Why should you listen to anything I

have to say?

So who am I? To you, a complete stranger. We’ve

never met, you may not have even heard of me before.
What do I know? Maybe you’ll read this book and decide
that I don’t know anything. But I don’t anticipate that. I’ve
spent the past five years in a relentless pursuit to discover a
system that would allow me to get fit (like really fit) without
giving up the things in life that I enjoy most: namely time
and freedom. I was obsessed with realizing this dream, at
times to the frustration of family and friends. I threw myself
into research and conducting “experiments” on myself,
constantly tweaking and altering my system until I achieved
what I wanted.

The point I’m trying to make here is that I would not

rest until I found a system that worked for both myself and
others. It may not work for everyone on the planet, but I
strongly believe that this system can produce fantastic
results for almost anyone who truly follows it properly. I’ve
seen the results for msyelf, family, friends, and hundreds of
others who have stumbled onto some of the valuable
nuggets of information I have spent all of this time digging
up. And let us not forget, it was not Samuel Pierpont
Langley who was the first to achieve human flight, but the
Wright Brothers. In other words, it was not the man who
had all the power, all the esteem, all the credibility, and all
the funding who achieved his goal. It was two Brothers who
had nothing to their name but a small bicycle shop, and a
fierce longing and determination to bring their dream to
life. This system was my dream, and I believe I was able to
create it because how badly I worked to discover it, and
how badly I want others to share in it, above all else.

So why should you listen to me? Maybe you

shouldn’t. There are plenty of other fitness thought leaders
and systems that may also bring you to success. All I know is
that I believe in this system with all of my heart, and I
believe that if you implement it in your own endeavors, you
really can transform your body and your life the way that I
have. So buckle up, and enjoy the rest of the book. I’d love
to see you share in this more flexible and liberating lifestyle.
Fast away!
 Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: Why should I read this

book?

Chapter 2: What is intermittent

fasting?

Chapter 3: Picking your eating

window

Chapter 4: Why is IF such a

powerful tool: Human Growth
Hormone, Autophagy, and
Sustainability

Chapter 5: How can I maximize this

tool and it’s effectiveness for my
body?: Budgeting

Chapter 6: How do I make this diet

plan bearable (and enjoyable)?
Chapter 1: Why should
I read this book?
If you’ve ordered this book, you probably already
know what you want to get out of it. Weight gain is
common, and sometimes inevitable to the average human
being due to changing lifestyles and time availability over
the course of one’s life. You may have one of many of your
own reasons for wanting to make a change to your physique
or your life-style. You may just be tired of feeling
unconfident or uncomfortable at the pool. You may be
experiencing health problems related to fitness. You may
want to finally fullfill your dream of sporting a killer set of
abs. All of these are valid reasons to be pursuing fitness, and
all are a great reason to read this book.

In this book I’ve condensed the core learnings I’ve

gleaned from tireless reading and trial and error in my own
journey to sustainable, fun, and aesthic fitness. I believe in
this program with all of my heart. I believe it can make a
fundamental difference in your life in terms of happiness,
confidence and health. I cannot explain how much faith I
have in the concept of intermittent fasting and what a
powerful weapon it is in the battle for a shredded body. So
take what you can from it, I believe it will be every bit as
helpful and transformative to you as it was (and is) for me.
But change starts by doing. So take what you learn here and
apply it! I’m excited for what’s in store for you if you do.
A little about my story:

Fitness has always been a large part of my life, but I

have not always been fit. In high school, I was a two-season
athlete. Between gallavanting about with friends in my free
time, and my athletic activities, I didn’t have to think much
about what I ate or how to maintain a fit physique.
However, like many people out there, that changed for me
when I got to college.

From my freshmen year to my junior year, as I

became less physically active and continued to eat like a D1
collegiant athlete, I gained a whopping 50 pounds. I was the
least phsyically confident I’d ever been. My muscles were
undefined, my facial definition was obliterated and my
ability to do even a single pullup was gone. I began
searching for ways to shed the unwanted weight. I didn’t
know it but I was about to embark on a five-year journey,
during which I would throw myself into every single weight
loss routine known to man. I tried everything from “cleaner
eating” to ungodly amounts of cardio, to the ketogenic diet,
and any other dieting scheme you could imagine. There
wasn’t a single approach that failed completely—everything
I tried produced some sort of results, but they did NOT
provide the results I wanted. I lost and regained weight
many times.

I did not begin to make any significant and lasting

headway until I discovered intermittent fasting. The concept
was simple. Reduce the window of time you spend eating,
eat larger meals, and burn fat. More on that in just a
moment!

There are two massive barriers to anyone aspiring

to achieve their dream physique. The first is an effective
approach, but the second is your why. The physique of your
dreams is definitely acheivable, and your journey doesn’t
have to be an unpleasant one, but you need to keep your
goals in mind or you will fail.

• Why do you want to be fit?

o Do you just aspire to be healthy?
o Do you want to boost your
confidence?
o Do you want to start your own
fitness business?

Any one or combinations of those reasons can be

you why, but you must constantly remember it. It will keep
you disciplined and focused, and if you can do that I
promise intermittent fasting will supercharge your results.
They did for me.

That’s why I wrote this book. Intermittent fasting

changed my life, gave me my confidence and my health
back. I wake up every day and feel good about myself. You
can too! The dream body you’re picturing in your head
always looks three times as good when you achieve it. I
want to show people how powerful this approach can be,
and how you can make your journey to shredded not just
effective, but enjoyable. You’ve taken the initiave by
ordering this book, so that means you’re at least
entertaining making a change. But it is imperative that you
read the WHOLE BOOK. The people who achieve the most
effective results are the ones who have the most complete
understanding of why their diet plan works. Don’t shoot
yourself in the foot! Thanks for reading!
Chapter 2: What is
intermittent fasting?
What is intermittent fasting? Intermittent fasting
(IF) is not actually a diet, but an eating pattern. At it’s core,
intermittent fasting is simply the practice of pushing one’s
first meal of the day back several hours to extend the
body’s organic “fast” while we sleep. Most people ordinarily
“break” their fast pretty soon after waking up (hence the
term “breakfast”). During IF we strategically push this first
meal back to increase the amount of time our body spends
in the “fasted” state. There are many different reasons why
this strategy is effective, but the main biological process we
are utilizing is our body’s ability to produce and respond to
insulin.

The Science

Insulin is a key hormone in assisting the body

convert glucose into energy. When we eat (or enter the fed
state), we increase blood sugar and insulin levels. Insulin
rushes to help the cells break down glucose for fuel. What’s
wrong with this? When insulin is high, we are only burning
glucose from the food we’ve just eaten, and are hence not
burning away unwanted body fat. In a way, intermittent
fasting allows us to “hack” the human biology, and take
advantage of the way it works. When we extend our fasting
period, we extend the amount of time the body’s insulin
levels are low, forcing it to burn fat for fuel instead, during a
process called lipolysis.

Now, fasting isn’t really anything new. As hunter-

gatherers, for hundreds of years humans practiced
intermittent fasting simply due to an inconsistent food
supply. Our bodies are programmed to function for periods
of time with food, as well as periods of time without. Think
about your body like a car. A car takes us where we want to
go as long as it has fuel. Our bodies run on two different
forms of fuel. Consumed fuel, or the food we eat, and
reserved fuel, or stored body fat. The practice of fasting will
allow you to target your reserve fuel, to achieve more
efficient weight loss and a more aesthetic physique.

It is important to the aspiring intermittent faster to

note that many friends and family members may not greet
your new dieting approach with kindness. Most people
associate “fasting” with famine, or self-starvation, and
hence will likely tell you your new dieting approach is
unhealthy. I am not a doctor, but there is a large body of
research to indicate that intermittent fasting is not only
healthy but actually is correlated with longer life and many
other health benefits. We ALSO MUST REMEMBER it’s
estimated that over 60% of all people were classified as
“overweight” according to the Center for Disease Control in
2014 and 2015. That’s not to say that hundreds of
thousands of people don’t attempt to lose weight every
year, but it means most are unsuccessful. What most
people are doing isn’t working. Intermittent fasting may
seem unorthodox to some, but if we want results different
than most people, we will have to use different methods to
achieve them.

There are plenty of well-known fitness leaders who

take advantage of the benefits of intermittent fasting. For
instance, Terry Crews, the goofy (and loveable) but also
noticely SHREDDED father from “Everybody Hates Chris”
and “Brooklyn 99,” is a well-known faster. Other notable
figures on board the fasting train include Hugh Jackman,
Nicole Kidman, and Jennifer Lopez. There’s only one reason
all of these well known figures utilize this tool: it’s effective.

What are the key factors of intermittent fasting,

which allow so many people to have more success, not only
shedding unwanted body fat, but also maintaining their
newfound physique afterward? Intermittent fasting has
been proven to drive increases both in metabolism and in
human growth hormone (HGH). In other words, in the
fasted state, as we are burning away unwanted body fat,
our body releases HGH to help us maintain muscle mass.
Now from an evolutionary persepctive, this makes perfect
sense. During the days in which food was scarce, if our
ancestors’ body’s immediately began breaking down muscle
for fuel, they would be at a significant disadvantage if they
wanted to survive. And this is part of the reason why
intermittent fasting is so much more powerful than other
diets. We eat calories for energy, our body uses the energy,
any excess is stored as fat, and anytime we don’t have
enough the body turns to our fat reserves.

In order to understand intermittent fasting and its

benefits, we must understand a few key concepts. What
determines how many calories our bodies need? Well, a
large variety of factors contribute to our Basal Metabolic
Rate, or our daily maintanence calories (age, gender,
genetics), but the largest factor is the amount of muscle
mass in the body. Muscle requires lots of calories to be
maintained, so the more muscle mass we carry, the larger
amount of calories our bodies need to maintain them!

It is also important to understand that above all,

weight loss really boils down to one essential equation.

• Calories in vs. calories out.

 It’s really that simple. If you consume more calories
than your body needs (a surplus), the excess will be stored
as body fat. If you consume less calories than your body
needs (a deficit), you will burn body fat to make up for it.
You might still be wondering “what does this have to do
with fasting or increased human growth hormone?” Don’t
worry, I’m getting there.

Inevitably, any diet that will result in weight loss

creates a caloric deficit, some way or another. The generic
strategy of “clean eating” advocates for consumption of
lower calorie, nutrient dense foods. When we “eat clean”,
the shift to these lower calorie foods for fuel typically
results in a caloric deficit, which is how it works. The
ketogenic diet reduces appetite and also removes high
calorie carb dense foods from the diet, again resulting in a
deficit. Whether this deficit is caused by eating foods that
contain less calories, or cutting out a certain macronutrient,
ultimately the only way it can effectively cause weight loss
is to create a caloric deficit. But the problem is that
NORMALLY, when the body is in a deficit state, it doesn’t
JUST use body fat for energy.

Under ordinary circumstances, if the body is

experiencing a deficit, it will break down both some body
fat, and also some muscle mass. Therefore, not only are all
of these other diets going to work SLOWER, but they are
also burning away your precious calorie-burning muscle
stores! Now the larger amount of muscle mass on the body,
the higher the number of calories it requires daily.
Therefore, as you lose weight on these types of diets, you
will burn fat, but you will also be breaking down muscle
and reducing the overall number of calories your body
needs to function. In other words, you will have to eat less
and less to continue losing weight, because it takes less food
to put you in a fat-gaining surplus.

These are all arbitrary numbers, but for example, if

you lose 20 pounds (10 pounds of fat, 10 pounds of muscle)
over the course of 6 months, at the end of the 6 months
you will be tired of depriving yourself. You’ll want to
transition your diet into a more maintenance oriented plan.
But those 10 pounds of muscle that you lost during your
journey mean that now your body needs way fewer calories
to keep it satisfied! So you may not even feel like you’re
eating that much, because you’re eating less than you did
before, but you’ll continue storing fat and having no idea
why. Those 10 pounds of muscle you lost are also going to
damage the aesthetics of your physique! This infographic is
an artistic depiction of an actual picture.
 LEFT RIGHT
Body Fat: 10% 10%
Muscle Mass: 65 lbs 40 lbs
Daily Maintenance 2200 1800
Calories:

Depicted are two people with the exact same

bodyfat levels (10%) with different amounts of muscle
mass. Obviously most of us would much rather be the guy
on the left than the guy on the right. Not only can he
consume far more calories each day without storing fat, but
this is also where the “skinny-fat” syndrome comes from.
The male depicted on the right still obviously has low levels
of body fat, but much less muscle. On a common sense
level, this is logically sound. The larger your muscles are, the
more fat it will take to prevent them from being defined
and visible. This is largely why some people have clearly
visible abs at 14% body fat while other unlucky folks have to
shred down to 7% or 8% before their abdominals become
defined.

Overall, intermittent fasting is a far more effective

technique for creating and maintaining fat loss, because it
protects hard earned, calorie torching muscle stores, while
incinerating only unwanted body fat.

Finally, although the benefits of intermittent fasting

sound almost too good to be true, willingly depriving
yourself of food is not only a violation of basic instinct, but it
can be an extremely daunting task. I personally love food
more than anyone else I know, so the first time I read about
intermittent fasting I was doubtful, to say the least. Initially,
fasting IS unpleasant. Your body is extremely accustomed to
eating whenever it feels hungry, and although evolutionarily
this is actually rather unusual, at first your body will not
take kindly to alterations to this pattern.

When you first begin fasting it is very common to

experience irritability, mental fogginess, fatigue, etc, and
obviously ravenous hunger. Do not be discouraged if, during
your first few days, you find yourself breaking down and
eating breakfast at 11:30 AM. It happens to the best of us.
But you will be pleasantly surprised to learn that once your
body becomes accustomed to its new and superior eating
schedule, most people find they actually have an overall
reduction in appetite!

Hunger is a bodily function like any other, and is

assisted by a hormone called ghrelin. When the body is
hungry, ghrelin sends the signal to the brain to stimulate
appetite. However, it has been found that when people
practice intermittent fasting, they experience a reduction in
ghrelin and it’s effects. It’s thought that this mechanism is
another way IF is so effective for weightloss, but more
importantly, it means that luckily for fasters, the body
learns its new eating schedule and adapts to it. I myself
have practiced many different fasting styles, but I generally
land somewhere between a 16 and 18 hour fast each day,
and I usually break it around 5:00 or 6:00 PM. A few weeks
into my fasting journey I was glad to discover that I was no
longer hungry in the mornings or early afternoon.

The only diet worth it’s salt is the one you can stick
to. Intermittent fasting allows for a freedom and
consistency that 5 years ago, I wouldn’t have thought
possible for my body.
Chapter 3: Picking your
eating window
Another one of the boons of this approach: there
are plenty of different styles, and they’re all effective. All
have significant bodily and mental benefits, so you can very
easily choose one that will work for you. If at any point
when you’re reading about the different patterns you feel
intimidated or find yourself thinking “I could never do that,”
don’t worry. I will teach you all of the different tricks and
tips to introduce your body to fasting in way that will make
it easier, more pleasant, and eventually, second nature.
Now, the most common form of intermittent fasting is the
16:8 diet. Terry Crews, Hugh Jackman, and other ripped
celebrities all take advantage of this eating window. There
are several ways to implement this window in your life.
Through my years of intermittent fasting I have found that,
for myself, the most important thing to do is to make sure I
hit my 16 hours every day.

Many fasters will pick a time to begin their fast and

a time to break it. For example, many who practice the 16:8
method will break their fast around 2:00 or 3:00 PM like
clockwork, every day. They then eat between 2:00 and
10:00 PM (or 3:00 and 11:00 PM), and then fast from 10:00
PM until 2:00 PM the next day. Although this can be
implemented successfully, I have always found that it’s
easier to be more flexible with myself. So I don’t necessarily
fast until the same time each day, but I make sure that each
day I maintain a fast of at least 16 hours. For instance, some
days I break my fast at 4:00 PM and eat until 10:00 or 11:00
PM, and then the next day I fast until at least 2:00 or 3:00
PM, and so on. Again, this is the beauty and power of
intermittent fasting. As long as you’re hitting your fast each
day, you still reap all of the benefits without feeling locked
into a restrictive and regimented routine.

There are forms of intermittent fasting with shorter

fasts and longer eating windows (14:10), and while this
window is a great way to introduce your body to periods
without food, the data indicates that the health benefits
become most significant after a 16 hour fast.

Where can you start?

To begin fasting, you just need to dive right in and

start your fast. The first day you practice intermittent
fasting, try as hard as you can to make it 16 hours. You may
break down at 13 or 14 hours the first time, but the most
important idea here is that you are teaching your body to
become accustomed to delaying your first meal, and
reprogramming your relationship with food. As long as
you’re dedicated and you stick to it, I promise your body will
adjust, and you will be glad you stayed disciplined.

16:8/18:6
The 16:8 window is the most common for a few
reasons. First, the fast is not nearly as long as it sounds.
Most people sleep between 6 and 8 hours every night (or
perhaps even 10 or 12 for some lucky folks out there). This
means that when we wake up at 8:00 or 9:00 AM, we’ve
already fought half the battle. The rest is just delaying your
meal for the next few hours of the day. For more tips on
how to make fasting easier for yourself when just starting,
refer to chapter 6, but then come back and read the rest!
. The 18:6 fast is very similar to the 16:8 fast. I find that I
often feel much better when I come closer to an 18 hour
fast each day, and corresponding increases in benefits
associated with the longer fast come with it.

20:4
Another well-known pattern would be the 20:4 fast,
or the warrior’s fast. This is not a pattern I would
recommend to someone who is just dipping their toes into
the fasting pool. However the 20:4 diet is an extremely
powerful tool and comes with some significant benefits (i.e.,
large increases in HGH and extended cell repair - autophagy
- effects, which will be discussed later). The 20:4 diet,
believe it or not, is an excellent approach for lifters during a
cut. The large boost in growth hormone makes the 20:4 diet
an extremely effective cutting approach, to ensure that
you’re maximizing protection for your hard earned muscle
gains while shredding fat. My own experience confirmed
this for me. I spent 2 months practicing the 20:4 method.
Starting at 166.2 pounds, 76.7 pounds of muscle mass and
18.8% body fat, I lost about 9 pounds. Then 2 months later, I
weighed in at 159.4 pounds, with 76.1 pounds of muscle
mass and 15.7% body fat. Over 2 months I lost 6.2 pounds
of almost pure body fat, and lost just half a pound of
muscle! So I know lots of muscle-heads will read the
beginning of this paragraph shaking their heads, thinking
“you can’t preserve muscle if you’re fasting 20+ hours every
day!.” Throughout that entire 2 month period I paid
virtually no attention to macronutrients at all. I’m living
proof. It’s wildly effective.

5:2
The 5:2 diet is a more extreme fasting approach. As
you’ve probably guessed, this pattern calls for either a
complete fast (no food at all) or a limited fast (500 calories
or less) 2 days per week, and “normal” eating the rest of the
week. Typically these 2 days are spread out throughout the
week to make the diet more pleasant (i.e., fast on Monday
and Thursday each week or so on). Benedict Cumberbatch
and other big names popularized this approach, and it can
certainly be extremely effective. However I don’t
recommend this approach to most. I find that it’s difficult
not to overindulge on non-fasting days because we think
we’re eating normally, but having just deprived ourselves of
food for a whole day, it’s hard to practice discipline, and to
gauge whether the amount of food we are eating is actually
“normal.”

OMAD:
The most hardcore fasting window I do recommend
is OMAD. The OMAD diet refers to “one meal a day.” The
pattern is pretty self explanatory. Practicing this eating
window, you would simply break your fast with one large
meal (typically between 4:00 and 6:00 PM) each day. I find
this approach particularly effective, because it really helps
you start to appreciate what foods you actually want to
enjoy for your one meal. This is one of the most powerful
ways we start to reprogram our relationship with food. If
you only get one meal each day, you’ll find that you’ll get
tired of stuffing yourself with an entire batch of chocolate
chip cookies every night rather quickly. This encourages you
to re-examine what foods you like enough to “spend” on
your daily meal or daily calorie requirements.

Much like the 20:4 window, this pattern is also

(believe it or not) extremely effective for lifters. You reap
the same benefits with respect to HGH, as well as
organically teaching yourself to begin to view your food
more as fuel for present and future workouts, rather than
something to do while you’re bored. What I mean by
organically is that we are naturally incentivizing ourselves to
re-evaluate the foods we eat, rather than making this
change by force, and refusing to allow ourselves any of the
foods we like because they aren’t ideal “fuel”.

The OMAD diet is also extremely helpful in

eliminating the 3 o’clock sluggishness most of us endure.
When most people eat their lunch in the middle of the day,
they are boosting their insulin and blood sugar levels,
causing a large spike in serotinin in the brain in response to
the meal, which makes us feel warm, cozy, and sleepy.
When you don’t eat lunch, as is required in OMAD, you’ll be
pleased to maintain razor sharp mental clarity throughout
the entire workday. Thanks to this benefit, my most sluggish
and unproductive hours of my day have become the periods
where I accomplish the most.

I have practiced OMAD as well, with large amounts

of success. As an avid lifter myself, it was genuinely an
awesome experience and the kind of biological hack I want
to share with all of the other lifters out there. Many muscle-
heads and lifting gurus will tell you this approach will cause
you to lose muscle. Both the data and my experience, as
well as those of people I’ve assisted, strongly suggest
otherwise. Now when it comes to gaining muscle, OMAD
may not be the best approach. I’ve definitely added muscle
while practicing OMAD, but its difficult to consume the
necessary number of calories during such a small window,
and for those looking to practice fasting during a “bulk” I
would definitely suggest using something more between
the 16:8 and the 20:4 approach.

Finally, there are also standalone fasts that can be

extremely beneficial to add to your fasting arsenal.
Although I do not recommend fasts like this every day
(obviously), 24 and 36 hour fasts can be awesome ways to
help your body become more accustomed to fasting in
general. And they come with perks, such as boosted HGH as
high as 1000% of normal levels, and extreme
autophagy/cellular repair. Frequently, after a cheat day, or
if I feel like my willpower is slipping, I will implement a 24-
hour or 36 hour fast here and there. It helps reset my head
and is an excellent way to burn a relatively large amount of
fat in a very short period of time.
 Chapter 4: Why is
intermittent fasting
such a powerful body
recomposition tool:
Human Growth
Hormone, Autophagy
and Sustainability
By far one of the most valuable benefits I’ve gained
from practicing intermittent fasting is a complete sense of
control and discipline over myself and my diet. When you
begin fasting, you are literally teaching your body to deny,
and act in the opposite manner to how your instincts
prompt you to act. That’s why the transition can be difficult
for some. But once you’ve cleared the hurdle (which I
promise, both from my own experience and the hundreds
of thousands of people who successfully implement IF into
their lifestyles EVERY year, is very doable) you will be
pleased to discover that you’ve gained a superior control
and discipline over your diet, and yourself.

When you’ve pushed your body to continue a fast

past the 16th, 17th, or 18th hour, the choice to eat a hearty
meal of chicken and rice after a strenuous workout rather
than stuffing yourself with easy mac, is an easy one.
However, this is not to say that you need to exercise an
extremely strict and clean eating style to reap the benefits.
The joy of fasting is the flexibility it gives you, but every
dieting or fitness goal is easier once you’ve cleared that
obstacle. This newfound discipline doesn’t need to
dominate your life, and you won’t need to constantly deny
yourself the foods you like. The power given by the
discipine is to buckle down and be a little stricter on
yourself for a few days to make up for the 9 pieces of pizza
and 4 beers you downed with your friends the night before.
When you have a clear vision and goals, and the discipline
to execute them, hitting those goals becomes
extraordinarily simple.

In addition to your newly discovered mental

fortitude, intermittent fasting harnesses your body’s own
natural processes to maximize weight loss effectiveness.
Due to increases in growth hormone, fasting provides a
sturdy safeguard to protect your muscle mass from
breaking down during a “cut.” This concept was touched on
briefly earlier.

EXAMPLE: THE RIPPED FRIEND WHO EATS WHATEVER THEY

WANT

Many people may find themselves wondering why it

seems that some of their friends are able to eat whatever
they want and still sport a kickass physique year round. You
may have already concluded that those friends are just
lucky enough to posess superior genetics. However, it’s
quite likely that those friends have one other hidden
advantage that seems to escape notice: a larger volume of
muscle mass. This “genetic advantage” often boils down to
something much simpler, and more biologically predictable.

Most importantly, it comes down to something you

can control in regard to your own physique. The more
muscle mass the human body carries, the more calories that
body requires to maintain itself each day. In other words,
the more muscle mass you have, the more calories your
body can consume without gaining fat due to a caloric
surplus. This brings us to the second reason IF lends itself to
greater fat loss than other diet approaches. By taking
advantage of the increases in growth hormone caused by
intermittent fasting, you are ensuring that your body holds
on to every ounce of that crucial and precious, fat burning
muscle mass.

For those of us who have been around the “dieting

block” so to speak, you may have experienced what many
fitness gurus refer to as “metabolic adaptation.” This is the
term used to describe the inevitable slowing of one’s
metabolism over the course of a weight loss journey. The
way I often hear this phenomena described goes something
like this:

“As our bodies grow accustomed to being in a

caloric deficit, over time the body’s metabolism
adapts to prevent further fat loss, in the
evolutionary interest of aiding survival.”

Now, over extremely prolonged cuts (9-12 months or

longer), there may be some truth to this. But as I’ve said, it’s
usually much simpler than that. Most conventional diets
don’t just cause fat loss, they cause weight loss (and hence
loss of muscle). Our bodies don’t have enough calories to to
maintain the current physique, so over time it breaks down
both fat AND MUSCLE. So it is inevitable that unless you are
taking advantage of increased HGH to protect your muscles
from breakdown, eventually your body breaks down so
much muscle tissue for energy, that overall, it requires less
calories on a daily basis, or so to speak, your metablism
slows.

Now of course fasting is not the only method on the

planet to prevent muscle loss during a cut. For years and
years, the fitness industry has told us that to prevent this
muscle loss we must stuff our bodies with insane amounts
of protein. Many of these gurus will preach that if you want
to preserve muscle mass while cutting fat you need to be
eating in excess of 1 gram of protein per each pound of
body weight. Not only does eating this much protein take a
considerably larger amount of thought and effort, it also
prevents you from eating more of the foods you enjoy! For
this reason, I find fasting an enormously more attractive,
effective, and flexible option for burning fat in the most
efficient manner possible.

So fasting is a flexible and highly effective method

for fat loss. Is that it? Not quite. As the idea of fasting has
gained popularity in the fitness community in the past
decade, a large body of studies and research have emerged
concerning the effects of fasting on health and longevity.
Some of these examples include:

• Reduced inflammation
• Increased cell repair/autophagy

Research indicates that fasting produces extremely

powerful antioxidative effects on human cells, leading to a
large reduction in inflammation. This result can be so
significant, there is evidence to suggest it may be effective
as a therapeutic to treat inflammatory conditions and
diseases such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and
inflammatory bowel syndrome.

Considering more exciting benefits, scientists have

concluded that fasting also leads to a boost in cellular
repair and autophagy. Autophagy is the process in which
cells break down and remove old and dysfunctional proteins
that have built up over time. It is thought that these
repairing effects may also have something to do with a
correlation between intermittent fasting and increased
longevity (longer life). From a practical standpoint, this also
makes sense.

Consider how the human body reacts to illness:

When we are feeling particularly sick, we often

experience a sharp decrease in appetite, and it is not
uncommon for people to almost completely forgo food
entirely during periods of sickness. This would appear to
suggest that the body instinctually knows it can, at times,
function more effectively during short periods without food.
Fasting forces the body to break down fats for energy,
instead of glucose. A study performed by researchers at
Yale School of Medicine observed that the breakdown of
one particular ketone (beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB))
produced noticeable benefits on the immune system. There
are even bodies of research which show that fasting can be
effective in reducing neurodegenerative effects and fighting
cancer.
Chapter 5: How can I
maximize this tool and
my own results:
Budgeting
There are many people who implement
intermittent fasting, and they immediately begin to see
results. Not that the results are instantaneous. I mean that
simply by reducing the amount of time they eat each day,
they end up eating less and naturally begin to shed pounds.
For many fasters out there, simply through their natural
adaptation to their new eating pattern, they’re able to
achieve accelerated fat burning and sculpted bodies.
However for some, especially for those attempting to obtain
a very specific type of physique, although its definitely a
fantastic start, its not quite enough. They get results, but
they could be better. The real game changer when it comes
to having complete control over your physique really comes
down to tracking.

Consider this: budgeting.

There are many different strategies that people

employ to reduce their spending to provide themselves with
more financial stability and more financial freedom. For
instance, “I’m going to stop eating out so much.” Or “I’m
going to try to spend less money on impulsive clothing
purchases.” For many, this small, rather vague change is
enough to (mostly) achieve their goal. However, the people
who really get the most out of budgeting and are able to
leverage the most financial freedom, are those who actually
create a budget, and track what they spend each day, each
week, etc. The very same concept can be applied to fasting
and more importantly calories.

If you’re able to ensure that every day you’re

consuming less than your daily maintainence calories, you
can guarantee that you’ll be burning fat! It removes
guessing from the equation. This guessing is the main
reason many attempts at diet and exercise fail. “Eating less
junk” is a crude method in which you’re attempting to
remove the higher calorie, empty foods from your diet.
When done successfully, it can create a caloric deficit and
lead to weight loss, but you really can’t be sure because it’s
a guess. Hitting the treadmill 3 or 4 times a week also can
be effective for some, but again this is a guess. The average
15 minute cardio session will burn between 100 and 200
calories. If you’re not keeping track of how much you
consume, you could easily have an extra coke or an extra
helping of garlic bread, and completely cancel out the
calories you’ve burned.

In order to take advantage of this powerful tool,

first you’ll need to find a reliable method of establishing
your daily caloric needs or your Basal Metabolic Rate. There
are many formulas online to obtain a relatively accurate
estimate of this number. Personally I would recommend
using some sort of test (my preferred instrument is the
InBody Scan body composition test). Many gyms out there
offer some sort of body composition test, either for free or
for a small fee. These tests will likely provide you with your
BMR, but its important to note that BMR and daily
maintenance calories, although similar are not the same.
Once you’e obtained your BMR you’ll need to apply a
multiplier.
 Activity Level: BMR Multiplier:
Sedentary (Little 1.2
to no exercise,
little to no activity
during job)
Light Exercise 1-3 1.375
Times Weekly
Exercise 3-5 Days 1.55
Weekly
Exercise 6-7 Days 1.725
Weekly
Exercise 7 Days
Weekly And
1.9
Physically
Demanding Job:

*** I urge you to be conservative with these

estimates. If you’re trying to decide between 2 different
multipliers, go with the lower option. We almost always
over-estimate how active we are and how many calories we
burn. But now that you have your daily maintenance
calories, all you need to do is decide how large a deficit
you’d like to create for yourself. Personally I find that I
achieve the fastest fat loss when I use a deficit between 400
and 500 calories. As a general rule of thumb, 75-80% of your
daily maintenance calories should create an appropriate
deficit. Obviously, once you’ve tried it for a few days you
can adjust accordingIy.

I know what you’re thinking. Really? Calorie

counting? I thought this eating pattern was supposed to be
less work! It certainly can be. For the first week or so,
counting calories absolutely feels like a chore, and it is!
However, you will discover two things quite quickly. First,
the computer you’re holding in your hand or pocket right
now makes counting calories a whole lot easier. You can
find the caloric content of virtually any food in a 3-second
google search. Most restaurants nowadays provide caloric
counts for their meals as well, making your job easier. But
the second thing you’ll discover is that after the few weeks,
you’ll start to develop a kind of internal calorie calculator. It
will become easier and easier to look at a dish, see whats in
it, and “eyeball it.”

An unusual tip I’ve personally discovered to be

helpful, is something I call my fullness gauge. DISCLAIMER:
this particularl technique has very little basing in science
and evidence, but I have found it effective in my own
endeavors.

What I’ve learned is that my stomach generally feels

satisfied and full after consuming between 900 and 1100
calories (yikes). So in situations where I can’t, or don’t want
to calculate the exact number of calories I’ve eaten, I’ll
estimate. I’ve been using this technique for several years
now and it doesn’t seem to have steered me wrong yet, but
to each their own.

There are a few general calorie counting rules of

thumb that can also reduce the mental math burden. For
example, your typical homemade sandwich generally falls
somewhere between 350 and 500 calories. A chicken breast
(grilled) is usually around 300 calories. As you continue
counting and fasting you’ll discover many of your own
shortcuts. Generally one beer is around 150 calories, closer
to 100 if it’s a light beer, closer to 200 if it’s a heavier brew.
All of these tips and tricks you discover not only make
calorie counting much less work, but eventually it will
become second nature. To me, counting calories doesn’t
feel like a chore anymore. In fact I almost don’t like eating
food when I don’t’ know how many calories are in it,
because the tracking mechanism has been so effective in
helping me control my physique.

IMPORTANT:

There are large numbers of people everywhere who

achieve fantastic results with intermittent fasting without
ever counting calories. It’s not a requirement. However, I
would be lying if I said I don’t think it makes it a hell of a lot
easier to maintain 100% control of your body, and whether
you’re shredding fat, or packing on muscle. This is how you
guarantee and maximize your results.

If you’d like more hands on assistance in this area, check

out the Faster’s Freedom Course, where you’ll learn to
become an expert at integrating caloric management with
intermittent fasting. Check it out at:

https://www.shred-fast.com/maximize-results
Chapter 6: How can I
make fasting enjoyable
and stay MOTIVATED?

There are many ways to make fasting more

bearable for yourself, and even enjoyable. But I strongly
believe that the largest barrier to most people is getting
started. Many people are defeated before they’ve begun.
They dive right into strict, 16+ hour fasts for 3 or 4 days in a
row, decide there’s no way they can possibly do this, and
quit without a second thought. That is why it is crucial to be
flexible with yourself and progress gradually. I know at the
beginning of this book I said the best way to start is to dive
right into your fast—and it is. But you must enter this new
strategy knowing that you’re making a significant change to
your body’s normal routine and you will need time to
adjust. This period of adjustment can be unpleasant.
Absolutely do your best to make it to 16 hours your first
day, but if you’re dying of hunger at hour 12, try for 13 or
14 hours for your first few days. And then 15, and then 16 …
Your body will eventually adapt and your hunger and
whatever other “fasting symptoms” you may be
experiencing will fade, leaving you to enjoy your new and
healthier lifestyle. I find that while many will experienced
reduced hunger after just 5 or 6 days, this process generally
takes between 3 and 4 weeks for most people.

OTHER OBSTACLES AND HOW TO OVERCOME THEM:

Historically, one of the largest obstacles to dieters

and fasters has always been boredom. So one of the most
powerful ways to combat boredom snacking is to occupy
your mouth with something. My absolute favorite example
of this is coffee (which also comes with the nifty benefit of
suppressing appetite). I understand coffee can be a bit of a
sticking point for some people because I know a lot of us
are very accustomed to our cream and sugar. I would
absolutely not recommend filling your coffee with cream
and sugar, as it will break your fast (and make you hungry
again), but there are little hacks you can take advantage of
to bend the fasting rules. And again, this is another place to
make gradual changes. Slowly reduce the amount of
cream/sugar you use over the course of a few weeks and
the transition will be far more painless.

In general, if whatever you’re consuming contains

less than 50 calories, it won’t completely break your fast.
Therefore, I frequently take my coffee in the morning with a
small (small) amount of cream, and that really helps me
enjoy my fast. If you absolutely must put some form of
sugar or sweetener in your coffee, I would strongly suggest
you use as little as possible. The more cream/sugar you use
in the drink, the larger effect it will have on your insulin
levels (remember our goal in fasting is to reduce insulin
levels). If they spike back up too high, your body will think
you’re about to eat, and you will experience strong hunger
pangs, as well as eliminating the desirable benefits of
increased HGH, autophagy, anti-inflammatory effects, etc.
From the few times I’ve either put too much cream in my
coffee, or had 1 too many cups (with cream) these hunger
pangs made adhering to my fast MUCH more difficult.
Another excellent beverage to keep your mouth occupied is
selzter, and even plain old water!

EVERYONES FAVORITE SECTION: CHEAT DAYS

The addition of cheat days to any diet plan or

pattern is always a must in my book (no pun intended), in
the name of sustainability. There’s also evidence to suggest
that changing things up with a higher calorie day every now
and again can have beneficial effects on one’s metabolism. I
try to limit my cheat days to 1 (sometimes 2) per week. This
has two main effects. First, it means that I can plan for a
night out with friends, or a nice filling dinner with a large
dessert with my girlfriend. But I don’t hold back on cheat
days. If I want to eat it, I’m eating it. What this forces me to
do is be extra disciplined on non-cheat days. Also
important: use cheat days strategically! As a lifter, I also try
to take advantages of days where I know I’ll be in a caloric
surplus, by getting in a super hard, heavy lift either that day,
or the day before. That way, I can feel better knowing that
at least a portion of the excess calories will be used to build
new muscle tissue. The effectiveness of this strategy will be
compounded if you also make sure to get the proper
amount of protein that day.

Lastly, and most importantly, maintaining solid

motivation and constantly visualizing goals is the number
one way to prevent yourself from running out of steam.
One of the best ways I’ve found to reignite my drive is by
watching videos of people with physiques similar to the one
I hope to achieve, or impressive fitness transformations. It
helps remind me that my goals are attainable, and every
day people are accomplishing the same feat as me. I also
find that looking at older pictures of myself when I was in
better shape would push me to stay discplined and fast a
little longer or pass on the extra fries.

Additionally, pay attention not only to your stomach

and waist, but to your whole body! As you begin to lose
body fat, you will notice changes in several areas of your
body. Even if you haven’t lost enough to drop a pant size,
you will begin to notice your chest, shoulders, and arms
become more defined. Veins begin to be more prominent,
double chins begin to fade. As you continue to get leaner,
you’ll watch your jawline become more defined, and your
facial structure, such as cheekbones start to look more
sculpted. This part of fasting has become the most addicting
for me.

THERE’S A REASON BOTH MALE AND FEMALE MODELS ARE

ALWAYS IN AWESOME SHAPE

Achieving a lean and athletic phsyique can alter and

improve the appearance of one’s face in significant ways. As
I progressed further and further in my fitness journey I
watched as I began to develop a chiseled jawline, and a
leaner, more aesthetic facial structure. This became one of
the driving motivators that kept me disciplined even more
than my desire to sport a killer 6 pack. Now, even when I
am wearing loose or baggy clothing, I feel so much better
about myself, because I know that I look healthier and more
fit all-around, not just at the pool. You would be shocked at
how much the way your face appears can be improved by
better body composition.
EXERCISE:

Avid gym goers and athletes in particular should

take notice. Relying soley on an active lifestyle for
maintaining one’s physique is unsustainable and difficult.
It’s true, there are a select group of people who are far
more physically active than the majority of the population,
and because of this, are already able to sport a cut up,
muscular body. I know quite a few people who fall into this
category. It’s much easier to stay cut if you’re practicing or
working out hard for 2 hours every day, 5-7 days a week.
But relying solely on insane levels of exercise to keep you fit
sets you up for inevitable weight gain as you age, and your
time is spent increasingly on other responsibilities (work,
raising a family, etc).

If you take control of your diet in the way I’ve

described here, you don’t need to rely on vigorous exercise
for 100% of your life. If you become extremely busy at work
for a month or two, you don’t need to forgo sleep and social
time for hours in the gym, because you can trust that your
IF lifestyle is keeping your physique in check. I’m not saying
you shouldn’t exercise, quite the contrary. I stongly
encourage it. But when you use intermittent fasting
properly, your diet will keep you lean and fit regardless of
how busy you become. I can say for myself that during a
hard push in the last quarter of the year, the only reason I
didn’t succumb to flabbiness and poor self image was due
to the control over my body that IF has given to me. I will
never look back and I wll never give it up. I love exercise and
I do so as often as I am able, but I’m not a slave to my
exercise regimen in the way many people are, and I have
the freedom to say “I don’t feel like going to the gym
today.” And I can say that guilt free. I strongly believe
fasting is something virtually every person can (and should)
benefit from.

A FINAL NOTE: THE INVISIBLE LINE

Much of maintaining your physique and a

sustainable transformation comes down to positive
feedback. If you’ve enjoyed your journey and results
enough, and your happy enough with your transformation,
you won’t let it go. This brings me to the invisible line. Loads
of people every year commit to losing weight and they have
some success. They lean down enough to bring themselves
from feeling “completely out of shape” to feeling “mostly
fit”. They feel much better, but most of this satisfaction is
the feeling of relief that comes from the lack of a negative
stimulus. What I mean is, they’ve gotten to the point where
they don’t hate how they look and they feel much better
taking pictures, going to the beach etc. They no longer feel
out of shape when wearing clothes, and they feel like a
“normal looking person again”. But just beyond this point of
success lies an even more significant positive
transformation. If those people were to foucs on body
composition just a little more, strive for just one further
level of fitness, their transformation would shock them.
Once I reached this point, I watched as my cheekbones
began to pop, my jawline become chiseled and defined, and
I felt truly transformed. At that moment, my motivation
shifted from negative to positive. I was no longer pushing
myself so I wouldn’t feel bad about my phsyique, I was
pushing myself because I LOVED my new appearance and
my new physique. It no longer felt like a chore to be strict
with myself because I loved my results and I wanted to keep
them. This shift from negative motivation to positive
motivation is not only more pleasant and healthy, but it is a
a wildly powerful driver. This is the type of motivation and
persistence that is difficult to lose. That is why we need to
strive to create a positive feedback loop for ourselves. If you
think you’re done and you’re happy with your phyique,
push just a little bit further, and I think you’ll be really glad
you did.

IMPORTANT: Positive self image does not need to stem from

one’s physique. No one should feel bad about themselves
because of their fitness. My point is only that you can use
the increased confidence and self satisfaction to motivate
yourself to maintain it. Fasting and self-starvation are not
the same thing, and no one should engage in such unhealthy
practices. It is important to value yourself regardless of your
fitness.

WHAT TO DO NOW:

As I said earlier, you’ve taken the first step by

ordering this book. You’re ready to make a change, and
improve your health, physique, and confidence forever. So
do it! Examine the different fasting windows, and pick the
one you think would work best for you. I hope this book is
able to help you most effectively take advantage of this
powerful weight loss approach. The body you’ve always
wanted is within your reach, now you just have to make the
necessary changes to achieve it.

NOW: I’VE THROWN A LOT OF INFORMATION AND

STRATEGIES AT YOU. Things like counting calories,
determining daily caloric needs, and incorporating this
eating pattern into your life can feel very overwhelming. So
I’ve developed a step-by-step program to help create
customized plans and routines for those who feel
overwhelmed and think they could use more assistance.
The program will make things like food budgeting and a
flexible fitness journey far less daunting, so you can focus all
your efforts on what you really care about: your health,
your new, shredded physique, and more importantly, the
rest of the things you enjoy doing in your lfie.

The program will also contain simple steps to

discovering and understanding your unique caloric needs, as
well as ways to form a calorie flexible plan and harness the
power of calorie cycling to speed up your results. It is
systematically designed to increase the freedom and joy
which you’ll experience during your journey. I will also
provide assistance and one on one guidance for
incorporating exercise and strength training into your life so
you can achieve a more lasting and impressive
transformation. Since you’ve ordered this book, you’ll
receive special discounted access to these helpful tools to
make your fat loss journey easy and enjoyable. This
resource is going to be a continued source of my efforts,
and I will be continuing to find ways to improve it, and its
ability to assist you in your endeavors. For that reason, as
improving the resource consumes more of my time and
efforts, I may not be able to offer for the same price
forever. Go to shred-fast.com/personalizedprogram/ to
learn more. Happy Fasting!