Man 2.0 Engineering the Alpha

doesn’t matter where those calories come from.
    So to prevent fat-loss stagnation and the dreaded weight-loss plateau, we need to make sure that we consistently spike your leptin levels when it drops too low. The way to do this is so awesome that it’s hard to believe: you spend an entire day once per week eating whatever you want. Your nutritionist might call it a strategic overfeed ’cause they like to act all fancy, but colloquially, this is known as a cheat day.
    The cheat—er, strategic overfeed—bumps your leptin levels up, allowing you to lose fat again. This means that you’ll actually lose fat faster than if you had no cheat day at all. So even though you take in a ton of calories, the hormonal impact from the cheat offsets what you eat in a way that has a much greater benefit than if you avoided the splurge altogether.
    And when we say a ton of calories, we mean men should be eating what they want. Enjoy pizza and burgers. Then grab dessert. Go crazy because it’s an essential part of the plan. And it’ll make any of the normal hardships of dieting nonexistent.
    All told, in a very real sense, it’s better to eat this stuff all at once in a single day than to have a little bit every day. We know, we know—that sounds crazy. It runs counter to all conventional nutritional wisdom. Well, sorry it doesn’t make sense, but we didn’t invent the science—we just report it and make it work.
    But this dream situation only works with a specific approach: intermittent fasting.

    WHAT IS INTERMITTENT FASTING?
    The most accurate definition is the simplest one: intermittent fasting is merely alternating intervals of not eating (fasting) with times when you are allowed to eat.
    We’ll admit that most people usually freak out over this concept.
    What? No eating? But what about starvation mode? What about feeding my metabolism? What about going into a severe catabolism so great that I have no energy and I can’t build muscle?
    By now, we hope we’ve convinced you—with science and real life results—that those are just myths. That line of thinking is why so many people struggle to look and feel better. This is about remembering that you need to step outside of the Ordinary World in order to create an unreal life.
    But when you take a closer look at the reality of intermittent fasting, you quickly realize that the concept isn’t crazy or uncommon. In fact, everyone practices a variation of intermittent fasting each day. When you sleep, you fast. When you awake, you eat. That’s intermittent fasting. Not so bad, right?
    And it also happens during your typical workday. When you’re stuck in meetings all day and don’t have a meal for five hours, that’s technically fasting. The only difference is that you aren’t on a structured timetable of meals in which the window of fasting is constant, so rather than fasting intermittently, you’re fasting haphazardly —and there’s no benefit.
    All we’re going to do is teach you how to ever so slightly expand your fasting window so you can experience the benefits of burning more fat, building more muscle, improving aging, boosting your sex drive, fighting off disease, looking more attractive, and strengthening your overall health. Oh yeah, and when you fast intermittently, you have rules, but you are in control.
    It’s a simplified approach. And while it’s detailed and calculated, everything revolves around one easy-to-follow principle: eat by your clock. You set the hours that you eat. And then you have enhanced food freedom unlike any program you’ve ever tried before.
    There are several variations of intermittent fasting, and we’re going to show you how to integrate each one during the four phases of the program for the best results. The fasting period you’ll use can range anywhere from sixteen hours all the way up to thirty-six hours (with several stops in between), and each of those plans has specific benefits. In the diet part of the program, we’ll show you exactly when you need to apply each form of fasting and make it simple for you to make this new form of eating feel effortless.

    INTERMITTENT FASTING IS THE ANSWER
    If intermittent fasting is the answer, you’re probably wondering about the question. It’s really the only question any guy wants to ask when it comes to dieting: Is there an eating approach that puts me in control and actually works?
    If you look at all the research, compare the high-fat diets to low-fat, the high-carb