Intermittent Fasting, Fasted Cardio, & Calorie Deficits - What’s The Best Way To Boost Fat Loss?

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Summary: 

“The same boiling water that softens the potato hardens the egg. It’s what you’re made of. Not the circumstances. That determines what you become.” -Unknown

What is Intermittent Fasting? IF is essentially going long periods of time without eating. The point behind this and why its become so popular is because for some people it can help regular blood sugar, manage body weight, and help control triglycerides. Here’s the thing and the simple truth…any time you’re skipping meals and in an extreme calorie deficit…you will lose weight. 

Does it work? Some people can do well with IF. Some. Most of the people who seem to respond to IF better than others are men….not all men, but mostly men. For women, there have been numerous studies on how IF actually can disrupt female hormones causing early menopause, stopping periods, lowering libido, metabolism disruptions, and even mood. 

It’s not just women though, men have also experienced issues with IF disrupting the male hormones. 

While men tend to do better with Intermittent Fasting, I still am not a fan of ever skipping meals or under fueling your body because of the additional stress it places on your body which besides the HP Axis starts to get into issues with blood sugar balance and cortisol imbalances too…P.s. Adding extra stress can also cause early aging too…so stop.

We then get into fasted cardio….here’s the thing with fasted cardio….take everything I told you about what fasting can do to your body by adding extra stress on to it and then now take additional stress (yes exercise is stress….the body doesn’t recognize good or bad it just sees extra stress or work load on the body) and now you’ve not only are depriving your body of the nutrients it needs to get through a workout, but you’re also requiring it to increase production of cortisol to give you enough energy to get through the workout…which cortisol increases fat storage. 

Ok, Ashley so then what is the best way to lose fat without losing lean muscle? 

Well, its balanced deficits based on your macros and daily expenditure. Go find any fit, lean, athletic looking man or woman anywhere and ask them how many meals they skip or how often they fast….and I would bet money they say none. They are eating all the time fueling their body. Ask people who look the way you want to look what they are doing. This goes for anything in life….ask people who are where you want to be what they are doing and how to get there…quit taking advice from people who’s life doesn’t look at all like how you want yours to look.

That means you’re still consuming adequate amounts of protein, fats, and carbs, but reducing your caloric intake slightly so that the energy you take in is slightly lower then the energy you are burning. Slightly by the way is maybe 300-ish calories less than what you should be consuming. So if you should be consuming around 2,300/day it means you may be around 1900-2,000ish to be in a slight deficit, but not so much of a deficit that you are at risk of causing too much stress on your body or your body having to burn up lean muscle in order to stay fueled. There is a whole podcast episode I did on helping you figure out what your daily macronutrient needs are that you can listen to to figure out your daily protein, fat and carb needs. 

If you want to work with me 1:1 to come up with a specific nutrition plan that works for your goals then head to my website Ashleydrummonds.com and schedule a short intro call where we will talk about how coaching works, talk about your goals and see if we are a good fit. 

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