If you want to know the secret to losing fat, gaining muscle and feeling fantastic then look no further than intermittent fasting. The science behind intermittent fasting tells us that it’s not just what you eat but WHEN you eat that’s important.

For thousands of years different cultures, such as the Essenes, have only eaten at specific times of the day for optimal health. This is known as intermittent fasting.

Now intermittent fasting is one of the latest crazes amongst bodybuilders and athletes because it allows you to lose a lot of fat but stay strong. It’s a process that allows you to maintain, and even build, muscle.

To understand how intermittent fasting benefits us, first we need to look at the different functions of our digestive system throughout the day. Basically, there are three 8-hour periods: one for detoxification, one for digestion and one for nutrition assimilation.

Eating only during the digestion period is the key to intermittent fasting. I would even go so far as to say that if you didn’t change your diet, but just ate within the ‘digestion period’, you would already deeply and radically improve your health! But obviously having a healthy whole food diet takes you to the next level of optimal eating.

Let’s take a look at these three eight-hour periods:

Intermittent Fasting Period 1 – Detoxification: 4am to 12noon

This is the optimal time for your body to be in detoxification. Yep, no eating, and I know you might be thinking this will be tough, but it’s really not! I wake up early, I talk to clients, do stretching and strength training and all kinds of things without eating during this time. You will be okay!!

Your body stores all the essential amino acids and everything that you need to keep functioning even without eating first thing in the morning. When you go to bed at night and wake up in the morning your body has burnt through most of its glucose stores and switches to a fat burning mode called ketosis.

This process of ketosis is where you maximize fat loss and you augment your muscles. Your body goes into a process called autophagy or autolysis where it eliminates weakened proteins and replaces them. It’s like a renovation for your organs, your muscles and for your body! This is because when you do eat again, your muscular tissue and your organs are first in line for the nutrition that’s coming in.

So, during this time stick to water. Water with lemon is ok, or even some teas but do your best not to use any sweetener (too many calories and you put yourself back into the glucose mode and you want to continue to burn fat in the morning and eliminate excess protein).

To aid your body in this detoxification period here’s what to focus on:

a) Defecation. It’s good to poo when you wake up in the morning and the best way to stimulate this is by drinking a litre of water and going for at least a 30-45 minute walk. If this doesn’t help you have a bowel movement, then you might want to do an enema.

b) Urination. Drinking a lot of water helps flush toxins out of the body. You may like to add some lemon or cranberry juice occasionally to your water if you have urinary issues as they will help to get the urinary system flowing.

c) Perspiration. Exercise to the point of sweating or use a sauna. Sweating and moving the body helps the lymphatic system move out wastes. To facilitate the excretion of toxins through sweat, open up your pores on your skin. To do this I use a homemade mix of bicarbonate soda and vodka known as Guasha. Alternatively, you can use a dry skin brush all over your body.

d) Respiration. Breathing helps you take in a lot of oxygen which alkalises your body. I have a great breathing exercise, called Seven Rounds Of Seven, that will get you balanced. If you’re exercising, take some time to consciously breathe really deeply with pauses in between. Doing this for even five minutes whilst exercising means you’ll be pushing the lymphatic system and blowing out a lot of acidity.

Intermittent Fasting Period 2 – Appropriation: 12noon to 8pm

This is when the body wants to be in a situation of appropriation or taking in. Digestion during this time is optimal. Many long-lived brilliant cultures have always only begun eating when the Sun is highest in the sky.

I recommend the first meal at midday should be fresh fruit and really eat with all your senses. Focus your attention on how beautiful the fruit smells and how amazing it tastes. It’s an orgasmic experience! It’s hydrating, it gets the whole digestive system lubricated and it tastes fantastic.

After fruit, you can move onto something a little denser for lunch. For example, some Essene bread with avocado, tomato and sprouts. However, I do recommend keeping it raw until dinner which then can be more protein based or complex carbohydrates like lentils, sprouted grain breads, rice, avocado, and big salads.

If you’re still eating meat, try cutting down the portion size and increase the serving size of vegetables and salads instead. Trust me – you’re going to feel better.

I used to make omelettes with 10 eggs and I loved them! Then I met Chef Cynthia Louise and she would make a huge omelette with only 2 eggs but would throw in loads of broccoli and greens to bulk it up! After eating one of those I’d feel great. This is what you can do to get started to optimize your lifestyle.

Having some cooked food like vegetable soup for an early dinner is also great as it helps soften the digestive process and winds you down for the day so you can go to bed and sleep well at night.

I’ve gotta add here that Pulse Raw Food is a beautiful option to either replace lunch or to snack on. I recommend a bag every day. That along with intermittent fasting and you’re absolutely winning!

Intermittent Fasting Period 3 – Assimilation: 8pm to 4am

This is when the body wants to assimilate nutrients. If you’re still eating into the night, the energy that should be spent on processing and receiving nutrition is used for digestion instead. Don’t do that yourself! Allow yourself to receive that nutrition in the way you should. I actually say you shouldn’t eat after 6 or 7 o’clock because it takes a couple of hours for that food to move out of your stomach and into the small intestine.

Next Level Intermittent Fasting

This is something I’ve been exploring and experimenting with lately. It’s only eating one hour a day, it’s called 23:1 or OMAD (One Meal A Day). In that one hour, I start with fresh fruit and I go right into typically my complex carbohydrates (Essene bread, avocado, tempeh maybe a salad) then onto some denser foods or sometimes even cooked food.

The main thing here is that I’m only having one meal a day within a one hour period and going a full 23 hours of fasting before eating again. I’ve had amazing breakthroughs with it.

There is a massive amount of science supporting longevity through the processes such as this intermittent or cyclic fasting and caloric restriction. It’s the best way to maximise lifespan and feel optimal in your health and energy.

An important thing to realise is that it doesn’t matter how clean your diet is, your body still needs to eliminate things and it needs time to do that. Start off with not eating until noon and then not after about six or seven o’clock.

So, give it a go! You will feel amazing and lose all that fat you don’t want on your body. I love what eating optimally can do for us!