Fasting has been in the spotlight, driven by its appeal as a fast-track weight loss method. However, it’s crucial to select the right fasting approach that aligns with your goals while safeguarding your long-term health, as not all fasting methods are created equal.
Before delving into PSMF, let’s explore four other commonly adopted fasting techniques that aim to overcome plateaus and expedite weight loss. We’ll assess the impact of each method on your health and body composition.
1. Fat Fasting
Fat fasting, a method embraced by certain keto communities to overcome weight loss plateaus, involves the consumption of pure fats like butter or oil while avoiding carbs and protein. Advocates believe that because fat intake minimally affects insulin levels, it won’t lead to weight gain, under the assumption that low insulin means no fat storage. However, this notion is flawed as it’s possible for the body to store dietary fat, essential to prevent an overload of triglycerides in the bloodstream. Unfortunately, fat fasting is an ineffective and unhealthy strategy for achieving wellness and weight loss.
Unless you’re exercising sufficiently, all the fat you consume during a fat fast, is directed into storage within your fat cells as it leaves no other destination. This outcome is counterproductive if your objective is fat loss. Although a decrease in weight may register on the scale when muscle mass is lost, this is an undesirable outcome. Muscle is invaluable, and dietary fat alone cannot support muscle growth. The essential building blocks for muscle are amino acids from your diet combined with strength training.
2. Egg Fasting
Egg fasting, a practice still observed in some keto communities to break plateaus and accelerate weight loss, involves consuming only eggs. While eggs are nutritious, we do not recommend egg fasting for a couple of reasons. First, it’s challenging to obtain sufficient protein during an egg fast, which is crucial for muscle maintenance and lean mass.
Second, people tend to grow tired of consuming large quantities of eggs quickly, and this can lead to undereating. Although weight loss may occur, it often results from fatigue of eating eggs, which is unsustainable and may compromise long-term health. Instead, a fasting approach that allows for a variety of protein-rich and nutrient-dense foods, including eggs, is a better choice.
3. Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that alternates between periods of fasting (not eating or consuming very few calories) and eating. It doesn’t prescribe specific foods to eat but focuses on when you should eat. The most common forms of intermittent fasting include:
1. Time-Restricted Eating: This method involves limiting your daily eating window to a certain number of hours, typically 8-10, and fasting for the remaining 14-16 hours. For example, you might eat only between 12 PM and 8 PM and fast for the rest of the day.
2. 16/8 Method: A specific type of time-restricted eating where you fast for 16 hours and eat during an 8-hour window. For example, fasting from 8 PM to 12 PM the next day.
3. 5:2 Diet: In this approach, you eat normally for five days of the week and significantly reduce your calorie intake (usually around 500-600 calories) on two non-consecutive fasting days.
4. Alternate-Day Fasting: This method alternates between fasting days, where you eat very few calories or nothing at all, and regular eating days.
5. Eat-Stop-Eat: In this method, you fast for a full 24 hours once or twice a week. For instance, fasting from dinner one day to dinner the next day.
6. The Warrior Diet: This involves fasting for most of the day and eating a large meal in the evening, typically within a 4-hour eating window.
Intermittent fasting can lead to various health benefits, including weight loss, improved insulin sensitivity, better metabolic health, and even potential longevity benefits. It’s essential to choose a fasting method that suits your lifestyle and health goals and consult with a healthcare professional if you have underlying health conditions.
4. Extended Fasting
Extended fasting, which involves abstaining from calories for at least 24-48 hours, is another popular type of fasting promising weight loss. However, this weight loss often includes muscle loss, which is undesirable.
Extended fasting may neglect the importance of what you eat when not fasting, leading to unhealthy food choices post-fast, causing cycles of glucose flooding and depletion, and potential muscle cannibalization.
While extended fasting can induce autophagy and apoptosis, touted as the “fountain of youth,” these processes occur naturally and can be stimulated by exercise and strength training. Research shows that exercise, along with a well-formulated ketogenic/carnivore diet, is more effective for achieving health and fitness goals than long-term fasting.
In essence, extended fasting for weight loss or general health is not recommended, as its drawbacks overshadow minor benefits like autophagy. For weight loss, overall health, or disease prevention, a balanced ketogenic diet and exercise are more practical and sustainable choices.
5. Protein-Sparing Modified Fasting
Protein-sparing modified fasting (PSMF) offers an effective alternative to extended fasting while preserving lean mass. It benefits several groups, including gastric bypass patients, bodybuilders, those with insulin resistance, and individuals seeking weight loss. PSMF involves minimizing carbs and fats while achieving or surpassing protein goals to enhance satiety.
This approach forces the body to utilize stored fat for energy, similar to extended fasting, but with the advantage of maintaining satisfaction and a high thermic effect from protein intake, resulting in the loss of 25 to 30 percent of calories consumed. Furthermore, PSMF provides essential fat and nutrient-dense animal protein.
PSMF is a valuable tool to expedite fat loss or overcome plateaus, typically integrated into a weekly routine, supplemented by regular fat-loss macros and occasional overfeeding days. It’s worth noting that PSMF is not suitable for extremely lean individuals.
Contrary to claims that PSMF is unhealthy, it is essentially a milder version of extended fasting and does not lead to lean mass loss, making it a safer and improved alternative.
6. OMAD : One Meal a Day
OMAD stands for “One Meal a Day.” It’s a type of intermittent fasting where you consume all your daily calories during a single meal, typically within a one-hour eating window, and fast for the remaining 23 hours of the day. OMAD has gained popularity for its potential health benefits and simplicity, making it a convenient choice for those looking to control their weight or improve their health.