I have been intermittent fasting weekly for 10 years.

I skip breakfast each day and eat two meals, the first around 12pm and the second around 7pm. Then, I fast for 16 hours until I start eating again the next day at 7pm.

Surprisingly, since I’ve started intermittent fasting I’ve increased muscle mass (up 10 pounds from 200 to 210), decreased body fat (down 5% from 14% to 10%), increased explosiveness and decreased the amount of time I’ve spent training (down from 7.5 hours per week to 2.5 hours per week).

In other words, I’m stronger, leaner, and more explosive even though I go to the gym less and eat less.

How is this possible? Isn’t skipping breakfast bad for you? Why would anyone fast for 16 hours? What are the benefits? Is there any science behind this or are you just crazy? Is it dangerous?

Slow down,  I’ve been known to do crazy things, but this is totally legit. It’s easy to implement into your lifestyle and there are tons of health benefits.

I’m going to break down intermittent fasting and everything that goes with it.

What is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting is a pattern of eating. It’s a way of scheduling your meals so that you get the most out of them. Intermittent fasting doesn’t change what you eat, it changes when you eat.

Why change when you’re eating?

It’s a great way to get lean without going on a crazy diet or cutting your calories down to nothing. In fact, most of the time you’ll try to keep your calories the same when you start intermittent fasting. (Most people eat bigger meals during a shorter time frame.) Additionally, intermittent fasting is a good way to keep muscle mass on while getting lean.

With all that said, the main reason people try intermittent fasting is to lose fat. Perhaps most importantly, intermittent fasting is one of the simplest strategies we have for taking bad weight off while keeping good weight on because it requires very little behavior change. This is a very good thing because it means intermittent fasting falls into the category of “simple enough that you’ll actually do it, but meaningful enough that it will actually make a difference.”

How Does Intermittent Fasting Work?

To understand how intermittent fasting leads to fat loss we first need to understand the difference between the fed state and the fasted state.

Your body is in the fed state when it is digesting and absorbing food. Typically, the fed state starts when you begin eating and lasts for three to five hours as your body digests and absorbs the food you just ate. When you are in the fed state, it’s very hard for your body to burn fat because your insulin levels are high.

After that timespan, your body goes into what is known as the post–absorptive state, which is just a fancy way of saying that your body isn’t processing a meal. The post–absorptive state lasts until 8-12 hours after your last meal, which is when you enter the fasted state. It is much easier for you body to burn fat in the fasted state because your insulin levels are low.

When you’re in the fasted state your body can burn fat that has been inaccessible during the fed state.

Because we don’t enter the fasted state until 12 hours after our last meal, it’s rare that our bodies are in this fat burning state. This is one of the reasons why many people who start intermittent fasting will lose fat without changing what they eat, how much they eat, or how often they exercise. Fasting puts your body in a fat burning state that you rarely make it to during a normal eating schedule.

This Heart, Health & Pocketbook treat continues when I break down multiple Fasting schedules in part 2 of Intermittent Fasting.

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