Intermittent Fasting

Ascendancy said:
Started my first day of 16/8 today. I get to eat in half an hour or so, although truth be told I'm not really that hungry at the moment, so I might give it a bit longer.

Any updates from people who have been doing this since the last post in September?
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Mondays stats vs ones from week 1 which was the 6th of June:

Height - 5"8 (just)
Goals - get lean whilst adding some muscle/strength, then phase 2 will be to clean bulk (still doing the first part)
Weight - 62.8kg (was 69.9kg)
Chest - 89cm (was 97cm)
2" above belly - 71cm (was 86cm)
Belly - 75cm (was 85cm)
2" below belly - 80cm (was 87cm)
Hips (widest point) - 89cm (was 93cm)

Bench = 60kg 5x5 (was 40kg 1x5)
Deadlift = 105kg 1x5 (was 60kg 1x5)
Squat (high bar) = 100kg (was 53kg 1x5)
P.Row = 60kg (wasn't doing rows when I started)
OHP = 37.5kg (as above, although I found just the bar hard when I started practicing)

Obviously doing Stronglifts. Week 1 lifts were all 1x5 as I was finding my rep range (i.e. doing 5 and moving the weight up a bit till I could just about get 5 reps out).

Diet wise it's a Leangains I.F. style recomp with an emphasis on fat loss, so -30/+10 on rest and workout days incl. macro cycling. Slower results in terms of fat loss than a pure cut or size/strength gains on a bulk, but seemed better as a very skinny-fat starter to go for a middle ground otherwise I'd just end up skinny and weak on the former.

Works well for me due to the weird shift patterns I work, prep/time spent eating, and my preference for eating bigger meals more infrequently than faffy little meals regularly - never been a grazer. Feel like as a way of eating I'll stick with it forever.
 
Didn't want to start a new thread on the same thing.
Starting a 5:2 fast, on 600 calories on my fast days, going to be porridge in the am and a very small dinner. Midday is going to suck, I believe, are midday rice cakes (x2) going to screw it all up or does the fast merely have to be 600 calories irregardless of when?
 
Eating = not fasting. Water, tea/coffee without milk, Coke Zero and that sort of stuff is fine, but the whole point of not-eating is to allow your body to get on with burning fat uninterrupted - I go a minimum 16 hours, sometimes as long as 22-24. That is fasting. Eating 600 cals (of what exactly?) per day is just under-eating.

5:2 is meh though, you'd lose weight on 600 cals a day regardless of whether there was fasting involved or not, and it's not like 2 days of under-eating will make up for 5 days of over-eating, and in general for weight loss it's having a handle on your food intake 24/7. The fasting element of how I eat is in theory the icing on the cake, the main results come from - in order of importance - 1) quantity of intake 2) composition of intake, protein/fat/carb and 3) timing of intake.

If you're going to do it, I'd say just fast until late lunch / dinner and have one 600 cal meal as it's more satisfying. I get up for work at 5:45am when I'm on day shift and don't get hungry, whine about wanting food, or even think about food much now till 3-4pm.
 
I'll not have the rice cakes then!
My diet is healthy normally, not over eating I'm a good weight just want to lose a bit for climbing. Was going by what I learnt from co-workers doing that way.
I'll try the one 600 cal later lunch next fast day, today will be my small porridge with spices and tea.
 
I do 16 hours off, 8 hours on everyday.

Still eat 2600-2700 cals on training days (4 or 5 a week) and 1800 on rest days. Doing so, I have lost a pretty much consistent 1kg in weight per week.

600 calories a day is too low and as said above, doesn't sounds like you are actually fasting.
 
Hunger is regulated. You eat at certain times, your body expects to be fed at those times, which is why it pays to be fairly consistent with when you eat. Once you get past the adaptation phase, if you feel hungry during the fasted period it's usually you mistaking dehydration for hunger.

REAL hunger is something most people in the developed world never experience anyway, thankfully.
 
Somnambulist said:
Hunger is regulated. You eat at certain times, your body expects to be fed at those times, which is why it pays to be fairly consistent with when you eat. Once you get past the adaptation phase, if you feel hungry during the fasted period it's usually you mistaking dehydration for hunger.

REAL hunger is something most people in the developed world never experience anyway, thankfully.
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Very true. Having a large glass of cold water and a sugar free gum is more than enough to see you through that period.

That said, cooking my family a fry up on Sunday morning and not being able to eat it takes some will power :p
 
Still doing IF (8/16), works for me as a way to stop me grazing on food all day but not using it as a means to lose weight anymore as happy at 70kg (BMI of about 20 down from 30). The other potential health benefits are a bonus as well.
 
I.F is just my default now, not really something I think about - I don't get hungry in the mornings, I don't eat till the afternoon, I prefer eating less frequent, bigger meals, although when I switch to bulk mode I'll probably go to 3 meals vs 2. I don't stick to a strict 16/8 type thing, but I usually get to 16 hours automatically, just the feeding window can be shorter than 8 depending on what I'm doing. *shrug* Ultimately intake vs TDEE is the most important thing, but certainly for any sort of caloric restriction/cutting type thing I believe I.F. makes adhering to cutting macros easy... well, for me anyway.
 
Somnambulist said:
I.F is just my default now, not really something I think about - I don't get hungry in the mornings, I don't eat till the afternoon, I prefer eating less frequent, bigger meals, although when I switch to bulk mode I'll probably go to 3 meals vs 2. I don't stick to a strict 16/8 type thing, but I usually get to 16 hours automatically, just the feeding window can be shorter than 8 depending on what I'm doing. *shrug* Ultimately intake vs TDEE is the most important thing, but certainly for any sort of caloric restriction/cutting type thing I believe I.F. makes adhering to cutting macros easy... well, for me anyway.
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I kinda agree that, well, if actually DOING intermittent fasting I don't especially feel like having 3 meals, I'd much rather just have 2. 3 meals doesn't make much sense to me, if one of them is not breakfast.

I have done the whole 6-7 small meals a day thing. Worst load of rubbish on earth. Miserable experience and SO damn antisocial.
 
Well, it'd more just be for variety - I can and have had all my training day macros in a single meal before lol - I could say 'eat 250g chicken and 250g dry weight rice + some nuts twice a day', but I find it more satisfying and less boring (plus not being in 100% control of the kitchen, some days I have) to switch things up and mix and match different things to get in my macro target ballpark, which can lend itself to being broken up a bit. I'll see how I get on though - I imagine I'd be fine with 2 meals a day as I've never been a snacker... as an ex-fatty and living in a 3 square meals type house, I've always been more infrequent but big with my eating.
 
Sorry for the bump but i've been training for about a year and a half and i'm looking to loose some body fat. Came across If through TMW as OP and it seems like I might give it shot.

Without sounding stupid, how are people managing it when working out in the evening?
 
If I train on a full day shift (I work 12hr days 7 days a month) I get up at 5:50am, work 8am-8pm, so my eating window is usually around 3-11pm and I'll eat lunch late at work, finish, train, then eat most of my intake and go to bed on a full stomach, although this doesn't really bother me.

I don't count but naturally my work lunch tends to be about 1/2 my protein intake, most of my fat intake and a bit of my carb intake, so I'm quite sated, then PWO meal the other 1/2 of my protein, what's left of my fat intake, then most of my carb intake. I prefer training fasted AM or in the afternoon though so try and workout around my shifts rather than on them, but it's occasionally unavoidable.
 
you re-arrange the eating window to suit you and your routine.

so if you work out in the evening, you start eating later on.

hunger isn't really a problem after the 2-3 day adjustment period.

your biggest meal is supposed to be post workout anyway so it should keep you fuller in the mornings if you train late at night.

i usually do a 6/18 split rather than 8/16, so it gives me a 2 hour safety net should my routine get delayed somehow.
 
So my fasting period would start later on in the evening, say if I do 8/16 if I stop eating at 8 then continue at 11ish the next day that should be fine? Since the post meal is supposed to be pretty big won't that be an issue?
 
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