intermittent fasting Archives - Uncommon Sense Physique

I want a six pack

I was chatting to colleague recently, who declared that I’d given a friend who wanted six-pack abs “bad advice” with regard to his diet and exercise. I was taken aback, and pushed to understand why they felt my advice was bad. Reason? Dogma.

I want a six-pack. Isn’t that always how it starts?

The holy grail of physique transformation where abdominal muscles stand proud, and ripple and glisten in response to your every movement. It matters not that this is invariably happening beneath your shirt, that few may ever know of your condition.

Carb cycling and Intermittent fasting

It all sounds very technical, and to some, very scary; there are certainly negative connotations with the word fasting across large swathes of the populous. However, if you take the time to dig into these topics, you’ll realize a couple of things:

They are regimens grounded in common sense
They are not complex to practice

Progress and goals

After a couple of months of clean eating, intermittent fasting and, more recently, community coaching from Adam Bornstein, I am down 10lbs from 168lbs to 158lbs. I haven’t tested body fat again, but I certainly look and feel leaner; waist size is also down over an inch.

Intermittent Fasting: It could just be the difference

Intermittent Fasting (IF) is a style of eating, not a diet. It is also not the silver bullet to fat loss that some might claim it to be. It IS, however, something you should know about, research and ultimately try for yourself.

Three quick sources for you to do some homework:

Adam Bornstein is an advocate of this eating style and wrote a nice summary of fasting approaches for Livestrong.com. IF is also core to the eating strategy presented in Adam’s book, Man 2.0: Engineering the Alpha.
James Clear has also experimented widely with IF and found it highly complimentary to his lifestyle and lifting goals. You can read about his experiences on his blog.
If you want the science behind the IF regimen I personally follow (16/8), you need to go to the father of IF, Martin Berkhan and leangains.com.

For me, IF works. In fact, it almost works too well and an eight hour eating window makes it hard to get all the calories I need when trying to gain muscle. However, when I am trying to lean out, combining an IF regimen with a healthy diet, balanced macros and a good training program makes a big difference. As a bonus, the IF protocol has hidden benefits:

More free time to do more things; less time thinking about and planning eating.
You care a lot more about what you put in your mouth when you’ve been fasting for 16 hours.
You learn to appreciate your food more and associate being hungry with being healthy.

Closing thoughts: Don’t dismiss an approach or idea without doing your homework. Also, be prepared to invest some of your own time in trying and evaluating a diet or workout regimen. What works for one, may or may not work for another — but you won’t know unless you try!