Intermittent Fasting - Fast-5 Fat Loss

Better's Better regulars will know that I have a keen interest in Intermittent Fasting.  Generally, I follow the principles outlined in Brad Pilon's Eat Stop Eat.  But lately I've been seeking out other perspectives on fasting, for my own information and experimentation, but also to share my discoveries with you.

For example, I recently interviewed Martin Berkhan of Leangains.  And now, I have the pleasure to introduce you to Bert Herring of the Fast-5 Diet.  Like Leangains, Fast-5 is what I call an "eating window" approach to fasting.  I'll be posting the text version of the interview with Bert in 3 parts in order to make each piece a bit more digestible.  But you can download the audio file in its entirety at the bottom of this post.  Enjoy!

Fast-5 Fat Loss - Part 1

 

Adam: Welcome, everybody. We're here with Bert Herring, the author of Fast-5, a book about the principles of intermittent fasting. I think what I'll do is, I'm going to turn this right over to Bert. Bert, can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?

Bert Herring: My background consists of a variety of medical education and medical experience. The interest in intermittent fasting started while I was working at National Institutes of Health.

After trying several different ways to avoid getting hungry during the day, I realized that if I just didn't eat breakfast or lunch I was less bothered by hunger interrupting my day. That served me well for my productivity and attention. I realized that at the same time I was losing weight that I had wanted to lose.

But that was just a quirk of mine at the time; I didn't have the realization at the time that it could work for other folks as well. But when I started looking into it a few years ago, it became clear that it was just a predictable function of it.

Adam: So you stumbled upon the practice of it by mistake and then looked into the science, the theories of it afterwards? Is that correct?

Bert: That's correct. There have been lots of people who have chosen to eat only one meal a day for one reason or another or they have a certain window. You probably have heard of models' diets or models' recommendations that they only eat after six PM. So there are lots of variations on a theme.

That was just my particular approach that I'd stumbled on and that's what's worked for me.

Adam: A lot of people listening to this will probably be familiar with the idea of the 24 hour fast once or twice a week, because I've interviewed Brad Pilon before. Can you just outline a little bit what your approach is?

Bert: My approach is a daily schedule of at least 19 hours of fasting which allows for a five hour window during which one eats according to appetite. For some people that means eating one large meal, for some people it means eating a meal and then grazing their way through the window, and some people have chosen to make two meals within the five hour window.

People have had different [inaudible 03:05] has been successful. The reason that I have supported this approach is that it's in the general public's eye a more approachable, a less intimidating stretch of food. Because the 19 hours include sleeping, and most people can see it as a reasonable goal to just delay rather than going the full day without eating.

Adam: Is there any significance to the 19 hours mark? Is there anything biologically, physiologically important to that hour, or did you just through experimentation find that that's the best approach for you and your clients?

Bert: That's just what works for the bulk of the people who have tried it. [inaudible 04:04] and I don't know what the difference is. Sometimes it's been somebody who's on a medicine and it may have to do with that, it's not clear. I have just gone with the approach of what I see working for most people who try it. And the most accessible.

Download The Fast-5 Interview MP3

Stay tuned to the blog for Part 2 of this interview in the coming days.  You can also visit the Fast-5 website for more information.

Do you fast?  If so, is it for health or body composition?  And what do you like about it, hate about it, find difficult, etc?  If you haven't tried it, what would make you give it a go?

Comments

[Paula]

I follow the Fast-5 and though I've had my struggles...I am half way to my first weight loss goal. I wish there were more bloggers sharing news about Intermittent Fasting. Thank you for putting this information on the web.

[oolala53]

The National Weight Loss Registry reports that eating breakfast is a practice a large percentage of successful "losers" maintain. I would imagine most people following your program would skip breakfast so that they could eat for nutrition and social reasons as well. How do you reconcile these two facts?

[thelogicicalone]

oolala53, could you post a link to the data the National Weight Loss Registry used? At first glance, the answer could be as simple as "those who gained the weight back also ate breakfast." On its own, the fact that maintainers eat breakfast doesn't mean much.

[Tim Miller]

I have been following the Fast-5 plan since last February, and combining that with low-fat, low-empty-carb vegan eating (a little looser on weekends because friends come over for dinner) and have lost 23 pounds, exactly what I needed to lose. It has been pretty much painless after the first 3 days. I intend to stick with this the rest of my life. Desire to eat during the day simply disappears. My sister, seeing my results, started this approach 6 months ago. She was on Atkins for years and her body is extremely resistant to letting go of fat. She has lost 30 pounds (from 130 to 100 - she's 5 foot 2), is completely happy with that loss, finds the diet a snap to stick with, and is also doing the vegan option (with minor "violations" on weekends). She finds it so painless that she intends to continue it for life. I am 57 and she is 63, so you don't have to be super young for this to work for you. Energy is not a problem at all. I walk 8 miles on many afternoons, before I start eating for the say. Other days I do stiff gym workouts in the afternoons, again before I eat. I never run out of energy or feel exhausted. My health has done nothing but improve since I started this. It really works!

[Alan Low]

My routine is a combination of the two. I fast for 24 hours 2-3 times a week and the other days I fast till 1-2 PM and use a 5 hour eating window. I work out 3-4 times a week and therefore always workout in the fasted state, which is excellent BTW, but try to break my fast within a few hours of the workout although it doesn't always turn out that way and I sometimes don't eat till 6pm. I am doing this for body re-composition reasons, both to lose fat and gain muscle, both of which are happening much to my delight. The fat loss is quite slow tho noticeable and the muscle gain is very pleasing. My progress photos are at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010546&id=1247403587&l=530f69f0bf
if anyone is interested.
Keep up the good work, excellent posts.

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