A Best Kept Secret to Losing Weight

Hello,

I was struggling to lose weight for more than 10 years.

I do bodybuilding, and a bit of cardio, but I don't like cardio, and I hate running too because of a back injury.

In 2012, I asked some of my bodybuilder friends, but unfortunately, their advice didn't work out for me.

I then started looking online for the best ways to do it.

I tried every school out there that focuses on limiting calorie intake, others that focus on sports to burn calories, I installed some food tracking apps on my phone, did high intensity workouts, I even purchased some products that claim will help me lose weight, but nothing worked.

At the end, I was having a hard time keeping my weight from increasing..

But I did not give up. No, that is unacceptable..

My motto is : If someone else did it, YOU CAN TOO.

I kept looking online for month, then I stumbled upon a method that was in front of my eyes the whole time, but is being suppressed by the supplements and sport equipment companies for decades..

why kept so secret?

Because this method is simply not marketable at all..It doesn't require you to purchase any medications or supplements, training programs, special foods , sport equipment or personal training services at all..

Thus, these companies created all kinds of propaganda to suppress it, so that they don't lose a great deal of their market.

What is this secret method that has been used for thousands of years ?

Simple.. It is called Intermittent fasting..

Step 1: What Is Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is:

“The act of willingly abstaining from some or all food and in some cases drink for a period of time.”

By abstaining from eating, the human body will use its fat reserves to burn energy, resulting in Fat loss.

I will not go too much in detail concerning this topic, I will however give you the practical side, so you can start applying it immediately.

Who can use this method?

everyone, except children under 15 years of age.

For People with Diabetes, although I know many people who have diabetes have been on Intermittent fasting and had very good results, including getting better with the diabetes, I suggest you consult with your doctors, maybe it's just not suitable for your condition.

Is it safe?

yes. definitely.

This instructable contains more than enough info for you to start but If you want all the details about it, simply google it.

There is also a very good book about the subject called Eat Stop Eat by Brad Pilon.

It is supposed to be a paid book, but someone managed to upload a pdf version of it online..

Step 2: Types of Intermittent Fasting

There are around 5-6 different ways you can fast.

Here I will mention the most common and beneficial:

* Lean gains (16/8 hours fast/feed). -- Most fasters favorite method.

* The Fast-5 Diet. (19/5 hours fast/feed).

* The Warrior Diet (20/4 hours fast/feed).

* Eat Stop Eat (24 hours fasting, 1-2x/week). -- I recommend this method to maintain your weight after You've reached your goal, or if you decide to gain more muscle

Step 3: Lean Gains (16/8 Hrs Fast/feed)

With this method, You will be fasting for 16 hours, and feeding for 8.

The best timing for it in my opinion, is to stop consuming food and calorific drinks at 08:00 PM, and to start the next day at 12:00 (at noon).

You can do 18.00 to 10.00 if you like.

you can choose any timing as long as the eating window is still 08 hours.

Step 4: The Adaptation Period

You probably have been having breakfast all your life.

For your body to learn to skip it, it will need to adapt.

how do you do that? Very simple.

Start by stopping to eat at 08:00 PM ( if this this the window you chose), the next day, in the morning, you will eventually start to feel hungry.

Stay fasted, until you can't anymore, then have your breakfast.

have your dinner at 08:00 PM.

Repeat.

With days to come, your body will start adapting to this new lifestyle , and after a while, you will be able to fast until noon.

Side note

As long as you have an ounce of fat on your body, you don't need to have breakfast...ever.. telling people that breakfast is mandatory for their health is a lie that came from the same propaganda that suppressed this method.

Step 5: The Nutrition

How to Eat and drink

While fasting

While fasting, you can consume all kinds of non-calorific drinks, like water, coffee, tea, cola zero if you like and others.

You may use sweeteners instead of sugar, I recommend Stevia instead of Aspartame.

While fasting, you may consume 50kcal Max, (a small sugar spoon if you hate sweeteners..).

If you consume more, you will get out of the fasting mode.

Why is it important to stay fasted?

When you are fasting, your body consumes your fat reserves more efficiently than when you aren't.

While Feeding

You may consume anything you like. What is so nice about this method, is that it is not a diet, you are free to consume anything you like :). Isn't that awesome?

Do not Starve yourself please.

I know many people who were so astonished by this method's results, that they got greedy and tried to accelerate it by eating less and less..

That is not good at all.. because when the body starves, it starts to break down our HARD EARNED MUSCLES for energy and you will eventually hit a plateau..

You should aim to lose between 2-3 kg (4.5 to 6.5 pounds) per month. More means your muscles are disappearing along with your fat.


What to eat

Here, I would like to take the opportunity to tell you, that if you improve your food selection, your results will be much faster and your health and energy levels much better!

What not to eat

Improve your food selection, by eliminating all sugars and products containing refined sugar and by reducing salt.

Sugar:

is a highly addictive product, sadly as addictive as nicotine and it is high in unnecessary calories that will slow down your progress.

Salt:

Reduce Salt in your food.the maximum recommended salt intake is 5 grams (1 teaspoon) per day.. when you consume more, it poisons your body, and the body starts to retain water to reduce the salt density in it in order to prevent itself from being poisonned.

Allergies and sensitivities

Many people including myself, are allergic to diary, and/or Gluten ( a protein found in grains such a wheat ).

If you get bloated after you consume bread, then you are sensitive to gluten. you will feel much better if you replace it with corn bread for example.

If you get gas after you consume diary, well you are sensitive to that too..Milk can be replaced with almond milk for example.

What to eat

Try to eat whole foods, meaning buy whole ingredients that aren't tampered with nor manufactured from the super market such as a steak, a potato , a fruit , a vegetable etc..

For more info on this topic, please google Paleo diet food list.

Step 6: The Results

Many intermittent fasters started to see results within 2 weeks..

YOU WILL TOO.

This lifestyle is very forgiving, do not worry too much about your food selection , but do not exaggerate it either.

With 2-3 kg (4.5-6.5 pounds) of loss per month, you will lose between 12-18 kilos (26-40 pounds) in a period of 6 month!

That's an excellent result.

I highly recommend you to do some sport that will involve all your muscles in a one week period like going to the gym for example and taking it easy there, as this will pass the message to your body that your muscles are very dear to you, and that at no circumstances it should use them for energy.

One important note here

The result you are actually searching for is not to lose weight..

It is to lose weight and maintain the new weight as is for years to come..This is what most diets fail to achieve, as people go off their diet after they have reached their goal, only to see their weight go back up after a few month, to where it first was..

By losing 2-3 kg (4.5-6.5 pounds) per month, you are also adapting your Thyroid gland to your new weight, thus preventing it from taking it back up.

This gland controls the body weight, when you lose weight really fast, it "thinks" that your body is in an environment where there is a lack of food, as a defense mechanism, it slows down your metabolism speed to bring your weight back up, and insure your survival by stocking more fat..

Step 7: Troubleshooting

You're fasting, and you love it, but tonight your friends invited you to a night out in a bar and a restaurant.

You know you 're gonna have to eat and drink there, but you're not that happy about it because you'll be overeating, and that will slow down your weight loss results.. what do you do? here's the answer.

when you are "forced" to eat for social reasons, you can get " picky" in what you are eating there.

Apply a strict but smooth food selection protocol by selecting dishes and snacks with high protein and low carbs in them, and by "not finishing your dish" and avoiding small bites and snacks if you can.

Load up on water.

Substitute alcoholic drinks with ones that have no "fillers", by that I mean selecting strong alcohols (40%), like drinking a neat whisky instead of a beer, this way you wont need to drink all the calories in the beer that gets you fat instead of drunk, after all, we drink alcohol for the alcohol effect, not the other stuff that comes in it.

After the night out, i usually pull a 24 hour fast to regulate my calorie intake of the night before, that does the job.

Here's a breakdown of the calorie intake for this case :

night before : 3500 calories IN from alcohol and snacks.

The day after : a 24 hour fast , then a 600 calorie high protein meal.

Result : 3500+600 = 4100 calories in 2 days, /2 = 2100 calories a day.

That's a bit under an average man's daily maintenance calorie intake.

So in a way, you still can party and lose weight.

Remember:

With alcohol intake, even though the numbers I mentioned are correct in theory, In reality, your body will retain water for a couple of days after the fact, to treat all the alcohol you took in, so on the weight scale, you might go up around 3-4 pounds, but those will go away after 4-5 days, as the body will dump them after the alcohol is fully digested.

Step 8: Final Words

I haven't invented anything i wrote in this instructable,it is all true and verified through scientific research. I haven't cited any references from the web though, because it is simply too time consuming for me to dig those studies up.. time that I don't have.

I am highly educated in nutrition, If you have any questions, please post them in the comment section, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

please do try to find your answers on google first ;).

Thank you for reading this, and I sincerely hope you succeed in your weight loss journey.

-> You don't think intermittent fasting is something for you?

Good news, I 've written another instructable on how to shed body fat, without skipping breakfast.

Check it out : https://www.instructables.com/id/Manage-Your-Weight-Using-IIFYM/

Greetings!

Kreat0r