Yesterday, I told you about Intermittent Fasting, which is quickly becoming one of the hottest and most successful nutritional practices around.
Today, I want to focus on one of the (many) reasons why: hormones.
We briefly touched on the hormonal benefits of fasting in yesterday’s article, including an increase in one of the most powerful hormones around: Growth Hormone, or GH.
Also known as “the fitness hormone,” GH has a myriad benefits, ranging from increased sleep quality to enhanced metabolism.
While a full description of this amazing hormone is beyond this writing, it’s enough to say that the more GH your produce, the faster you can lose fat and gain muscle.
And so today, I want to share with you the top three instances when you naturally produce more Growth Hormone, and show you a way that you can combine all three to get the best possible outcome–a synergistic BURST of GH production, all leading towards incinerating fat.
Let’s take a look.
Three Instances of Naturally Increased Growth Hormone
When does your body create the most growth hormone?
There are three crucial times when your body pumps out GH:
- When you sleep
- When you are in a fasted state
- When you train with weights.
That’s correct — you product the MOST growth hormone when you sleep, when you eat, and when you train.
So, how do we use this knowledge to increase fat loss?
Well, let’s look at it.
We know you’re producing tons of growth hormone when you’re fasting–which means you’re NOT producing it when you’re eating.
We also know you’re producing it when you sleep.
So, if you’re producing GH when you sleep…why do you STOP producing it when you wake up? EASY–because, when most people wake up, the first thing they do is EAT…which we just said stops growth hormone production.
Which means that by doing something as simple as skipping breakfast you can extend the natural secretion of growth hormone that occurs during your sleep cycle; in addition, staying in a fasted state will actually help you product MORE growth hormone.
With just that simple change, you’ve double your fat burning production of GH.
Optimizing Growth Hormone for Maximum Fat Burn
And…forgive me for sounding like an infomercial host, but this is the perfect time to use this line…
“But wait, there’s more!”
Because, it actually does get even better.
You see, we also know that you produce a ton of growth hormone during and after your weight training session; now if only we could figure out a way to combine that knowledge with the previous points to increase GH further…
Oh, wait: that’s exactly what we did!
You see, imagine what would happen if you put your GH producing weight training session at the end of your GH-producing fasting session…which was used to extend the effect of your natural GH-producing sleep?
Exactly: you would create a perfect storm production, sending growth hormone production into overdrive, allowing your body to burn fat at an accelerated rate, while you’re already in a calorie deficit.
Here’s the abbreviated cheat sheet:
1) Get a good night’s sleep
2) Push your breakfast back until after your workout
3) Train with weights any time between 12 and 2pm.
Follow those three simple steps, then have a healthy meal—do those things, and you’re on your way to losing fat, and keeping it off forever.
Can you imagine that? By simply skipping breakfast and having a workout, you can burn triple growth hormone secretion and burn up to three times as much fat.
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Incredible results with minor changes—that’s what Fat Loss Forever is all about. To put this concept into practice right now visit: http://criticalbench.com/goto/Fatlossforever
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Great article Mike! but how does this work for athletes doing high volume or high intensity workouts. Lets say for example a high intensity (close to maximal loads) or high volume Olympic lifting session. would training after such a long fasting state affect performace?
Hey Dean, I think it would depend. I can have a good workout in the morning without having breakfast. That’s at least a 12 hour fast right there. But ask me to do a 24-hour fast by not eating since the night before and have my workout the next afternoon or evening, that would be tough from a performance stand point for sure.
So for the majority of us who have to work 9-5, when do you recommend training with IF?
Also, does this sort of program work on seriously overweight people
Workout at 6am or 6pm. No it does not work well for seriously overweight people.
I follow IF and have been doing it for a few months. I stop eating at 9-9:30pm but I don’t start until 1-1:30. It can be hard at times but I haven’t gone super strict with my food choices yet but I continue to lose weight and my performance in the gym has not lacked. I train around three an eating a small meal 2 hours before helps with the calories. On non workout days I let the fast last longer and have an eating window of six hours.
I forgot to mention to mention take bcaa and creatine before and during your workouts.
Cool, are you following “fat loss forever” or your own schedule?
Great advice. Personally I prefer kre-alkalyn though.
Just fat loss forever thing. It’s actually easier for me to follow because I run a restaurant and I can just avoid the food altogether instead of trying to nitpick. I plan on getting to back to the paleo and hit the weightless hard. I’ve got a highland game comp in May so now I’m focusing on strength and technique.
HELLO I HAVE A GREAT QUESTION ABOUT THIS TOPIC HOPE YOU CAN HELP…
How about this way is this good for Training in a fasted state. let me know if this will boost my GH levels for sick gains in the gym! also im trying to gain weight and get ripped,,and p.s. i burn alot of kcal per day i need to eat around3500-4000kcal per day ! lol…. anyways back to my routine… fasted state from 8:45pm till 12:45pm
eating period from 12:45pm to 8:45pm
10:30ish wake up drink some
Coffee
BCAA
maybe some Yohimbine for an extra boost.
11:15-12:15 gym
right at 12:15 or so…. drink whey protein isolate ,with some casein. bcaa and some sugars (Dextrose…pixie sticks 🙂 25g) and creatine and maybe some dates, bananas or rice cakes…fast acting foods…. then at 12:45-1:00pm 30min after the shake make my biggest meal of the day complex carbs, high good protein
then around 3:00pm have another meal before work (I work as a warehouse selector so i run around 6 miles and carry product throughout the day, which is why i need so many calories.) but then have a snack a around 6:00pm trail mix or something then at 8:20 have my last meal, full of good fats, protein and complex carbs..(that will be my last meal until my post workout shake at 12:45pm the next day) is that a good fast to up my GH level and get ripped…. I believe which i will see in results, that in fasting you can get bigger(If in excess calories and get ripped at the same time, since your going to be burning fat in your workouts just ,make sure to take some BCAA in so your not burning MUSCLE) my only question if that seems good to you, is im so used to having some carbs preworkout and a whey shake maybe some rice cakes or white bread…i DONT wanna do into the gym and burn fat but also losing my muscle which i think if taking BCAA will help dimish muscle loss.. and also Im so used to eating my casein shake or cottage cheese before bed couldnt do that either. bu ti think im going to give this fasting leangains type style a try for 2 weeks and see how my performance, mentally and physically go in the gym and mood. hope this makes sense thanks.. See this is my program i wanna try to obtain, get stronger by also getting ripped and i believe if you get alll your calories in and Marcos, but then also fast, but have a solid post workout shake and then a meal soon after you will have the best of both world ! gonna start my own fasting building muscle program!
I couldn’t help with the kcal and macros and all but it’s pretty solid. If you feel better eating per workout, eat something about two hours before but make it solid foods of veggies and protein so you don’t spike your insulin before working out. Eat your casein or cottage cheese at your last meal. I like mixing cottage cheese with frozen berries. It’s not a quick fix. Although I’m not ripped or shredded I saw close to 1% bodyfat loss per week despite not eating very clean. I did it for a few months while my wife was pregnant. I had to drop it because we had our son which was the straw that broke the camels back. I had a hard time with my work schedule eating at the right times and when he was born we hardly had time to eat. I may get back on it soon since things have gotten better. Don’t expect fast fat loss though. In my opinion it makes dieting and life easier because there is less stressing about meals and you can eat like a pig plus no cooking for 16 hours of the day!
This is the right webpage for anybody who hopes to find out about this
topic. You understand so much its almost hard to argue with you
(not that I really would want to…HaHa). You certainly
put a brand new spin on a subject that’s been discussed for decades. Great stuff, just wonderful!
I’m amazed, I have to admit. Rarely do I come across a blog that’s equally educative and amusing, and
let me tell you, you have hit the nail on the head.
The issue is an issue that not enough men and women are speaking intelligently about.
I am very happy that I found this in my search for something concerning this.
Great, thank you very much for sharing!! ~Coach Chris