New Study: Is Intermittent Fasting Superior?
Welcome to the one day at a time podcast where we forget about yesterday. We don't worry about tomorrow. It's what are we going to do today? This all matters because you've only ever had or will ever have the fantastic twenty four hours a day you're about to embark on. So hopefully this episode is going to give you some daily dose of wisdom that you can take action on today to improve your life.
Speaker 1:And remember, all it takes is one day at a time. Good morning everyone we are back this week like I mentioned last week this week we're going to cover a few research studies, up to date studies and basically for you to maybe get your head around a few concepts and all like a few other ideas you might have heard around online, your friends talking to you and stuff like that. We're gonna kind of dispel some myths so you can have a bit more control in terms of what you know is gonna work, if that makes sense. Because a lot of what time we usually spend thinking what we're doing is this right or wrong. We keep researching and reading things on Instagram and then blog posts and stuff and it's all conflicting.
Speaker 1:It confuses us, makes us change our plan all the time. We're back and forth different plans every week, different apps all the time. We've got no continuity. And in the end, it's just kind of a frenzy, and it doesn't take us anywhere. Right?
Speaker 1:So there was a recent study done in Bath, and it was a study to check if fasting was superior to like, traditional diets. So it was a randomized controlled trial to isolate the effects of fasting and energy restriction and weight loss and metabolic health in lean adults. Okay? So a lot of people think intermittent fasting or fasting in general has got some kind of magic capabilities where, you know, you go into a low, you basically go into a state where you're not eating at all, your insulin level is not going up. So people theorize, well, if insulin is a storage hormone, and if we don't spike insulin by not eating then and we're burning calories and surely we're burning more fat and we lose more weight right that's what people think but it's not straightforward as that.
Speaker 1:So this study put three groups together. Group one they fasted on alternate days, right? They all had the same energy deficit just to be clear, They had the same energy deficit. They all fasted the group one fasted on alternate days with a fast day followed by a day of eating 50% more than usual. Group two just took a 25% reduction in calories every day and group three was fasted alternate days in the same as group one but followed their fast day with only eaten 100% more than usual.
Speaker 1:So when we come to the results right they use the DEXA body scan which is one of the most accurate ways to measure your body fat right. So the non fasting dieting group, so group two which just reduced their calories by 25% a day, they lost 1.9 kilos in three weeks, and that was pretty much all from body fat. Okay, so the first group which is the fasting group, they experienced the same calorie deficit overall right, but they lost 1.6 kilograms, of weight okay. However only half of that weight was from body fat the remainder was from muscle mass right not good. And then group three who fasted but increased their energy intake by a % on the non fasting days did not need to draw on their body's fat stores for energy and therefore weight loss was negligible.
Speaker 1:Okay, So out of group one and group two, the group one was the same calories, but we're fasting in between. And group two is just consistency in terms of just dropped to 25%. Hey, ho. Let's go. Okay.
Speaker 1:They lost more weight. Right, and they lost only fat whilst the fasting lost muscle as well. So the important thing we've got to realize is when we are going into a fasted state there is a higher risk that we are going to start breaking down muscle for energy. Okay, if we are eating every day consistently, even if we're in a deficit and our proteins decent, the chances of us losing muscle if we're still doing resistance training as well is minimal, right? It's minimal unless you get to really low body fat levels.
Speaker 1:So what's important here is is that when we might think and feel and logically in our head be like well if we do fast for like two or three days and all this stuff then I should be using more energy because I'm not giving my body any energy so it should be using my fat stores But then we're going into dangerous territory of losing muscle as well. And add look. Gaining muscle is hard. Right? We don't wanna be losing muscle because it it takes a lot of energy to make a pound of muscle.
Speaker 1:It's really hard to gain muscle. Right? So we don't really throw in away muscle just for the sake of thinking we're gonna lose more fat because this actually doesn't work that way. This study was done on people who are also lean as well right, looked at the BMI scale. So you know it's not even like they're looking at people who are obese and stuff like that they're looking at lean individuals who are active and stuff as well.
Speaker 1:So you've got to remember intermittent fasting is no magic bullet, fasting is no magic bullet okay. What works best and this is what we believe in a turtle is slow and steady, tracking macros, going to a healthy deficit, which is what we set everyone on. We don't go too aggressive with the deficit, right, and we just keep going. Day to day, yes, one day you might have less, another day we might have more because we're going out on the weekend or wherever. But we don't have to go to these extremes of not eating for days.
Speaker 1:Or even so intermittent fasting, some people do it automatically. Sometimes I do, I wake up, but don't eat until one because I just don't feel like it maybe I've had a workout, I've had coffee. Right, but don't feel like you have to force yourself to do these things or tactics because you think that is something in your head you're like, ah, this can't be that easy, it can't be that easy and simple the macros, it can't be. Well it is, it is we've proven it with tens of thousands of people. So if you don't believe it, it's just that you're not you're not focusing enough doing it correctly.
Speaker 1:Macros is the least flexible dieting, macros is the least restrictive form of losing fat okay. I 100% believe that because you can eat any food you want you don't have to go you don't have to fast you can eat whatever you want long as you come in with your macros. Now another study I'll talk later in the week showed, you know, some people will be like, well, Scott, if I eat whatever I want, then that's not good because I can eat shit. Well, yeah, you can eat junk if you wanted to, but I'm not saying you should do that. You should never just eat junk.
Speaker 1:You should try and progressively start eating healthier nutrient dense foods. Of course you should, That's not even a question. You should be doing that. But it doesn't mean that you shouldn't be 100% like that because it's tough. The world we live in is tough in terms of the food choices in front of us.
Speaker 1:We've got a lot of processed stuff, protein bars, you know, we got like convenience foods and sometimes we have to be like, you know what, my environment is primed for me to maybe have one or two meals I can cook from scratch or once a day and then maybe some convenient food. That's fine. Okay, that's fine. But a study later on in the week, know, they showed the women who were competing for bikini competitions, really lean, right. And they were, the one was a group of just tracking calories in a deficit, the other group tracked, that same deficit but tracked macros.
Speaker 1:What the study showed was the group that tracked their macros, it, what was the one word I'm looking for, Hit their kind of recommended daily allowance for vitamins and minerals and stuff, right? Because they're tracking the macros. The group that didn't track the macros just calorie goal, they didn't hit their, recommended daily allowance for vitamins and minerals and, you know, micronutrients. So that tells us is by tracking macros with the macro percentages we give you, you're making sure you're eating enough protein, enough fat, enough carbs, and that kind of is automatically making sure that you're hitting your micronutrient needs as long as you're not going too extreme by eating 100% junk food and you're you know you're balancing that out right. Simple as that.
Speaker 1:This is good news guys this is amazing news if that study came out and said intermittent fasting and fasting resulted in two times the amount of fat loss for the same deficit and no muscle loss then we'd be like look, this research is very interesting. Mean if you can do intermittent fasting, you'll be losing double the fat mass and if you can handle it and it's not two things you should do it but that's not what it says. It's not we've got the best news, you've got the news these diets are not better than just reducing your calorie total and just tracking your macros. Okay. Our new app is launching in two weeks to help you with this.
Speaker 1:But hopefully that's helpful guys. Hopefully that's put your mind at ease if you do think about other diets all the time. I know a lot of people do, and it's easy to fall down the rabbit hole of new diets and keto diet and you read, like, fucking idiots like Gary Tubes, Taubs, whatever his name is, and Jason Fang and all these people trying to sell you nonsense. But yeah. So hopefully that was helpful.
Speaker 1:I think so there's there's the mental health when workshop on Wednesday with Ryan Williams, by the way, guys. Everyone's, invited. So please turn up for that. And I'll see you tomorrow. But remember one day at a time, what's your one big thing today?
Speaker 1:What is it? Let me know your one big thing today is and get it done. And I'll speak to you tomorrow. And that's it. Thank you for listening to the one day at a time podcast with your host, Golf Leer.
Speaker 1:Hopefully, you understood something I said. I hope that some wisdom kind of distilled through into your mind, and I want you to now action it today. I don't want you to think about tomorrow. I don't want you to think about yesterday. I don't want you to think about leaving a review on this podcast.
Speaker 1:I don't want you to think about going to another website. What I want you to do is as soon as this podcast ends, you will take action and make the most of today. Ground yourself today. Follow the one day at a time philosophy and your life will change.
