muscle cramps So to avoid dehydration
make sure you're drinking water throughout the day even if you're not particularly craving it and if you are going for extended fasting consider supplementing with some of those electrolytes with that said nutrient deficiencies outside of just electrolytes are something that many people don't realize can coincide with fasting of course this isn't as likely to happen by skipping breakfast and fasting for just a few hours it's more of an issue again associated with prolong fasting but it is possible to develop nutrient deficiencies with regular intermittent fasting if nutrient-dense foods are not prioritized during your feeding Windows
incorporating a variety of fruits vegetables lean proteins and other nutrient-dense foods during your feeding window can help ensure that you're getting all the nutrients you need dieting in general increases the possibility of being deficient nutrients like iron calcium and vitamin B but saving calories throughout the day by fasting to then later eat unhealthy Foods increases the chances of developing these nutrient deficiencies even further obviously eating nutrient-dense foods will help solve this problem but if you're going for a prolonged fast it could be a good idea to also supplement with some of these nutrients next let's
discuss muscle loss based on the research available to us the human body is far more capable of sparing muscle tissue while fastening than we pre iously thought but there are two major caveats to this that you should be aware of the first is your overall protein intake over time if you cut your protein intake to zero for a day your body will most likely spare most of your muscle tissue and instead burn fat for the energy it needs but as with all other calorie cutting and dieting strategies it is possible and likely that you'll experience
some muscle loss the longer you stay in an overall calorie deficit the goal should then be to minimize muscle loss as much as possible without adequate protein intake your body can as the days go by but it's perfectly fine to exercise during a regular 16 to 24-hour fast in the beginning you might experience decreased strength endurance and energy levels so it might be best to have a few simple workouts during your first couple fasted training sessions but after a few weeks your body should fully adapt and you might even find that you have even more
energy working out on an empty stomach so don't let the idea that you haven't eaten before your workout hold you back some of my best workouts and most intense weight training days were achieved during a fast I have significantly better workouts without food in my stomach your body can still perfectly well draw energy from the glycogen that was stored in your muscles 24 hours prior so allow your body to adapt it does get much better over time just like the hunger I hope this video has helped you out and prepared you in advance especially if
you're just starting out with intermittent fasting if this video has helped you make sure you subscribe to the channel and if you want to get a done for you fasting plan then head on over to my website where you can get a personalized fasting meal plan a workout plan and a coach to guide you through a 42-day fat loss Journey all for free you get it for free by simply sticking to the plan for 6 weeks which is coincidentally exactly what you have to do to achieve your goal of burning substantial fat anyway to find
out more click the link in the description below or you can head straight on over to my website at gravity transformation.com I'll see you guys [Applause] soon he
