Intermittent Fasting?

I have been reading about this for the last 3 days for HOURS on the internet (my job is really easy right now…). So I decided I wanted to try it. After 9:30pm last night I didn’t eat until 3:45pm today, so 18 hour fast.

I’ve been reading that a 6 hour eating window is a good way to go, so I think I’m going to be eating for 4pm-10pm from now on. I’ll keep this thread updated with my feelings.

For the past 2 years, I’ve been doing the typical every 3 hours on the hour kind of eating, and it’s pretty freeing not having to plan all these meals all day long. I wanna try something different and I’m ready to lose some weight.

I used to be really into ‘bodybuilding’ but earlier this summer I changed to a more ‘crossfit’ type of working out to increase frequency of workouts with less heavy work. I’m in the military and need to keep my weight less than 196lbs since I’m only 5 foot 10. I’m at 197 now and I want to cut to around 180lbs and build more from there…

I know at least one guy who does IF and he’s physically in great shape. Very strong and constantly getting stronger. He’s a skilled martial artist, and a trainer (specializing in correction and rehab, etc), as well.

[quote]Gumpshmee wrote:
I’ve been giving the Warrior Diet a test drive for about 3 weeks so far. I thought I might as well verify if it works for myself, and it also happened to jive with my schedule. So far it’s working. I’m getting lean pretty fast and my strength has continued to increase gradually as ever.

The research looks promising… I’d like to see more data related to this subject in the future. The studies showing a protective effect on muscle, lowered insulin and cortisol, and increased BMR seem to make a good case for this method being in the least, effective for recomposition phases.

I’ll just keep on keepin on and see if I can possibly gain any muscle this way after I’m done leaning out.[/quote]

The WD isn’t technically a IF diet, though, as it’s not intermittent. But, hey, it’s working for ya! :slight_smile:

http://www.leangains.com/ seems to be a very good resource regarding IF and its relationship to athletic performance and body composition. I find this stuff very intriguing because, if nothing else, it more closely approximates the way humans ate before the past few centuries or millennia.

It clearly doesn’t mesh too well with a lot of the ideas followed on this site, but I think it’s still worth having a good discussion about.

So we’re talking about the Warrior Diet? If you like the idea, do it. If it works, then keep doing it.

If it doesn’t - find something else that will work.

Unless I missed a crucial part of human biology and everyone is in fact exactly the same and doing everything the same as everyone else will work.

It’s true what RhunDraco says, a planned fast like the warrior diet is not intermittent fasting because one of the tenets of the intermittent fast is the randomness built into it. I conquer the regularity by eating a shitload on saturday and drinking beer friday nights. Hmmm…I wonder if that’s why I’m not “shredded” yet? LOL!

“Don’t take life to seriously…you’ll never get out alive”

Maybe a more moderate and – as a lot of times, going only midway towards an extreme and generally-unproven idea works better than going all the way to the extreme — possibly better approach is to both reduce the length of the planned fasting and to give it some support.

For example, when dieting I will sometimes go for no substantial refeed on awakening, but only Power Drive, a leucine-rich essential amino acids mix (plain BCAA’s would be fine also), acetyl-L-carnitine and optionally carnitine also, a Spike Shooter and HOT-ROX Maximum Strength (not Extreme, because combining with Spike Shooter would be doubling up on yohimbine which would be excessive.)

I’ll then go a few hours before the first substantial macronutrient intake and if I’m going to do walking or interval sprinting it will be during this time.

So the net fast is the entire time since the last meal of the previous day, and a period which otherwise might well have been catabolic is nicely supported, albeit with very low calories.

Not saying it’s proven better, but it works for me and certainly is not going as far out on the limb.

How is it that Int. Fasting will increase insulin sensitivity? Would eating 6 smaller meals throughout the day not keep blood sugar at better levels? Rather than eating a shitload of food within a time period sending your blood sugar through the roof?

You know what guys?
Lets let our Muslim Brothers try this out since they are fasting anyway.

My friend whos a national athlete did this but without knowing. Every Year on 1 month and he said he actually got leaner, stronger and bigger (not fat mass)… (but hes always naturally at 8 packs anyway…).

They have to eat before a certain time (break-fast… Fast breaking?) in the AM. BIIGGG breakfast.

He fasts till 1-2 hours BEFORE the Fast ends in the PM that is when he trains.

After he trains. HE just eats a shizload of food… which is what our islamic friends are doing anyway… Obviously this diet does fk up some ppl who do not exercise.

Eg, i noticed (its only been a few days since the fasting started)… that alot of my class mates already put on weight. I mean Alot. I mean the Entire country is.

I don’t like the sound of it. We only have a limited amino acid pool. I have to believe that after 18 hours of no food that there is no way you are going to be in any kind of anabolic environment. Then you stuff yourself which will be a high amount of circulating tryglycerides and a very big insulin spike. I just have trouble believing that this cycle will do any thing but make you smaller and fatter, not bigger and leaner.

I’m going to bump and add comments regarding why fasting helps partition nutrients more effectively.

If we ignore the health benefits and speak purely from nutrient partitioning perspective, the idea behind intermittent fasting and calorie cycling is to make your body more responsive to nutrients by depriving them for a short period of time.

Take Mauro DiPasquale’s Anabolic Diet where carbs and/or cals are restricted during the week. On weekends, carbs are replenished and shuttled directly to the glycogen depleted muscle.

I remember Scott Abel saying he goes down to 1,800 cals/day on his Cycle Diet only to eat ~13,000 cals on his refeed day. Scott is 45 and jacked at around 240 lbs

Intermittent fasting is simply on the hardcore end of calorie cycling, with the added benefits of the act of fasting.