Thursday 11 June 2015

The Fit Publican's Epic 24 Hour Fast For Fat Loss

Introduction
Alright I've been meaning write this guide for quite a while but I've never quite got around to it. To start off with I have to say it's a lot easier to complete these fasts if you are already fat adapted and/or consuming Bullet Proof Coffee (find my guide to BP Coffee here) but it's not essential. The reason you will find it easier is you're going to be turning your body into a supercharged ketone producing fat burning machine and being in a state where your body is already prepared for this will expedite the whole process. The overall plan is to go for 24 hours without eating and combine that with some morning fasted cardio, using these strategies along with regular resistance training I was able to transform my body from this
to this
in 2 months with 7kgs of weight loss for good measure.

The Night Before
So the night before you want to have an early dinner, obviously if you want to complete a full 24 hour fast then the earlier you eat tonight the less time you'll have to wait for dinner tomorrow. 6pm was always a good time for me because it meant I could come home and eat straight after work. Don't eat too much though or you'll feel sluggish during your cardio the next day, ~200g of meat with a good portion of vegetables is your best bet

The Morning Cardio
So 45 minutes prior to beginning your exercise take 200-400mg caffeine, this releases fatty acids into the bloodstream to be used as energy as opposed to glucose which shouldn't be available if in a fasted state. Now you want to complete at least 20 minutes of cardio, most people will advise you stick with HIIT. I've experimented with sprints, swimming, cross trainers and rowers so it's really up to you.

Truth be told I've had greater success adding steady state over HIIT but a lot of experts strongly advise against steady state cardio due to concerns with catabolism and muscle atrophy but this didn't effect me.

Post Workout
The key to fat loss is to not eat for as long as possible afterwards (remaining fasted), as soon as you eat something that provokes an insulin response (thus breaking the fasted state) you stop burning fat. After your first attempt you might only last a couple of hours post workout before you have to eat something, just try and add a couple of hours at every attempt until you can wait until tea time.

The ONE exception to this is the consumption of Bullet Proof Coffee, which not only allows an intake of calories whilst remaining in a fasted state it actually promotes the effects of fasting and fat loss. Bullet Proof Coffee is known to provide a boost to fat burning thanks to the butyric acid in the grass fed butter and the fat consumption boosts the bodies release of ghrelin which plays a key role in the burning of fat stores. Not to mention the caffeine which has great thermogenic effects.

The caffeine and fat also combine to make you feel full, meaning if you have the BP Coffee at around 3pm you should coast through until 6pm dinner.

One other final note is I would avoid any additional intake of caffeine other than the 200mg pre-workout and the ~100mg from the BP Coffee post workout. Overuse of caffeine can result in fatigued adrenals and numerous other stresses which may cause health issues and also prevent fat loss.

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