This was a weird yearÌęforÌęfood. Scientists grew (surprisingly good) plant-based meat products in labs, some people decided to eat nothing butÌęłŸ±đČčłÙ, other peopleÌę. Seltzer had a comeback,Ìęresearchers developed wearable tech that could tell you when you needed to hydrate, and an șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű editor experimented with drinking an entire gallon of water a day. Amid the madness, a few ideas drifted to the top, ones that were evidence based and reasonable and could actually help you live a littleÌęmore healthfully. Read on to learn whichÌętrends you should forget about in the new yearÌęand the few that you should carry with you.

Skip: Celery JuiceÌę

In May, wellness guruÌęAnthony William published a book claiming that daily celery juice could detoxÌęyour body and provide all kinds of dubious health benefits, like flushing toxins from your brain and curing asthma, addiction, and Lyme disease. It caught on in certain circles, but none of his claims were backed byÌęscientific evidence.

“The idea that we need to detox our body with a product or certain food is really unfounded,” says Brenna O’Malley, a registered dietitian. Your entire digestive system breaks down the food you eat, and your liver works as a detoxifierÌęby filtering out any unwanted substances. “We don’t have much, if any, research to support the claims that celery juice is miraculous or a detoxifier,” O’Malley says. Your body breaks down celery juice, just like it does any other vegetable juice.” While drinking celery juice won’t do any harm, it likely won’t do any good either. The closest thing to an endorsement of the stuff is aÌęÌęduring which 30 adults with high blood pressure took celery-extract supplements (pills, not juice) for six weeks and reported slightly lower blood pressure at the end of the trial. Caveats? The extract was far more concentrated than juice, there was no control group, and the lead researchers worked for the company that made the celery extract.Ìę

Keep: Fermented Foods for Gut Health

The gut microbiome is a relatively new area of study, but there’s promising evidence that the unique makeup of healthy bacteria that exists in each of our bodies is a key factor in overall health. A Ìęfound that ingesting both probiotics (bacteria) and prebioticsÌę(a type of dietary fiber that feeds bacteria) can support a healthy microbiome.

ButÌęgetting probiotics and prebiotics in supplement form probably isn’t your best bet. “Currently, there’s no evidence that long-term, continued consumption of supplemental probioticsÌęmaintains wellness,” saidÌę, a researcher at the University of Chicago, in a previous interview.ÌęInstead, it’s best to get probiotics through . Prebiotics, on the other hand, can be found in fruits, vegetables, beans, and other high-fiber foods.

Skip: Extreme Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting (IF) is a time-restricted diet during which you only eatÌęfor a set period of time each day. It’s more of an umbrella term than a rigid protocol: one popular approach is to eat during an eight-hour window each day;Ìęanother is to eat normally except for one or two days ofÌęextremely low-calorie intake perÌęweek. But this year, the more extreme one-meal-a-day (OMAD) approach . Experts warn against OMAD for a variety of reasons. One small of 21 adults over eight weeks found that eating one meal a day resulted in lower body-fat percentageÌębutÌęhigher hunger levels,Ìęblood pressure, and cholesterol levels compared to subjects who ate three meals a day. And that doesn’t take into account the emotional and social toll ofÌęsuch an extreme diet.

The benefits of any kind of IF are still up in the air, but if you’re curious about it, stick to a gentler approach. Eating within a 12-hour window—from 8 A.M. to 8 P.M., for example—will likely deliver many of the same potential benefits, nutrition scientist Stacy Sims previously told șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű.Ìę

Keep: Intuitive Eating

Intuitive eating has been around since 1995, whenÌęregistered dietitians Elyse Reich and Evelyn Tribole published . But it gained mainstream traction this year:Ìęwe wrote about it in May, The New York Times published Ìęin June presenting it as an antidote to toxic wellness culture, and dozens of nutritionists encouraged their clients (online and off) to start eating a little more freely.Ìę

ThisÌęrelaxed approach to foodÌęis guided by ten principles,Ìęlike “honor your health,” “respect your body,” and “challenge the food police,” and it’s all about tuning in toÌęyour own preferences and needsÌęand tuning out messages about what you should or shouldn’t eat.ÌęWhile more research is needed, there’s evidence that intuitive eating is good for , and it might even be associated with a more nutritious diet overall.

Skip: KetoÌę

Going ketoÌęmeans getting 75 to 80 percent of your calories from fat, 15 to 20 percent from protein, and less than 5Ìępercent from carbs. It’s also one of the most popular extreme diets out there at the moment. There is that ketosis—a metabolic state wherein the body starts using fat as a primary fuel source due to a lack of carbs—helps reduce seizures in people with epilepsy. But there aren’t many evidence-backed benefits beyond that.Ìę

, a registered dietitian in the New York City area, explainedÌęthat while short-term weight loss often happens on the keto diet, it generally isn’t sustainable. Maintaining ketosis is difficult, since going over your carb allotment just once can trigger your body to start using glucose (carbs) as fuel againÌęinstead of fat. And many people gain back any weight they lost once they begin to eat regularly, Gorin said. Ìęchoice than any other calorie-restricted diet, but if you think they might be rightÌęfor you, Gorin suggests a more moderate approach thanÌęketo.Ìę

Keep: Plant-Based Eating

Plant-based burgers blew up this year. You can now get an Impossible Whopper at Burger KingÌęor an Impossible Slider from White Castle, both engineered to look, cook, and taste like meat. If that isn’t proof enough that plant-based foods are here to stay, consider the fact that, according to , the global plant-based “meat” market was valued at $10 billion in 2018 and is forecasted to hit $31 billion by 2026.Ìę

These new plant-based meats aren’t intended to be a healthier version of beef—the nutritional profile is actually quite similar; instead, they’re meantÌęto be a more environmentally friendly way to eat what tastes likeÌęłŸ±đČčłÙ, explainedÌę, a registered dietitian in New York.Ìę

The research on the health benefits of limiting your consumption ofÌęanimal products is still evolving, but it’sÌępromising. A of several randomized control trials found that vegan and vegetarian diets are linked to improved metabolic health. You don’t have to go full-on vegetarian, according toÌę, an internal-medicine physician at the New York University School of Medicine. Even swapping out a handful of animal-based meals every week will benefit you.Ìę

Skip: Adaptogens

Using plants for healing purposes is , but Western wellness cultureÌęreally dug its teeth into the idea this year. Adaptogens, as plant-based substances thought to enhance the body’s resistance to variousÌękinds of physical and mental stress, are showing up all over: keep an eye out for ÌęorÌę.Ìę

Any wellness claims that brands make about these ingredients are hopeful guesses at best. Ashwagandha’s many purported benefits (pain relief, diabetes management, and anti-aging, among others)Ìę. AndÌęalthough some people believe that maca can improve reproductive health and fight cancer, these claims also .ÌęThat said, adaptogens are unlikely to hurt you, so if you don’t mind the taste (or the cost), keep on eating them. ButÌędon’t claimÌęthat they’re magic.

Keep: Seaweed

Sushi has been popular for years, and crispy seaweed snacks are available everywhere from Whole Foods to Trader Joe’s. Still, most of us don’t yet think of seaweed as a comparable alternative to green vegetables like kale and spinach. Ìęexplained that seaweed is a much lower-impact crop, sinceÌę. In fact, it can evenÌęhelp the environment: kelp has been shown to drastically improve water quality. Like other green vegetables, seaweed is packed with micronutrients, but it’s not your typical green. The richÌęumami flavor can add depth to many dishes.

The post The Best (and Worst) Nutrition Advice of 2019 appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

I’m counting the number of green olives in my snack. There are seven, and they are exceptionally small. I eat each one slowly. Desperate for more when I finish, I drink the liquid at the bottom of the packet that they came in. I’m on day three of a five-day fast-mimicking diet called Ìę(short for prolonging longevity). It was developed over the past 15 years by Valter Longo, a 51-year-old professor of gerontology and biological sciences and the director of the Ìęat the University of Southern California. Longo is also the author of a 2018 book called , and he’s been researching aging in relation to calorie-restricted eating for nearly three decades. He believes that fastingÌęplays a role in living a longer, healthier life.

Some say that the most effective fasting method is to drink water and consume nothing else. But people on water fasts should be medically supervised, and it isn’t safe to attempt a program like that while working or running after kids. So Longo came up with a five-day, $249 meal kit that delivers a scientifically formulated low-calorie vegan diet. (His profits from ProLon and his book go to his medical foundation, .) The goal is to trick your body into thinking you’re water fasting while giving you enough food energy and nutrients to perform basic tasks.

A typical ProLon day includes a macadamia nut bar for breakfast, a cup of freeze-dried vegetable soup (plus kale crackers or green olives) for lunch, another cup of freeze-dried vegetable soup for dinner, the occasional small dark-chocolate wafer, as much herbal tea as you can drink, a plant-based omega-3 supplement, and a multivitamin. Total calories: between 800 and 1,150 per day. (An active 30-year-old woman should normally eat about 2,400 calories per day.)

I was eager to try ProLon, to jump-start healthier habits after a summer of overindulgence. Full disclosure: I’m not a fasting neophyte. I’m one of those annoying people who have lived on juice for ten days and embarked on 21-day cleanses without caffeine, sugar, alcohol, wheat, or dairy. These programs share a premise: our bodies need a breakÌęfrom digesting food so that we can heal damaged cells, build new ones, and reduce inflammation, all of which increases our likelihood of avoiding a host of diseases rampant in the U.S. today, including diabetes and cancer.

“When you’re fasting, energy is diverted from digesting food to the digestion of components of cells and organs, which are rebuilt upon returning to a normal diet,” Longo explains. “It allows the body to kill damaged cells and produce stem cells, resulting in the regeneration and rejuvenation of multiple systems.”

While fasting is increasingly accepted by mainstream medicine as a useful health practice, many doctors say there haven’t been enough long-term studies on its effectiveness, and some worry that forcing a body into starvation mode could slow a person’s metabolism or cause hormonal changes in women. Doctors, including Longo, advise against fasting if you’re pregnant, diabetic, on certain medications, or generally in poor health. Stacy Sims, a nutrition scientist and exercise physiologist, adds that athletes need to be careful, too. “A therapy that works well in a clinical population cannot be generalized to the active, healthy, athletic population and have the same effects,” she says. “The fasting research does not yet include exercise.” (Longo is currently conducting clinical trials on fasting and exercise.)

Longo suggests avoiding strenuous exercise during the fast, to avert negative side effects like fainting. On day three, ignoring this advice, I took a morning spin class—and soon regretted it. I felt totally depleted. Otherwise I found ProLon to be an easy program to follow. Everything you need arrives in a large shoebox. Inside are five smaller boxes, labeled for each day, containing all the food you’ll eat. The most labor-intensive task is boiling water for soup and tea. There are no hard-to-find ingredients involved or hours spent Vitamixing kale-chia shakes.

I started the fast on a Monday morning and finished on a Friday night. There was a party that week that I couldn’t skip, and I won’t lie: I wanted to kill my friend who was chowing down on sweet potato fries while I sipped herbal tea. Thankfully, part of the ProLon program includes something called the L-Drink, a vegetable-glycerin concoction mixed with water or herbal tea that helps quell hunger and boost energy. You drink it on days two through five. I gripped mine like a baby bottle.

The hardest part of the fast was breaking my psychological addiction to treats, like an afternoon oat-milk latte or a salted-caramel chocolate bar. I had to find other ways to soothe myself—a walk around the block helped, as did a visit with a coworker. On the plus side, after five days on ProLon, I lost five pounds, and I had an obnoxious amount of energy and mental clarity.

I asked Longo why I felt so good. He said that his studies on mice have shown that fasting is good for the brain. “At the end of a long fast or fast-mimicking diet, in most people about half of the brain’s energy is generated by metabolizing ketone bodies instead of sugars,” he says. In other words, I may have been burning more fat than carbohydrates. On low-calorie, low-carb diets like ProLon, the body gradually enters a state of partial ketosis after two or three days.

To break the ProLon fast, you eat small amounts of vegetables, legumes, starches, and proteins for 48 hours. Once you resume normal eating, Longo recommends a pescatarianÌędiet, combining salmon or other fish two or three times a week with otherwise primarily vegan meals, all eaten within a 12-hour window (for instance, between 8 A.M. and 8 P.M.).

What happens if you come off ProLon and go back to eating, say, margaritas and chips and queso? “Our clinical trials suggest that people who have the worst diet will benefit the most from ProLon,” Longo says. He adds that doing ProLon regularly—twice a year for healthy individuals on a pescatarian diet who exercise regularly and don’t smoke—has inspired some to improve their eating habits. With travel and the routine stresses of life, such inspiration doesn’t last forever for me, and my afternoon caffeine-and-chocolate addiction is already rearing its head again. It might be time for round two.

Fast Times

There are plenty of popular calorie-restriction methods, just don’t dive in without consulting a doctor.

Intermittent Fasting (IF)

An umbrella term for diets that alternate periods of fasting and eating over designated periods of time.

Time-Restricted Eating:

A type of IF that calls for scheduling meals within a set window—for example, eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner between 7 A.M. and 7 P.M.

Alternate-Day Fasting:

Eating normally for 24 hours, then taking in 25 percent of your caloric needs for 24 hours.

The 5:2 Plan:

Eating normally for five days, then consuming 25 percent of your caloric needs each day for two days.

Fast-Mimicking Diet:

A multi-day, low calorie plan like ProLon (see “Hunger Games,” right) that features foods that are low in carbs and protein and high in fat.

Water Fasting:

This approach requires medical supervision. You drink only water for periods ranging from 24 hours to several days.

The post Can a Fasting Diet Help You Live Longer? appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

, PhD, is an American biochemist who has done extensive research on aging, cancer, and nutrition. Her groundbreaking work includes studies of how vitamin and mineral inadequacies impact metabolism, inflammation, DNA, and aging, and whether supplementation can reverse the damage. In addition, she has investigated the role of vitamin D in brain function and behavior. Her stated goal is to “encourage the wider public to think about health and longevity using a proactive, preventative approach.” She is the host of the podcast.

In an extended conversation for an episode of the , Dr. Patrick took questions from listeners about the best practices for fasting, the minimum effective dose for the benefits of sauna, and much more. Below is an excerpt of their discussion, edited by șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű.

Can you summarize the best practices for time-restricted eating?
Time-restricted eating is the idea that by constraining our eating within a certain window ranging from eight to 12 hours per day—usually earlier in the day to align better with our circadian rhythm—we stand to benefit in a variety of ways. On the more extreme end, you’re engaging in what’s well known in fitness as 16:8 intermittent fasting. But simply maintaining a slightly more conservative time window for eating than you usually do has started to show advantages as well. Animals that have been limited to a nine- to 12-hour window in which they can eat have attained some pretty amazing benefits, including decreased fat mass, increased lean muscle mass, reduced inflammation, and protection from obesity.

How you choose to act on this information is ultimately dictated by life circumstances. The flexibility of my schedule has made implementing time-restricted eating easier. I aim for a ten-hour eating window and a 14-hour nighttime fasting window. I follow the same procedure on days I sleep in, even though some animal research shows that this pattern has benefits even if you cheat on the weekend. I chose a ten-hour windowÌębecause it’s a sufficiently tight window of time to likely confer some of the advantages of time-restricted eating without being unduly burdensome. Stretching for the nine-hour or even eight-hour window, however, may appeal to some people. Animal research has shown an aerobic endurance benefit for time-restricted feeding in the nine-hour range, but not for shorter fasts. But, I think there’s still a lot of room for more emerging research in this area to teach us things that may be important.

Can you share your thoughts on benefits of saunas?
Some of the positive benefits of sauna use on heart health are similar to the benefits seen with regular physical exercise. Heart rate can increase up to 100 beats per minute during moderate sauna bathing sessions and up to 150 beats per minute during more intense warm sauna use. And 150 beats per minute corresponds to moderate-intensity physical exercise, which, as we already know, has a positive effect on cardiovascular health.

As for the types of saunas, we have a few options available. Infrared saunas don’t get quite as hot and are often limited to about 140 degrees Fahrenheit or 60 Celsius. For reasons of practicality and because I believe that benefits from the sauna are primarily conferred directly by heat, I tend to prefer a hotter sauna. But it seems reasonable that making other adjustments, like preceding the sauna session with light cardio, for example, might help make up for the differences. It’s hard to know for absolute certain, but I’m optimistic.

All of that said, try to exercise good judgment. Even if you don’t think you have a medical condition that could increase your risks to heat stress, it’s worth checking in with a doctor before becoming some mega sauna enthusiast. Heat is no joke and it’s important that you don’t hurt yourself.

Besides a low-carb diet (which reduces inflammation), what is the most effective non-pharmaceutical pain reliever for people suffering from arthritis or sports injuries?
Many NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) that are used for mild pain relief are actually not especially safe to take on a daily basis. This is even more true for people that tend to take them in larger-than-recommended doses, which is why the FDA recently strengthened their warning that NSAIDs, with exception to aspirin, significantly increase the risk of heart attack or stroke even with short-term use. As an alternative to the use of NSAIDs, however, I’ve found the compound curcumin is actually very helpful. It exhibits a pretty diverse array of potentially beneficial properties, but its activity can be limited unless you try to make it more bioavailable. There are a few formulations that attempt to do that, but the one I’ve found to be the most interesting is known asÌę, which has been shown to exhibit certain pain-relieving properties.

How can we identify trustworthy supplement brands?
One thing you can do is make sure that the product is certified by, which independently tests and certifies dietary supplements and nutritional products, and ensures that they don’t contain undeclared ingredients or contaminants. While being in the NSF database is a good sign, not being in it isn’t a deal breaker. So, here’s another option: Look for products that are USP-certified. The USP, which stands for theÌę, is a scientific nonprofit that sets standards for the quality and purity of dietary supplements that are manufactured, distributed, and consumed worldwide. In the United States, the FDA relies on standards the USP has developed.

What small lifestyle change leads to the biggest impact on health and wellbeing?
I think for people starting from ground zero, one of the easiest change to make with the biggest impact is to cut out refined sugar. The second easiest thing you can do is to begin doing time-restricted eating within a nine- to 12-hour time frame, in accordance with circadian rhythm where, unless you are a night shift worker, you try to eat your meals earlier in the day as possible.

The third huge lifestyle change that can make a big, big difference is simply doing whatever it takes to triple the amount of vegetables you take in on a daily basis. Finally, number four, which I think can have a potentially big impact for many people, is taking a vitamin D supplement.

The post A Biochemist Breaks Down Wellness Fads appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Intermittent fasting (IF) has been making the rounds in the health and wellness world since the early 2000s. Advocates claim the wellness hack can lower blood pressure, reduce inflammation, and lead to weight loss. There are a few different versions of the diet regimen, but the most popular is a time-restricted fast, which involves eating only during a prescribed time window. Other versions of IF call for full-day fasts or calorie-restricted weeks, but time-restricted fasting is the most approachable option for athletes because it allows them to fuel their training on a daily basis.

There is some preliminary research to back up the benefits of IF. One suggests that time-restricted eating led to a decrease in body fat while also lowering blood pressure in obese adults, and another from UC San Diego showed a decrease in metabolic diseases in mice. Another published in the Journal of Nutritional Science found that simply moving breakfast and dinner three hours closer together led to a reduction in body fat despite no change in caloric intake. But experts have pointed out that most IF studies have small sample sizes of specific groups—clinically obese patients, athletic men, or mice—so the results may not easily translate to the general population. “This is the problem with a lot of studies,” says nutrition scientist Stacy Sims. “In the fitness industry, people see things that work in clinical populations and think, ‘Hey, we can use this to get leaner and fitter,’ without really looking at the implications. Then something like IF gets media attention and buzz, and then the science starts to catch up and shows that there are a lot of implications that don’t get discussed.”

Recently, IF has become a topic of discussion in the athletic performance world. As an athlete, IF may be worth considering, but it needs to be practiced carefully and intelligently. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition published a stating that time-restricted IF combined with training can help athletes lose fat while maintaining strength, but it cautions that athletes need to carefully plan their nutrition timing for optimal athletic performance.

“I just chastised one of my athletes for fasting during his ride earlier today!” says Frank Overton, founder of FasCat Coaching. “Endurance athletes need to think about themselves like Ferraris: You need to keep the gas tank full if you want to race it.”

Because of this, Overton and Sims don’t recommend any type of fasting for elite athletes in the middle of an intense training block. Sims encourages clients to simply take downtime from eating—after dinner, don’t eat anything else, and then start eating again in the morning. It’s a less intensive version of the eight-hour eating window, but not eating for 12 hours—say, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.—offers similar benefits with less risk. “That’s the way to do it. The positive benefit from IF is not having calories for a certain amount of time, when your body can repair. Not eating for that window around when you sleep is great because your metabolic rate is already low, so you don’t get into a compromised state of not having enough energy,” Sims says.

According to Robb Wolf, author of Wired to EatÌęand The Paleo Solution, one of the greatest benefits of IF comes from eating in line with and shutting down food consumption several hours before bed, though most of the specific research has focused on mice. Wolf adds that with time-restricted fasting, people are eating during times when they’re more metabolically flexible and insulin sensitive—meaning your body can switch between carbs and fat for fuel and more efficiently process foods, particularly sugar—which can aid in fat burning as well as reducing your risk of diabetes. If you’re trying to lose weight, IF isn’t a magic bullet, but it may help promote healthier eating habits. “I deal with some people who refuse to cut out bread or other stuff like that, but they’re willing to eat in a smaller window. During that period of time, someone would have to make a huge effort to overeat,” Wolf says. (Wolf is quick to note that if you already have a history of disordered eating, IF may not be right for you.)

If you’re interested in experimenting with intermittent fasting, here are some pointers from Sims and Wolf on how to try it in a smart, methodical way.

Know Your Why: “Think about the potential rewards and potential downsides. That’s not sexy, but it’s really important,” Wolf says. So, with IF, maybe you’re hoping to kick-start healthier eating habits by seeing a reduction in body fat or to give yourself a rule that forces you to skip that late-night snack. But the potential downsides—more limitations around when you can train hard, for example—may outweigh the rewards.

Time Your Training: If you want to train at a high intensity or for a long time, Overton says it’s important to remember that you absolutely need fuel. If you train in the morning, you may want to start your eating window earlier to ensure you’re properly fueled for your workout and that you’re able to eat a recovery meal afterward. If you work out on an empty stomach, you risk compromising your muscles’ ability to recover and adapt to your training.

Improve Your Food Quality: Fasting doesn’t give you license to eat tons of junk food during your feeding window. Stick to basic nutrition principles: Eat plenty of veggies, plus healthy proteins and fats.

Open Your Window: You don’t have to fast for 16 hours of your day, Sims says. As long as your body is getting plenty of downtime from eating, where it can digest and rest, you’re on the right track. Depending on your work, family, or training lifestyle, you might want to consider a ten- or 12-hour hour window. You’ll still get many of the benefits but without the added stress.

Don’t Aim for Calorie Reduction: It might happen naturally, but Sims notes that it’s crucial to keep eating enough to fuel your day and overall training. If you start focusing on tallying calories in addition to shortening your eating window, you can quickly slip into unhealthy habits.

Skip the Coffee: Wolf and Sims both warn fasting enthusiasts that coffee will stimulate your liver in the morning, causing it to release hormones into your bloodstream. Since the point of IF is to give your body a break from processes like this, that makes coffee a no-go.

Pay Attention to Stress Cues: If you’re a serious athlete, you may not want to add stress to your life by living under strict meal-timing rules. “I saw this a lot with CrossFit athletes,” Wolf says. “They ended up with problems like fatigue and thyroid issues, sleep issues, and hormonal disregulation.” Stay in touch with your body and scale back on training intensity or dietary restrictions as needed.

Don’t Do Too Much, Too Soon: Start with a wider eating window, like 14 hours, and slowly whittle down to 12, ten, or even eight. Avoid making other extreme food changes at the same time. For instance, Wolf has noticed people starting a ketogenic diet at the same time as time-restricted eating, which she considers a recipe for disaster. Stick to one intervention at a time.

The post What You Should Know About Intermittent Fasting appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Changing up your nutrition can make a huge difference in your performance, but if you decide to try out a new kind of approach, there are some things to consider first. Most specialized diets weren’t designed for the athlete, so they’ll likely need to be tweaked to fit your individual needs. “When starting any diet, always ask yourself: Is this sustainable? Do I have the finances to do this repeatedly? And is this the right diet for my performance goals?” says nutritionist , director of performance nutrition at Appalachian State University. As an athlete, here’s what you need to know about some of the most popular plans out there.

Paleo

In theory, the paleo diet encourages you to eat only things that could have been hunted or gathered by our caveman ancestors. That means lots of meats, fish, greens, local veggies, nuts, and seeds. Packaged foods and refined sugar are totally out, and starchy vegetables, grains, fruit, dairy, beans, and legumes are eaten sparingly or not at all, depending on who you talk to. The paleo diet also eliminates alcohol and salty foods. (You can see exactly what a day of eating in the paleo diet might look like with our paleo pyramid.)

Pros

You’ll eat more whole foods and fewer processed goods, as well as develop a sense of how certain ingredients make you feel, Faibish says. “The diet also deters you from drinking alcohol, which can sometimes have a negative impact on performance,” she says.

Cons

Dairy, grains, and legumes—all eliminated with this diet—are great sources of protein, vitamins, and minerals that your body can use for overall performance and recovery, Faibish says. Plus, without grains, it can be nearly impossible to get enough carbs to power tough training blocks or high-mileage weeks. Faibish adds that another missing ingredient—salty foods—could actually benefit you by replacing the electrolytes you lose in sweat from exercise.

Whole30

Whole30 markets itself as a short-term, 30-day method to reset your diet. You cut out items that are known to upset some digestive systems—all processed or packaged food, natural and artificial sugars, alcohol, grains, beans, legumes, soy, and dairy. You’re also told to avoid meals that, while they might be made entirely from approved ingredients, are supposedly not good for you. (Something like a pancake made with just egg whites and banana is still a no-go.)ÌęConfusing and excessive? We agree. But in addition to giving your digestive system a break, Whole30 also works to to crave whole foods.

Pros

If you’re looking for a fairly drastic kick-start, this could be for you. Keep in mind that it was designed for only 30 days, so if you last that long, you can ease your restrictions and modify the diet to be sustainable for your long-term needs.

Cons

You need to have margins for error as an athlete, and this diet doesn’t give you any, says Leslie Bonci, nutritionist and owner of. It’s also labor intensive and difficult for people who travel or eat out often, because you can’t guarantee you’ll have access to the allowed foods. “Not only is it unrealistic, but it’s also very low-calorie,” Bonci says. It’s a diet built for weight loss, not a plan built to support performance. (Also, just a warning: no peanut butter.)

Ketogenic

The high-fat ketogenic diet is, at its most basic level, a diet of 75 percent fat, 20 percent protein, and 5 percent carbohydrates. Our keto pyramid gives you an idea of what a day in the life of the keto diet really looks like. It’s extremely restrictive, nixing all fruit, grains, starches, legumes, sugar, alcohol, and processed foods. The carbohydrate reduction should eventually move your body into ketosis, prompting the body to access fat stores as its primary source of fuel, rather than carbohydrates, which are typically the primary source.

Pros

A study in found that when elite endurance athletes slightly tweaked that ratio and consumed a diet of 70 percent fat, 19 percent protein, and 10 percent carbs for between six and 20 months, they had a peak fat-burning rate more than two times higher than the rate of their peers who were consuming a more carbohydrate-heavy diet. The increased ability to burn fat for fuel during exercise spares muscle carbohydrate stores, which can improve or prolong exercise performance, explains study co-author Daniel Freidenreich. That’s because an athlete can bonk once muscle glycogen (carb stores) reaches a certain low level or becomes depleted. There’s also research showing that ketones produced in athletes on a low-carb ketogenic diet can help fuel the brain, which might further prevent zeroing out during endurance activities, Freidenreich says.

Cons

Studies haven’t definitively proven that an increase in fat-burning translates to optimized performance, Bonci says. She also notes that the heavy load of fat may not be easy on everyone’s GI tract, especially at the start. “And logistically, you’re not necessarily going to pack your avocado and coconut oil for a long trek,” she says. Another drawback is the so-called keto flu, which happens to many people during the first four to six weeks on the diet, when your body is adapting to the new normal. Side effects include fatigue, nausea, dizziness, and brain fog as a result of your body switching from burning carbs to burning fat. “Exercise performance will likely suffer during the first few weeks of adapting to a low-carb diet, so athletes should plan to transition to the diet before their competitive season,” Freidenreich says.

Intermittent Fasting

There are several different patterns of intermittent fasting, but all variations require restricting your food intake to a specific time period. A few include the 16/8 method, where you fast for 16 hours and eat two to three regular healthy meals during the eight-hour period; the 5:2 diet, where you have no more than 500 to 600 calories for two days out of the week; and the eat-stop-eat method, which involves a 24-hour fast once or twice per week. The theory is that when your body is in a fasted state, it’s more likely to pull energy from your fat sources since there won’t be readily available glucose.

Pros

Some athletes claim fasting makes them faster, but the science is thin. There is research, however, to support intermittent fasting as a method for weight loss. If that’s your goal, this diet could be a possibility for you. Athletes will need to consider which timing interval makes sense for them with regard to their training schedule, so they aren’t training on empty. “Try to train or exercise during your eating window or days,” Faibish says. “For example, with the 5:2 diet, schedule your harder, longer, and more strenuous workouts on days that you are allowed to eat, and have your lower, shorter workouts on your fasting days.”

Cons

“We all know that when we exercise, we use energy, and in order to get energy, we must eat,” Faibish says. “So if we are restricting ourselves from eating and have a hard HIIT training session, do you think you are able to perform at your best?” More than likely, you will be drained. “If you are a morning gym goer, having to fast till noon may be extremely difficult for you as well,” Faibish points out.

IIFYM

You may have seen the #IIFYM hashtag on Instagram, which stands for “If It Fits Your Macros.” The diet is pretty simple: It doesn’t involve cutting out entire food groups, restricting your eating times, or even ditching processed foods. Instead, you calculate how many grams of carbs, protein, and fat you should be getting each day to reach or maintain a specific weight, given your gender, age, height, and current weight.

Pros

This plan is also known as flexible dieting—you can eat virtually anything you want on it. (Think of it sort of like the old-school Weight Watchers points system.) For many people, that’s far more attractive than having to cut out entire food groups or give up every indulgence. Rather than target your health from the inside, this plan tends to create the biggest changes in how people look on the outside. Those who are either looking to bulk up quickly or lose a few pounds in a shortish period often give this a shot.

Cons

Because there isn’t a focus on food groups, you could easily do this diet by eating junk food. (Maybe that’s a pro for some.) Similar to the myth that all calories are created equal, all macros aren’t created equal either. “This diet neglects micronutrients and phytochemicals that are important,” Bonci says. “Athletes are not one size fits all, and they need to be able to customize nutrition to their goals.” Plus, there are certain vitamins and minerals every athlete needs that this diet might lack.

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Some of today’s most suggests that you should eat less often, forcing yourself to go longer periods of time without food—a practice that was common just a few centuries back. Our basic, primal instincts drive our brainÌęto function best when we are hungry and physically active, says Mark Mattson, chief of the laboratory of neurosciences at the . “It evolved, in part, for success in seeking and acquiring food.”

The way many of us eat today—satiating hunger with snacks high in simple carbs—leaves the body craving a constant sugar fix. Without it, you crash and suffer from fatigue, lack of mental clarity, and deteriorating athletic performance, among other things. But fasting has been shown to help stabilize blood sugar levels through a process called glucose regulation, says Mattson. By putting your body through short-term stress, you teach it how to use energy more efficiently and recover quickly, he says.

Learning how to fast and getting started can be a daunting task, but we’re here to make it simpler. Read on for your guide on how to hit your body’s reset button.

How to Fast: Choose Your Preferred Style

Fasting is distinct from the likes of a juice cleanse or a two-day restrictive diet. There are two categories—traditional and intermittent—each of which appeals to different individuals depending on their goals and lifestyles.

While both can be beneficial to your brain health, intermittent fasting is better for weight loss and maintenance. Pick the one that works best for what you want to accomplish.

Traditional Fasting

Traditional fasts typically last anywhere from 24 hours to seven days or longer. They emphasize developing willpower and honing self-discipline as opposed to weight loss, making them a favorite among those looking for a mental or spiritual refresh. While you’ll certainly see some physical effects, the changes of a single fast won’t be permanent. That said, it’s a useful tool to help you understand hunger and your reaction to it.

If you’re a beginner learning how to fast, start with a 24-hour goal: Eat dinner, and then refrain from eating until the next night. Be sure to drink plenty of water to prevent dehydration, and plan your fast for a non-training day. Going for a walk can help you get into —a state where your body starts to burn fat rather than glycogen—but don’t do anything more strenuous until you get accustomed to existing with lower energy levels.

If you’re going to try for multiday fast, consider timing it so that it ends on Sunday night. That way, you’re at work only during the first part of your fast, before it gets especially challenging.

Since this program is temporary and short-term, traditional fasting caters to those who, in addition to wanting a radical system reboot, don’t want commit to the thought and preparation required to fast every day or every week.

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting usually involves a long-term routine of short-duration fasts that last for part of every day, and its physical impact tends to be greater than that of traditional fasting. Specifically, it’s highly effective in its ability to regulate blood sugar, which prevents a host of symptoms like fatigue, mood swings, and metabolic health, Mattson says. In addition, it can protect the brain from stroke, neurotoxins, epileptic seizures, and oxidative stress, he says. It’s also an effective way to simply lose weight, depending on the fasting routine you choose.

If you’re hoping to lose weight, try either the the or . In the former, you’ll eat regularly five days a week, then eat 600 calories a day for two days. In the latter, you’ll rotate between regular and 600-calorie days. You will eat fewer calories than normal, even if you follow your regular diet on the nonrestricted days. Although highly effective for those looking to shed a few pounds, these two styles of eating should be avoided by most athletes, because you won’t be eating enough calories to train properly.

LeanGains: Time-Restricted Eating

Time-restricted eating, also called , is the better choice for high performers. Eat the same amount of food you normally would, but eat it during a shorter window, ideally eight hours. You’ll reap many of the benefits of fasting without restricting calories, so you can keep training hard. It’s easy to maintain your weight or gain lean mass.

With time-restricted eating, your goal is to fast for at least 12 hours a day, which is the point at which the benefits of fasting begin, Mattson says. Pick the window that best suits your life. Most people choose to eat from midday through dinnertime, because it’s easier to incorporate into a regular family and social life. It is possible to train during the part of the day when you’re not eating, though many people will choose to time their training after they have eaten some food—often after work. While 12 hours seems like a reasonable window to avoid food even when you aren’t fasting, that means no late dinner reservations, no snacks at the Friday night movie, and no crack-of-dawn coffee when you wake up for your morning workout. And if it really does feel that easy to eat only in a 12-hour window, try ratcheting it up so that you’re able to nosh for only, say, eight hours a day.

Ease Into It

Don’t start with a seven-day fast if you’ve never fasted before or are new at teaching your body how to fast. With a traditional fast, start with 24 hours, and then bump it up to three days if the first one goes well. With the time-restricted approach, don’t immediately limit yourself to eight hours a day of eating if you’re used to eating every hour that you’re awake; start with 12 hours on, 12 hours off, and go from there. Have realistic expectations, and make gradual changes to your current routine.

How to Fast: Plan Ahead and Be Flexible

Once you’re used to fasting, you may find that you can incorporate a short fast on little notice. But when you’re just starting out, make sure to plan your fast at least a few days in advance. You’ll want to ensure that your fast isn’t going to interfere with work, family, or training, all of which can counteract the positive effects of the test run.

Put some thought into where and how you will be fasting. Fast at home before trying it in the wilderness or on vacation. Have plenty of water on hand. Tell your friends and family you’re fasting so they know what’s going on if you start feeling irritable, and so you won’t have to answer the same questions 25 times at the next group dinner.

Lastly, don’t be too rigid. If you typically eat from 11 a.m. to 7 a.m., it’s perfectly fine to eat before a morning race or a big training day, breaking that fasting window. Consistency is good; inflexibility is not.

Prepare for Your Body to Feel Different

Many people feel tired, get a headache, and generally feel “out of sorts” on days two and three of any fast. That’s normal. The negative side effects of fasting typically go away by the end of day three or four. If you’re going shorter than two days, you’ll likely start to feel better just as the fast comes to a close. Once you turn the corner on day three, most people feel great after the negative symptoms have passed, and a sense of calm, well-being, and heightened concentration takes over. But if you feel like something is wrong during a fast—more than just feeling a bit tired—definitely eat. You can always try again another time.

The post How to Fast: The Beginner’s Guide appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

We get it: Not everyone has time for a lunch workout. When new hires move out to our Santa Fe headquarters, they can’t believe they’re allowed to ride, run, or climb for an hour in the middle of the day. That’s too bad, because even a 30-minute workout can be the ultimate fitness and productivity hack. In fact, found that employees get more done when they take a break to exercise.

Learning how to properly execute the midday workout is tough—especially in an office that doesn’tÌęhave lenient lunch policies—but get it right and it’ll change the tone of your day entirely.

Check with Your Boss

First thing’s first: Make sure your job’s powers that be permit a lunchtime workout. If the rest of your office interprets “lunch” as a 20-minute stroll to the nearest deli while you take it to mean an hour (or longer) out of the office to sweat, problems will arise.

Be Prepared

Have everything you need ready to go the night before. Pack your workout clothes at the top of your bag for easy accessibility and your miscellaneous hygiene items beneath. Think ahead and choose work clothes that won’t wrinkle to avoid taking home a gargantuan laundry load at the end of your week.

Eat TwoÌęSmaller Portions

One of the worst things you can do for your workout is go into it underfueled. By definition, however, working out midday means that you’re delaying lunch, and going into it groggy and lightheaded won’t do you any favors. The fix: Eat half your lunch around 11 a.m., close enough to your workout that it can function as fuel but far enough away that your body has time to digest. A few go-tos: fruit of any sort, or even half a sandwich. Stay away from fatty yogurts (an otherwise primo midmorning snack) and high-fiber foods like instant oatmeal, which will likely cause some movement in the bowels.

Don’t Make a Fuss

You aren’t doing anything wrong or deceitful—you’ve already checked with your boss, remember?—but your co-workers might not be on the same schedule. Block out an hour on your calendar as “busy” so you don’t get any last-minute calendar invites mid-trip. You can also refrain from packing up your desk entirely to assure your colleagues you’ll be returning. This means leaving office lights on and perhaps keeping your planner or notebook on the desk.

Map Your Workout

Plan out your exact workout ahead of time—and stick to it. Those seemingly inconsequential moments you spend deciding whether to do another set, picking a new song between stretches, or moseying over to the water fountain add up. Similarly, plot your run beforehand to keep your mileage (and therefore time) in check.

Prioritize the Extremes

During these workouts, you want to maximize your time. Your best options, then, are to do a HIIT workout—a high-intensity interval-based session where you can get your heart rate sky-high in a short amount of time (try this bodyweight workout)—or a shorter, lower-effort recovery run. Pro ultrarunner Dylan Bowman reserves the lunch run for easy days. “My advice: Sleep in, and run at lunch if your schedule allows.”

Cool Down at the Office

To eke out every available minute in your workout, schedule 15 minutes of easier work tasks—like an inbox cleanup—upon your return. If you have your own space, try some standing stretches—you can easily target your quads, hamstrings, and IT bands while upright—to bring your body temp down before you change clothes.

Have a Cleanup Plan

Arguably, the most important part of pulling off the lunch workout is making yourself presentable after the fact. For those who have offices with showers, that’s your best bet. Otherwise, portable shower wipes, a new layer of deodorant, some dry shampoo, and a quick splash of cold water in the sink can work wonders.

Essential Lunch Workout Gear

Clothes that perform well but could also moonlight as part of your business-casual wardrobe in a crunch are critical, as are a few items that help you transition from your midday sweat to your afternoon meeting nearly hassle-free. Here’s our favorite kit that perfectly bridges the office-gym ​divide.

Myles Everyday Tee

Simple and understated, is is 85 percent polyester and 15 percent cotton, which means it’s comfortable and looks a little more polished than your average workout shirt.

Tracksmith Longfellow Shorts

A four-way stretch Schoeller Dryskin fabric means look like “the least running-short-looking-running short ever made,” according to Tracksmith.

Allbirds Wool Runners

look like they belong nowhere near the gym. But take a few strides in these New Zealand merino wool joggers and you’ll realize they’re the most comfortable, formfitting option you’ve ever tried.

Timex iQ+ Move

has all the benefits of your normal activity and sleep tracker, except it doesn’t look like it belongs on a robot.

MiiR 25L Commuter

You can seamlessly fit everything you need for work and the gym into .

ShowerPill Athletic Body Wipes

All it takes is to leave you clean and smelling fresh.

Redd Superfood Energy Bar

The perfect way to bridge your meal gap, are made from nutrition-packed superfoods like quinoa and oats, nut butters, maca powder, and chia and flaxseed. Zero processing required.

The post How to Nail the Lunch Workout appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

For several years during my early thirties, I was constantly tired. Starting around 2012, I was going for a five-mile run about three times a week, lifting weights just as often, and usually getting a good night’s sleep. I wasn’t training for the Olympics or running ultras, and I didn’t have a newborn keeping me up at night. I also wasn’t out of shape, overweight, or unhealthy. Yet every afternoon I felt the need to lie down for a nap—and if I didn’t, I was often irritable. I struggled to explain the problem to my wife and friends. I was fit and healthy. This was the prime of my life. Shouldn’t I feel great?

Over the course of three years, I spoke to several doctors, but none could pinpoint a major medical issue. One naturopath thought it might be mono, but the test turned out negative. An MD thought I might be depressed, but I didn’t feel depressed. Another naturopath thought it might be chronic fatigue syndrome, but that is, , a “debilitating and complex disorder characterized by profound fatigue that is not improved by bed rest and that may be worsened by physical or mental activity.” I wasn’t facing anything that extreme.

It’s only now, a few years later, that I’m confident I know what was going on: my blood sugar levels were out of whack. I had trained my body to crave simple carbohydrates, and I was caught in a cycle that left me crashing despite a constant sugar fix.

How did I realize this and end the sugar-up-then-crash cycle? I started by fasting for at least 12 hours every day.

Why I Started Intermittent Fasting

Last year, after dealing with chronic lethargy for three years, I read about the benefits of intermittent fasting, including and . Mark Mattson, chief of the laboratory of neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging, professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and author of dozens of research papers concerning intermittent fasting, has argued in his work that humans evolved in situations where food was limited. “Evolution favored individuals with superior cognitive and physical abilities under conditions of limited food sources,” he wrote in a , “and brain function can therefore be optimized by intermittent dietary energy restriction and exercise.”

Three or more meals a day, Mattson pointed out, is not how most humans historically have eaten. Buddhist monks, Neolithic farmers, and traditional hunter-gatherers ate once or twice a day. Although breakfast, lunch, and dinner may seem timeless to us now, it’s only been in the past couple hundred years that became standardized in the West. This shocked me:ÌęHow did the human race develop and thrive on just a one or two meals a day, yet I’m tired if I haven’t eaten a PB&J in the past couple hours?

Intermittent fasting—of which there are many different types, but all limit the time that one consumes food—most likely causes short-term stress on the body, somewhat similar to the beneficial stress of lifting weights. In a , Mattson noted that intermittent fasting can “protect neurons in the brain against a wide range of severe stressors,” like epileptic seizures, stroke, neurotoxins, oxidative stress, and amyloid, and can help cells cope with and resist injury and disease. However, some research indicates that stress-related , and others have argued that it .

Types of Fasting

I decided to give it a try. There are three main ways to do an intermittent fast: the 5:2 diet, in which you eat regularly for five days a weekÌęand reduce your intake to 600 calories during the next two; alternate-day fasting, where youÌęrotateÌębetween standard and 600-calorie days; and time-restricted eating, in which you limit eating to a four-to-eight hour period each day.

The 5:2 diet, popularized first in the UK in 2012 and then in the United States in the past few years by , and are both geared toward weight loss, something I didn’t need. In contrast, with time-restricted eating, it’s easy to consumeÌęaÌęregular caloric load each day while still getting some of the benefits of fasting. That sounded like a better fit for me, as I planned to remain active most days of the week.

I settled on the 16-hour fast, where I’d limit eating to an eight-hour window every day. As Mattson explains, the liver stores glucose (the body’s main energy source when you are regularly eating carbohydrates) for about ten to 12 hours after a meal. When you fast for more than 12 hours, your body switches from glucose metabolism to fat metabolism, which leads to a bunch of positive . So, if you fast for 16 hours each day, you’re receiving the benefits of those adaptive responses without limiting your total caloric intake.

Fasting 101: Cut Back On Snacks

Before I started fasting, I always ate a snack before bed, often a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a bowl of granola. Just moving my bedtime snack back an hour made me slightly anxious at first; I was convinced I would wake up hungry in the middle of the night. But I did it for a couple days, then a couple weeks, and pretty soon I realized I didn’t need a snack right before bed—I just needed one a couple hours before bed.

Mattson compares starting a fasting routine to exercising: If you’re used to eating many meals throughout the day and jump right into fasting, it’s like trying to become a runner by going for a fast five miles without any training. It’s going to be unpleasant, and there’s a good chance you’ll give it up before you see the benefits. Gradual change and a slow buildup is key.

And so it went, with me moving my snack further from my bedtime and my breakfast further from waking up. Each time I moved the timing of a snack or a meal, I repeated the cycle of minor anxiety followed by acceptance, but it became easier. After about six months of intermittent fasting, I didn’t need snacks as long as I was eating nutritious, filling meals during the eight-hour window.

Does Fasting Make You Tired?

For the past few months, I’ve been eating breakfast around 10 a.m., lunch around noon, and dinner around 6 p.m. Technically, I’m intermittent fasting, but I don’t really think of it that way. It’s just my normal eating schedule. And if it felt difficult and restrictive at first, now, six months later, it feels liberating. I’m no longer constantly hungry or lethargic or irritable. Intermittent fasting alone didn’t solve all my blood sugar problems, and I’ve also noticed that regular exercise throughout the day and not eating processed carbs have helped bring my A1C—a measure of blood sugar—down as well. But fasting did help me understand how my body uses carbohydrates and fat for energy and why being too reliant on simple carbohydrates had contributed to my lethargy for years.

It also allowed me to cut processed carbs from my diet. Today, my typical meal consists of venison or fish, vegetables, beans or other legumes, and a good dose of healthy fat, like olive oil, nuts, or avocado. All these foods are broken down slowly, which limits the insulin spike and keeps me feeling full for hours. I still eat carbohydrates in the form of fruits and oatmeal, though only on occasion. If I’m going for a five-to-ten-mile run in the morning, I’ll do it fasted. If I’m going for a long run—say, 12 miles or more—I’ll take someÌęÌębefore the run and eat a bar during. And if a friend wants to get dinner after 6 p.m., I don’t sweat it. Most days I eat from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., but intermittent fasting doesn’t require you to obsessively stick to a schedule.

These adaptations to how I eat haven’t changed the fact that I love eating. If anything, I enjoy the process of gathering ingredients, cooking, and eating now more than ever. I’ve realized that fasting, which is often considered ascetic, is compatible with a deep appreciation of food.

The Bottom Line to Successful Fasting

The key to fasting regularly is finding a program that suits your life and training goals. It could be one 24-hour period each month. Or the 5:2 diet. Or fasting on religious holidays that call for it. Fasting is like working out—different people will have different programs, but the goal is the same: to provide beneficial stress that helps your body become stronger, healthier, and more resilient when faced with larger, potentially damaging stressors.

I’ve been intermittent fasting for a year now, and I no longer need an afternoon nap. I’m not irritable if I haven’t eaten in the past couple hours, which used to happen to me all the time. I’ve also hiked the Colorado Trail and run a 50K, and I’m currently putting in 40 to 60 miles a week and lifting weights a couple times a week. Intermittent fasting hasn’t transformed me into a Super Athlete, but I have to say, I feel pretty great.

The post What I Learned from a Year of Intermittent Fasting appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

On a typical morning, 67-year-old musician and runner Nolan Shaheed wakes up, does 40 minutes of stretches, push-ups, sit-ups, and free weights, drinks a glass of water, and practices for two hours. Then he heads to the recording studio for a while before breaking for a 90-minute run. Only then, after an afternoon shower, does he cook and eat his only meal of the day—a piece of fruit, a bit of white meat, and some vegetables and grains, usually rice, broccoli, and carrots. He’s been doing this six days a week for 40 years, and he holds at least a dozen masters world records, from the 800 to the 5,000 meters.

Fasting, even for short periods of time, isn’t new, of course—Plato was known to abstain to improve mental and physical health. But it has grown in popularity since science journalist Michael Mosley preached its benefits as a solution to weight loss back in 2012. There are numerous variations (see “Think Fast,” below) and even more devotees, from fitness coach Ben Greenfield to Mark Mattson, a neuroscientist at the National Institute on Aging. Retired general Stanley McChrystal considers his one meal—dinner—a reward at the end of the day. Actor Hugh Jackman says he “feels so much better” after fasting.Ìę

Intermittent fasting has some documented benefits. A 2014 meta-study found that calorie-deprivation diets decreased inflammation, increased metabolism, and reduced stress. (The study subjects were mice.) Other research has found that fasting reduces symptoms of asthma andÌęappears to help children in intensive care recover more quickly. On a less clinical level, it can make for easy weight-loss math: lower your calorie intake a few days per week, or a few hours per day, and you reduce your total calorie count.

Paleo bellwether says that once your body is used to it, fasting can be a quick way to achieve ketosis—the point at which your body burns fat rather thanÌęcarbs for fuel. If you deprive the body of calories, he says, it’ll utilize natural fat stores without causing muscle loss or significant declines in power, leading to a much improved strength-to-weight ratio. “Many endurance athletes aren’t optimizing their use of fat as fuel,” says Sisson.Ìę

But many sports nutritionists are skeptical, pointing out that intermittent fasting has yet to be sufficiently tested on athletes. They have long held that properly timing nutrient intake is crucial for optimal performance—eat carbohydrates before exercise and you’ll have more glycogen in your muscles; eat protein after and you’ll recover faster. Trying to cram a day’s worth of macronutrients into a single meal, they say, won’t have the same effect. “It’s suboptimal for muscle building,” says sports nutritionist , who notes that the anabolic, or muscle-growing, effects of a meal last only about five hours. “If you confine all your meals to a narrow time period,” says Schoenfeld, “you’ll miss out on anabolism throughout the day.”

Others argue that there are easier ways to raise your strength-to-weight ratio. “In the very best case, fasting yields the same results an athlete can get far more simply by maintaining a high-quality diet and avoiding overeating,” says author and sports nutritionist Matt Fitzgerald. Even Sisson concedes that the perceived benefits are mostly conjecture. “Intermittent fasting hasn’t been studied to any great extent,” he says.Ìę

What little research has been done on athletes focused primarily on the sunup-to-sundown fast practiced by Muslims during Ramadan. One study of Muslim Olympians found that 5,000-meter runners experienced a 5 percent performance decline. In another study, sprinters and other power athletes experienced little to no effect.Ìę

Although Fitzgerald doesn’t endorse the practice, he thinks that endurance athletesÌęwho are interested in experimenting should consider the Leangains diet—essentially skipping breakfast—which allows you to develop a consistent training routine.Ìę

For Shaheed, fasting is less about performance than feel. “I’m never hungry,” he says. “I also run quicker after a two-day fast, though I feel a little weak and don’t realize I’m going that fast—a strange phenomenon.”–

Four Popular Fasting Methods

5:2 DietÌę

Consume a limited number of calories (generally around 500) two daysÌęout of the week, and eat normally on the other five.Ìę

Alternate DayÌę

Similar to the 5:2 diet, except that the eating and fasting days alternate, which increases the weekly calorie deficit.

24-Hour FastÌę

No food for a 24-hour period once or twice a week. Popularized by nutritionist Brad Pilon’s book .

LeangainsÌę

Fast for 16 hours overnight and into the morning, then eat during the remaining eight.ÌęIn other words: skip breakfast.

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