INTERMITTENT FASTING - A NEW (OLD) APPROACH TO INCREDIBLE HEALTH, PROPER WEIGHT AND LONGEVITY!

When it comes to eating, I believe we've been conned! Over the years we've been fed quite a few servings of "baloney" about how many calories one should eat to maintain, lose or gain weight. We've also been misled as to the number of meals per day we should eat ranging from 3 squares to 6 small meals (the idea being that it keeps our metabolism up to burn fat). Well, after all the research I've done based on a lot of other research from experts in the field, the idea of eating smaller meals and snacking throughout the day has been proven to be far from getting/being healthy. In fact, it's actually harmful in the long-run.

Don't get me wrong, I love the taste of a good organic meal (and an occasional indulgence) and am very grateful to our Lord for providing delicious, healthy nutrition despite what our government is trying to do to sabotage all of our foods with GMOs, pesticides, herbicides, cross-breeding, hormones, antibiotics, heavy metals, etc. But, eating can sometimes be a real hassle. It takes time to prepare all those meals, to think about preparing all those meals, to actually eat all those meals and, it's NOT the way we were designed to eat.  In fact,  the "3 meal a day plan": breakfast, lunch and dinner, is a European creation and extension carried over to America to make the natives "more civilized." It was invented due to culture, not to our biological necessity.

In addition, we are consuming FAR too many calories than necessary to live and thrive. The current caloric recommendations for height and body-type are very much exaggerated and many studies have been conducted to show that, not only are we overeating in general, we're eating way too many calories than we actually need - and it is killing us!

In many cultures and even in ours a couple of hundred years ago, people only ate when they were hungry and most only ate 1-2x a day or actually skipped a day. Did they waste away? Of course not. Many nutritionists believe that our bodies only utilize about 50-60% of what we consume - the rest is either wasted or stored up as fat. There was also an interesting inscription found that reads, "Humans live on one-quarter of what they eat; on the other three-quarters lives their doctor."

If you do a search on the Internet as to how many calories you need per day, you'll see a few different formulas, but they are basically the same, and I believe they are incorrect. However, my personal constitution is one that if I eat too much, I may add a couple of pounds of fat, but more importantly, I simply feel horrible! So, I try to limit my caloric intake per day between  1,200 to 1,600 calories, and I believe I can lower that still. 

There is an increasing number of testimonials on the web of bodybuilders, athletes and regular folk who are eating no more than 1,000 -1500 calories a day and feel fantastic! They are lean, muscular and in great health eating nutrient-dense foods. There's even a report of a man who holds a world-record in the dead-lift at his body weight of 180lbs, he looks like a body builder, does no steroids and eats only 1000-1500 calories a day, usually in 1 meal/per day.

My personal goal is to eat less, eat well, train my body to become much more efficient, waste less of what I consume, get by on less sleep, reduce body fat, feel better and put on a few lbs. of muscle. I'm not that concerned about living longer, I'd just like my remaining years to be of a higher quality of life, Lord willing.

Note: Less sleep - there have been numerous studies shown that those who follow caloric  restriction and eat really good foods, do not need as much sleep. In fact, I've seen a few testimonials of folks who are sleeping 3 or 4 hours a night and feel fantastic. Think of what one could do with all that extra "awake" time!

Here is a brief overview of my plan:

16:8 - with the exception of Sundays (due to church fellowships, luncheons, etc.), I plan to do intermittent fasting nearly every day (not eating for 16 or more hours), with a window of around 8 hours to consume food in 1 - 2 meals/day only.

On M,W,F  I'll have just 2 meals/day - 1 after my walk/sprint workouts on Mondays and Fridays and another meal in the afternoon before 6:00 pm. Wednesdays I'll eat the same, but that is my strength workout day where I do a TOTAL of 3-5 multi-axis intense exercises just 1x/week. Total calories for the day: ~1,200 to 1,600.

On T,Th,S I'll do a little bit of light exercising in the morning for neck, abs, glutes, and lower back and have just 1 large meal the entire day finishing before 1:30 pm. Total calories: ~1,000 - 1,200.

From Tuesday to Wednesday I'll be fasting for at least 18 hours and my Wednesday workout will be conducted between 18 and 20 hours in the fasting state which has been proven to increase HgH (human growth hormone) and Testosterone naturally up to 2000% (according to research).

Meals will be nutrient dense and proper combinations with minimum supplementation and no snacking in-between (snacking is death for trying to lose fat).

This type of eating/fasting is ideal to rest the digestive system so that the energy can be used to cleanse the body of toxins. It's also amazing for fat loss and muscle gain or muscle maintenance.

To dispel the belief that one will starve on so few calories, one only has to look at the history of the POWs in WWII Germany and Japan. Some of these POWs were in camps for 3-4 years subsisting only on a rice ball and/or a piece of bread and water each day. (Read: Unbroken). Total calories, probably no more than 300-600/day. Many survived for all those years working all day long in horrible conditions. Yes, many got sick, many died and they all lost significant weight. However, my point is that those who were getting at least some nourishment survived for years and were able to function and work.  Why did others starve? Some simply gave up, but for many, food was withheld completely and the food that was given was not complete nor was it nutrient-dense. For the most part they were only given simple carbohydrates; very little protein or fat.  Had they been in better conditions, were given just a couple of hundred calories more per day of protein, fat and healthy carbohydrates, they would not have just survived, most of them would have thrived!

Additionally, given a proper muscle-building stimulus, it's actually possible to build muscle without stuffing oneself with thousands of calories per day. A study in 1975 published in The American College of Sports Medicine proved that mammalian tissue can grow and respond even when consuming calories that might be considered a "starvation diet" provided that there is a high enough stress load on the muscle to promote hypertrophy and cover all the major muscle groups.

And, one does NOT have to eat meat in order to accomplish this. In fact, there is a higher amino acid content in a variety of vegetables than in animal protein! The world-record deadlift holder mentioned above is a VEGAN and does not touch meat in any way shape or form. His diet consists of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and certain grains only.

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Notes:

God bless you.

Sincerely,

Dr. Mike

SomaHealth.Net