How To Lose Weight & Save Money Using Intermittent Fasting

​When you typically go on a diet what happens?  You have to buy more food because you need to plan on what and how you are going to eat. Then you get your gym membership, personal trainer, buy some magazines or do some online research. All in all, you're spending more money. 

There are thousands of different diet choices. Atkins diet, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers and every single other diet program out there that ask you to buy their product is basically doing the same thing. Making money. The weight loss industry is huge! And the big companies are profiting off your fat. They say if you buy their product and you eat it, you lose weight. Some claim that it works, others bounce through several different diets spending more and more money trying to figure out why they can't lose weight.

 I just might have the solution for you. I'm not claiming that it's 100% perfect, but I can say that it worked for me and my husband. Now what diet am I talking about? As soon as I say it you're going to be like, "oh boy here we go, another fad diet." But hear me out. It's not really even a diet, you could say it's more of a lifestyle. Intermittent Fasting. 

Click here to get more detailed tips on Intermittent Fasting. 

Basically you're eating food within a certain time period. Let's get more specific. I've divided it into three different categories.

The first we'll call Moderate Intermittent Fasting. So the MIF (Moderate Intermittent Fasting) would go like this. For 16 hours of the day you don't eat. And when I say you don't eat, I mean you don't eat. The only acceptable things you can take in is plain black coffee, plain tea or water. But can I have fruits and vegetables? No. I figured you might ask so I thought I might throw that one in there just in case you did.

The only acceptable eating time is within 8 hours. Let's say the first meal is at 1200. That would mean your last meal would have to be at 2000 (8:00pm). This doesn't mean you can only eat once or twice. You can have three meals within 8 hours if you want. You can have four! Eat normal. But be sensible and smart. Obviously eating a bowl of butter would do you no good so all I ask is that you just be sensible.

The second MAIF (Moderate Aggressive Intermittent Fasting) diet would be no food for 18 hours, with a feeding window of 6 hours. Same rules of the 16:8 hour diet apply. The final AIF (Aggressive Intermittent Fasting) diet is a 20 hour no feeding window with only a 4 hour feeding window. The actual names of the diet are 16:8, 18:6, 20:4. Is it hard? Not at first. But you do have to plan your days better. If you know you have dinner plans you may want to have your first meal later. If you're able to cut out an early breakfast or a late dinner then it's pretty easy. You can also snack during your feeding window as well.

I would definitely recommend starting out with the 16:8 diet first before moving into the harder ones. This will also give your body a chance to adapt. I've known some people who go straight into the 20:4 diet and suffer from acid reflux. Basically what's happening is since you're eating less, your body is producing less acid. When this happens the portion of the stomach that normally closes to keep in the stomach acid is open which causes the acid out of your stomach to release. A lot of people think acid reflux is caused due to excessive acid but that has been proven to not be the case.

​A good way to avoid acid reflux is to slowly move in to the diet. But you got to start out 16:8 first. Don't do anything less less than 16. 16 is the lucky number. The entire point of the diet would fail to work. And this is the point that I'm coming to. Going 16 hrs or more without eating is when the magic starts to happen.

The main purpose of this diet is to increase human growth hormone (HGH). This is the leading hormone that burns fat and builds muscle. A lot of people that go on low calorie diets lose fat but also lose muscle or fail to lose fat because their body adapts. Doing intermittent fasting will help you to maintain your muscle and help you to continue to lose fat.

​HGH also has other benefits such as internal and external healing, your skin will become tighter, it's good for your brain, anti-aging, it's good for all sorts of things. Google it. You could spend forever on the web researching the benefits. I would get into more but the point of this article is to show you why this diet is going to help you to lose weight and save money.

So you're thinking great diet but how do you save money?  First of all I'm not selling you any product. And you don't have to buy any product. And you don't have to go to store and change your shopping list.  Well unless you're grocery list includes only butter and candy. But most people I would say know right from wrong when it comes to shopping. Maybe in another blog I'll show you the best fruits vegetables and meats and things you should eat on a budget. But for now like I said before, just be sensible and smart with your meals. 

You'll also find that since you're not eating throughout the day which is what most people do, you're spending less money. I used to be a big Starbucks junkie. I would order a Starbucks (or as I call it $5 bucks) twice or three times a day. Not to mention those amazing cheese danishes that they have.  Well it adds up. In fact all those little things that you don't think make a difference do add up.

When you're eating less you have more time to focus on other things. When you start the diet you're only going to see your bank account get bigger. Because you're going to be spending less money on things you don't need and you'll be eating less. When you go from the 16:8 diet to the 20:4 diet you're going to notice a rapid weight loss. But sometimes not as much depending upon how much fat you have because remember, with your human growth hormone levels high you may be building muscle as well. And remember muscle weighs more than fat. Which I hate saying because a pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat but I think you know what I'm talking about. The size of muscle in proportion to fat is what I'm talking about.

Myself personally I've lost 20 lbs since starting this diet and im saving an extra $700 a month by not going out as much. I'm spending far less money out then how much I used to spend. And I'm also a lot more conscious about what I should and shouldn't buy. You know when you're in the habit of grazing all day long you're kind of just in the motion and you walk by Starbucks and you decide you want to walk in there and you start buying stuff and then you leave and then you walk somewhere else and then you see something else you like and then you buy that. But now I just go throughout my day and I don't really think about food which is a very interesting fact.

I remember reading some people saying that after doing this diet they became less hungry. And it's totally true. It's funny how it works out that way. I'll tell you something. I've done a lot of diets. And none of them really made sense to me. So I have to buy your product and I have to eat a lot of it and I'll lose weight? Or I have to buy your expensive product that doesn't taste really good even though you say it does and I'll lose weight?
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​Recent studies have shown that your diet is probably closer to 98% of weight loss. What I mean by that is people used to say diet is 50% and exercise is 50%.  Now they're realizing exercise doesn't really do that much as far as weight loss is concerned. It's more of a body sculpting technique. Now I know some of you guys might challenge me on it but just look at the research out there. I mean it takes an hour just to burn a thousand calories roughly. Wheras you can eat 2000 calories is 10 minutes or less. You can't outwork a bad diet. For those curious about the best workout to help burn fat and get toned look up HIIT. This combined with intermittent fasting? Holy Moly.

Have you ever been to the gym and you've seen that overweight guy or girl and they're on the treadmill all day long and they're working out like a beast and a year later they look exactly the same? I have. And I've been working out for 15 years. And from my own personal experience I don't work out that much. I work out maybe twice a week tops. But my diet is everyday. And I look great and I feel great and it feels good to say it. I love intermittent fasting. Plus as most of my readers know I'm more of a finance person than a fitness person. So if I can come across a finance strategy hey, sign me up.  It worked for me and I think it'll work for you. What have you got to lose but fat? It won't cost you anything.