Originally emailed to subscribers on Thu, 21 Aug 2025 15:44:39 +0000. Sharing here for those who missed it.
Alright, let’s talk about intermittent fasting.
You’ve probably heard it all before.
“Fasting boosts growth hormone!”
“Triggers autophagy!”
“Makes your body burn fat faster!”
Blah blah blah.
Here’s what’s really going on. Intermittent fasting works because it restricts your eating window.
That’s it.
You’re simply giving yourself less opportunity to shovel calories into your mouth. There are loads of variations:
The
classic 16:8 (fast for 16 hours, eat for 8).
The 20:4 (fast for 20, eat for 4).
The full-on 24-hour fast: eat dinner tonight, then not again until tomorrow.
Or the slightly mad 5:2, where you basically starve two days a week and eat like a human the other five.
But no matter what
version you pick, they all do the same thing:
They make it harder to overeat.
If you only give yourself 4 hours to eat, unless you’re a gluttonous pig with a fridge full of Dominos and zero self-respect, chances are you’ll consume less.
Not because your metabolism has changed. Not because
your hormones have magically realigned. Not because you’ve activated “fat-burning mode” (whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean).
No.
Because you’re just eating less food. That’s it.
Fat loss is a maths problem. Always has been, always will be.
You burn more
than you eat? You lose fat.
You eat more than you burn? You gain fat.
And it doesn’t matter when you eat. What matters is how much you eat.
Fasting is just another way of budgeting. It’s like limiting yourself to using your debit card from 5pm to 9pm every day. Yeah, you might still blow it all on pints and Pad Thai. But most people
won’t. And that’s why it works.
Don’t get me wrong, there might be other health benefits. But those are just a bonus. The fat loss part? That comes from fewer calories.
End of story.
If you’re hoping fasting is some metabolic cheat code that lets you eat like a donkey in the evening and wake up ripped, I’m sorry, but it’s not.
No gimmicks. No magic. Just maths.
So if it helps you stick to a calorie deficit, brilliant. If it doesn’t? Find something else.
Just stop expecting miracles from skipping breakfast.
Bryan Kavanagh
BSc Sport Science and Health
CSCS, Level 4 ITEC Massage
Therapist
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