The Mind Performance Health Podcast

Fat Loss Fasting: Is Intermittent Fasting Right For You?

• Michael Pritchatt

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Could skipping breakfast be the key to your fat loss goals? In this revealing episode, I dive deep into the science and practical application of intermittent fasting – a dietary approach that's transforming how many people think about their eating patterns and metabolic health.

As Australia faces an obesity epidemic affecting 7 out of 10 adults and 1 in 4 children, finding sustainable approaches to weight management has never been more important. I share my professional expertise as a coach who's worked with everyone from busy professionals to elite athletes, explaining exactly how intermittent fasting works, who it benefits most, and the surprising cases where it might actually sabotage your progress.

You'll discover the critical difference between simply losing weight and improving your body composition, why principles always trump methods, and how to avoid the common pitfalls that derail many people's fasting attempts. I share my personal journey with intermittent fasting, including how it improved my digestive issues, and the exact supplements I use to maximize the benefits while minimizing downsides like brain fog and muscle loss.

Whether you're curious about the popular 16:8 method, wondering about protein needs while fasting, or trying to determine if your training style is compatible with time-restricted eating, this episode provides clear, actionable guidance. The most powerful nutrition strategy isn't the trendiest one—it's the one you can maintain consistently while achieving your health and fitness goals. Listen now to determine if intermittent fasting deserves a place in your wellness toolkit.

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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to the Mind Performance Health Podcast. My name is Michael Pritchard, owner and founder of MPH Personal Training and MPH Nutrition. I'm a coach to everyday Australians fighting the war against obesity busy professionals, elite athletes and bodybuilders and on this podcast I'm going to share my knowledge with you of everything I've seen in the trenches to help you fight the war against obesity stay fit, build muscle, get strong, get leaner and apply those lessons to yourself and those around you as well. Seven out of 10 Australian adults are obese and overweight. One out of four kids in Australia are obese and overweight. I want to kind of reverse that trend and hopefully you do too. So let's lock into today's episode. Today I'm going to talk about intermittent fasting and how that can be a great tool for some of you out there to use to help fat loss, to help even your mood, energy regulation if it's done properly, to help digestion, but I'm also going to cover times where it may not be the best as well. So if that sounds interesting, if you do have fat loss goals or you're interested in diet strategies such as intermittent fasting to help your own health and fitness goals, you might find this pretty cool and I'll just touch on as well.

Speaker 1:

I've done many different diets personally myself. So usually with clients when they come to our personal training and coaching service, we do a bit of an audit or a daily existence. You know when they eat, what type of foods that they eat, when you're going to the gym, when you sleep, how your lifestyle is, where your stresses are at, to give you a bit of an idea of what works for you, because it's important that we tailor what works for you, because it's important that we tailor. I always say we want to be client-centered, not just coach-centered, because if we aren't client-centered with our approach, you may not actually be consistent long-term with your results and your progress, whether it's fat loss, whether it's muscle gain, whether it's improving your health. So we always get a bit of an idea where you're at now, how your daily existence actually is going currently, what you do, and then from there we can kind of formulate a plan.

Speaker 1:

Now the principles are the main things that matter when thinking about any diet. So you may have heard of the carnivore diet. Today we're going to cover intermittent fasting. You may have heard of keto, high carb, low carb. There's many different things out there, but what actually is the best or is there a best method of dieting that you can use? I always say same with training principles that principles are the main thing that you need to be aware of, rather than methods. So we have different training methods we use here, but it's the principles that really matter. We have different nutrition methods that we use here, but it's the principles that matter.

Speaker 1:

Just to give you an idea, if you have a fat loss goal, number one, to achieve fat loss you need to be in an energy deficit, and you may have heard that term going around before surplus deficit maintenance. Basically, what we're going to be doing is consuming less energy than your output, which means that we're going to be tapping into fat storages to use for energy, and that's how we burn fat. So, as a principle of fat loss, we need to be in an energy deficit to actually elicit fat loss. If we've got too much energy coming in or a neutral balance of energy, you'll be at maintenance. Too much coming in, you'll be in a surplus and store more body fat. So, whatever diet you choose, you need to be following that principle. If your goal is fat loss, you need to be in an energy deficit, no matter if it's keto, no matter if it's carnivore, no matter if it's intermittent fasting.

Speaker 1:

The other thing I want you to be aware of, too, is your macro breakdown. Now you can lose weight quite easily, and by eating a higher amount of carbs, by eating a higher amount of fats, even lower protein, you'll lose weight as long as you're in an energy deficit. But your body composition is different, just to weight loss. So body composition is going to be how much lean body mass do you have? How much body fat do you have on your body? How much water are you holding on to with your lean mass? This is like your body mass. That can be measured as well. Your macros, your calories, are going to dictate weight gain or weight loss, and your macros are going to dictate your body composition. So, once again, no matter what method you're choosing for dieting, whether it's keto, whether it's a structured plan that's tailored for you, doesn't have any fancy names. Intermittent fasting make sure you've got your macros down pat With fasting we're going to discuss today, but you've got to understand when I speak on fasting, I'm keeping these principles in mind, and so should you if you want the best and fastest results and the best metabolism as well.

Speaker 1:

Now, intermittent fasting. I personally intermittent fast. So, for example, you've got the 16-8 method where, simply, you won't eat for 16 hours, you'll have a fast for 16 hours. You just have water, a bit of electrolytes and then you'll have an fast for 16 hours. You just have water, bit electrolytes and then you'll have an eight hour, eight hour window where you'll consume your, your liquid or food-based calorie dense meals and then, once again, you'll fast for 16 hours. That's a popular method that's out there. I personally fast similar to that kind of method. So I'll have dinner and won't eat to lunch the next day. Really Earlier dinner I need to lunch the next day.

Speaker 1:

Now things to keep in mind is, with fasting it can be great for your digestive health because we're not putting too much stress. It's not just the calories you consume. It takes calories to even digest food, energy burn. It can also cause a bit of inflammation as well, depending on the food you're eating or if they don't digest well for you. So intermittent fasting can be great for digestive health. I've found it can be great for even helping with blood sugar, especially if you've come from not the best blood sugar kind of nutrition daily intake where you're spiking your blood sugar too often. It can be great for mental clarity if done properly as well, but once again, you need to really make sure it suits you.

Speaker 1:

Now, if you're someone that gets up in the morning, you go train and you do very strength-based kind of workouts where you're going to burn glycogen, you're going to cause a bit of damage to your muscles and you're going to require a bit of damage to your muscles and you're going to require a bit of carbohydrates for fuel. Intermittent fasting may not be the best approach if your goal is to maximize muscle gain and progress. However, if you're training in the afternoon or after lunch, like I do, you'll eat and then go train afterwards. It might be beneficial If you're someone that has a high amount of cravings or you get a drop of blood sugar too often. I've found intermittent fasting may not be the best sometimes if you have those kind of symptoms too. So it's important. You can try things, always do it with a health professional, but once again, there's going to be a particular method or principle that applies for you. So you've got the 16-8 method. Very simply, you'll have the window of 16 hours where you'll fast, 8 hours where you eat. Now let's talk about the fasting window when you're not eating.

Speaker 1:

I highly recommend to limit the downsides of fasting. The downsides can be the following the downsides can be brain fog. The downsides can be cravings as well. The downside can be potential loss of lean body mass. All right, potential loss of lean body mass. So to limit these downsides if you want to think better, you want to perform better, limit cravings I recommend that you make sure you are hydrated so you make sure you have plenty of water during that window of time.

Speaker 1:

I also recommend you have electrolytes. Electrolytes are going to be important for many, many different things, including muscle contraction, including digestion and brain function. So water and electrolytes are definitely a must during that window. It depends how strict you are with your fast as well. I personally have coffee in my fast and I've even worked on MPH Nutrition a coffee that has electrolytes in it, that has African mango to help with cravings extract in there African mango extract to help with cravings I put that in there. And also collagen protein to help hair, skin, nails, joints and also muscle recovery. So I've put that in the coffee so I can still fast. But having that coffee will also limit the downsides of fasting.

Speaker 1:

You can get that in the product itself. If you're ever interested, I have the links in the show notes you can click to check it out. Or you can just add it in to your coffee in many different means, through different supplements. It may not taste the best as the formula I've had 30 samples to get this down right the taste but you can add that in, whether it's through salt, sea salt, electrolyte products or even collagen products as well. You can just put it in your coffee, which is what I was doing for years. I just conveniently made a product where everything I was doing I put it into one. But there are things you can do as well to make sure you can actually perform your best during the fasting window.

Speaker 1:

The other thing to keep in mind, too, is going to be with your nutrition when you actually break the fast, making sure that you are aware of your macro intake and calorie intake. Once again, you need to be in a deficit of calories to make sure you actually are losing fat if your goal is fat loss, losing fat if your goal is fat loss. I usually don't recommend this style too much. With muscle gain, it can be hard to cramp in like in a surplus or a pure lean building phase, we call it, where you're trying to build as much muscle as you can In a minute of fasting. You can still build muscle with like don't get me wrong, but you'll need to make sure that you've got enough protein in there as a target for yourself.

Speaker 1:

I do recommend you try to get anywhere and maybe a little bit on the higher side. I do, with some clients, go up to three grams per body weight, depending how hard they're dieting down and depending how low they are in body fat. But as a nice, safe kind of range, 2.2 to 2.5 grams of protein per body weight is a great starting point. And then from there you want to separate and make sure you hit that in your meals during your eating windows, whether it's through liquid calories or whether it's through food-based meals. So 2.2 to 2.5 grams you can go a little bit higher if you're on the lower side of body fat and then from there you also want to make sure that you have adequate amount of fats.

Speaker 1:

Now, fats are essential healthy fats. Avocados, nut butter, ghee butter, organic grass-fed butter these are all essential fats. You need them for hormone production, digestion, for your health. So I do recommend not going, in most, most cases, below one gram per body weight with your healthy fats for the day and once again, you can get those sources of food. We do have a copy of our user manual user manual digital copy of our body transformation guide with with nutrition options in there in our show notes. You can click on to see examples of foods for protein, fats and carbs. Our philosophy is mainly whole foods. It will be better for your body composition. It will stabilize blood sugar as well, but you can check that out.

Speaker 1:

The other side to pay attention to is carbohydrates. Now your fat and carbohydrate balance when fasting is going to be totally dependent on a couple of things. Number one what type of training you're doing so. So if you're doing more, say to keep it simple terms muscle building kind of training where it's more glycolytic or requires a lot of carbohydrates, then I recommend you might have a little bit more carbs in your diet. Versus if you're doing more cardio-based work or not as much muscle building priority, then you might have higher fats in your diet because that energy system isn't as needed. It really depends on the type of activity in the day. If you're doing activities that require a lot of glycogen for energy that require a lot of carbohydrates or sugar to use for energy, then you want to make sure you have enough carbohydrates in there. If you're doing things that don't require a lot of glycogen burn or carbohydrates for fuel, then you might have higher fats in there. So you can base it around those two ways. But really, when I look at it, it's going to be dependent on your threshold for carbohydrates and then I'll fill in the rest with fats.

Speaker 1:

Now, after your fast as well, I usually recommend maybe two to three meals, depending on the volume of those meals and the frequency, but two to three meals within that eight hour window, mainly whole foods. Once again, fish gathered, plucked or hunted just want just to stabilize your blood sugar. Helps your body too, and it will be able to help sustain the fast a little bit longer as well, because your blood sugar will be more stabilized versus not when you eat simple sugars. You spike your blood sugar. That improves the chances of having cravings as well as many health issues potentially, if you spike it too often. So we do want to eat foods that are mainly whole foods. That stabilize your blood sugar during the day, makes dieting a lot easier too, but also make sure you get sustained energy okay, which is very important for longevity with your health and fitness goals. So supplements when we look at supplements, so that's a bit on foods like more whole food based, but when we look at supplements, electrolytes can be used, as I touched on before.

Speaker 1:

Coffee can be used, can be great just to help mental function, performance, digestion even. But be mindful as well, too much caffeine isn't good either. It can. Every time you have caffeine it does raise your stress hormones. Excess, excess caffeine equals excess stress, which can lead to a bit of issues. Whether it's digestion, whether it's with blood sugar, you always will have a crash if you have excess spikes with your stress and blood sugar. So caffeine can be great and used to help sustain energy as well throughout the day to help digestion. Just keep it in moderation. Water is very important. Magnesium making sure we're not too depleted Once again with magnesium to have at night can be a great supplement to substitute into your diet as well.

Speaker 1:

But there are some few supplements and strategies that you might find helpful to check out for your goals. But ultimately too, we just want to make sure if the goal is fat loss, energy deficit, make sure your macros are down pat and see if it works for you. Once again, if you find that you're doing intermittent fasting, but if you are getting dizzy at the start of the day because you're not eating, if you find that you've got these sugar cravings number one, play with what you're doing in terms of the food types, like I just touched on, or whole food-based, but if you still find it's very hard to stick to or you're training in the mornings and it's just not working out. Strength-wise is coming down or you're losing muscle, it may not be the best strategy for you. So I do recommend recommend, if you've never done it before, do see a professional to help you structure it in the best way possible for you.

Speaker 1:

Everyone's a bit different, but if there was one diet that really helped everyone with their goals, everyone would be doing it. There are some of those in the camp that love intermittent fasting, there are those that don't, there are some in the camp that love keto and those that don't, and others that love carnivore or vegan or vegetarian. You've just got to find what works for you and what fits best for you to be consistent long-term. So there's just a few strategies that I like to personally use For myself. It does help with gut health For me. I've had a history of gut issues over the years and intermittent fasting does sit a bit better for that. I've had a history of gut issues over the years and intermittent fasting does sit a bit better for that. I haven't always done intermittent fasting. I used to be in the camp of always eating breakfast in the morning. It's only over the last few years that I switched to more fasting and intermittent fasting. With my dietary strategies, but also my goals have changed. I've got more of longevity, vitality goals, improving my gut health, whereas before it was more so about building as much muscle as possible. So that required a different strategy at that time for me.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so, guys, a few different strategies there. Let me know your thoughts. Have you tried intermittent fasting before? I want to know from the community Do you have any other questions with intermittent fasting as well? When it comes to water, just quickly as a takeaway too, I usually recommend to go a little bit higher, so maybe around four liters for guys it depends on your, your sweat rate during the day with what you do, activity levels and around three liters for ladies is a kind of a good marker, just as a quick takeaway to execute.

Speaker 1:

All right, so let me know any questions as well. On intermittent fasting or fasting have you tried it before? Did it work, did it not? Let me know in the comments down below or reach out to us. If you need a copy of the user manual or the body transformation guide and you're listening to this on a platform where you can't see the notes in terms of the podcast you can reach out to us at mindperformancehealthau and our team will send over a copy, a digital copy, for you to review. All right, so let me know any questions in the comments below. Thank you for listening. I'll see you on the next one and keep up with your health and fitness goals. Good.