Intermittent Fasting Can Cause Fat GAIN

Intermittent Fasting is making you gain fat!

To most people this is a surprising revelation, but when you dig into it, it makes a lot of logical sense.

Intermittent Fasting is believed to cause this magical circumstance where your body burns fat for fuel instead of food, when in reality, it is putting you in a fat GAIN state while really hurting your relationship with food.

In order to lose fat while actually getting toned as well, you should avoid fasting! Fasting, especially for women, is putting your hormones, thyroid, and muscles in a stressed state which is making it easier to gain fat.

In my experience, intermittent fasting has 2 categories of people:

Intentional Intermittent Fasting & Unintentional Intermittent Fasting.

BOTH types of people are suffering similar side effects.

The only difference between the two (besides the intentional part) is that Intentional Fasters generally believe they are making a healthy choice and therefore tend to suffer both physically and emotionally from it.

For anyone who needs a refresher, Intermittent Fasting is a diet where you only eat during a specific 6-8 hour window of time each day and consume 0 calories the rest of the time.

For example, the most popular variation of this is allowing yourself to eat between the hours of 11am & 7pm. You would then fast from 7pm-11am.

Intentional Intermittent Fasting people are planning their days accordingly and usually trying to make healthy choices during their eating window.

Unintentional Intermittent Fasting people are usually just not eating due to rushing in the morning or “not feeling hungry”, then just winging it the rest of the day. Usually not making the best choices.

Despite the difference in food choices, both types of fasters are suffering the same hormonal, thyroid, and fat gain side effects!

THE PHYSICAL ISSUES

For women especially, fasting for long periods of time is going to put your body in a very stressed state.

Many women claim that when they intermittently fast that they “feel amazing & energetic” during their fast.

Well, this is because your body is in FIGHT OR FLIGHT so you are dumping stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline into your body.

This is your body’s primal attempt to give you energy to go hunt for food! But since we live in modern society, you just use that cortisol and adrenaline to respond to work emails, do spin or HIIT classes, or deal with the kids.

Which is MORE stress!

Which is why your thyroid is SHOT. 

Which makes it EASIER for you to gain fat!

Also, during your fast, your body is likely burning muscle for fuel, which leads to LESS calories burned over time and a slower metabolism.

Most women doing this are also NOT eating enough protein or carbs, which is also what’s causing the dreaded skinny-fat look that no one wants!

THE BEHAVIORAL ISSUES

Now that you have starved your body of essential nutrients and likely gone through a high stress work day combined with a high stress workout…you are STARVING.

By 11am-12pm you are ravenous.

It’s at this point that the INTENTIONAL Intermittent Fasting people are eating a salad with tuna or chicken which is NOT enough to counteract the negative effects of the fast.

The UNINTENTIONAL Intermittent Fasting people are getting those sugar/salt cravings and likely reaching for “something crunchy” or succumbing to the break room doughnuts that Karen brought in today.

These long fasting periods are causing you to be in a very vulnerable state for fat GAIN.

Many of the INTENTIONAL fasters will make it to 7pm eating healthy before they raid the pantry and sabotage their diet with handfuls of tortilla chips, crackers, or Oreos. Just anything to curb the intense cravings that are happening due to their low protein, low carb, intermittent fast.

If they are able to make it through the day, it is surely the WEEKEND where their Intermittent Fasting habits come crumbling down leading to a 3 day “fuck it” splurge involving restaurants, bagels, mozzarella sticks, and their beloved wine.

The UNINTENTIONAL fasters (otherwise known as Breakfast Skippers) are usually giving in to 90% of cravings throughout the week, and the weekends tend to be a home for overindulgence and guilt.

THE EMOTIONAL ISSUES

As you can imagine, this cycle causes a ton of frustration and discouragement.

Especially for the INTENTIONAL Fasters. Mainly because they are genuinely putting in effort!

Longterm, this also really creates a poor relationship with food because they develop a fear of eating breakfast or just having food outside of their “eating window”.

Not super sustainable!

Imagine being told you will gain fat if you eat at a specific time of day, and then while following those rules you are actually NOT seeing results!

It creates a fear of the unknown, because if you are getting less toned while fasting, how can eating MORE help??

Here’s how:

1. When you start your day with a protein focused meal, you are putting your body in an ANABOLIC state.

Now, this DOES NOT mean “bulking”! This means your body is in a state where it feels safe to support lean muscle and burn bodyfat.

2. Being consistent with eating protein focused meals every 3-4 hours, while awake, will completely remove sugar cravings!

Imagine how much easier Fat Loss would be if you weren’t constantly tempted to indulge in sweets!

3. Fueling your body with enough carbs & protein will lead to better workouts and better recovery from workouts.

Being able to workout better and recover is LITERALLY how a lean & toned body is created!

Intermittent Fasting does the OPPOSITE of this!

4. Having more flexibility in your diet due to higher calories and more opportunities to eat will allow you to fit in the fun foods you enjoy WITHOUT overindulgence!

Skipping breakfast puts you in a position where you are stressed, burning muscle, and having to play catch up all day.

Introducing a protein focused meal to your mornings could be one of the first steps to ditching the HIIT class & Skinny Fat cycle and start creating the badass lean & toned physique you desire.

By Adam Badger 

Head Coach/Owner Badger Strength Nutrition Coaching