Experiences with Intermittent Fasting

[adnscmplx]

I have been reading about intermittent fasting and am considering giving it a shot. For those who are not familiar check out Martin Berkhan blog, he is one of the best in the game:

Intermittent fasting diet for fat loss, muscle gain and health

I was wondering if anyone on the board has tried IF and can give some feedback, especially in regards to cutting and how easy it is to be compliant with a busy social agenda compared to a more traditional bodybuilding diet plan.

Tiger Blood.

[maxwkw]

I did IF for about 8 weeks. I was trying to recomp. I did alright, its just kinda hard on training days to eat so much in one sitting.

As far as cutting goes, I think its a great tool.

[JudoJosh]

I have seen his posting before but never read too much about his methods. I do however have maximum muscle and warrior diet on my shelf and have been meaning to read them. They are by Ori Hoffmeckler and is based around fasting. The books go alot into your body's hormonal response to fasting. I haven't read them yet but plan ontrying them out this summer

[Resolve]

I've done some form of IF for over two years now. I've only gotten bigger and stronger in those two years (though I am currently recovering from an injury). Ultimately, how lean I get depends upon total cals per day, not so much when/how I consume them.

However, I've recently been doing alternate day fasting and seem to be able to pile on the cals on lifting days while still losing fat.

[snuggy]

I tried this regimen and it worked out well. Stay on fruit diet on the first day, fresh, baked or steamed vegetables with little rice along with fruits on the second day, steamed potatoes only on the third day, protein diet on the fourth day and gradually start with your regular diet from fifth day onwards. You’ll get variety everyday and get used to a nutritional diet.

[Eizbear]

I'm on it now, currently on my 5th week.. It's going great and I absolutley love it! Getting leaner while also increasing in strength.. Placebo or not, Don't care.. Works great for me...
I love the straight energy level you have during the day, and I do feel more alert and sharp... I first thought that training on so long fasting would be a problem, but not at all...)

I too have the Warrior diet and Maximum Muscles books. Have only read the warrior diet yet, but I'm soon to read the other one!

[Mrodz]

I'm trying this one out too The Warior Diet, and it's really very easy....very stress free. The first day the hunger during the day gnawed a bit but with fruits and nuts I did good, evening ate greens then my just about anything meal and was good to go.
After "breaking in" it really gets to be a no brainer kind of thing. Great for when I'm busy. Very little clock watching or plastic container toting.
It really feels like I was meant to eat like this.
The change in taste perception is really noticeable, veggies taste much more complex now.
I'm waiting for at least 3 months though to give my official review on it to see what it does for my body.
Like most here, I'm my own favorite lab rat

[JudoJosh]

I'm on it now, currently on my 5th week.. It's going great and I absolutley love it! Getting leaner while also increasing in strength.. Placebo or not, Don't care.. Works great for me...
I love the straight energy level you have during the day, and I do feel more alert and sharp... I first thought that training on so long fasting would be a problem, but not at all...)

I too have the Warrior diet and Maximum Muscles books. Have only read the warrior diet yet, but I'm soon to read the other one!

I own both books too but have yet to read them.. they are on my shelf colelcting dust with all my other books that I buy. I am very interested in the idea of it and would like to see his whole reasoning behind it all. I have a gerneral idea of the guidelines but thats about it. Glad to hear your enjoying it.

I'm trying this one out too The Warior Diet, and it's really very easy....very stress free. The first day the hunger during the day gnawed a bit but with fruits and nuts I did good, evening ate greens then my just about anything meal and was good to go.
After "breaking in" it really gets to be a no brainer kind of thing. Great for when I'm busy. Very little clock watching or plastic container toting.
It really feels like I was meant to eat like this.
The change in taste perception is really noticeable, veggies taste much more complex now.
I'm waiting for at least 3 months though to give my official review on it to see what it does for my body.
Like most here, I'm my own favorite lab rat

I like that bolded part up there, I share that same attitude..

My favorite quote..

"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better you become" - Ralph Waldo Emmerson

[soontobbeast]

so i went to the site.


i don't understand the outline though. he says on some parts of the site that he does 2 day fasts. he also says he does 8 hours of eating time with 16 hours of fasting per day. and he doesnt ever eat before lifting.

so his eating time is 8 hours after his lifting time in the morning? or does he eat at night, then slip breakfast and most of the day, then eat at night again?

so eat from 4pm till 12am? then eat again at 4pm?

ill try it out for a couple weeks if i have the above correct.

[Eizbear]

so i went to the site.


i don't understand the outline though. he says on some parts of the site that he does 2 day fasts. he also says he does 8 hours of eating time with 16 hours of fasting per day. and he doesnt ever eat before lifting.

so his eating time is 8 hours after his lifting time in the morning? or does he eat at night, then slip breakfast and most of the day, then eat at night again?

so eat from 4pm till 12am? then eat again at 4pm?

ill try it out for a couple weeks if i have the above correct.

You can do as you please with it, the thing is that you should eat, have the overeating phase, after you workout.. So for me.. My day looks like this:

Wake up 06.00 (fasting)
Work from 7.00-16.00(fasting)
PWO about 16.45
Training 17.00-18.00

Now after my training, now it's time for the food.. And I eat all I can eat until I go to sleep, around 22.00-23.00

Then the fasting starts again during the night...

[Mrodz]

yup that's how I do it, like Eiz. Ori suggest only a handful of almonds or a fruit or a two during the day for controlled fasting. then in the evening he suggests breaking it with a small salad with a variety of veggies. then on to da fooood.
but not everyone is really strict like that, Ori states that it's for maintaining gastric juices bla bla bla. I know I have a friend that doesn't like veggies (yea u) so he isn't as strict.
And for the super active, Ori also suggest's if necessary to eat some clean protein somewhere in the earlier day. eggs, chicken, shake like that.

good luck dude

[adnscmplx]

What do you guys typically eat for lunch? I am trying to figure out what I could pack with me to work and If I'm only eating a couple meals a day, I would need a quite a few calories.

[Mrodz]

I don't have that prob. I'm small and even my high cal days it's easy to get all I need. on Hi cal days I might sneak in some chicken or a shake, lo cal just fruit or almonds. My evening meal is what I really load up on. A big guy like u would need something more dense.

I'm following the Warrior Diet just in case, since this thread mentions different forms of intermittent fasting. have u picked a specific method?

[JohnRock]

I followed this for a while using the 16/8 approach and it worked really well. I ate from noon until 8pm every day and would workout around 11am in the morning so my first meal would come directly after training. I actually really liked the program and it wasn't difficult at all. It took me about three days to get used to not eating first thing in the morning and then I wasn't even hungry. I'll probably go back to it at some point, but right now my training times and frequency (AM and PM cardio some days) vary too much and it's a bit of a hassle.

[EasyEJL]

What do you guys typically eat for lunch? I am trying to figure out what I could pack with me to work and If I'm only eating a couple meals a day, I would need a quite a few calories.

2 chicken breasts, some green veggies and half a jar of almond butter plus some milk to wash it down.

I tried IF for a while, and as I worked out first thing in the morning and was doing DC training at the time, i'd workout truly every other day, so mon/wed/fri/sun/tues/thurs/sat and repeat. I'd workout at 7am, start eating at 830 when I got home and stop eating at 6, then not eat again till after my next workout. So I was having roughly 40 hour fasts, eating 5000-6000 calories in 8 hours every other day. It worked pretty decently, I actually had better recovery doing DC that way than eating normally. But it got to be a pain in the butt as far as family life went. On the weekends when saturday or sunday was an eat day, it was nearly impossible to do things with the family and be stuffing down enough calories without spending a boatload of money at restuarants. I had times where I spent $20-30 at chik fil a for just my part of lunch. plus with other social things, like visiting relatives, etc, it was much harder to deal with than just not eating certain things.

[soontobbeast]

Ive been doing the 16/8 approach but im having a hard time figuring out how much to eat.

i'm shooting for 200g protein ( to last 16 hours ) but how much fat and carbs?

its kinda hard to figure this stuff out when , basically, all the rules and playbooks are thrown out!

if i eat between 3-4pm to 11-12 how many cals should i be taking in if im not super active?

goal-wise, im trying to cut up as best i can!

[Resolve]

Judge it by weight-loss. Pick a calorie amount that you would normally maintain weight on and start with that. If you don't lose fat, cut the cals by 200 or so and progress from there as needed.

[soontobbeast]

Judge it by weight-loss. Pick a calorie amount that you would normally maintain weight on and start with that. If you don't lose fat, cut the cals by 200 or so and progress from there as needed.

ohhh i thought i could eat differently...

been wondering why i havent been losing very quickly on cake,kettle corn, and copious amounts of pizza


ill cut out the popcorn and cake at least lol

[Resolve]

ohhh i thought i could eat differently...

been wondering why i havent been losing very quickly on cake,kettle corn, and copious amounts of pizza


ill cut out the popcorn and cake at least lol

...not sure if serious...

[EasyEJL]

oh god, when I was doing the 40 hours fasted 8 eating, I did eat cake and cookies and whatever the hell got near my hand for those 8 hours.