TL;DR – Pick an 8 hour window to eat during, fast the other 16. Reap benefits not related to “extra” fat loss.
Intermittent Fasting, popularized by Martin Berkhan at Leangains, is essentially a diet-control for staying lean. You eat during an 8 hour period and fast for 16 hours, commonly shortened to 16:8.
- It is not a magic fat loss diet.
- It does help control cravings.
- Calories still matter.
- It will not make up for your lack of discipline, self-control, or lack of due-diligence.
- Same diet rules still apply.
It’s commonly paired with carb cycling and calorie cycling, but so are a lot of other diets.
For me, personally, it helps unimaginable amounts with hunger control and snacking, both of which become almost non-existent (except before breakfast and after my workout, then I eat a ton.)
I would 100% recommend it as it helped me cut from 190 to 165, and had I not been a dumbass and used it for bulking, I’m guessing it would have gone much better.
Check out Martin’s site for a (much) longer run down on the whole deal. Or just try it and find out first hand. Your choice.
Resources from Martin’s site: