I have been fasting for years and years now, 16-18+ hours a day and it's the best thing I could have possibly done for control over my nutrition.

I would say 90% of the time it's 18+ hours for me, but I built my way up to that slow and steady.

The great part about intermittent fasting is that there are multiple different levels to it, similar to how we have multiple levels for our daily protein intake.

Here's a breakdown of those levels the way we did it for our daily protein goals...

The Three Levels of Your Intermittent Fasting

Level One: 14 Hour Fast

The first level of our intermittent fasting starts with a simple 14 hours. This is as easy as cutting your eating for 2-3 hours and then waiting to eat 3-4 hours upon waking up.

Simple. Easy. Do this for 1-2 weeks (unless you find it extremely easy), and then work up to Level Two!

Level Two: 16 Hour Fast

The second level of our intermittent fasting is just two hours on top. If not simple enough, this just adds an hour onto each end of your morning and night routine, or potentially even a couple hours of extra fasting in the morning.

Once you’ve moved onto this, keep the habit another week or two and then step it up a notch again to Level Three!

Level Three: 18+ Hour Fast

The third and final level is your 18+ hour fast range. I promise you: once you get to this stage you’re going to find controlling your hunger level easier than ever before.

The new control you have over your diet, combined with the benefits of fasting are going to shoot you ahead towards unlocking your Superhero Physique!

I know there are some people who may fast 24+ hours (sometimes as often as once or twice a week; or more..), sometimes upwards of 72 hours; but those are generally also the types of fasts you hear associated with causing stress on the body without enough increased benefits to warrant it.

Our take on intermittent fasting revolves around working your way up to 18 hour fasts. This not only promotes increased hormone levels that are incredible for performance, fat loss, and even muscle gain and retention; BUT, it’s also (ironically enough) one of the best tools to control our hunger as well.

I know, crazy.

But, now we need to discuss what you can and cannot eat and drink during your fasting window!

Most people automatically think you can only have water, but there's a few other things you can have that should make it easier for you!

What You Can...And Cannot Eat & Drink During Your Daily Fast

What you CAN eat/drink:

Black Coffee
Tea
Zero Calorie Drinks
Water
Sweeteners
Club Soda and other zero calorie carbonated drinks

What you CANNOT eat/drink:

Anything else...
Anything with calories
This also includes: Carbs/Proteins/Fats

And, something to note is:

"Zero Calorie Energy Drinks" have begun being a bit more transparent with their nutrition facts and are now listing their calories as 10-20 calories (usually). This is fine. The only thing that would make it NOT okay is if you had a started taking advantage of the 10-20 calories and turned it into a handful of 10-20 calorie drinks per day.

SOME EXTRA BENEFITS OF INTEMITTENT FASTING

As I'm sure some of you will just take my word for it that intermittent fasting is an incredible tool, I'm also sure there are a handful of you who are interested in some more information.

This is what Precision Nutrition lists as benefits that can come from daily intermittent fasting at the ranges we utilize:

REDUCED

blood lipids (including decreased triglycerides and LDL cholesterol)
blood pressure (perhaps through changes in sympathetic/parasympathetic activity)
markers of inflammation (including CRP<, IL-6, TNF, BDNF, and more)
oxidative stress (using markers of protein, lipid, and DNA damage)
risk of cancer (through a host of proposed mechanisms; we’ll save them for another review)

INCREASED

cellular turnover and repair (called autophagocytosis)
fat burning (increase in fatty acid oxidation later in the fast)
growth hormone release later in the fast (hormonally mediated)
metabolic rate later in the fast (stimulated by epinephrine and norepinephrine release)

IMPROVED

appetite control (perhaps through changes in PPY and ghrelin)
blood sugar control (by lowering blood glucose and increasing insulin sensitivity)
cardiovascular function (by offering protection against ischemic injury to the heart>
effectiveness of chemotherapy (by allowing for higher doses more frequently)
neurogenesis and neuronal plasticity (by offering protection against neurotoxins)

I will take all of that with a side of Monster Ultra please!

A LESSON ON INTERMITTENT FASTING