CosBeauty Magazine #85

Fasting ‘easier than
traditional dieting’
stomach acid, which digests food and
destroys bacteria. But smelling food or
even thinking about it during fasting
periods can trigger the brain into
telling the stomach to produce more
acid, leading to heartburn.
According to 5:2 Diet advocate
Dr Michael Mosley, intermittent
fasting is not recommended for people
with the following conditions:
• Being underweight
• Eating disorders
• Type 1 diabetes
• Type 2 diabetes that is controlled
by medication
• Pregnancy (or women
breastfeeding)
• Recent surgery
• Mental heath conditions
• Fever or illness
• Conditions where Warfarin
is prescribed
Negative feelings and behaviours
reported by Dr John Berardi in his
book Experiments with Intermittent
Fasting include:
• Changes in mood
• Extreme hunger
• Low energy
• Obsessive thoughts about food
• Binge eating behaviour
And Medical News Today
noted people interested in trying
intermittent fasting ‘should consider
whether or not it will work with their
lifestyle. Fasting stresses the body, so
it may not be beneficial for people
already dealing with significant
stressors’. CBM
US nutritionist Dr John Berardi
tried six different intermittent
fasting plans over six months
and published his results in
the book Experiments with
Intermittent Fasting.
Over those six months he:
• Dropped 20 pounds of weight
(from 190 pounds to 170 pounds);
• Reduced his body fat from 10
per cent to four per cent (while
maintaining most of his lean
muscle mass).
Importantly, he noted:
‘I accomplished the goals
I set for myself in a way that was
easier and less time consuming than
“traditional” dieting.’
Berardi summed up his four
key findings:
1. Trial fasting is a great way to
practice managing hunger. ‘This
is an essential skill for anyone who
wants to get in shape and stay
healthy and fit.’
2. More regular fasting isn’t
objectively better for losing body
fat. ‘While my IF experiments
worked quite well, the
intermittent fasting approach
(bigger meals, less frequently)
didn’t produce better fat loss
than a more conventional diet
approach (smaller meals, more
frequently) might have.’
3. More regular fasting did make it
easier to maintain a lower body
fat percentage. ‘Intermittent
fasting isn’t easy. However, I did
find that using this approach
made it easier for me to maintain
a low body weight and a very
low body fat percentage vs more
conventional diets.’
4. Intermittent fasting can work, but
it’s not for everyone, nor does
it need to be. ‘In the end, IF is
just one approach, among many
effective ones, for improving
health, performance, and body
composition.’
Berardi says his results found
that ‘intermittent fasting can
be helpful for in-shape people
who want to really get lean
without following conventional
bodybuilding diets, or for
anyone who needs to learn the
difference between body hunger
and mental hunger.’
However he also explains that
successful nutrition plans,
‘whether they use smaller, more
frequent meals or larger, less
frequent meals all share a few
commonalities’.
These include:
• Controlling calories. When
calories are controlled, progress is
made. ‘Whether you control them
by eating frequent small meals or
infrequent larger meals is
up to you.’
• Focusing on food quality. Fresh,
unprocessed, nutrient-dense food
is a must, regardless of which
eating style you adopt.
• Regular exercise. Exercise is a
critical part of the equation.
Berardi concludes: ‘Once those
three have been taken care of, it’s a
matter of personal preference and
lifestyle considerations.’
www.cosbeauty.com.au 89