Intermittent fasting is a hot topic of the modern athlete. And wouldn't you know, an in dept understanding of the mechanisms that govern fat loss, muscle gain, and functional capacity inevitably boils down to your hormonal balance.

The IF Life outlines a few basic principles of intermittent fasting which all boils down to the fact that growth hormone is elevated when working out in a fasting state.

Fat loss first and foremost is a hormonal event, the right hormones telling the body to release the stored “energy” in the fat cells to burn off. It is also important to know that there are also fat “storing” hormones that act in the opposite way, triggering the body to store “future energy” into the fat cells...

...The Fat loss hormones were are going to focus on briefly are insulin, glucagon, and growth hormone (GH). Insulin is a fat storing hormone, while glucagon and GH are fat burning hormones. If insulin is present and elevated, the other hormones go down (this is an important relationship to realize). Another hormone called cortisol (stress hormone) is a muscle breakdown hormone….and that is not something we want in our fat loss quest.

Basically, to gain muscle and burn fat you want to keep your insulin down by minimizing sugars and carbs., maximize growth hormone with high intensity training, and incorporate intermittent fasting to boost your growth hormones naturally. Oh, and eat plenty of protein with every meal.

This is how you can be a lean, mean, stength and performance machine; go for it!