Top 3 Intermittent Fasting Schedules

Want to know the best Intermittent Fasting Schedule?

 Intermittent Fasting seems to be all the buzz in fitness circles lately.   You can’t turn around without finding another program that praises intermittent fasting, or another guru that supports it.  

This isn’t to say that there aren’t an equal amount of people that greatly oppose it and want to nip it in the ass *ahem* large food and supplement companies.

 *ahem*   Excuse my coughing fit.  

These companies make money on us believing that we must eat throughout the day so our body doesn’t store more fat and eat muscle mass.

This is complete nonsense and the masses are waking up to it. 

The truth is that the answer has been in front of our face all along- stop eating.  Not forever of course, but for brief, controlled periods of time.

Studies have shown that intermittent fasting can have tremendous health benefits including:  

Decreased body fat

Increased Growth Hormone in Men

Increased Energy

Appetite Regulation

Increases BDNF resulting in increased brain function & Mental Clarity

Reduce risk of Type 2 Diabetes

Reduce inflammation

Autophagy- cells eating themselves and regenerating

Can help you live longer

The benefits are truly massive. 

The top 3 Intermittent Fasting Strategies here for you and weigh the pros and cons.  

1.) 16/8 Intermittent Fasting (aka Lean Gains)

The 16/8 method of Intermittent Fasting was popularized by Martin Berkhan of Lean Gains. This is the Intermittent Fasting Schedule for YEARS with excellent results.  

The premise is extremely simple: You fast for a period of 16 hours every single day, and eat only in a specific 8 hour window each day.   

These windows must stay the same every day.   For example, you eat every day from Noon until 8pm, and then you fast all the way until noon the next day.

During the fasting period you shouldn’t have anything besides water, tea, or black coffee.   Easy as pie.  

Of course if your goal is to lose body fat, you still need to make sure you are eating quality foods and eating in a caloric deficit. Nothing will change that.  

The reason for this intermittent fasting schedule as the main one, is because it fits in perfectly with  lifestyle. You can eat lunch at 12, have another snack at 3, eat a big dinner at 5, and have a snack at 8pm before bed.  

It is very manageable to get your daily amount of calories, and surprisingly you will not even hungry first thing in the morning. 

2.) The Warrior Diet.

The Warrior Diet is actually the most intense of the three intermittent fasting schedules, and it was popularized by Ori Hofmekler.

Essentially, you fast for 20 hours every day, and only eat during a 4 hour window. For example, you would eat from 5pm to 9pm each night, and fast again all the way until 5pm the next day.   

Again on this, you can only have water, black coffee, or calorie free tea during this time.  

This was designed off of the days of ancient warriors in past history where they would train and hunt during the day, not eating a thing until they went home at night and feasted.  I’m not entirely sure what warrior tribe this was, or how strictly they really followed this, but this is the thinking from Ori behind the program.  (You can make the window any times you want, you can make your eating window first thing in the morning if you wanted to. Doesn’t really matter.)  

I did this for several months at the time, and I absolutely lost weight during it. I actually lost weight EXTREMELY fast it was kind of crazy.   The problem I had with this intermittent fasting plan was that I had an incredibly hard time getting enough calories in a 4 hour window…

I just wasn’t hungry enough to consume 2,000 calories of quality food in that window.   I literally had to stuff myself with so much food to the point it was uncomfortable to hit my caloric requirements to ensure that I don’t also lose muscle mass.   It can be really tough to get enough calories within 4 hours when you aren’t stuffing your face with pizza and cookies.

 I really don’t mean to make it sound like a bad experience, that was just my personal experience with it. As challenging as that was, t was extremely effective for fat loss, and might even be enjoyable to many of you out there, that either have large appetites, or don’t have that large of calorie requirements.  

 I actually still do this every so often, I just had a hard time doing it day in day out. This can be particularly good if you know you are going to dinner and drinks at night, or a holiday party such as thanksgiving.  

 If you are interested in checking out the Warrior Diet, you can do so here.

3.) Eat Stop Eat

 Brad Pilon pioneered the Eat Stop Eat intermittent fasting plan. This is another highly effective program that I myself, and people have seen tremendous results on.   I actually still incorporate this intermittent fasting schedule into my style of fasting today because it is simple and works..  

For the eat stop eat method, you are basically eating as you normally would during theweek. You then would take 1 or two days and completely fast during them for a 24 hour period.   For example You might Eat normally on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. You then would Completely fast on Wednesday and Sunday.

That means that Tuesday if your last meal is at 8pm, you wouldn’t eat again until 8pm on Wednesday. If your last meal on Saturday was at 8pm, you wouldn’t eat again until Sunday at 8pm.   That is removing an entire two days worth of eating from your  week. An entire two days worth of calories!

Think about that… that is just about 30% of your calories you just removed.   A lot of people find this method very flexible, as you can schedule the fasting  days around work, when you don’t have to socialize or be around food.  

You might decide you want to switch your fasting day this week, because you have to take a customer out to lunch on Wednesday.   Whatever the case may be, the whole point of ANY Intermittent Fasting schedule is that it is Flexible.  

You can buy and learn more about Eat Stop Eat here

4.) BONUS: OUR method.

So the Method I use, is really a combination of all three Intermittent Fasting schedules. I follow the 16/8 method of Intermittent Fasting just about every single day as my normal style of eating, because it fits my lifestyle best and is the easiest for me.  

However, things come up, like they do for anyone else. I may have a guys night out, or a work function where I have to entertain a client that involves a lot of drinks. In these situations, I might fast ALL day, and then save all of my calories for a 3-4 hour window (Warrior Diet).  

Sometimes I might have fallen off of my diet a bit for a period of time, and know that I need to let my digestive system and body reset, so I will go for a total 24 fast as the Eat stop Eat methodology suggests.  

Sometimes I will actually fast even longer. Every couple of months I will do a 2-3 day fast to get the benefits of a longer term fast.   Longer Fasts are absolutely worth noting and have some really amazing health benefits that come with them that I can get into in a different post.

An EXCELLENT comprehensive guide on fasting is The Complete Guide to Fasting by Dr. Jason Fung:   Really an amazing read that taught me so much about the benefits of fasting. It opens up a whole new lifestyle when you don’t have to revolve your days around getting the next meal. It is extremely liberating.    

In Summary

  Intermittent Fasting has completely changed my life in so many ways, and it has for many others out there as well.The key is finding an Intermittent Fasting Schedule that works with your lifestyle.  

It won’t do you any good picking up any nutrition plan out there, unless you can stick to it. The best nutrition plan, is the one that you can stick to and enjoy.   My advice is try them all out over time, as you never know which intermittent fasting plan is going to fit in best with your lifestyle.

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