Still Have IF Questions

I think I’m kind of late on the whole intermittent fasting fad but it still intrigues me but the only article I could find was this and he just basically tells about his experience with it John Berardi's Great Fasting Experiment still very helpful though.

I have a few questions though, for you who have been successful with it, how do you set up your peri workout nutrition? Do you follow the same “bro rules” for macros? What changes on non training days? Also I have seen anywhere from 20 hours fasting and 4 eat to 16 fasting and 8 eating.

IF is just a way to eat. You can do it with a low carb diet, IIFYM, carb cycling, whatever.

Peri-WO stuff, if you’re training during your feeding window, do what you’d normally do. If you’re training when you’re suppose to be fasting, I’ve seen people use nothing, use a little bit of whey, coffee, BCAA’s. There’s a lot of options.

Feeding windows are based on your appetite and goals. Some people eat one HUGE meal, a lot use Berkhan’s LG method of 16 hours fasting / 8 hours eating. Even stuff like CBL uses a ‘fasting’ concept, only it’s basically just a ‘carb’ fast.

The difference between lifting and non-lifting days is no different then on any other diet. The popular Leangains method is carb cycling, higher carb/ lower fat on lifting days and the inverse on off-days. But like I said, IF is a REALLY broad term, and can fit with most diets and goals.

I would google Leangains Martin Berkhan, that should get you started with IF. I used it for an initial recomp awhile ago, and it worked, but I moved to CBL eventually because I liked it better.

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
IF is just a way to eat. You can do it with a low carb diet, IIFYM, carb cycling, whatever.
[/quote]

This.

IF is a very general way of eating, and can be used for any sort of goal. I think a lot of people confuse it with a comprehensive plan - it is simply a way of timing your meals, nothing more.

I follow IF and have done for almost a year. I have an identical approach with macros and peri-workout nutrition to what I would do if I was following any other type of timing with my meals.

I typically break my fast with a high protein, high fat, low carb pre-workout meal, I eat my main meal after my workout and then I eat another meal before I sleep. The final meal will be high protein, high fat, low carbs (usually eggs) if I’m being strict, but more often than not I just have some PB sandwiches. The main meal is lots of meat, veg and sweet potatoes.

As for the ratio, it’s really up to you. I recommend just experimenting and seeing what you prefer. I’ve found that between 18/6 and 20/4 works well for me, but I think it varies loads from person to person. If you are going to give it a go I’d recommend easing into it gradually. Starting with 16/8 is probably best.

I don’t really change my nutrition between workout days and non-workout days, but I train with a high frequency so it doesn’t really matter for me.

I’m no expert, but this is just what I’ve found. Hope it is useful!

[quote]furo wrote:

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
IF is just a way to eat. You can do it with a low carb diet, IIFYM, carb cycling, whatever.
[/quote]

This.

IF is a very general way of eating, and can be used for any sort of goal. I think a lot of people confuse it with a comprehensive plan - it is simply a way of timing your meals, nothing more.

I follow IF and have done for almost a year. I have an identical approach with macros and peri-workout nutrition to what I would do if I was following any other type of timing with my meals.

I typically break my fast with a high protein, high fat, low carb pre-workout meal, I eat my main meal after my workout and then I eat another meal before I sleep. The final meal will be high protein, high fat, low carbs (usually eggs) if I’m being strict, but more often than not I just have some PB sandwiches. The main meal is lots of meat, veg and sweet potatoes.

As for the ratio, it’s really up to you. I recommend just experimenting and seeing what you prefer. I’ve found that between 18/6 and 20/4 works well for me, but I think it varies loads from person to person. If you are going to give it a go I’d recommend easing into it gradually. Starting with 16/8 is probably best.

I don’t really change my nutrition between workout days and non-workout days, but I train with a high frequency so it doesn’t really matter for me.

I’m no expert, but this is just what I’ve found. Hope it is useful![/quote]
Very useful! What does a normal day look like for you? Did you find it difficult at first to get all of your macros in?

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
IF is just a way to eat. You can do it with a low carb diet, IIFYM, carb cycling, whatever.

Peri-WO stuff, if you’re training during your feeding window, do what you’d normally do. If you’re training when you’re suppose to be fasting, I’ve seen people use nothing, use a little bit of whey, coffee, BCAA’s. There’s a lot of options.

Feeding windows are based on your appetite and goals. Some people eat one HUGE meal, a lot use Berkhan’s LG method of 16 hours fasting / 8 hours eating. Even stuff like CBL uses a ‘fasting’ concept, only it’s basically just a ‘carb’ fast.

The difference between lifting and non-lifting days is no different then on any other diet. The popular Leangains method is carb cycling, higher carb/ lower fat on lifting days and the inverse on off-days. But like I said, IF is a REALLY broad term, and can fit with most diets and goals.

I would google Leangains Martin Berkhan, that should get you started with IF. I used it for an initial recomp awhile ago, and it worked, but I moved to CBL eventually because I liked it better. [/quote]
How long was your recomp?

[quote]chobbs wrote:

[quote]furo wrote:

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:
IF is just a way to eat. You can do it with a low carb diet, IIFYM, carb cycling, whatever.
[/quote]

This.

IF is a very general way of eating, and can be used for any sort of goal. I think a lot of people confuse it with a comprehensive plan - it is simply a way of timing your meals, nothing more.

I follow IF and have done for almost a year. I have an identical approach with macros and peri-workout nutrition to what I would do if I was following any other type of timing with my meals.

I typically break my fast with a high protein, high fat, low carb pre-workout meal, I eat my main meal after my workout and then I eat another meal before I sleep. The final meal will be high protein, high fat, low carbs (usually eggs) if I’m being strict, but more often than not I just have some PB sandwiches. The main meal is lots of meat, veg and sweet potatoes.

As for the ratio, it’s really up to you. I recommend just experimenting and seeing what you prefer. I’ve found that between 18/6 and 20/4 works well for me, but I think it varies loads from person to person. If you are going to give it a go I’d recommend easing into it gradually. Starting with 16/8 is probably best.

I don’t really change my nutrition between workout days and non-workout days, but I train with a high frequency so it doesn’t really matter for me.

I’m no expert, but this is just what I’ve found. Hope it is useful![/quote]
Very useful! What does a normal day look like for you? Did you find it difficult at first to get all of your macros in?[/quote]

Glad to help!

I find it easy to get my macros in for 2 main reasons: 1) I’m a glutton and 2) I don’t need a huge amount of food

I can give you an example of my exact diet while cutting (2,000kcal).

Pre-Workout Meal
15g cashews
15g almonds
25g biltong (like beef jerky)

Main Meal
500g chicken
Small broccolli
100g brown rice
120g tomatoes
1tbsp peanut butter

Evening Meal
3 eggs
2 apples

210g protein/115g carbs/75g fat

Now I’m just maintaining I pretty much do the same, but more carbs in the main meal and the evening meal.

EDIT: I just wanted to add that, although I’m not generally eating a large amount, I think it wouldn’t be too hard to eat a lot following IF. On cheat days when I blew put completely I could easily hit 3,500kcal relatively cleanly. So you can definitely bulk with high calories doing IF.

Here’s a pic when I just started IF’ing kind of combined with CBL. After a few months it became a kind of strictly CBL, then for about 6 weeks near the end I did a ‘cut’.

EDIT: Also, the ‘after’ pic was after slowly gaining up a bit. I ended my cut at abut 175ish or so right at October, and then gained some weight back up, so this is about 6 weeks of ‘lean gaining’ after being in a deficit and kind of depleted.

Major improvement! What was a normal day for you?

[quote]chobbs wrote:
Major improvement! What was a normal day for you? [/quote]

I wish I could remember fully lol. I know my window was roughly like 3-11pm. I also did a higher fat diet initially, but slowly drifted towards higher carbs as I got leaner and found performance improved from it.

So I’d break my fast with some ghetto stir fry, like 4 whole eggs in some rice with some chicken, or just eggs on Ezekial bread toast (this was right around when JM’s stuff got popular). I’d lift around 5ish, PWO drink a big shake whole milk, whey, oats, PB, Bananas, VCO. Whatever. lol. Then I’d have a big dinner which varied to basically anything I wanted as long as their was protein, and then cottage cheese before bed.

At this time, I didn’t count my macros much, and was still learning about my body and stuff. Little stuff like oats didn’t agree well with me, white rice was better for me then brown, stuff like that. Finally I started CBL later on, just moved all carbs to PWO of my feeding window. then I started increasing my feeding my window a bit, and really pushing the carbs (like backloaded 600+g of carbs some nights), until eventually I just ate when hungry, which usually, like now, is about 3-4 hours after I wake up.

When I decided to actually ‘cut’ I started actually counting macros, and while IF and CBL definitely seemed to allow me to eat more carbs and such while getting/staying leaner, it was only then that I found the BEST improvements.

The biggest thing IF and CBL did for me was:

  1. lean me to counting macros
  2. make me realize eating every 2-3 hours wasn’t essential
  3. make me realize I need to always experiment to see what works for me
  4. this is genuinely bro-sciency and whatever, but I feel IF’ing and CBL increased my insulin sensitivity. Before doing it, the before pic was me eating in the ball park of 250g of carbs tops most days. Now, I eat 400+ easily, staying pretty lean. Idk just something I believe but can’t prove.

Great response…so you basically did regular “bulking” meals just in a 8 hour time window. I’m too jealous you know all this about your own body!

Spidey, did you have trouble eating a day worth of food in an 8 hour window?

Yeah initially I did, but I eventually found that digestion and stuff is better with me with higher GI carbs, Brown rice, oats, shit like that kills me. Just try shit out Chobbs, srs. I still don’t know my body and am learning every day, just by trying stuff and seeing if it works.

Ripsaw, now, but I’m naturally kind of a person who prefers to feast as opposed to ‘graze’. lol And my fats were higher, so I was getting in calorically dense foods. Now, the way I prefer my macros with lower fats, I don’t think I would like it as much. However, Ryanxc (sp?) on here does like 4 hour feeding windows and gets in like 600g carbs and 5kcal on the reg without issue.

Spidey, how was your energy during workouts with only one meal in?

[quote]chobbs wrote:
Spidey, how was your energy during workouts with only one meal in?[/quote]

Pretty good. Until very recently, I worked out on only Coffee+VCO for awhile. And worked out with having in carbs in me for about a year and half.

I will say, having worked out nearly fasted for a period of time, and eating only carbless meals before lifting for a period of time, and NOW eating carbs pre- and intra workout… When training more moderate volume, strength stuff, it doesn’t seem to matter. But with BB’ing style, higher volume workouts, I really do feel the carbs help a lot.

Many train fasted before they start their feeding window when doing IF, and use BCAA’s intra-WO. Not something I did, but worth noting.