Intermittent Fasting

[don]

I started IF about 8 weeks ago and it's working incredibly well for me. I've been heavy weight training for a long time but always struggled to get low bodyfat with conventional diets.

I've been fasting from about 11pm to 6pm (overnight to early evening) with a heavy weights workout at about 4:30pm. I then eat one big high protein, high carb meal after the workout, and snack before bed.

The days have been great, i have a lot of energy and dont feel hungry at all. The results have been pretty amazing to be honest, i'm getting ripped fast.

Would highly recommend fitness enthusiasts give this a try!

[Tim]

So you're doing a 19/5 split?

[Traindom]

I love Intermittent Fasting. That boost or rush of clarity you get during your fast is priceless. I don't feel foggy. It was a huge plus during school. And my mornings were always quick and efficient too! Breakfast wasn't a worry anymore. I fast normally from 8pm to 12pm. I've been doing it for a year now. I am really happy I committed to it last year. I'm not too quick to tell friends or people because they usually then think I'm starving myself to death, which is ridiculous.

I've been fasting for a year and have reduced my body fat percentage to 11% and have gained almost ten pounds of muscle. I think the "magic" behind Intermittent Fasting is the constant bulking and cutting. As opposed to bulking for eight weeks and then cutting for eight weeks, you're constantly bulking and cutting. Gains take a while to compound, but it's totally worth it. You have less anxiety over whether you are getting too fat or too thin.


I don't think I could ever go back to eating like I did previously.

I love Intermittent Fasting so.

[Guyintheback]

I started IF in May or June, I think, and was surprised I didn't suffer from low blood sugar. That has always been an issue for me, especially when I went running or biking on an empty stomach.
The feeling of hunger typically didn't set in until about an hour before the break of fasting, which for me was 12pm, with the start of fasting around 7 or 8pm. So it was easily manageable.

Running and IF is what I attribute my loss in body fat to (I don't know the percentages, but it was easily visible).

I stopped doing it during my recent vacation because I wanted to take advantage of free motel/hotel breakfasts, but I guess I'll go back to it starting tomorrow. Thanks for reminding me!

[Dacu]

I'm also a huge IF fan. I do 9pm - 2pm which is a 17 hour fast I believe. I originally did a 14 hour fast but decided that I was never hungry which I felt was missing the point of the fast. I've never been a huge eater from my late teens on and when I have had periods where I've not been lifting weights and focusing on my diet I tend to not eat more than once a day anyway. I think for that reason IF is pretty natural for me and a 17 hour fast usually has me hungry for about 2 hours before I eat my first meal.

I eat half of my daily calories in the first meal and then proceed to get the other half in two meals of a quarter each.

I have to agree with the statements above about the clarity, clean energy and general efficiency I experience while fasting. I think that food choices on IF are very important though as if you eat some sugary snack and then get hungry or lethargic an hour later you're really not doing it right.

[Traindom]

I agree. If I eat too many sweets when I break my fast, I do feel pretty lethargic later. I prefer to load up on carbohydrates after my workouts. One thing I'd like to point out to people is about partitioning food. If I ate too much after my workout, I would get these insane stomach aches because my body couldn't handle the load. I found that eating more upon breaking my fast substantially reduced these intense stomach aches. The types of food also affect these pains. Protein with milk is easier on the system than say, a pound of meat. And it is possible that I have gotten used to eating a lot in one sitting, so there's that too.

[Dacu]

(07-21-2012 05:42 PM)Traindom Wrote:  I agree. If I eat too many sweets when I break my fast, I do feel pretty lethargic later. I prefer to load up on carbohydrates after my workouts. One thing I'd like to point out to people is about partitioning food. If I ate too much after my workout, I would get these insane stomach aches because my body couldn't handle the load. I found that eating more upon breaking my fast substantially reduced these intense stomach aches. The types of food also affect these pains. Protein with milk is easier on the system than say, a pound of meat. And it is possible that I have gotten used to eating a lot in one sitting, so there's that too.

Yeah I agree that eating too much post-workout is pretty awful. I tend to eat a 3-course breakfast after my workout starting off with a banana and protein shake and about an hour later finishing off with eggs and turkey bacon. Spacing it out a little more just helps me in that way.

I've never tried it with milk or anything... I had to remove any form of lactose a long time ago now after doing GOMAD I seemed to develop a lactose intolerance. I some times eat a bit of cheese on a burger but that's it now.

[Traindom]

I used to experience gases whenever I drank liters of milk too. Mix that with a cup of almonds and get ready for hell! Half a liter of milk is pretty smooth for me nowadays. Thankfully I can consume milk and cheese in moderation. Sorry to hear about the intolerance. Hopefully it didn't limit your diet too much.

I also have to say, ON's cake batter whey protein with milk is very tasty. I definitely recommend trying it with milk. I usually mix 16 ounces of milk with 124 grams of the powder. It's pretty good and easy on the system. The cake batter version trumps all the other versions, in my opinion.

[don]

yeah i have been getting a bit of a stomach upset if i overdo the post workout meal, so i've started being a bit more sensible in terms of portion size.

@Tim, I'm not super strict on the fasting period. I dont really have a daily schedule so it depends on how things are arranged that day but yeah a 5 hour eating window would be typical.

I forgot to mention the strength gains too, at 30 i'm breaking PB's in every major lift. I think this may be attributable to the natural high of fasting. I generally feel pretty damn good in the gym right at the end of the fast and lifting heavy seems to be as much about mind as body.

A bit gutted i've spent the last 10 years cramming food down my neck every 2-3 hours to be honest, i wish somebody had told me about IF before!

[Guyintheback]

@don

How do you get enough calories down in those five hours you eat? I started out with a 18/6 split, but I simply couldn't eat enough (healthy) food in those six hours to get enough calories for a weight gain.

[don]

I love food haha!

If your problem is not being able to eat enough food i'm not sure IF is for you. I 'think' the niche is for people into fitness that struggle to cut calories. If your bulking and struggle to eat enough i'd probably just do the regular 5 or 6 meal thing tbh.

IF works for me because i have the opposite problem, if i sit down to eat i'm gonna eat a lot!

[Guyintheback]

The 16/8 split now works fine, I think. But five or six hours seem to be too little time for me to eat enough.

[TheImptuous]

(07-22-2012 07:14 PM)don Wrote:  I love food haha!

If your problem is not being able to eat enough food i'm not sure IF is for you. I 'think' the niche is for people into fitness that struggle to cut calories. If your bulking and struggle to eat enough i'd probably just do the regular 5 or 6 meal thing tbh.

IF works for me because i have the opposite problem, if i sit down to eat i'm gonna eat a lot!

This is me as well. Not to sound like a medicine commercial, but do I know if intermittent fasting is right for me?

[don]

give it a go for a few weeks and see what you think.

[WorldWide]

Im all for IF. I've tried both the 'leangains' approach (eating window 12-8) and the 'stop eat stop' approach, where you basically have 1-2, 24 hour fasts through out the week. Results wise, i found them very similar. In terms of fitting it in to your lifestyle i preferred the leangains approach.

All the studies related to fasting seem to be mostly positive, and even if they weren't, the other benefits make it well worth it, particularly the ease of following it and not setting off hunger pangs all day.

Having 7-8 small protein meals through out the day simply isn't manageable for people with a busy lifestyle and who want to get in to great shape to enhance their life, not DEFINE it. Also, it isn't good for the supplement industry (and the food industry for that matter) to tell people that a good way to drop weight is simply to stop eating so much. Then they start spitting out terms like 'Thermic Value of Food', where as their claim is if you have more protein your body will work harder to break it down therefore stimulating your metabolism. Which is true to a degree, but you still get more calories from the extra food then the thermic affect, surely if caloric restriction is the goal the smarter thing would have been to never eat the food in the first place.

On a side note i think protein is very important, but the amounts are DRASTICALLY over stated by the supplement companies (and their sponsored athletes) that offer most of the advice to guys in the gym.

[Alvar]

Do you guys do IF daily? This thread got me curious, went googling and saw it recommended once a week.

Decided to give it a go last night, did the mistake of starting 6 hours before bedtime... Right now I've been almost 17 hours without food, feeling a bit weak. This morning I was going a bit crazy in my mind for a while, until I decided that instead of waiting a set amount of time (18 hours) I'd be curious to see how long I could wait comfortably.

Will soon go for a jog and break the fast.

[WorldWide]

Yeah man, daily. If you haven't done it before i'd do the leangains approach (eat between 12-8). Check out his blog to http://www.leangains.com, it has alot of cool write ups about IF.

[Guyintheback]

I do it daily, too.
Hunger usually sets in about an hour before I intend to break the fast, but is quite manageable.

The only "problem" is, like others said, if I eat a lot of sugary food the fasting will be harder, because I will have a much stronger craving for food. I guess this has something to do with an insuline spike after eating a lot of carbohydrates?
But I cut out most of the sweets anyway.

[Alvar]

Reached the 19 hours...Went running for 8,5km. Felt pretty good about myself. Tired, too.

I see, it is a matter of delaying the first meal and not having late snacks in the night. I think I can do this, although when I go out this may pose a problem. My diet is already pretty good, although I commit some excesses when partying with my friends.

[Victory]

Hey all,
I am extremely interested in this Intermittent Fasting. I been struggling with loosing weight. I work out all the time, and eat very healthy. Ok most of the time I eat very healthy. I know I need to stop drinking all together. I've tried so many different diet plans. I know it is lifestyle and not a Diet. I barely eat carbs. I did a quick look-see at the link http://www.leangains.com, and I'm interested...

Do any of you that really follow this and have seen real gains have a suggestion on a book or website. Or share some real info on this.

FYI, I did weight in at 318, now I'm at 260 but was down to 245. I gained weight back and muscle too. I would love to drop to about 200. I am 6ft tall. I feel that I stuck in a plateau.
I am not looking for any workout advice, I got that covered. I feel that my eating habits are off. For example, I'm not hungry when I wake up, yet " I feel that I need to eat breakfast"... This is where IF might be the right fit for me.

Thanks.

[Traindom]

I found this article to be really informative and easy to follow: http://anthonymychal.com/2012/05/the-die...-or-scale/

If I had to recommend a diet article, it would be this one. I know I love it. It's one of those articles that just clicks with you and might very well be life-changing.

[Ryan]

I've been doing 16-19 hour fasts for about a month now. The fat is dripping off faster than it was since I've started so it really does work. Upper abs came in a bit about 2 weeks ago, now I can start to see my mid abs .