The suggestion that breakfast is the most important meal of the day is plain wrong. There is no ‘most important’ meal of the day – they should all serve a purpose and be treated as equals!
We’ve discussed on the AdMac Fitness blog an approach called ‘Intermittent Fasting’, whereby a person trying to improve their body composition will purposely avoid foods for managed periods of time in order to optimise fat burning.
So what has that got to do with breakfast?
Simple - it’s the easiest meal of the day to skip, which helps you to perform intermittent fasting easier. If you eat your evening meal at around 7pm, then you don’t eat again until lunch time at 1, you've gone around 18 hours without eating. That’s intermittent fasting.
Intermittent fasting is not a new approach - it has been used in various forms for years. Many of our personal training clients have followed an intermittent fasting approach to help them lose a significant amount of weight over the years. The beauty of the approach is that it’s binary. There’s no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ food choices whilst you’re fasting - you just don’t eat at all!
I can almost hear the food police condemn those who follow the approach as ‘starving’ themselves!
Nonsense. Your body is more than capable of lasting for days (even weeks if you were in a desperate situation and needed it to!) without food. A few hours without food is actually good for your body, and helps it to speed fat loss.
Intermittent fasting can be a good thing for a number of reasons...
1. Fasting teaches us to understand our hunger better – are we really hungry, or do we just think we are?
2. Fasting gives our bodies a break from the stress of digestion.
3. Fasting allows hormones to regulate and stabilise.
4. Fasting reduces overall caloric intake.
5. Fasting forces the body to use fat as a primary fuel for activity reducing body fat levels.
So with all of these benefits, why is the fast intermittent?
Fasting for a short period of time (18 hours) is much easier than a longer term fast, whereby you will have a much greater psychological battle to face! Most people can go past breakfast, knowing they’ll have lunch in a few hours.
Making Fasting Work for You
A great day to fast is a Monday, because you’ve likely had an indulgent weekend!
If you’re new to intermittent fasting, fast for no longer than 18 hours, and include some very low intensity cardiovascular exercise (a 30 minute walk or very easy cycle) to help increase fat burn.. The whole point of the exercise here is to keep the intensity very low, encouraging the body to mobilise fats for energy, not sugars. Don’t wrongly assume that working harder will burn more fat – it will have the exact opposite effect.
If you really struggle to control yourself around food, ensure most of your fasted time is overnight, reducing your temptation. Not eating a late snack and skipping breakfast will usually ensure adequate fasting time. Just make sure you don’t go crazy to make up for the lack of calories during the fast. This is to help lose weight, not provide an excuse to over eat when the fast is over.
Follow these tips to make fasting work for you...
1. Ease yourself into fasting by doing it overnight – I find not eating late at night and avoiding breakfast the following day provides me with a long enough fasting window.
2. Include low intensity exercise during the fast – keeping heart rate below 60% of max. Don’t be tempted to go harder – you will use sugars instead of fat for fuel, reversing the benefits of the work.
3. Maintain hydration throughout, but only with water, green tea or specialist fasting teas.
4. Keep the fast short - between 18 and 24 hours.
5. Don’t over-indulge after the fast - it will undo the good work.
6. Ease in - at the start, keep it to no more than three fasts per week.
7. Monitor yourself throughout with basic checks – are you tired, feeling genuine hunger, can concentrate well etc?
Most often you will be surprised at quite how well you feel, and you will identify that what you often identify as hunger isn’t actually so, it is more often habit or boredom causing you to eat!
I will leave this article by informing you that fasting isn’t for everyone, and if you have a metabolic disease such as diabetes should never be contemplated without the express permission of your doctor. Only ever fast if you are in sound health.
When done correctly, fasting is a very powerful weapon in your fight against fat!
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