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The Easiest Fasting Diet

articles, supplements-nutrition

Chris_Shugart Chief Content Officer

18h

90/90 Intermittent Fasting

“ Modest time-restricted feeding strategies

work as well as stricter plans. This one might
be the most doable.

Time-restricted feeding (TRF) plans are a type of

intermittent fasting. Basically, you give yourself a
“window” of time to eat. No matter how scientific
they try to sound, most of these plans can be
summed up as “skipping breakfast.” So, if you
have a snack before bed, sleep 8 hours, then
fast until lunchtime, you’ve fasted for about 12-
14 hours.

Some plans have you fasting for 16 hours, which

gives you an 8-hour eating window. This might
reduce inflammation, “detoxify” the body, and
lead to some fat loss, provided you don’t go
buckwild and binge during your eating window.
As new studies show, it probably all comes down
to simple calorie reduction, no matter how you
do it.

As long as you don’t have disordered eating

tendencies – which turn intermittent fasting plans
into buttery-slick slopes – it can work, at least
when used strategically for short time periods.
However, super strict TRF plans (4-hour eating
windows) may backfire , leading to an increase
in abdominal fat even though scale weight is
lost. So there seems to be a happy medium.

Recently, researchers looked into a kinder,

gentler version of time-restricted feeding.

The 90/90 Study

During the 10-week study, participants were

given some simple meal-timing guidelines:

Delay breakfast by 90 minutes.

Eat your last meal of the day 90 minutes
earlier than normal.
Eat what you want in between.

In a nutshell, their normal eating window was

“closed” by 3 hours – 90 minutes in the morning,
90 minutes in the evening.

Results and Analysis

Those following the 90/90 plan lost twice as

much fat as the control group, which just ate
normally. This was just a pilot study, but here are
some takeaways:

The 90/90 group ate what they wanted,

what researchers call “free living” or
having “ad libitum” food access, but
they did naturally reduce their daily
calories. This was partly because they
didn’t get to eat in the last 90 minutes
before bed when many fall prey to
mindless snacking. So we could say the
results were just a matter of “less time to
eat, fewer calories consumed.”
More than half (57%) of the study
participants said they wouldn’t want to
maintain this plan. Why? To them, it was
a pain in the ass socially and tough to
work into their normal schedules.
Delaying breakfast 1.5 hours may cause
your first meal of the day to fall right into
the timeslot where you have to be at work,
school, or the gym. And moving dinner up
1.5 hours may not jibe with work
schedules or family mealtimes.

How To Use This Info

If the 90/90 plan fits your schedule, it could be

worth trying, especially if you avoid “free eating”
like the regular folks in the study. Instead, keep it
clean and pack in the protein .

Two things to keep in mind if you decide to try

the 90/90 plan. Fasted weight training is
counterproductive, so if you train in the morning,
then break your fast with targeted workout
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Many people just find it easier and more

convenient to move this 3-hour fasting time to
the end of the day. Multiple studies show that not
eating 3 hours before bed leads to as much fat
loss or more fat loss than a 90/90 split plan. If
you’re used to late-night snacking, this may be a
test of willpower until your appetite-signaling
mechanisms and behavioral habits adjust, but
it’s easier for most people to fit into their normal
schedules.

Modest calorie restriction combined with a

higher-protein diet works every time, no matter
how you arrange your meals. But if clearly
defined fasting and eating windows help you
keep calories in check, a 90/90 or a “don’t eat 3
hours before bed” strategy is worth a shot.
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► References

meyman3 11h

I need to do this, just don’t eat anything after

dinner. It’s when I’m prone to watch TV and eat
junk.

Chris_Shugart 8h
Chief Content Officer

I’ve found this to be very effective. It probably

just comes down to keeping calories in check,
but there’s some evidence that pre-bed or late-
night eating trends the body towards fat gain,
even if overall daily calories are controlled.

I recall one study where two groups consumed

the same number of daily calories, but the group
that skipped breakfast and had a big chunk of
their allotted calories at night showed impaired
fat metabolism – metabolizing fewer lipids and
more carbs, etc. This also seemed to raise
insulin, fasting glucose, and triglyceride levels,
which adds up to a negative metabolic profile.
Now, we could debate whether any of that lead
to any actual fat gain over time, but the signs
weren’t good.

That said, other studies show that if the late-

night meal is pure protein, like a casein-
containing protein shake , there are no negative
issues. The shake doesn’t blunt overnight
lipolysis or increase subcutaneous abdominal
fat. I have an older article on that here:

Tip: Eat This Before Bed

and Stay Lean

Eating before bed may disrupt fat

metabolism... but not if you eat this. Here's
the new science.

Est. reading time: 3 minutes

Now, to really complicate things, all of this may
depend on whether or not the studies were
looking at weight lifting folks (I think the one
above was – resistance trained women).

But yeah, generally, cutting out the TV snacks is

a good plan, whether we give it a fancy name
like time-restricted eating or not.

meyman3 40m

thanks for the response! I already do this, I add a

few blueberries and some whipped cream and
call it “Protein Ice Cream”

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