Modified fasting, also known as intermittent fasting, is a weight loss method that recommends fasting for at least half of the day and consuming all of your daily calories in the remainder of the day, which is called your "feeding window." While this type of dieting can produce weight loss if you consume a reduced amount of calories, it may not be ideal for you. Consult a doctor prior to beginning any diet.
Effects on Athletic Performance
If you're losing weight to perform better in a sport or simply enjoy exercising, using modified fasting when dieting may be detrimental. You need to provide your body with the proper nutrients to fuel optimal performance, and modified fasting may inhibit your ability to do so. According to a study from the June 2010 issue of "British Journal of Sports Medicine," daily fasting negatively impacts sports performance.
Appetite Control
One of the most difficult aspects of dieting is controlling your cravings for food. Eating smaller meals throughout the day may help you control cravings more effectively than waiting for more than 10 hours for your next meal, so modified fasting may not be ideal. Research published in the January 2011 issue of "The Journal of Nutrition" found that consuming more meals throughout the day helped study participants control hunger more effectively than consuming fewer meals.
Fat Burning
One of the purported benefits of modified fasting is that exercising on an empty stomach will promote increased fat burning. Fasted exercise supposedly burns more fat because your body draws upon stored energy, rather than your last meal, to fuel the workout. This does not appear to be the case, as a research review from the February 2011 issue of the "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research" found that fasted workouts did not burn more fat than workouts after meals.
Calorie Burning
The ultimate key to weight loss on any diet plan is whether it enables you to burn more calories than you eat each day. Physical exercise burns calories, but research suggests that nutritional choices can also impact calorie burning. A study published in the May 2010 edition of "Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise" found that consuming protein shortly before workouts increased the amount of calories athletes burned for the entire day following exercise sessions. Unfortunately, modified fasting would not enable you to take advantage of this benefit.
References
- "British Journal of Sports Medicine"; Effects of Ramadan Fasting on 60 Min of Endurance Running Performance in Moderately Trained Men; A.R. Aziz et al.; June 2010
- "The Journal of Nutrition"; The Effect of Eating Frequency on Appetite Control and Food Intake: Brief Synopsis of Controlled Feeding Studies; H.J. Leidy, W.W. Campbell; January 2011
- "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research"; Does Cardio After an Overnight Fast Maximize Fat Loss?; B. Schonfeld; February 2011
- "Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise"; Timing Protein Intake Increases Energy Expenditure 24 h After Resistance Training; K.J. Hackney, A.J. Bruenger, J.T. Lemmer; May 2010
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