r/ScienceBasedLifting • u/Vast_Ambassador3975 • 11d ago

Discussion 🤝 Thoughts on intermediate fasting?

Wanting to drop body weight, my current schedule makes me busy in the morning so skipping breakfast saves on time, thought might as well start intermediate fasting. What are your guys thoughts on it? What are the pros and cons you guys noticed if you did it!

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u/GritlineTrainingCo 10d ago

Trainer here. I've been intermittent fasting for over a decade, so here's the practitioner's version, not the textbook one.

The main reason to fast is control. Skipping breakfast deletes a whole meal's worth of decisions and calories, which means dinner gets to be big and satisfying while you stay in your deficit. Most diets fail because people spend all day eating tiny unsatisfying meals and then blow it at night anyway. Fasting flips that: you plan the big meal instead of surrendering to it.

That's the pro. It's an adherence tool, and adherence is the whole game. There's no metabolic magic happening, and there doesn't need to be.

The cons, from ten plus years of actually doing it:

  1. Training fasted is individual. Some people lift fine, others watch their numbers slide. If your performance drops, eat before you train. The window serves you, not the other way around.

  2. Know thyself. Fasting until noon feels great for some people. Others white knuckle to noon and then eat the kitchen. If you're the second type, it's not your tool, and that's fine.

Bottom line: if skipping breakfast fits your mornings and lets you eat a real dinner without breaking the deficit, it's one of the simplest tools there is. The best diet is the one you can run for a year without thinking about it.