Intermittent Fasting For Martial Artists: Should You Do It?

Intermittent fasting is one of the most appreciated concepts in nutrition for martial artists. It is believed to have a lot of benefits for everyone who includes this in their lifestyle, particularly for fighters and athletes. This concept has been running in everyone's mind for decades. But is this concept true? Do you really get benefits from intermittent fasting, or is it just a theory? How can you use it to your benefit? Let's explore these questions in detail.

Intermittent fasting means that you are not eating in a typical regular pattern, but you are fasting for some irregular intervals between each eating period. The word intermittent means doing something not in a regular way, but at irregular intervals. Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern in which you don't eat at a fixed time, and the time interval between each eating period is variable. There are a lot of ways you can do intermittent fasting, all of which are considered to have the same basic benefits for you.

Although there are many intermittent fasting patterns, the following are the famous ones:

5-2 rule follows the week pattern. Five and two refer to the number of days in a week. According to this rule, you will eat on any five days of the week. These days should not be consecutive, and you have to eat normally. In the remaining two days of the week, you will not eat normally. These two days are the fasting days. Now it depends on you to what extent you fast these days. The only limit is 600 calories. You cannot eat more than 600 calories. Now you can fast for 24 hours completely or have some hours of eating at irregular intervals. These days should not be consecutive.

Unlike the 5-2 rule, the 16-8 rule follows the day pattern. 16 and eight refer to the hours in one day. According to this rule, 16 hours refers to eating regularly during 16 hours, and in the other eight hours, you will not eat anything and keep fasting. It can also be the opposite, meaning that instead of eating for 16 hours in a day and fasting for eight hours, you can fast for 16 hours in one day and eat for eight hours on the same day.

Alternate day fasting, as the name indicates, involves eating and fasting on alternate days. You are eating like a normal healthy individual for a complete day, and on the next day, you will have a fast. Further, on the next day, you will eat normally. So you are eating and fasting on non-consecutive days.

The 24-hour fasting rule, also known as the Eat-Stop-Eat rule, means that in one week, you will fast for 24 hours straight. You can do a 24-hour fast once or twice a week.

This restricted time or time-restricted fasting is similar in some context to the 16-8 rule. In this rule, you restrict your time for eating and fasting. Now it depends solely on you, how much time you want to have fast and eat. This includes the 16-8 rule or the 14-10 rule. In the beginning, you can start by keeping the time of eating more than fasting. As you continue doing it, you can increase the time of your fasting.

It is more of a dieting rule, but it can be included in a fasting rule as well. In this rule, you don't eat a meal during the day, but you have some fruits and vegetables in small quantities. This is followed by a complete meal at night.

As the name indicates, in this rule, you are eating only once a day, and in other hours you don't eat anything. But one time you eat according to this rule, you eat completely and as much as you want to help you have a fast for the rest of your day.

• Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that involves alternating your eating and fasting periods. The basic objective of intermittent fasting is to fast as long as you force your body to start utilizing your fat as an energy source, thereby stimulating fat burning.

• When you ingest food, it is broken down and converted into glucose. This glucose is then absorbed into the blood and transported by the blood to various organs of your body for energy. Excess glucose, which is not transported to organs by blood, is stored in the liver as glycogen and in adipose tissue as fats. When you are eating normally, your body has glucose stores, which are used to provide you with the energy you need for doing any physical task. But when you are fasting for up to 9 to 12 hours, your body's glucose reserves are finished, and then glycogen is converted into glucose for energy.

• After glycogen, fat from the adipose tissue is converted into ketones and glycolysis for energy. This way, fat is utilized for energy, and your body starts losing fat. The time for finishing glucose reserves for energy and then utilizing fat depends on individuals. If they are doing a workout, the time will be much less. Similarly, for training martial artists, the time is very little, and hence, if they do fasting with training, they will provide multiple benefits to their bodies.

• This type of fasting is not suitable for everyone. Despite this, the research shows that if you are doing intermittent fasting correctly, then it can bring a lot of benefits for you, such as lowering your body weight by triggering fat burning, lowering blood cholesterol levels, maintaining blood sugar levels, lowering blood pressure, improving insulin sensitivity, and mental strength.

Now, let's discuss the benefits you can get by doing intermittent fasting as a martial artist:

• For improving insulin function and sensitivity, intermittent fasting is done. Insulin is a hormone secreted by the pancreas in your body. This has the main role of regulating glucose levels in your body. When your glucose levels increase, your insulin also increases. Insulin has an antagonistic action to glucose in your body. It decreases the glucose levels when they are high so that they return to their normal state. When glucose levels decrease, your insulin levels also decrease.

• Insulin is essential in your body, as without it, your glucose levels cannot remain normal. If they are not in their normal ranges, it can lead to diabetes. So your insulin should be sensitive to glucose levels in your body and must function optimally. One way to improve your insulin sensitivity is intermittent fasting. During fasting, your glucose levels remain in the normal range, so insulin levels don't rise, improving your sensitivity.

• Another benefit you get from intermittent fasting is fat loss. Normally, when you think about the ways to burn your fat, all you have is exercise or a workout. But there is one downside to working out, and that is that you lose your muscles too, along with your fat, if you are only doing workouts without taking any supplements.

• Losing your muscles is a high-risk thing you do for fat burning through a workout. The safe solution is intermittent fasting. When you fast, glucose is not produced in your body. Your body’s glucose store becomes empty, and it becomes dependent on fat stored in adipose tissues. This way, your fat is burned. So you are doing nothing other than fasting. This is a very easy way to reduce your fat while keeping your muscles intact.

• Autophagy is a process in which damaged, old, or injured cells are removed from your body and replaced by new cells. This is a natural process in your body. Autophagy is a very important process in your body. Without this process, your damaged cells will remain in your body and will never be replaced by new ones. Getting injured sometimes is a part of life for everyone. You often get bruises on your body.

• For fighters, it's a normal thing. They get injured, get bruises and dead marks, and cells remain on their body, particularly on their face. This makes their face dull due to dead cells. The best way to tackle this thing is autophagy, and you can stimulate your body’s autophagy process by doing intermittent fasting. In intermittent fasting, your dead cells are replaced by new ones.

• The fourth benefit you can get from intermittent fasting is mental strength. When you are doing intermittent fasting, your body no longer produces glucose because you are not eating anything. Your glucose stores are depleted in your body, and you have to switch to the fat stored in your adipose tissue to utilize energy and use it as a fuel source.

• So fat is broken down, and ketones are generated. These ketones are the winning product for your mental strength. They are the source for giving strength, sharpness, focus, and clarity to your brain. So when you keep doing intermittent fasting, your brain becomes sharper and focused with improved mental strength.

Intermittent fasting is great and very beneficial, but it also has some cons which you should definitely consider:

• When you are fasting, your glucose stores become depleted. After their depletion, glycogen and fat stores are utilized to provide you with energy. But these stores cannot provide you with much energy, like glucose. So you might feel sudden energy dips while you are doing your martial arts training. You will lose your focus and strength, and not be able to do it as you normally do.

• Although there is no certain disadvantage, when you are fasting, you are at a higher risk of catabolism. Catabolism is the breaking down of molecules in your body, such as your muscle tissues. But this does not occur every time. This only happens if you fast for a long enough time, such as 24-hour fasting.

• Another disadvantage is that when you are fasting for a long time, you are at higher risk of breaking your fast with overeating rather than eating less and slowly. This can have worse effects on your health.

• The fourth con of intermittent fasting is that it is not for everyone. Not all can benefit from it. The kids, people with diabetes, some other serious disorders, and older people cannot do intermittent fasting and thus are not able to get the benefits from it.

You can follow any IF schedule according to your priorities and comfort level, but the following is the IF schedule that is considered ideal for martial artists:

• 5-6 AM: You should wake up at five A.M after completing at least 7-8 hours of sleep, which is very necessary for you as a martial artist. After waking up and doing some necessary chores, you should do martial arts training for some time. During this period, you should not eat anything. Instead, have black coffee, or if you don't like to drink coffee, you can drink water.

• 7-8 AM: During 7-8 AM, this is the time for you to do your daily duty, whatever you do, such as training if you are a professional martial artist, or going to school, or to a job. Still, you will not eat anything, but make sure you drink water to keep yourself hydrated.

• Noon or 12 PM: Noon time is usually around 12 PM. This is the time when you should break your fast and eat something. Prioritize eating healthy, such as protein-rich foods, fruits, or vegetables, as this will give you multiple benefits because you are having fast and healthy foods.

• 2-3 PM: At 3 PM, you will eat something again, but this time you will eat light. This time again, you must prefer healthy eating. You can drink a protein shake, which will help you in multiple ways.

• 5-6 PM: At five, you should get ready to start your second martial arts training session of the day.

• 7 PM: At seven, eat healthy again. This time, you should not eat lightly. Have some fish, brown rice, or any other healthy thing that you like the most.

• 8 PM: At 8 PM, i.e., one hour after eating healthy fully, you should eat something light such as snacks, cheese, yogurt, or nuts.

• 9 PM: Start your fast again. Remember always that this fast is not like you are not eating or drinking. You only avoid eating. But make sure that you are drinking and keeping yourself hydrated to prevent dehydration.

You should do intermittent fasting, but doing it without any guidelines will make you suffer from health issues, so make sure you are following the safety guidelines given below to do safe and effective intermittent fasting:

• You should only avoid eating, not water. Keep drinking water throughout your day for proper hydration.

• Don't fast if you are so weak.

• Don't fast if you are suffering from any disorder that requires you to eat healthy and regularly.

• Eat healthy when you break your fast.

• Don't eat fully at the time of breaking your fast. Eat slowly and in intervals. It is often advised that you should eat almost 80% of your total eating capacity.

• Don't do intermittent fasting daily.

Intermittent fasting is only good and effective for you if you do it safely, following the guidelines. Moreover, certain groups of the population are exempt from doing it because it can have worse health effects on you if you are not eligible to do it. As far as martial artists are concerned, intermittent fasting is a gold mine for them because the benefits they get from martial arts training get multiplied if they follow the intermittent fasting schedule. So, if you are a martial artist, you should definitely consider adding intermittent fasting to your martial arts routine.

Yes! Intermittent fasting is very beneficial for weight loss and fat loss. It stimulates burning fat if you fast long enough, and this fat burning will result in weight loss.

Intermittent fasting has a lot of benefits such as such as lowering your body weight by triggering fat burning, lowering blood cholesterol levels, maintaining blood sugar levels, lowering blood pressure, improving insulin sensitivity, and mental strength.

You can do intermittent fasting by following different approaches. Some of the approaches you can follow are as follows:

• 5-2 Rule

• 16-8 Rule

• Alternate Day Fasting

• 24-Hour Fasting

• Restricted Time Fasting

• The Warrior Fasting Rule

• One Meal A Day (OMAD) Fasting Rule

Intermittent fasting works by utilizing your fat to provide you with energy. If you fast long enough, then your fats will be burned. Fats produce ketones, which are beneficial for improving your mental health. Fats are burned, and weight is lost.