The Voodoo That You Do. Intermittent-Fasting Affects Fat & Muscle

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Photo: Patrick Hendry, Unsplash

Has SCIENCE! Finally Found The One Plan To Rule Them All?:

The more things change, the more they stay the same!

Just recently, we discussed how people will torture themselves in interesting ways to accomplish their health goals,

Just like we did with crazy body-rollers, face-electrocutors, and tanning-bed forerunners ~100 years ago,

Same as it ever was: Live longer, Look better, Get healthy, & Lose Weight!

Well, now that we have something a bit closer to real SCIENCE!, instead of the “snake oil” from back then,

Researchers are finding valid data where there was once only quackery.

And this last bit shows once more that a recent “magic plan” for weight-loss pretty much is magic!…

The Short Answer:

History is full of stupid diet & supplement ideas, as well as crazy gadgets.
Just think of how many carbs “The Food Pyramid” used to recommend!
One eating plan that doesn’t look like BS is Intermittent-Fasting.
A U.Miss team reviewed 15 previous studies that looked at fit people who exercise and ate on the I-F plan.
Amazingly, when they went on I-F, these already lean people lost even more fat.
This happened just because of how it works, not because of less calories or more exercise.
They also did this without losing any muscle.
This is pretty amazing, because on most plans, 30% of weight lost is muscle and 70% is fat/other.
The other part that makes this amazing is fat is very hard to lose, even for movie stars.
(they typically have to eat nothing but chicken & broccoli for 10 months!)
The only catch is that you MUST exercise in order to keep muscle while still losing fat.
One of the best ways to do this is with 3 days/week of any weight-bearing exercise.
A simple routine for this is pushups, crunches, and body-weight squats on a yoga mat anywhere.
If your doctor clears you, just do 3 sets with whatever reps you can do per set. -You’ll get better over time.
The simpler your plan and the more pleasant things you add, like music, the easier it is.
Exercise itself is also just about the most powerful “drug” that medicine has.

Read on to find out the details…

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Crazy Diets Are Just As Old As Snake Oil & Fitness Fads:

So along with crazy gadgets, cures, supplements, and recreational morphine,

The long history of Health & Wellness fads is full of wacky Diets as well.

We’ve endured everything from high-carb food-pyramids, to celebrity cleanses, Keto, and Mikhaila Peterson’s cuckoo Carnivore Diet.

But one of the recent plans that’s got real promise is Intermittent-Fasting.

And it just picked-up another award!

U.Miss Finds The Diet Plan To Make You Too Sexy For This Earth:

Because what good is a diet plan that doesn’t make you so irresistible that it’s a guarantee of getting you laid?

And that’s just what the U. Miss team found. -Sorta.

In a review of 15 prior studies, UM looked at the effects of I-F on a very specific type of weight-loss.

And here’s where the selection process was particularly smart.

They chose people who were already healthy, in great shape, and exercising for at least 8 weeks.

It turned out that this combination of I-F and exercise achieved the “Cold Fusion” of a nutrition plan.

Fat-loss without muscle-loss!

-BOOM!

Cold-Fusion. The Results That Show The Impossible Is Possible:

So not only is that a pretty huge achievement in general.

Because most of the time, 30% of the weight lost in dieting is muscle.

But the people on these plans were already fit.

So if you can get people who are already in great shape TO LOSE EVEN MORE FAT,

That is a miracle!

There was no average total plan-duration given in the study, other than to say everything counted in this report was 8 weeks or more.

Just For Context, Fat Is REALLY Hard To Lose! -Even For Movie Stars:

But even in that time, the fat lost is still pretty significant.

Because more than a few people have reported having to be on very strict plans that included calorie-deficits, just to lose any measurable amount of fat. -Especially around problem areas.

For example, even professional movie-stars trying to lean-out for roles know it takes about 10 months of nothing but chicken & broccoli.

So somehow, the freaky biochem of Intermittent-Fasting was able to make already lean people even leaner with just the one diet-type change.

And Now The Bad News. You’re Going To Have To Exercise!:

Now the study authors do specify that in-order to get these results, you Must exercise too.

I mean, if you’ve read anything around here about I-F, you’d know it’s magic.

But at least half of the MU study results come from the signals sent by exercise.

By doing weight-bearing stuff, you’re telling your body to keep the muscles around.

In their comments, the study authors reiterate several times how important this is, because the last thing you want to do on any nutrition & exercise plan is lose muscle.

The best part of this study is that both elements of success are pretty simple.