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Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

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Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#31

Post by doublerebel »

I'll add one more anecdote for IF. I've been doing it for 3 years and for me it's been the most effective way to get in and stay in shape. Coffee with a bit of milk or cream in the morning keeps me until 1-3pm (I've never gone full bulletproof coffee, but coffee definitely helps.) As others have mentioned, a run feels really good toward the end of the fast.

Heavy olympic lifting hasn't been a problem but I only lift on high calorie days, and not more than 4 times a week. If you are into the Leangains flavor of IF, lifting is the recommended way to do IF. I find that in my and my gfs case, lifting has been far more effective than cardio.

I grew up with a mother as an aerobics instructor and I live in a very active Seattle, so I've seen and tried all number of diets and workout regimens. With IF I have the most energy and the fastest results. It's also reasonably easy to work into real life situations (travel, dinners at friends' houses, etc.).

I will say that using a calorie and exercise counter is very very helpful when starting or resuming IF. Otherwise it is far too easy to mis-estimate calories in or out. I use Fatsecret app. And to calculate target calorie in/out, there is a great tool here at 1percentedge [1]. (Unfortunately it's in Flash, contacting the author to port to a mobile app is on my long list...)

[1]: http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/

Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#32

Post by agentgt »

I have being doing IF now for a 4 months and out of all the various dieting methods I have tried over the years I'm very impressed so far.

I only do one meal a day (big lunch around 2pm) and then a protein shake and maybe a beer at 8ish. I like that I can have a beer every day.

I have noticed a couple of things with diet:

* shockingly you can still workout hard while starving.

* it seems to help regulate and improve bowel movements (TMI but if I eat healthy and frequently I kill several trees w/ toilet paper consumption).

* it doesn't seem to work as well if you been skipping breakfast your whole life.

* it doesn't seem to work on females.

Of course these are limited observations.

Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#33

Post by mcculley »

I've been practicing intermittent fasting for almost a year now. It works fine for me. I generally eat no breakfast or lunch. I drink only water throughout the day. I run a 5k every morning on an empty stomach with no ill effects. It really helps keep my body fat low and makes me conscious and deliberate about what I eat.

The only exceptions are meals I eat for social reasons (e.g., work lunch meetings) and mornings on which I run a road race and want to ensure I'm at peak performance. I find that when I do break the fast, I'm more hungry sooner.

Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#34

Post by doublerebel »

agentgt wrote: post #32

I have being doing IF now for a 4 months and out of all the various dieting methods I have tried over the years I'm very impressed so far. I only do one meal a day (big lunch around 2pm) and then a protein shake and maybe a beer at 8ish. I like that I can have a beer every day. I have noticed a couple of things with diet: * shockingly you can still workout hard while starving. * it seems to help regulate and improve…

IF coaches have reported that women tend to want to break the fast ~2 hours earlier than men. Men can generally make it 16 hours and women make it to 14 before the hunger really sets in. This has been my experience also, but I don't know the root cause.

Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#35

Post by marvin »

mcculley wrote: post #33

I've been practicing intermittent fasting for almost a year now. It works fine for me. I generally eat no breakfast or lunch. I drink only water throughout the day. I run a 5k every morning on an empty stomach with no ill effects. It really helps keep my body fat low and makes me conscious and deliberate about what I eat. The only exceptions are meals I eat for social reasons (e.g., work lunch meetings) and mornings…

Does your concentration suffer throughout the day due to low blood sugar? Did it at first?

Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#36

Post by TallGuyShort »

agentgt wrote: post #32

I have being doing IF now for a 4 months and out of all the various dieting methods I have tried over the years I'm very impressed so far. I only do one meal a day (big lunch around 2pm) and then a protein shake and maybe a beer at 8ish. I like that I can have a beer every day. I have noticed a couple of things with diet: * shockingly you can still workout hard while starving. * it seems to help regulate and improve…

And you do this every day? Not what I picture when I hear "intermittent" - the article mentions the 5:2 plan, but I'm curious what other schedules are common. I've always skipped 2 meals monthly as religious observance, but I'm seriously considering 5:2 to try out health benefits.

Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#37

Post by mcculley »

marvin wrote: post #35
mcculley wrote: post #33

I've been practicing intermittent fasting for almost a year now. It works fine for me. I generally eat no breakfast or lunch. I drink only water throughout the day. I run a 5k every morning on an empty stomach with no ill effects. It really helps keep my body fat low and makes me conscious and deliberate about what I eat. The only exceptions are meals I eat for social reasons (e.g., work lunch meetings) and mornings…

Does your concentration suffer throughout the day due to low blood sugar? Did it at first?

No, but I've never really had a problem with that. I'm one of those guys that forgets to eat when I'm concentrating on something.

There are days where if I push dinner until too late, I do find myself weak and grumpy.

Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#38

Post by wdewind »

minionslave wrote: post #13
volker48 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like IF would be detrimental to maintaining muscle mass during a cut. You really want to keep a steady stream of amino acids to prevent catabolism of muscle tissue even when reducing total caloric intake. Usually you cut fat first during a cut. You want to keep carbs to fuel your workouts and you want to keep the protein flowing to prevent muscle loss.

From my limited knowledge of human physiology .I don't think 24h is enough to trigger catabolism. You still have some fat reserves, and if you exercise/lift during the cut, you probably will even gain muscle. YMMV

The word "trigger" is not really useful in this situation because catabolism is not triggered, it just means muscle breakdown is happening at a higher rate than muscle synthesis (both of which are constant). This happens under a lot of different situations, and can temporarily go back and forth a lot. You certainly enter net catabolism long before your fat reserves are depleted (else cutting would be simple: just stop eating until you're pure hard muscle).

There are ways to temporarily spike muscle synthesis, and one of them is eating a protein rich meal. This specific mechanism has a refractory period in the order of magnitude of hours. Intermittent fasting robs you of the ability to spike muscle synthesis as many times per day as you could otherwise.

This effect is not massive. Your body is pretty good at optimizing this stuff. But when you are cutting, in particular, or trying to bulk without putting on significant fact, these minor optimizations can add up.

Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#39

Post by agentgt »

doublerebel wrote: post #34
agentgt wrote: post #32

I have being doing IF now for a 4 months and out of all the various dieting methods I have tried over the years I'm very impressed so far. I only do one meal a day (big lunch around 2pm) and then a protein shake and maybe a beer at 8ish. I like that I can have a beer every day. I have noticed a couple of things with diet: * shockingly you can still workout hard while starving. * it seems to help regulate and improve…

IF coaches have reported that women tend to want to break the fast ~2 hours earlier than men. Men can generally make it 16 hours and women make it to 14 before the hunger really sets in. This has been my experience also, but I don't know the root cause.

My anecdotal experience is that my wife and various other females seem to loose more weight with additional meals earlier in the day. My next observation is that perhaps post fast my wife and others seem binge more often (again just an observation).

For me after I fast its almost impossible for me to pack 2k calories in 4 hours IF I eat healthy. I feel disgustingly full but my wife doesn't.

The other thing is my wife also prefers to eat before working out which I do not like at all.

I read an article like this recently that might be the reason why: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3388628/Men-exerci...

Re: Intermittent Fasting Is Gaining Acceptance

#40

Post by agentgt »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #36
agentgt wrote: post #32

I have being doing IF now for a 4 months and out of all the various dieting methods I have tried over the years I'm very impressed so far. I only do one meal a day (big lunch around 2pm) and then a protein shake and maybe a beer at 8ish. I like that I can have a beer every day. I have noticed a couple of things with diet: * shockingly you can still workout hard while starving. * it seems to help regulate and improve…

And you do this every day? Not what I picture when I hear "intermittent" - the article mentions the 5:2 plan, but I'm curious what other schedules are common. I've always skipped 2 meals monthly as religious observance, but I'm seriously considering 5:2 to try out health benefits.

No on the weekends I sort of do a refeed to regain leptin and what not so I eat 2 calorie dense meals and follow the 8 hour regimen.

During the week I just find I need to start shutting it down earlier or tapering down.. or else. So I do a casein protein shake (just casein) and a beer (usually the beer is prior) as my second meal.

I don't think there is any magic except that I'm doing something that I can maintain (the beer being my treat to help maintain follow through).

Oh I forgot. Sometimes on Friday I will wait till 8:00pm to eat (24 hour fast). A guy on reddit does this and he/she calls it "Fast Fridays". The idea being Fridays and the weekends are usually a calorie fest. I like it for it practicality and for the catchy name.

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