My Opinion on Intermittent Fasting! Positive review.

Jackw72 · Mon, February 20th, 2012, 08:13 PM

Hi all,

I feel like I have to let you guys and gals know how my time with an Intermittent Fasting (more specifically LeanGains style) diet has gone.

AWESOMELY. To put it in one word! My situation is that I am cutting and keeping my carbs deadly low.

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the concept of IF, which is a form of Calorie Restriction, I was totally unaware of it and had been sold to eating 5 times a day 3 hours between each meal.

I always felt hungry with the 5 meals a day 3 hours between method, or at least I felt like 300g of chicken was not particularly satisfying and left a lot more room for me to potentially cheat as I was having 5-6 meals a day. I found that I was living off shakes and did not want to cook several times during the day, as I am a huge hater of food that is not fresh.

5 clean meals a day will more than likely work as a form of lifestyle change but for I and I imagine many it did not really suit my life or my eating habits. I have always been a muscular, strong guy and have always loved food and eaten a lot, so I could put a lot out. I can keep up this sort of diet for a couple of months tops but I just feel like I am missing out on living.

With Intermittent Fasting, you basically fast for a large amount of hours and eat all of your calories within 1,2 or 3 meals. For example my daily haul is as follows:

16 Hour Fast 9pm till 1pm, then at 1pm I will eat 4 egg Scrambled Egg and a large form of meat bacon, pork, beef, turkey, chicken. Equating to around 1000 calories. Then at around 4pm I will eat my second and usually last meal which will be another form of meat (usually cooked with 1pm meal) and small amount of rice and veg.

During Fasting you can drink water and, if you must, chew sugar free chewing gum and even sometimes have calorie free "diet" drinks like coca cola or pepsi.

It suits my lifestyle to a tee as I work evening shifts. I seem to be losing plenty of weight and keeping strength which is excellent. I also find that I am far, far less prone to cheating during a month. I feel fuller and I am eating food that I actually enjoy.

So, for all you that are on a diet of 5 meals a day, 3 hours between each and maybe want to try something different, or are struggling to keep the calories down and the diet on track.

Have a Google of Intermittent Fasting and choose a plan that suits you, adapt it to your lifestyle and let us know how it goes.

Good luck and I hope this has tweaked your curiosity, expanded your knowledge and contracted your waist.

Also, any questions you may have PM me or ask on here, I feel I have a pretty good grasp of this.

Jack

Jaer · Tue, February 21st, 2012, 11:23 AM

Glad you are enjoying it. I do the same, eating at noon and having an 8 hour eating window. I have found that it does help me not snack at in the evening. I might have a urge for something like pretzels, I look at the clock--oh, after 8. Not in the eating window.

I just wish I could better observe the LeanGains workout-right-before-breaking-fast plan. I lift in the morning before work, and I'm not about to have my eating window be the 8 hours I'm at work and skip dinner with my wife in the evening.

I do as Martin suggests have just have some BCAAs before and during the workout. My lifts are still going strong, and the meal timing has worked out very well.

Jaer
is also a fan of the Eat-Stop-Eat IF plan, but he isn't currently following that one.

Jackw72 · Tue, February 21st, 2012, 06:54 PM

Yeah I am also taking BCAA before workout and working out on an empty stomach. Pretty interesting and I thought it would have detrimental effects but no such thing.

The LeanGains thing suits my life as I work at half 5 in the evening so I workout @ 12 and eat @ 1 then finish @ 8, only taking 1 meal into work. Win!

Steak, bacon and scrambled egg pancake today was my treat. OMNOMNOMNOM

user786 · Thu, February 23rd, 2012, 09:20 PM

Any reason you keep the carbs ultra low ?
one of the great things about IF i have found is i can eat plenty of carbs (including my favourite foods like ice cream and cereals ) without worrying about it, especially on weight training days .

Jackw72 · Fri, February 24th, 2012, 06:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by user786

Any reason you keep the carbs ultra low ?
one of the great things about IF i have found is i can eat plenty of carbs (including my favourite foods like ice cream and cereals ) without worrying about it, especially on weight training days .

As a general rule of my eating habits. I agree though the times I have had carbs have not had as much as of an effect, though I never really have too many. Do you think it would be just as effective to maintain a 40, 40, 20 macro with IF? Or cutting out the carbs helps a little?

Jack

user786 · Fri, February 24th, 2012, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jackw72

As a general rule of my eating habits. I agree though the times I have had carbs have not had as much as of an effect, though I never really have too many. Do you think it would be just as effective to maintain a 40, 40, 20 macro with IF? Or cutting out the carbs helps a little?

Jack

Ive done both approaches over the last year with low carbs i found my workouts suffered and strength would decrease .on the other hand
following a low fat / high carb on strength training days and more fat/ moderate carbs on non workout days (martins advises a similiar protocol to this )i have maintained and in some cases increased strength .
protein i keep at aroung 1g -1.25g per pound body weight.

suppose its best to experiment as everyones body is different. As long as you have a calorific defecit then you will lose fat .

Jackw72 · Fri, February 24th, 2012, 06:16 PM

Thanks for that you have put an idea into my head!

Will let you know how it goes.

system60 · Wed, April 25th, 2012, 08:01 PM

Personally started doing the warrior diet a few weeks ago, so far so good. With work I'd often end up skipping some meals anyway, plus like posted earlier its nice not having to prepare as many meals.

For me my daily diet is
9am - Coffee 1 -2 cups either black or with a smidge of milk
mid afternoon - plain greek yogurt w/ 1 cup mixed frozen berries
5pm or so 1.5oz almonds

then when I get home
Salad - Mainly baby spinach w/ some romain, 2 eggs, 1/2 avocado, oil/vinegar dressing
10oz meat w/ mixed veggies + rice or quinoa on workout days.
2 slices ezekiel bread w/ 2.5 tblsp peanut butter.

Sometimes I'll thrown in a shake w/ psylium husk.

I have bcaa's during my working and a shake afterwards consisting of carbs and protein.

Biggest thing is it helps break the cycle of snacking at night since I'm still full from eating real food.

Arcus · Thu, May 3rd, 2012, 03:53 AM

I'm going the IF way. I must have spent days reading Martin Berkhans site trying to really get it and get all pieces of puzzle togeteher. I followed the leangains eating pattern for some months last summer-fall, but apparently not strictly enough.

Now I'm on IF style diet again, and I'm journaling my progress here in the fitness journal section. My goal is not so much radical fat loss but rather some "lean gains". I'm gonna take measurements weekly to see how I'm succeeding.