Be the best fat burner? Intermittent fasting can help you do that and so much more… IF you do these 5 prep strategies first.
Note: This article is almost 2,500 words. I want to “sweeten” the deal for reading with this Sweet Treats Recipe Guide. We’ve got recipes for cookie bites, freezer fudge, brownies + more. All of them are healthy and guilt-free. Grab your FREE guide here.
Intermittent fasting has garnered quite a buzz for weight loss, immune health, and reducing the impact of diseases such as type 2 diabetes. (1)
When I talk about intermittent fasting, I’m referring to alternating periods of eating and not eating.
“The term intermittent fasting simply means that periods of fasting occur regularly between periods of normal eating,” says Jason Fung, MD, in The Complete Guide to Fasting. “How long each period of fasting lasts, and how long the period of normal eating lasts, can vary widely.”
One type of fasting, called time-restricted feeding (TRF), requires limiting food intake to certain times of the day.
Animal studies show doing TRF can help improve things like lipid profile (which measures your cholesterol and triglycerides), body weight, and insulin sensitivity. (2)
Human studies have been equally impressive. In one trial, researchers compared the effects of two popular forms of TRF (eating within a four- and six-hour window) on body weight and cardiometabolic risk factors.
They randomly assigned adults who were obese to either:
- A four-hour TRF plan (eating only between 3 and 7 p.m.)
- A six-hour TRF plan (eating only between 1 and 7 p.m.)
- A control group (no meal timing restrictions)
Compared with the control group, both the four- and six-hour TRF regimens showed reductions in body weight, insulin resistance, and oxidative stress eight weeks later. The TRF plans also naturally reduced calorie intake by about 550 a day… without calorie counting. (3)
Whatever type of intermittent fasting you choose, I don’t want you to dive into this plan without creating a solid foundation for success. Otherwise–and I’ve seen this again and again–you’ll crash and burn.
One reason is that fluctuations in blood sugar levels can derail even the most disciplined person, leading to a downward spiral of hunger and cravings.
You’ve likely experienced this when you eat something sugary or carb-y — think a big bowl of pasta or a pastry — and an hour or two later, you were hungry again.
These high Sugar Impact foods spike your blood sugar levels. Insulin pulls blood sugar down, but this hormone often overcompensates and pulls blood sugar down too low.
“Stuffing down a big cinnamon bun or swigging a 20-ounce soda will cause big spikes in sugar and insulin and a quick surge in energy, followed by the inevitable crash as your blood sugar plummets,” says Mark Hyman, MD, in The Blood Sugar Solution.
Stabilizing your blood sugar levels is the best way to reduce the hunger and cravings that can sometimes challenge and even derail both intermittent fasting newbies and seasoned fasters.
And the best way to stabilize your blood sugar levels is to be a fat burner, not a sugar burner.
Unless you’re burning fat (and not just sugar) for fuel, you’re going to be hungry when you’re fasting (and not for healthy stuff like wild-caught salmon and Brussels sprouts, either!). You may create other problems such as thyroid damage, too.
Before you undergo TRF or any other kind of intermittent fasting, you want to optimize your body’s ability to burn fat. Otherwise, fasting is going to feel like a herculean challenge and you’re not going to be a happy camper along the way!
These five strategies create that preparatory foundation to get all of intermittent fasting’s benefits… without feeling hungry, tired, mentally foggy, or craving those homemade chocolate chunk brownies that your coworker brought into the office.
Before you start intermittent fasting, give your liver some loving.
Among its many, many duties, this hardworking organ stores and makes glucose. Your liver also helps keep blood sugar levels nice and steady. (4)
An overworked liver — bombarded by things like environmental toxins, chronic stress, and high Sugar Impact foods — won’t be able to optimally support healthy blood sugar levels.
Eventually, this onslaught can lead to inflammation and problems like non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), caused by the build-up of excess fat in your liver. At least half of people with type 2 diabetes (who have blood sugar imbalances) also have NAFLD. (5)
A well-designed detoxification plan helps stabilize blood sugar levels and otherwise keeps your liver working well.
When I talk about detoxification, I’m not talking about crazy juice cleanses and other fad plans, which can spike your blood sugar levels and create other damage.
Why? Many of these plans are low or nonexistent in protein, which provides the critical amino acids that the liver needs to complete Phase 2 detoxification. Without sufficient protein, the body cannot optimally remove those nasty toxins.
You’ll also want to eat plenty of sulfur-containing foods like broccoli and cabbage plus onions and garlic provide sulfur to boost detoxification. And don’t forget lots of leafy greens like kale and Swiss chard.
Last but certainly not least, make sure you’re meeting your fiber quota! Fiber binds toxins and eliminates them in your stool. Lentils and other legumes, slow-roasted or dehydrated nuts and seeds, berries, and avocados fiber rock stars.
If you’re not getting 50 grams of fiber from food, be sure to add Extra Fiber into your morning smoothie. *
Learn more about how to effectively detoxify (plus a yummy detoxing smoothie) here.
Thirst can sometimes come disguised as hunger. If you find you’re frequently famished when you’re fasting, drink up!
Even mild dehydration can raise cortisol levels. (6) Cortisol is a stress hormone, and one of the things it can do is cause you to store more fat around your waist.
Intermittent fasting may further increase cortisol levels. (7) When you’re dehydrated and fasting, you’re doing a double whammy against your cortisol levels. That imbalance can block fat burning, undoing all the good you’re doing by eating right and exercising.
Drinking water throughout the day helps crush hunger and cravings, especially during your fasting hours.
One study done at the University of Washington found that drinking eight ounces of water at bedtime can shut down your evening hunger pangs. (8)
If fitting in more water feels like a challenge, get creative. Sparkling water (get the kind in the glass bottles) with a little lime can curb hunger pangs when you’re fasting. You might also try “spa water” with cucumbers, oranges, lemon, lime, and maybe a little mint or basil.
How much water should you be drinking daily? Here’s a handy calculator to find out.
Deficiencies in even one nutrient can create blood sugar and other imbalances that make intermittent fasting a herculean challenge.
Taking a high-quality daily multivitamin-mineral formula can help cover the nutrient bases that you may not be getting in even the healthiest diet.
“Today, an adequate supply of nutrients is often unattainable solely through a well-balanced diet, so a targeted, individually designed dietary supplement regime is necessary,” write Elmar Wienecke and Joerg Gruenwald in Advances in Therapy. (9)
Deficiencies may also increase hunger and cravings during your fasting hours. One study found that compared with a placebo, people who got optimal amounts of the mineral chromium had reduced food intake, hunger levels, and cravings. (10)
Researchers note that a multivitamin can help fill “in relatively small but critical nutritional gaps.” Left unchecked, these deficiencies may contribute to disease. (11)
Many multivitamins lack nutrients or don’t contain optimal amounts of nutrients, so I designed my own.
You Got This™ Multi contains the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other nutrients that mimic the diet that our ancestors. Just four capsules a day cover the nutrient bases that you may not be getting from food. *
Reality check: If you can’t go more than a few hours without eating, you’re going to have a hard time with intermittent fasting. Before you commit to a fasting plan, you’ll want to put the brakes on snacking.
Every time you eat, you spike your blood sugar and insulin levels. While blood sugar goes down fairly quickly, insulin takes longer. And when insulin is high, your body can’t use stored fat for fuel.
Most people snack out of boredom or stress. Mindless munching means you tend to overdo it and consume too many calories. You’re probably not making great snack choices, either.
When you nix snacking, your hunger hormones finally get a chance to balance out. And that will help reduce the hunger and cravings that can derail your intermittent fasting plan.
One thing that drives me nuts about some intermittent fasting plans is that they give you permission to eat whatever you want during your eating hours.
This is a recipe for disaster. Even if you’re able to stick with an intermittent fasting plan, you’re not going to get the results you want. With fasting, when you eat is important… but so is what you eat.
To burn fat for energy instead of sugar, you’ll want to go four to six hours between each meal. That means eating less frequently, which teaches your body to be less hungry and makes it easier to stop watching the clock between meals.
Every meal should contain clean protein, healthy fats, and fiber. This satiety trifecta helps stabilize your blood sugar levels and hunger-regulating hormones.
Here’s a more comprehensive breakdown of how every plate should look.
Clean, Lean Protein
1 serving of clean, lean protein is:
- Animal proteins: fish, beef and pork, seafood, turkey, chicken, game
- Alternately, use one serving (two scoops) of my All-in-1 Shake
- Women should eat 4–6 ounces of protein at each meal; larger or more athletic women may need 6–8 ounces Men should eat 6–8 ounces; larger or very athletic men, up to 10 ounces
Healthy Fats
- 2–4 servings per meal
- Serving size: 1 tablespoon olive oil, ½ small avocado, 4 ounces cold-water fish or grass-fed beef, 5–10 nuts, 1 tablespoon nut butter, 5 olives
- Be sure to count fat from protein. Grass-fed beef and fatty fish count as a fat serving.
Non-Starchy Vegetables
- Two or more servings of non-starchy vegetables per meal
- Serving size: ½ cup cooked or 1 cup raw
Slow, Low Carbs
- For most people: 1–2 servings of slow, low carbs per meal
- 2–3 servings if larger male or more active female
- Serving size: ½ cup cooked beans, quinoa, wild rice, or legumes, or 1 cup fruit or tomatoes
The end result when you eat by the plate is that you stay full and focused for four to six hours. You’re teaching your body to utilize fat for fuel, which is one of intermittent fasting’s many benefits.
My Sugar Impact Diet is the perfect way to stabilize your blood sugar levels so you transform your body from a sugar burner to a fat burner.
Are you a sugar or fat burner? Find out here.
When you’re a fat burner, you can easily go four to six hours between meals. You rarely feel hungry, and you don’t struggle with cravings…. Even when you’ve been fasting for hours.
Cold turkey doesn’t work to nix those sugar cravings. You’ll be shaky, irritable, lethargic, starving, and craving sugar.
Getting off the sugar roller coaster doesn’t happen overnight. My Sugar Impact Diet book gives you a sane, simple way to transition off sugar, become a fat burner, and move gracefully into intermittent fasting.
In my Sugar Impact Diet, I show you how to transition from high to medium to low Sugar Impact foods — slowly and smartly.
The ultimate goal here is to teach your body to utilize fat and sugar… whenever it needs them.
When you’ve reached that level where you’re burning fat AND sugar when your body needs them, you’ll find hunger and cravings rarely if ever impact you… and that’s the perfect foundation to start an intermittent fasting plan!
No matter what your personal goals are, the end destination is always the same: To feel better than you ever have. My Ultimate Health Roadmap provides short, actionable steps you can take RIGHT NOW to be the best version of you. The guide is FREE, and you can only get it here.
Before you go…
If you enjoyed this article, click the clap button below… And share it with friends, so they can enjoy it too! I really appreciate you, my loyal readers.
The views in this blog by JJ Virgin should never be used as a substitute for professional medical advice. Please work with a healthcare practitioner concerning any medical problem or concern. The information here is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or condition. Statements contained here have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
References
- Albosta M, Bakke J. Intermittent fasting: is there a role in the treatment of diabetes? A review of the literature and guide for primary care physicians. Clin Diabetes Endocrinol. 2021 Feb 3;7(1):3. doi: 10.1186/s40842–020–00116–1. PMID: 33531076; PMCID: PMC7856758.
- Rothschild J, Hoddy KK, Jambazian P, Varady KA. Time-restricted feeding and risk of metabolic disease: a review of human and animal studies. Nutr Rev. 2014 May;72(5):308–18. doi: 10.1111/nure.12104. Epub 2014 Apr 16. PMID: 24739093.
- Cienfuegos S, Gabel K, Kalam F, Ezpeleta M, Wiseman E, Pavlou V, Lin S, Oliveira ML, Varady KA. Effects of 4- and 6-h Time-Restricted Feeding on Weight and Cardiometabolic Health: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Adults with Obesity. Cell Metab. 2020 Sep 1;32(3):366–378.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2020.06.018. Epub 2020 Jul 15. PMID: 32673591.
- https://dtc.ucsf.edu/types-of-diabetes/type2/understanding-type-2-diabetes/how-the-body-processes-sugar/the-liver-blood-sugar/
- https://www.diabetes.co.uk/body/liver-and-diabetes.html
- Castro-Sepulveda M, Ramirez-Campillo R, Abad-Colil F, Monje C, Peñailillo L, Cancino J, Zbinden-Foncea H. Basal Mild Dehydration Increase Salivary Cortisol After a Friendly Match in Young Elite Soccer Players. Front Physiol. 2018 Sep 26;9:1347. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2018.01347. PMID: 30319450; PMCID: PMC6168646.
- Nakamura Y, Walker BR, Ikuta T. Systematic review and meta-analysis reveals acutely elevated plasma cortisol following fasting but not less severe calorie restriction. Stress. 2016;19(2):151–7. doi: 10.3109/10253890.2015.1121984. Epub 2016 Jan 7. PMID: 26586092.
- University of Washington Study. 2002. Reported in Integrated and Alternative Medicine Clinical Highlights. Aug 4:1(16).
- Wienecke E, Gruenwald J. Nutritional supplementation: is it necessary for everybody? Adv Ther. 2007 Sep-Oct;24(5):1126–35. doi: 10.1007/BF02877718. PMID: 18029339.
- Anton SD, Morrison CD, Cefalu WT, Martin CK, Coulon S, Geiselman P, Han H, White CL, Williamson DA. Effects of chromium picolinate on food intake and satiety. Diabetes Technol Ther. 2008 Oct;10(5):405–12. doi: 10.1089/dia.2007.0292. PMID: 18715218; PMCID: PMC2753428.
- Ward E. Addressing nutritional gaps with multivitamin and mineral supplements. Nutr J. 2014 Jul 15;13:72. doi: 10.1186/1475–2891–13–72. PMID: 25027766; PMCID: PMC4109789.
