Men are Built to Feast and Fast

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“Holy #$*&! Are you really gonna eat all that?”

-Just about every woman I eat in front of (and some Men)

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That’s often followed up with some comment asking how my abs look the way they do despite eating so much (only from the women). The irony here is that my body fat stays so low (partially) because I eat so much at meal time.

hors d'oeuvre (seriously)

I typically eat two meals a day, about eight hours apart. Since I’m a man with some serious lean mass (5’11″, 180lbs, 8% BF), and I’m fairly active, this means I have to get in quite a few calories in both of my daily meals. This is by design.

ManFit Law#4: Men are built to feast and fast.

I fast regularly (~16 hrs a day, 5 days a week) for a multitude of reasons:

• Fasting increases Growth Hormone secretion (1,2,3). More GH means more muscle and less fat.
• Fasting improves metabolic flexibility. Fat burning ability improves (it has to), and insulin sensitivity increases. (1,2,3,4,5). Basically, your body’s engine becomes more efficient.
• Fasting makes you more energetic and mentally sharper due to higher circulating levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline (1,2).
• Fasting retains lean mass better than standard caloric restriction (1,2).
• Fasted training causes more muscle growth than fed training (1). I personally ingest BCAAs before fasted workouts for reasons described here.
• Fasting improves brain health (1).
• Fasting prevents cancer (1).
• Fasting increases lifespan (1).

See? I told you, a multitude of reasons to fast.

Meal frequency is on a spectrum from grazing (constant snacking) to total starvation. Like many things in life, deciding where to land on that spectrum is a bit of a balancing act. We don’t want to be constant snackers, because snacking makes you fat and weak. Longer fasts have shown health benefits, but you will start losing muscle mass eventually. Sixteen hours a few times a week is a really good balance. 

It’s really easy to get going with this stuff. Don’t eat after dinner tonight, then skip breakfast and don’t eat anything until lunch. Now do that four or five days a week. That was easy.

"That was easy."

And since I know you’ll ask, black coffee and water are fine while fasting.

A Word of Warning:

Fasting temporarily increases cortisol, a stress hormone. If you have issues with cortisol dysregulation (stressful job, overtraining, poor sleep schedule), fasting can exacerbate these issues. Though I view fasting as absolutely essential for becoming an optimal Man, you need to make sure you have your shit together before you start fasting multiple times a week. Get some sleep, cut back on the coffee, don’t overtrain – then get your fasting on.

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Big h/t to Mark Sisson for his wonderful five-part series on the benefits of fasting (1,2,3,4,5).

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