Intermittent Fasting — A new relationship with calories
The New Year is often a time to contemplate one’s relationship with calories. After months of culturally sanctioned gluttony, we find ourselves suddenly facing a cold empty chasm, facing a familiar question: Will we fill this void with purpose, or leftover eggnog?
The pandemic holidays of 2020 were unique, of course. The usual peer-reviewed parade of excesses moved to Zoom, which didn’t stop the snacking, lounging and binge drinking that in many homes has, in fact, been in full swing since March. All of which conspire to leave the average American all the more fat and lonely than ever by year’s end.
In the beforetimes, January was always the busiest month of the year for gym signups, with the first being the busiest day. In the duringtimes of 2021 it will be more complicated, but losing weight will remain a top resolution.
Weight loss is a problem that stumps so many people, even while the answer could not be more obvious. What other problem can be solved by doing less?
Less eating, that is. Exercise is important for many, many reasons other than calorie burning. But trying to lose weight with exercise alone is like trying to wipe water off the floor without bothering to turn off the faucet that’s overflowing the sink. We need to consume fewer calories, which means confronting hunger. Most people who can afford the choice will avoid that feeling, when they should probably make friends with it.
Consider the expression to “stay hungry.” It means, basically, to stay motivated. To keep after your goals and shape your dreams, rather than to lazily graze upon an all-you-can-eat pasture of your past achievements.
In the context of weight loss, those hunger pangs are the feelings that come from actual work, like the ache in your thighs after leg day at the gym. And new research appears to suggest, meanwhile, that fasting can improve your workout – including muscle building — while exercise can increase the caloric burn of a fast. Like some magic pill that burns fat and builds muscle, the budding field of fasted training might be the answer to your New Year’s blues.
Not to be confused with starvation, fasting is the deliberate refraining from eating. It’s an ancient practice tied to many religions and cultures, from Native American vision quests to Ramadan.
Mark Mattson, a professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, ushered in the modern era of fasting, now known scientifically as caloric restriction, with his 2003 research on mice. The study suggested that long-term calorie-restriction increased the little mammals’ lifespans. Subsequent work by Mattson and others documented cognitive improvements in mice on calorie-restricted diets, again confirming age-old wisdom. This work helped spawn the popular diet called Intermittent Fasting, or “IFing,” for short.
IFing focuses on the timing of meals, rather than their content. Most adherents shoot for 16 hours of no eating, including the time spent sleeping. If you sleep for 8 hours, then you’d be fasting for about half of your waking time on any given day. One could just as accurately call the diet intermittent feasting, which is part of why it’s so popular.
Martin Berkhan, the weightlifter, irreverent blogger, and owner of the Leangains brand, isn’t shy about eating an entire cheesecake in a sitting, or poking fun at people who do sit-ups. Berkhan schedules his workout for the end of his fasting window, and follows the workout with a no-holds-barred feast.
Love him or hate him, and regardless of whether you want Grand Canyon abs, Berkhan did a lot to organize the impact of caloric restriction on body building. Intermittent fasting is particularly effective, he says, because human growth hormone is naturally released in the early stages of a fast. Berkhan believes this fasting window is a powerful opportunity for the body to make the most of exercise — he does consume protein just before his regimen of squats, benches, and pull-ups, all with hundreds of pounds of added weights, but his belly is not full. The reason he can get away with all the cheesecake is that those big muscles require a lot of energy to work that hard, and they will get that energy from his fat cells after depleting the sugar in his blood.
Exercising with an empty belly is not for everyone. But if you are willing to push against
your comfort zone, it does get easier. Mattson told the health blog Inverse that it takes about a month before the hunger pains from a skipped meal go away, which coincides with the period when you can measure and feel the diet’s benefits, including insulin sensitivity in those with diabetes, lower blood pressure, and even a lower resting heart rate. Fasting increases blood levels of ghrelin, a hormone that suppresses appetite, thereby making you less hungry — a counterintuitive idea that’s confirmed by virtually anyone who gives fasting a serious try.
Like any diet or health regime, intermittent fasting or “fasted training” only work if you stick to them. Americans act with a sense of entitlement about food, that it’s all ours for the taking and don’t you tread on that right. But don’t you want to see your own abs once, or once more, before it’s too late? You don’t need to run up Mt. Everest every morning to get there. Just be cool with being a little hungry. It’s the price of progress.
Editor’s note: As with any health-related advice, seek the counsel of your health care provider before altering your diet or fasting. to] be 93 — are going to be spent in San Pedro,” Schroff said. “San Pedro is still off the beaten path … still rough around the edges. I ventured up and down the coast for the glove that fits to house the future Superlove headquarters. I’m a surfer and I like the ocean and I like the Harbor, the working Harbor.”
Schroff describes the residents who live in San Pedro as “down-home” salt of the earth types of people. He said he finds that those who stumble upon his Knoll Hill abode love what they’re up to. Superlove is the name of his operation, which he described as a weird mysterious thing. Superlove is the zone that he always operates in. He referenced David Byrne’s film project American Utopia … perhaps, borrowing the lyric, ‘The world is making sense and they’re destroying each other. So we operate in the zone of not making sense.’
Asking what do the senses really want, Schroff replied that they don’t want to shop at Target or Walmart. Instead, they want to be a community; they want love and attention. What’s important to him is community, interacting and creating together.
“This project has been developing for over 20 years,” Schroff said. “I have a lot to offer the community. We gave our operation the Superlove title in 1998 as a reference of giving back more than you take. If everyone gave back more than they take, what would the world look like?”
Schroff presented and answered his own question, offering a circular solution that could’ve been inspired by surfing tubular waves.
“Why do kids join gangs?” he asked, rhetorically.
He gave myriad reasons, including drugs, weapons, a sense of belonging. He suggested giving them self-expression, or letting them take an improv class and learn self-expression. Schroff imagined they could express themselves and perhaps take a different turn, adding the world would go a lot differently if people didn’t ignore issues for a shortcut.
“It doesn’t have to be complicated,” Schroff said. “Kids can be on a teeter totter. [There’s one] way to the gangs and insecurities or they can take improv classes and discover who they are.”
Schroff has studied with some of the best improv teachers and he wants to work with youth, including in gangs, in this way.
“I can relate to gang kids,” Schroff said. “I got my eardrum punched out confronting the gangs up here [on Knoll Hill]. I said, ‘I don’t mind you coming up here and having some romance but be respectful. Don’t throw your trash up here, don’t do donuts in the lot next door and throw the dust up.’ Then after getting a busted eardrum we hugged and shook hands. I have no problem working with kids and confronting them and standing up to be a man and be a mentor. I have no problem relating to younger folks wherever they may be. Most of my friends … are half my age or a fraction of my age. Through my experiences in life and my training and practice I’ve learned to be very good with young folks and very respected by them.”
He pointed to the job center at the foot of
Knoll Hill, Harbor Occupational Center, saying it would be nice to work with them, to have students work in the restaurant, maintain the gardens and do things to earn a living.
Eventually, Schroff hopes to get support from the city. He referred to the proposal at West Harbor, saying they want to make San Pedro into another Marina del Rey. He argues if people step in as a community, we can regulate it so that it grows culturally rather than sells out for simple condominiums.
“If we can build the voice and the productivity of the community, can you imagine the voice and the power we would have in inspiring other communities?” he said.
Schroff said in 1998 he tied a red ribbon on his finger. It reminds him to be peaceful and to not have anxiety. He paints it every week because it wears off. The ring is his reminder to relax and take a deep breath, and that he is going to be of service because being of service makes him happy.
“I wouldn’t look at it as a noble cause,” Schroff said. “I would look at it as an internal being that wants to share its wisdom on a poetic life.” Details: www.schroffsurfboards.com