Intermittent Fasting

At Evolve180, we are experts at using intermittent fasting and extended fasting to boost the success of our weight loss clients.

If you have Metabolic Type B, Metabolic Syndrome, Type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes, insulin resistance, PCOS, long-term obesity, are over 50 or have hormonal imbalances and your weight loss provider doesn’t incorporate fasting, you’re missing out on the biggest, most powerful and effective tool in the industry today!

There IS a right way and a wrong way to fast depending on your PURPOSE for fasting. Knowing your purpose and the right type of fast to use makes all the difference in how fasting will work for you.

Common Myths About Intermittent Fasting

#1: Everyone should fast!

Not really. We only recommend fasting for those clients who WANT to try it and feel positive about it. Not eating is NOT for everyone! We might highly recommend fasting for clients whose sluggish metabolisms really need the boost. But even then, it’s totally optional. The Evolve180 baseline weight loss programs are extremely effective without fasting. Fasting is powerful scientific shortcut, but it’s not required to receive total benefit from our program’s Intermittent fasting will help you lose weight.

Only if it’s combined with an overall eating plan that supports YOUR metabolic type. If you have Metabolism Type B, and you don’t address your overall balance of carbohydrate, protein and fats during feeding windows, intermittent fasting might not be enough to help you lose weight at all. You might actually gain weight because you’ll just be hungrier at the end of the fast and more likely to overeat the wrong foods.

Fasting just reduces overall calories and that’s why you lose weight.

Whether or not your overall calories are lowered by intermittent fasting depends entirely on what and how much you eat when you break your fast. We have seen many people who try intermittent fasting on their own go so overboard on their post-fast meal that they end up eating more calories in total than they would’ve if they’d just eaten normally.

For most of our clients, calories matter, but macronutrients matter more in terms of how effective fasting will be. Macronutrients include the ratio of fat to carbs to protein in their overall eating plan.

Fasting can also provide numerous metabolic and health benefits which are equally as important – if done correctly. For clients with Metabolic Syndrome, Type 2 Diabetes, PCOS, Insulin Resistance, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar or long-term obesity, fasting can speed things up and help them better maintain weight loss for the long term.

#3: If you fast during the day, you can eat whatever you want at night.

Ummm, nope. How you break your fast is just as important as how you fasted to begin with. With daily timed eating, diving into pizza and ice cream for your post-fast meal is completely counter-productive. Do we really need to explain why? Most people use intermittent fasting for weight loss and/or maintenance. Combined with the right type of ketogenic or low-carb protocol for your metabolic type, it can supercharge your progress and results. But if you blow the overall keto vibe by overdoing it with carbs, fat or even protein after your fast, you may as well not have fasted at all.

Using IF to deepen, extend and supercharge a sound keto program is great. Using IF to maintain a properly calibrated weight maintenance program is awesome! But using IF to justify overeating or indulging in foods that aren’t good for you will backfire. That approach resembles a type of Bulimia (binge/restrict) so it’s best not to venture too far down that path.

#4: The longer I fast, the hungrier I’ll get.

Again, this depends entirely on what you were eating before you began your fast, what you mean by “long,” and what you mean by “hungry.” We teach clients to understand the biology of ketosis and the powerful appetite suppressing effect you can achieve if you do it correctly. We call this state “food peace™.”

Our baseline Evolve180 Weight Loss program achieves this on its own. But if you add fasting while in the midst of E180, food peace™ can deepen tremendously! The depth of food peace™ from combining E180 and IF is astounding to our clients. Most of them have never felt better, been less hungry, more clear headed, or had more energy in their lives.

These clients are the ones that realize what it means to have received an eating plan customized for THEIR body and metabolism. These are the clients who look forward to fasting days because of how good they feel!

Clients who try one of our extended fasts see the effects even more strongly. Usually they had no idea how easy it would be once they understood how to do it properly.

Hunger and appetite become clearly differentiated in these clients’ minds. Suddenly they understand that a habitual stomach growl at typical breakfast, lunch and dinner times is just a bodily sensation. Without craving, appetite and desire, those sensations pass and peace returns pretty quickly. It’s easy. It feels amazing. And it supercharges progress and results.

#5: Eating pure fat won’t break my fast.

Once again, this depends on WHY you’re fasting. Some fasts require you to abstain from ALL substances entering your digestive tract. Other types are barely impacted by the addition of some fat, a few supplements or even a little bit of protein here and there. You need to know what your goal is and then adapt your fast to that. Eating fat destroys some fasting benefits, and hardly effects others. Know your criteria — or better yet, know an EXPERT who can help you ensure your efforts aren’t wasted.