We all agree that the high-protein breakfast is the staple of the bodybuilding diet. Proteins in the evening, proteins in the morning, proteins in between workouts – all of this is crucial for muscle growth and repair, while eating many meals per day is as popular as it will ever be. Unless you’re following a crash diet (which we highly recommend you not to do) or simply starving for the purpose of extreme weight loss without any exercise involved, eating big and healthy a few times a day is the backbone of any bodybuilding efforts.
That being said, what if skipping some meals now and then could result in stronger effects? Let’s say you have a hard time with your cutting phase and your body resists being transformed into a more effective fat-burning machine – a bit of fasting is the push you desperately need.
No, we’re not talking bullshit in order to entertain you or increase profits for some dieting book out there – we’re talking about an activity done by human beings since the beginning of time which is approved by modern science. In other words, fasting has already been proven to do wonders in the process of shedding body fat, increasing ripped, lean mass and fixing many health issues.
We’re not claiming that every guy out there should stop whatever he’s doing and try this – it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, pretty much like everything else. In the end, different bodies will react differently to any given regime, and the type of training has a big saying in that. But if you’re willing to go outside the box in order to squeeze optimal benefits out of your diet, this might be the tool that will make you stand out from the average gym-going crowd.
The method we’re talking about is called intermittent fasting, which means it’s not that thing where you don’t eat for a week – it’s about incorporating planned intervals of fasting into your diet regime instead. All of us already fast for eight hours every single night during sleep, but doubling up that period can lead to greater gains.
The typical way of intermittent fasting is to have 16 hours of fasting followed by 8 hours of regular food consumption every day (the latter usually begins with a post-workout meal). Then you have the harder way of doing it – 24 hours of fasting once or twice per week. No matter which path you choose, the results will become visible in no time. What kind of results, you wonder? Read further.
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