Intermittent fasting has gained a tremendous popularity in the lifting community as one of the fastest ways to get shredded. There are hundreds of photos showing successful journeys to status “RIPPED” achieved with help of daily meal skipping.

Bruce Lee was shredded before intermittent fasting was even born.

While I don’t believe that intermittent fasting is magical, it does promote weight loss when applied with a caloric deficit. I have used this system on two occasions. The most recent one was in the beginning of this year.

I would eat a small meal in the morning and then fast until some crazy hours like 5-7 in the evening. Needless to say, I lost a lot of weight with this rather aggressive cutting approach.

The first thing that hit me right from the start was the hunger and low energy levels. The early days were brutal. I was often ready to collapse. In my case, however, this effect was slightly boosted because I have naturally low hemoglobin levels. It was not a very pleasant experience, but I attribute it mostly to my extreme fasting phase. If you stick to 6 hours, the negative side effects will be diminished significantly. After a while, I adapted, and my fasting phases were no longer as difficult.

However, the main reason why I lost weight were the incredibly low calories.

At the end, the golden rule of fat loss never changes – a caloric deficit is required.

If that rule is not respected, the system breaks.

There are plenty of fat people who don’t eat a lot during the day due to their schedules but compensate for it later with beer & junk food overload in the evening.

THE GOOD SIDES

They say that intermittent fasting raises crucial hormones, but to be fair, I doubt the increase has a meaningful effect at the end of the day.

The main benefits that I observed during my intermittent fasting cut were:

• less thinking about eating and a better focus (after the adaptation phase)

• every meal tastes better because you are very hungry.  If you are one of those people who have a thing for delayed gratification, this is your thing.

• stable blood sugar levels

• steady fat loss – around 2lbs in the beginning and a little less during the final weeks

• you are no longer one of those cowards who think that their muscles will disappear after skipping a meal or a protein shake {hard earned muscle does not leave you that fast, honey}

THE BAD SIDES

• hard to adapt in the beginning

• low energy levels

• may have an impact on your social life

Will intermittent fasting give me the shredded and muscular fitness model look?

You can get very lean, but intermittent fasting won’t make you a muscular beast. It does not have a superior catabolic effect in comparison to other eating patterns.

The main benefit of intermittent fasting is actually outside of the training room. Personally, it made me more productive. Instead of walking around like a lost duck, I followed a schedule.

However, I have to clarify that I work at a desk which makes my energy needs smaller compared to those of a construction worker or a bike messenger.

Nevertheless, I do believe that even people with more physically intensive jobs can use this style of eating if the meals are scheduled in a way preventing energy crashes that might be detrimental to performance.