Scale Up Your Intermittent Fasting
Scale Up Your Intermittent Fasting
If you want better results with your intermittent fasting then you need to consider scaling up. This means going for an intermittent fasting method that has a longer fasting time than the one you are currently using. Do not even consider doing this until you have spent at least a month from starting out and your mind and body are used to intermittent fasting.
The Dreaded Plateau
If you perform the exact same workout in the gym each time it will not be long before your body reaches a plateau. It gets used to the same exercise and these become largely ineffective. They do not take you to the next level. Unfortunately the same can be true with intermittent fasting.
If you have been using one particular intermittent fasting method for some time you may experience a drop in results. When this happens it is time for you to consider scaling up to a new method with longer fasting windows.
You will lose Water Weight fast
All of us have water weight. With some people this can be as much as 20% of their overall body weight. When you first start with intermittent fasting your water weight will be the first to go whatever method you choose.
This is great as you can look really good after losing your water weight. But most people want to go further than this and the best way to achieve that is to scale up your intermittent fasting. If you stick with the same method for a while you will lose some other weight on top of the water weight loss. But in time you will plateau and need to change for better results.
Start with the 8:16 Method
We would always recommend that you begin your intermittent fasting journey with the 8:16 method or Lean Gains. This gives you an 8 hour eating window and a 16 hour fasting window. This is the easiest method to start in our opinion and you should definitely see results with it.
The time that you stay with the 8:16 method is really up to you. If you are still seeing good results with it then stick with it until you don’t see good results. You may notice that you have not lost much weight at all this week compared to last week for example. This is likely to be the plateau point.
Try the 4:20 Method
This is known as the Warrior method and provides you with a 4 hour eating window and a 20 hour fasting window. You might think that this is a big jump to make but it shouldn’t be too bad if you have persisted with the 8:16 method for a while. You should start to see better results again when you scale up to 4:20.
Fasting for a Day or more
How do you feel about fasting for an entire day? If you think that you are ready to do this then you could go for the Eat Stop Eat method. Here you will eat for a couple of days and then go a day without eating. This means that each week you will fast for full days 2 to 3 times.
There are other methods where you can fast for up to 36 hours, 2 days at a time, 3 days at a time and so on. Migrate to these slowly having some experience of the less challenging intermittent fasting methods first.