Intermittent Fasting

ricky1981 said:
IF isn't going to lose you weight by itself, you still need to eat sensibly and exercise but it certainly helped as it fitted with the structured approach that seems to work best for me.

I've lost quite a bit of weight from 16/8 combined with daily cardio/weights and haven't ever felt like I was on a 'diet' which has been great as I love good food and didn't want to cut down every single meal or always order salad/light options.

Before/recent pic in spoilers so don't open if you don't want to see a fat belly (or aren't interested ;)) and excuse the chopped up first pic, had to montage from two photos from a mole mapping in December.

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That is a really good transormation, how long is it between pics?
 
rainbow6six said:
That is a really good transormation, how long is it between pics?
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December last year to July this year, I'd already lost about 5kg from my 'peak' when then first photo was taken. Lost a couple more since the July photo but have been focusing more on running than weights so have lost a bit of muscle as well as fat. Have a couple of half marathons I've signed up for in the next 6 months so weights are having to take a back seat for a while :(
 
ricky1981 said:
December last year to July this year, I'd already lost about 5kg from my 'peak' when then first photo was taken. Lost a couple more since the July photo but have been focusing more on running than weights so have lost a bit of muscle as well as fat. Have a couple of half marathons I've signed up for in the next 6 months so weights are having to take a back seat for a while :(
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Well, my hat is off to you, it is quite inspiring. Your before pic is bascially where I am now. I have been thinking of trying IF and can't decide if I should do a 16/8 or the whole day idea.......
 
rainbow6six said:
Well, my hat is off to you, it is quite inspiring. Your before pic is bascially where I am now. I have been thinking of trying IF and can't decide if I should do a 16/8 or the whole day idea.......
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IF has certainly help me but I have been exercising pretty much every single day, either 45-60 minutes of cardio (10km run today for example) or doing the stronglifts 5x5 weights program. Diet alone can help you shift weight but if you want to get healthier then you need the exercise as well.

It's hard to overstate just how much better and happier I feel for getting myself fit as well as shifting the weight.

The first 3-4 weeks were pretty horrible as I was panting and sweating within a few minutes and realised just what an unfit sack of spuds I was, but slowly I started to enjoy it and now I look forward to it.

There are some great success stories in the 2012 weight loss thread as well as people just getting started so check that out :)
 
I have been toying with the idea of IF for a while, i have been eating 7 or so smaller meals a day for over 4 years. A friend pointed this out to me a few weeks ago, and am heavily considering starting it soon.
 
I've been doing IF for a year now and will never go back to a regular/unorganized eating schedule again.

Fasting has improved my health and well being. I fast for at least 16 hours a day, but if I feel like it I will regularly go for 20 hours but that can be a challenge to eat all my calories within a few hours but I can do it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZZWOXhoFpo&feature=related

Great video explaining everything you need to know about IF ^.

I recommend it to anyone. I lost a lot of fat with this way of eating and my fat percentage has remained steady while I'm gaining muscle. Plus it's an amazing feeling when you cook a huge meal and feast on it!!!

Also because of fasting I drink a good 3-4 liters of water everyday, before fasting I would rarely drink water, can't believe how unhealthy my diet and lifestyle was..
 
ricky1981 said:
IF has certainly help me but I have been exercising pretty much every single day, either 45-60 minutes of cardio (10km run today for example) or doing the stronglifts 5x5 weights program. Diet alone can help you shift weight but if you want to get healthier then you need the exercise as well.

It's hard to overstate just how much better and happier I feel for getting myself fit as well as shifting the weight.

The first 3-4 weeks were pretty horrible as I was panting and sweating within a few minutes and realised just what an unfit sack of spuds I was, but slowly I started to enjoy it and now I look forward to it.

There are some great success stories in the 2012 weight loss thread as well as people just getting started so check that out :)
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Cheers, I'll take a look and keep up the good work!
 
ricky1981 said:
IF isn't going to lose you weight by itself, you still need to eat sensibly and exercise but it certainly helped as it fitted with the structured approach that seems to work best for me.

I've lost quite a bit of weight from 16/8 combined with daily cardio/weights and haven't ever felt like I was on a 'diet' which has been great as I love good food and didn't want to cut down every single meal or always order salad/light options.
Before/recent pic in spoilers so don't open if you don't want to see a fat belly (or aren't interested ;)) and excuse the chopped up first pic, had to montage from two photos from a mole mapping in December.
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This to me is the main draw - I've been losing fat doing Leagains consistently since I started, but haven't ever felt like I've had to either compromise much on what I'm eating or feel like it's hard work. Prep time for food is nice and quick, as is planning my macro totals out because it's only 2 meals most of the time and I can generally do a whole day in advance in about 5mins. Less packing as well!
 
Had a few bad weekends (social visits) & put on a few - so thought I'd try leangains last week.

So far,

Went from 13stone 11.5 to 13 stone 5.5 is one week (some of that will be food) - but so far it's looking much better than my previous diet of lots of small mealers.

I'm only eating slightly less than I was before & the weight loss seems to be consistent.

I'm having 5g of BCAA in the morning when I get up (along with 2.5g of psyllium husks) exactlty the same at night before I goto bed.

1950 on workout days and 1600 on rest days is what I'm currently eating (going for the faster weight loss out of the selection).

So far so good.
 
rainbow6six said:
6lb in a week! Is this rate of loss expected to contiue do you think?
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I wish lol, I'd be done in a month.

I expect 1lb max per week (if that) - my previous rate was 0.25lb a week for the last couple of months so if anything I'm very shocked at how quickly it's come off.

I would understand if I was suddenly eating much less which I'm not (as it would be food weight) or if I had vastly changed my water intake (Which I haven't, it's at around 3.5l a day).

Very strange, but as somebody who normally loses weight at a snails pace it was quite a shock tbh.

Edit - That's with doing strong-lifts 5x5 (3 times a week) along with some 3x8 isolation (dumbbell curls, calf raises & dumbbell press & press-ups till exhaustion).
 
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The carb cycling usually creates a whoosh effect w/water loss IIRC. It can be weird though, some weeks you'll lose a load, other weeks nothing will change even though you're eating and training the same - body is weird.

My weight loss so far has been (recorded during the middle training day morning of each week):
69.9kg, 68.8kg, 67.7kg, 66.9kg, 66.6kg, 66.4kg, 66.1kg, 66.1kg, 66.1kg, 65.7kg, 65.3kg, 64.2kg.

This is at 5"8 (at a stretch) and only starting off my relationship with a gym. Get lean + strength gains = seem to be on the right track. Slow bulk once I get lean as fuuuark.
 
tom_nieto said:
I suppose I go on this sort of diet when I do a night shift these days. I wake up at 17:00 and eat, then have dinner at 01:00 or so, then don't eat for 14 hours. Never measured if I lose weight, but I imagine that coupled with being really busy means that I do.

The thing that puts me off this sort of diet long term is the lack of breakfast. I genuinely think I wouldn't function without it at work bearing in mind I'm standing for long periods of time operating. How do you guys find it?
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Just as I haven't properly read around things yet. Would: eat breakfast + lunch then nothing till breakfast the next day work too? I've been kinda rolling like that for a while (tho with coffee in the day).
 
When I ate at 6am on work mornings I got hungrier by midday waiting for lunch than I do now fasting. It's weird. The essence though is that your body gets used to a routine and if you eat breakfast at the same time regularly then when you don't your body starts moaning until it learns otherwise. The first few days on IF can be hard for some but I adjusted really quickly.

You can have your eating window whenever suits you, really. The idea with having something like 1-9pm as your 8 hours is that generally people's social eating happens in the evening, and you spend more hours of your fast asleep. When I work nights I eat between 5pm and 12am and when I get in bed at 9am I'm starting to feel hungry! When I'm on days I get up at 6am but don't get hungry till about 1-2pm which is when I'll have my first meal.
 
I've been doing this for just under 2 weeks since I saw the Michael Moseley programme on the BBC and have lost 7ibs. My weight has spiralled after a back injury caught up with me 6 years ago and left me with a partly paralysed right leg, so my daily 3-5 mile jog wasn't on any more.

I decided to fast on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays as it fits in nicely with my social activities. I eat nothing until about 7pm only drinking water and herbal teas but I get a mini hunger "crisis" about 4-5pm. I find that tough.

The optimum fasting interval seems to be about 20-22 hours in order to benefit from the change in metabolic processes.

I break my fast with a nasty diet cup-a-soup, a couple of ryvita and a small piece of cheese, that seems to be enough. My wife breaks hers with a bowl of muesli.

Oddly, as a previous poster mentioned, eating makes you hungry. I had a slice of toast this morning and I'm really hungry now.
When I don't feel like a fat old git anymore I'll go back to the gym!
 
Somnambulist said:
Martin Berkhan did a post recently about breakfast hunger:
http://www.leangains.com/2012/06/why-does-breakfast-make-me-hungry.html
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Thanks, a very interesting read. Some years ago I began reading up on why there were so many accidents involving drivers in the early morning rush hour period especially HGV drivers.
It seemed that they were taking the Yorkie bar/HGV driver connection a little too seriously. After waking they would eat a choccy bar thinking it would give them energy.
An analysis of blood glucose levels of drivers involved in accidents in the morning often revealed alarmingly low levels of glucose, some of them almost in the hypoglycaemic range.

This was explained to me as a "reactive hypoglycaemia" but no-one mentioned the effect of cortisol.
Once again, thanks.
 
Well, my other question went rather unanswered but reading more, it seems it wasn't the best thought anyway.

Another though - how would you folks work this around shift work? I do 7am-7pm x2 then 24 hours off followed by 7pm-7am x2 (then 4 days off where this is obviously easy). I do a fairly heavy gym routine after the night shift (2 hours split about 50/50 cardio/lifting) so do we think it worth just forgetting about the fasting on those days? I don't eat much on the night shift anyway.
 
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