This week the ADOFitness trainers will be addressing topics we get asked a lot about. Coach Trista Anderson addresses how fasting can help you reach your goals.

Intermittent fasting can help you stay on track through a number of situations that might threaten your progress. From simply struggling to stay under your macros to date nights, events, and holiday parties.IF is the restriction of eating for a period of time followed by a window of normal eating. For example, when you wake up you are already in a fasted state as your body is not digesting any food, you can delay your first meal until later in the day depending on the specifics of why you are fasting and what your macro allowance is that day. If you are wanting to save macros for a night out and you know you are going to dinner, fasting will allow you to “spend” your macros later in the day without going over. If you are struggling to stay under your macros and tend to blow them by the end of the day, intermittent fasting is something you can try and you might find that it’s much easier to meet your goals if you shorten the window of time that you are eating. I sometimes hear the term “macro hoarding” which I dislike as it gives fasting a negative view, when in actuality, it has many health benefits, both physically and mentally. So if you choose to view the purpose of saving your macros as a productive tool to help you reach your goals that is the outcome you will get- rather than viewing it as “hoarding” where you feel you are practicing an unhealthy behavior, which is not the case. This doesn’t work for everyone but it is a tool you can implement temporarily to help you get through a tough spot or an event you want to attend and enjoy. A lot of people will ask, “well what if I workout in the morning, should I still fast?” There is no right or wrong answer to this situation, if you choose to eat breakfast you can still fast for a smaller time frame to save macros but I find it harder to do that once you’ve already had one meal for the day. If you choose to workout and skip breakfast it won’t harm you this one time, but you wouldn’t want to make it a habit. At the very least you could do a protein shake, and save the rest for later when you start your window of eating. Again, this is just a tool to switch things up for you to continue to stay on track not a permanent lifestyle.