What's up champ! I'm Vince Del Monte of
GeneExpressionTraining.com and in
this video yes I'm going to tackle a
topic that's going to hurt a few
people's feelings. I'm going to talk
about why I'm still not a fan of
intermittent fasting. And it's not
because you're a bad person. It's not
because I haven't read the research. It's
not because I haven't seen it work for
other people. It's because it doesn't
jive with my belief on how we should
approach nutrition and training and life
in general. Alright. Nobody's talking
about this. When I look at a diet, I don't
care what the research says. I quickly
ask myself one question. Is this
sustainable? Does this have longevity or
is this a gimmick? Is this just a device?
Is this just something to get attention?
Is this just something that's going to
work in the short term but it's going to
have repercussions metabolically,
hormonally, psychologically? And when I
look at a lot of Dietary Approaches out
there, I see them as I hate to say it, but
they're gimmicks. Alright and yes I
have friends who follow this dietary
approach that I am great friends with.
Greg o Gallagher, John Romanello Brad
Pilon on a lot of other guys who follow
this. A lot of my clients they're like
Vince we don't see eye to eye on this
and that's fine. We don't have to see eye
to eye on it. Alright. I just want you
guys to understand the context of what
I'm about to share with you. I'm looking
at everything from a long-term
perspective. A lot of people are now
asking me about ketogenic dieting. I'm like
I could answer that in 10 seconds.
Eighty-five percent of my intake from
fat. Not sustainable. I got two kids. I
love to eat. I love carbohydrates. I don't
even need to look at the research. I'm
not even interested in the research.
Throw it all at me. I'm not even going to
read it because the first thing I ask is,
is it sustainable? I'm Italian. I love
eating carbs. I love fueling my workouts
with carbs. Vince there's research to
show that it's physiologically a more
beneficial. I don't give a shit.
Again I know where I stand. I stand
around longevity and sustainability. How
many times do I need to say that. So
let's dive into some other reasons for
why I'm not a fan of it and again I know
that this has become the holy grail for
some guys and I'm not telling you to
stop doing it, I'm just going to make you
aware of some challenges with it. Alright.
I understand for other people this is
a living nightmare and they're like
giving this video the thumbs up right
now other people are like I don't agree with
this and giving this video the thumbs down.
I don't really care. Alright. I
want to give you guys some perspectives
on this that a lot of people aren't
talking about. Alright. So for me this
really comes down to practicality. When I
look at a diet, you know my lifestyle
matters most. That's what matters to me. I
always reverse engineer things in terms
of what's going to give me the best
lifestyle. Even in business that's how I
look at business. I'm like I don't want
to work on the weekends. I don't want to
work early in the morning. I don't want
to work at night. How can I build a
business around that same thing with
nutrition. I quickly ask myself what
would be the kick-ass life to enjoy my
favorite foods to keep eating pasta on
the weekends to have eggos and bacon
and eggs and syrup for breakfast. And I
quickly look at the diet protocol and I'm like
that is not going to be a way I want to
live. So I never do a diet protocol just
to achieve a goal. Alright, because again,
it's not sustainable. I'm again maybe
years and years ago I would have been
more susceptible to say trying out some
of these things when I was single, when I
didn't have a wife I didn't have the kids,
I didn't have this more big picture
perspective but now the 37-year old guy
who kind of has a little more experience
behind him. This just doesn't make sense
to me. Alright. Now for some younger
guys it's like they can't, you're not even
going to relate to what I'm saying and
maybe five ten years down the road when
you have a family, have kids, you'll be
like wow, now I get it, but that's fine.
We'll figure that out later. Into the
points. Number one. Intermittent fasting. Why
am I doing that. Intermittent fasting is
a sledgehammer. It's a sledgehammer
approach to weight loss. I believe weight
loss should be slow. It needs to be
something
that we focus on coaxing not forcing.
Alright. When you want to lose weight you
need a little slice water. We need a
little slight caloric deficit not a
severe deficit. Alright. And because a
lot of people do this incorrectly they
create these severe deficits which leads
to other problems. Metabolically, hormonally,
psychologically. And weight loss
should be slow. Alright. If you want to
keep it off. If you just want to quick. If
you just want to get ready and maybe for
two weeks from now maybe for a wedding
or for Las Vegas then okay. Alright.
Maybe we will incorporate some of this
more aggressive stuff but if we're
looking for something long term, like if
you're just sick and tired of all the
bullshit extreme hardcore diets you've
tried that just set you back eventually
in time, then keep listening because
you're going to really enjoy this.
Alright. So again too aggressive in my
mind extremes, not in my
mind, from my experience, extremes always
result in extreme disappointment.
Extremes lead to extreme disappointment.
Maybe not in the short term, but
eventually in the long term. Alright.
Number two, Doesn't enter... sorry it
doesn't optimize muscle growth. Okay. I'm
not saying you can't get a decent
physique but again weight training isn't
an aerobic activity. It requires glucose.
I'm not saying you can't function on
different fuel sources but it's not
optimal. Alright. I'm thinking about
optimal. When I go to the gym I want hard
contractions. I want to squeeze the muscle.
I want more reps. I want a pump. I want
to fill my muscles up with blood so I
can shove nutrients in there. I want a
primary source. I want the body's
preferred source of fuel which is
carbohydrates. Alright. So to get the
amount of carbohydrates I need to
achieve my goals I can't do that in a
small window. It's just like unrealistic.
I don't want to sit there and need a ton
of carbs in a small window. I need them
dispersed throughout the entire day and
I know that can be modified for certain
body types and sizes but for me to
optimize muscle growth I need a
sufficient amount of carbohydrates and
it's just too challenging to get those
in in small windows.
Alright. So I'm always looking at how do
we support metabolism and that's muscle
growth. Alright. And these big long
restrictions and not eating can offset
your workout. Again, I know you're going
to find people and you're going to drop
comments in but so and so but so and so
but so and so and again just because
they're doing it doesn't mean it's
optimal. Alright. I guarantee you some
of these guys who are making gains on
intermittent fasting they would make
better gaine if they weren't, and if they
were introducing more carbohydrates in
around their workout time because
they're providing their body with a
preferred source of fuel. Alright.
Number three. These are these are the big
ones that a lot of people aren't talking
about. I don't believe in deprivation and
denial. Alright. The North American diet
mentality has already got a huge problem
with the associated feelings of guilt
and shame, and deprivation and denial when
they have to lose weight. And if that's
your approach to losing weight, you have
to restrict, restrict, restrict. It's going
to be hard. You know. You've got it all
backwards. Alright. And that's typically
why people can't lose weight because
they induce so much stress, they raise
cortisol which causes water retention and then
they die harder to do something more
hardcore. They do more activity and then
that escalates cortisol will even more
because it's just such a stressful
stressful process. So again, I'm not into
creating mental warfare with yourself
when you want to lose weight. I'm not
into deprivation and denial. I'm into
figuring out how to incorporate foods
you do enjoy into your day and for many
people that's going to be including, you
know, foods that they were hardwired to
enjoy from an early age of life into
their day at times in the day we're now
this intermittent fasting protocols tell
them you can't need at this time in the
day you have to save it all for this
time of the day and that's just
ludicrous. That's crazy. And that brings
me to point number three. Intermittent
fasting challenges an instinctual
hardwiring to enjoy the food experience
right. Food was meant to be enjoyed. It
creates experiences that we have for
life. Food is one of the best parts of
life. And to implement
this restrictive thing into your day
where you have to like look forward to
just a window of time where you can eat,
that's freaking stupid. If I want to have
Eggos for breakfast because I grew up
on eggos and syrup or if I want to have
a grilled cheese for lunch because I
grew up on grilled cheese and it just
creates all these you know great
emotions, I'm going to eat those things.
I'm not going to deny myself and deprive
myself to those experiences. If I want to
enjoy a nice plate of Italian Italian
pasta because that's my Italian heritage
and tradition on Sunday afternoons and I
start saying no I can't do that anymore
because this dietary protocol that's not
going to last .You're going to go against
20-30 years of hard wiring. Are you crazy?
You're asking like how do you think
that's going to work out? It's going to
be short term. Alright. Again I don't
care what the research says in terms
yeah, but it has these benefits. Short
term. If you can stick with it. Alright.
I don't know many people that have been
doing intermittent fasting for long long
periods of time but people say what
about our ancestors what about our
ancestors. The only thing we have in
common with our ancestors is that we are
programmed to seek want and need food.
That is normal. It is not natural to fear
food. It is not natural to not want food.
It's not natural to restrict and deprive
yourself for long periods of time of
food. That is not natural. In the time
that we live right now we live in a
world of abundance our ancestors lived
in a time of scarcity. They lived out of
necessity. They lived they had to make
their food choices based on the season
and based on their local environment. You
and I don't live in the time of our
ancestors so I don't understand why that
has to do with what we're doing now. You
have to embrace the time and day you
were born. The age that we live in is one
of food abundance where food is
convenient. It's fast. It's everywhere.
It's yummy, and if you're trying to do
dietary protocols that denies the state
of our world right now, you're asking for
disappointment. Alright. You're asking
for disappointment.
We've been programmed from an early age
to stimulate this thing in our brain
called the reward center. It's the same
part of the brain that gets lit up when
you have feel good drugs. Alright, and
we have this as a whole other video and I
don't want to go down that path yet, but we
have to understand that you are now
following a dietary protocol that goes
against your psychology and that is
going to be very very very hard. Alright.
So losing weight is hard enough
and now it's going to be even harder, okay.
So again that's it. That's all I want to
say you know. Vinny can ramble for a while.
I hope most of that made sense. Again my
approach to nutrition has really changed
over the last few years. I'm really
trying to get away from stuff that's
extreme, that's hardcore that's not
long-term. Remember, I always talked about
I want you to achieve an amazing after
after photo I don't care about your
after photo I want an amazing after
after photo. So I want you to do things
in a way to optimize metabolism,
hormone, psychology, that create a healthy
relationship with food so that you can
stand the test of time. You don't have to
rebound or bounce from one gimmick to the
next. One month you're doing intermittent
fasting then you're doing Paleo, then
you're doing freaking ketogenic diet.
Guys, they're all gimmicks. They're all
gimmicks. They're not going to stand the
test of time. Alright. They have cool
sexy things associated with them because
not so much yes, there's cool research around
them. Yes. Absolutely, but these things
gained popularity because of marketing
and how well they're being marketed and
who they're being marketed by. Alright.
And if you fail to see that, well you'll
figure it out eventually. Alright.
think that's all. I want to say let me
let me know what I missed or maybe what
I wasn't fair on or anything that you
want to share. I know I probably heated a
lot of you guys up.That's awesome. I hope
we can have fun here. Alright.
Leave your comments below. Alright. If you need
some hand-holding in terms of eating in
a sustainable way I have already
designed done for your meal plans where
you can learn exactly what to eat, when
to eat, and how
to eat eliminate all the guesswork. Eat
in the normal way where you have a
regular meal cadence where you fuel your
workouts based on how much body fat
you have, and you eat in a way that
brings your weight up if you want to
gain mass, or brings your weight down if
you want to shred fat in a sensible
long-term way without deprivation,
without crazy denial, without this
psychological warfare going on. and if
you want, you can just click the link in
the description below or the link on the
screen. It'll take you to a page. I got them
set up at a nice discount for you guys.
You can pick them up. If your nutrition
is on track you already got everything
sorted you know exactly what when how
much to eat awesome. And I will see you
guys next time. Let me know what you
guys want me to cover next. See ya.