You may think fasting intermittently is as out there as these guys… but sometimes being different – is being awesome.

This is one of those times, for sure. Intermittent Fasting (IF, for short) has already been the topic of one of my articles, but I could only really offer scientific studies that were… well a bit boring. However, while trawling the interwebs (puck you spellchecker, it’s a word) I came across this 6 month study of IF by Dr. John M. Berardi, a competitive athlete and serial fad dieter.

Dr. John M. Berardi (along with Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon and Nate Green), had never done IF before, but introduced it into their diets for half a year, and studied the effects; not only on their bodies, but on their mentality and minds, as well.

Intermittent Fasting

So far IF may only have a small following (of which I am one), but proponents of the protocol are rarely seen missing an opportunity to tell others about the potential benefits of fasting intermittently, and the changes it has made to their lifestyle. If I am honest, within the next 5 years I expect IF to become more widespread and accepted as a norm, which could result in some drastic changes to nutritional principles to occur (ie. meal timing being seen as mostly irrelevant). The days where people would believe skipping or missing a meal was a cardinal sin should be long gone already, but this could be the final nail in the coffin.

But as I’m beginning to sound a little biased.. here’s some links to the post-study article written by Dr. John and co, that are really interesting. I would recommend reading the whole book/article (it’s free and runs 80 pdf pages long with a huge font size) to anyone who likes to step outside the box a bit, and stay on the cutting edge.

But, if you’re not keen, here’s some links to the important bits!

The Article Links

Introduction to Intermittent Fasting (IF)

This is the first article in the book, it talks about what IF actually is in the basic sense, what the study entailed, and the all important results summary.

The benefits (potential and otherwise) of Intermittent Fasting

This chapter goes into a bit of detail about the benefits of following a protocol, and introducing IF into your routine. It references studies, makes suggestions on the validity and strength of the results.. really good stuff!

leangains method

This is the study page where John tries the leangains method of IF, which is roughly what my routine is like at the moment, and has been for almost a year! It’s a method based on what were originally somewhat controversial principles, but now find themselves fairly widely accepted; and as the results suggest – they seem to work.

The detailed results section

The first link I gave you gives a general summary, but this is much more in-depth, and for the more nutritionally/scientifically minded – really interesting. This section includes before/after pictures, and blood work results.

And that’s the lot! You don’t have to read them all, but I suggest that even if you aren’t in the slightest bit interested in introducing IF into your routine – that you read at least the results summary and the close examination of IF principles, because the nutritional science and study results are worth knowing on their own!

So, interested in doing IF?

I hope so, because.. well I just wrote an article about it and it would be cool to inspire.. slash link you to someone else to inspire you.

First place you should go is some of the articles above, or you can read my original article on IF, or you could even do both!

Lastly, but not least, here is a pretty comprehensive guide to introducing IF in your diet. (I recommend doing the daily fast – it’s how I roll)

You can always drop me an email or comment below if you want a bit more information as well!