IF, it’ll leave your stomach emptier than Katie Hopkins’ heart, but does it work?

Before I talk about if it works or not, first I must explain what IF actually is.

IF is short for Intermittent Fasting, which in simple terms is the act of eating nothing at all, or very little for varying degrees of time and then eating normally for the remainder of time. Probably the most popular form of this is the 5:2 diet, where by you eat normally for 5 days per week and for the other 2 days you drastically reduce your calorie intake in the hope of losing weight.

The 5:2 diet was popularized by celebrity doctor, Dr Michael Mosely in his BBC infomercial, sorry I mean documentary (I’m sure it was purely coincidence that Dr Mosley released his number one selling book ‘The Fast Diet’ just after the documentary aired). 

But there are many other forms of IF too. Such as alternate day fasting, where by you eat normally for one day then restrict your calorie intake the next and then repeat this throughout the week. And yet another form is daily fasting whereby you are allowed to eat for certain periods throughout the day and then fast for the remainder of the 24 hours.

As you’ve probably already realised, the term intermittent fasting is a deliberately convoluted one with many different protocols to choose from, but essentially they are all just variations of a theme.

So, does IF work for weight loss?

The simple answer is yes, but only if you manage not to overeat during the periods when you are not fasting and by and large the research shows that most people are able to do this.

It is also pretty good at maintaining muscle mass too!

A major concern of mine when clients lose weight is that they don’t lose loads of muscle in the process. Luckily the research shows that IF is pretty good at not allowing this to happen too drastically (unlike many of the fad diets out there) which is great because muscle mass if the key to long term fat loss.

Great sign me up, when can I start IF?

Whoa there, hold your horses, just because the science has demonstrated that IF can help you lose weight it doesn’t necessarily mean that is the best option for you. It’ll probably work for you if you hate counting calories or if you prefer eating larger meals (rather than the smaller portion sizes seen with traditional diets). However, for some people especially sports people with performance goals, should remember that IF may interfere with their training and levels of performance.

In summary…

IF represents a good way of losing weight for those who it suits, however it has no superior metabolic advantage over more traditional diets. If you don't think the IF approach is for you, why not try this more detailed approach to weight loss.

Thanks for reading.

Matt

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