Fat Burning Mistakes When Intermittent Fasting
Sep 19, 2023Intermittent fasting has gained popularity when it comes to getting healthy, and for good reason. There are a lot of benefits to this style of eating, and it’s a strategy I’ve been using personally for 10+ years and have seen the majority of our clients implement with great success.
However, it’s far from a magic bullet eating strategy and there are many mistakes you can make when trying to build muscle and burn fat while intermittent fasting. I made several of these mistakes for many of the early years on my own intermittent fasting journey, and it wasn’t until I addressed these that I saw long-term transformation in my health, fitness, and body composition. By learning what the common mistakes are listed below, you’ll be able to avoid the common reasons people fall short of their fat loss goals when intermittent fasting.
1: Too Many Calories
You won’t lose fat if you’re eating too many calories, plain and simple. While intermittent fasting provides an easy way to eat less calories, due to eating in a smaller eating window, calories still matter at the end of the day. There are no extra benefits to intermittent fasting that make calories matter less, so if you’re struggling to lose fat make sure to track your calories. And remember, it’s not about how much you eat in a single day - but how much you are eating week to week and month to month (weekends included).
If you want to burn fat, you need to be eating below your maintenance calories.
2: Not Enough Protein
Protein is the number one macronutrient to prioritize when trying to burn fat while minimizing muscle loss. Protein is essential for building muscle, recovery, and helps keep you full as you avoid easy to over consume fats and carbohydrates which can cause your weight loss goals to stall.
If you want to burn fat and minimize muscle loss, you need to be eating enough protein. Aim for 1g/lb of bodyweight as a general starting point, and potentially even higher if you’re eating in a consistent calorie deficit.
3: Inconsistent Eating Windows
Your body and your hormones crave consistency. If you are eating in a calorie deficit, which you need to be to lose fat, it’s normal to get hungry at times. However, when you keep your eating window consistent you can minimize some of the hunger that increases when eating windows are inconsistent. As with calorie intake, this is even true on the weekends.
There is no ideal eating window, choose a 6-12 hour eating window that works best for your schedules and goals and stick with it.
4: Too Much Exercise/Cardio
This was one mistake that plagued me for a lot of years, and has prevented many others from maximizing their fat burning potential. For years I would work out four, five, and even six days a week with extra cardio sprinkled in thinking that this was the recipe to getting lean. This led to me feeling beat up, burning more muscle than fat, and falling short of my goals. If fat burning is your goal, don’t overdo it on the cardio. This will compromise lean muscle mass, the most important variable to keep your metabolism high as you diet.
For most people, 3x/week of resistance training is sufficient and plenty effective at building muscle when you are following the right program and training at a high enough intensity. If you want to add more, don’t add more cardio but more low level activity such as walking.
5: Focusing on Weight>Body Composition
It’s important to track your progress to make sure you’re on the right track. However, tracking weight on its own can be misleading. If your goal is losing fat, you’ll benefit from making sure you preserve as much muscle mass as possible in the process. This will not only help make fat loss easier, but will give you a better ‘lean’ look when you get down to your goal weight.
While it’s beneficial to regularly check your weight, make sure you are tracking your body fat percentage as well to ensure that you are maximizing fat loss without sacrificing important muscle mass.