Take on Intermittent fasting?

[OmidHariri]

Whats the forums take on intermittent fasting? I've been hearing alot about it lately and I seems like an unattractive idea to me. The fact that i can't eat until a certain window period during the day. This is especially awful to me because I'm now a college student and I need some kind of meal early in the day to keep me going.

Currently im 18, 5'8, 170lb. Im a pretty muscular guy and i think im at about 14% body fat. I really want to bring that down to about 10 to where i believe i have a nice set of visible abs showing.

I would also like to mention that I do go to the gym alot and do weight lifting. I avoid cardio because I just hate it. I don't think its healthy to run until my body hurts. I sometimes do some workouts with little to no break inbetween to keep my heart rate up and keep me sweating. Which in turn is like a muscle building cardio. And I jump rope for a minute in between sets to keep my heart rate high and keep my body heat up.

So i would like to know what your take on IF'ing. And if you recommend I try it at my physical standpoint. And your stories with it.

*Id like to note that i want to gain muscle weight and lose fat weight.

[Sandman614]

well first off it's extremely difficult to gain muscle while simultaneously losing body fat unless you're on steroids. to gain muscle you have to eat at a caloric surplus, to lose fat you have to eat a caloric deficit. but you can reduce the amount of fat you put on by keeping your diet clean and doing a slow bulk, by eating ~500 calories above what you burn every day, for a long time, as opposed to going 1000+ calories over a day with what would be called a dirty bulk.

as far as IF is concerned, I've done it a couple times for about 3 month stints each time. I saw pretty good results each time, it's just extremely mentally difficult. it sucks starting off because you get extremely hungry in the morning/afternoon if your window isnt until late in the day, but you get used to it after a while. the most important part is avoiding the cravings. your body is going to crave fatty, sugary, salty foods when it goes without eating for that long so you have to be extremely strict on your diet.

and also different things work for different people. you just have to try it and see if it works for you.

edit: if your goal is sub 10% body fat, you're going to have to do some cardio. high intensity interval training is your best bet.

[dr.mba]

Agree on cardio 100%. if you want to bulk dont fast. You will breakdown muscle invariably by fasting even if you continue to workout and will not gain like you would like. On the other end if you fast you will lose fat quick especially if you observe LaVerita's remark about cravings (it will be hard, i tried it myself and was struggling not to stuff my face with cake and junk). Eventually though your body learns to consume less calories when you fast long enough. High intensity cardio training wins in this comparison in my humble opinion as you will continue to workout, bulk and burn fat like MAD.
Hope this helps.

MBA

[Sandman614]

You can still bulk on IF, you just have to get all the calories you need in your eating window.

Fasting doesn't breakdown muscle, your body turns to fat long before muscle for energy, that's the whole point of IF.

For example: if your maintenance is 2000 calories per day, fast until 5pm, have a small meal, lift, then get the rest of the calories you need, for a total of about 2500, in before about 10. 5-6 hours is usually a good non-fasting window.

But chances are if you're a male college student and are very active your maintenance calories will be much higher. Start by finding out your maintenance (number of calories you would need to eat each day to maintain your current weight) add 500, and eat that number of calories in CLEAN food in your 5-6 hour non-fasting window.

[Vinfast]

You can still bulk on IF just like LaVerita said. I've been doing it for 5 months and have lost 20 pounds and my shirts have gotten much tighter.

When you do IF, your testosterone and growth hormone goes way up. When I fast from 10pm to 3pm the next day, my energy levels and strength levels have gone out the roof. I work out around 1pm right before I eat my first meal at 3pm.

Give it a try --- it's AWESOME. And I do ZERO cardio, and I'm 43 by the way.

[OmidHariri]

The reason why it won't seem hard to me because I wake up and go straight to school and about 12:30 pm I eat. So it's not really a big change in my diet. Only thing is that I have to avoid my cravings after 8pm. So Im going to give it a go. Day 1, today hasn't been bad. Only problem is that when you're hungry your breath smells

[Signal513]

Originally Posted by Vinfast

You can still bulk on IF just like LaVerita said. I've been doing it for 5 months and have lost 20 pounds and my shirts have gotten much tighter.

When you do IF, your testosterone and growth hormone goes way up. When I fast from 10pm to 3pm the next day, my energy levels and strength levels have gone out the roof. I work out around 1pm right before I eat my first meal at 3pm.

Give it a try --- it's AWESOME. And I do ZERO cardio, and I'm 43 by the way.

I've run this route a couple of times myself and we are about the same age. I found IF to be an interesting alternative, and quite effective.

However, I just keep it clean and simple when losing fat by keeping the meals balanced properly and edging down on the calories. I tend to do these kind of things a bit slow since jumping off the edge is kinda ugly for some folks.

At any rate, why not give IF a shot for 3 weeks or so. You might find that you build an acceptance of sorts to it. Otherwise go Paleo for a few weeks instead.

But as the others said above, you will need to eat to build.

[954Stealth]

Originally Posted by LaVerita

You can still bulk on IF, you just have to get all the calories you need in your eating window.

Fasting doesn't breakdown muscle, your body turns to fat long before muscle for energy, that's the whole point of IF.

For example: if your maintenance is 2000 calories per day, fast until 5pm, have a small meal, lift, then get the rest of the calories you need, for a total of about 2500, in before about 10. 5-6 hours is usually a good non-fasting window.

But chances are if you're a male college student and are very active your maintenance calories will be much higher. Start by finding out your maintenance (number of calories you would need to eat each day to maintain your current weight) add 500, and eat that number of calories in CLEAN food in your 5-6 hour non-fasting window.

You took the words right out of my mouth so I'll just add
+1

[CSanto]

LaVerita hit it on the head

[JRob23]

Could be good for leaning out but not so great for muscle gains.

[cisc0tek]

I started doing IF about 6 months ago. Understanding that everyone is different ...her is my own personal experiences.

1. Its not something you can 'try out for a few weeks'. I felt like dick hole for the first few weeks. You've spent a lifetime being told breakfast is the most important meal of the day..bs. It will take more than a few weeks to re-train your body to not expect food at a certain time of day. For me it took 4 weeks before I was able to function before noon.

2. Get your diet in check. I've had great results with Paleo....after all a billion crossfitters cant be wrong.

3. Get used to eating BIG meals. We've all been told to eat every 2-3 hours. Im sure whomever preaches this stands to benefit in some way from fat people (medical industry , personal trainers, etc). Only prob with eating every 2-3 hours is your body releases cortisol. This will cause you to gain fat. Go back to eating 2-3 big meals a day ....1000+ calories each if needed.

4. I NEVER broke into single digit bf until I started IR.

5. My strength did INCREASE after that initial 4-5 weeks yet my weight actually dropped. I am 5'10 and weighed in yesterday at 168lbs. My clothes are tighter than ever.

6. Calorie deficit + IF = instadeath ....dont even try it. You must get those calories in your window.

7. After week 5 you wont ever miss breakfast again....but those 5 weeks were torture. IMO worth the investment.

[reedo302]

IFing, Paleo, Atkins, Keto, Jenny Craig, etc...the overall target of any legit weight loss diet is to create a calorie deficit and to get the body to use fat as an energy source.

When you fast, you have an energy dificit in your body. The instant you actually eat food, you get a massive energy boost. Some of this boost is actual physical energy, but some is mental energy as a result of dopamine release in the brain. I would suspect that energy from IFing to be more related to that rapid surge, and not from having more overall stored energy in the body.

Maybe IFing is more controlled, but a friend of mine used to be a competition body builder and always doles out this advice: Treat your body like a machine, not a rocket. Machines need constant energy, rockets need one massive surge. The comment was about maintaining a consistent controlled diet vs just binge eating and then skipping meals.
You will have consistent and predictable results if you maintain a consistent diet throughout the day, hit your macros, eat healthy food, and stay within your calorie threshold. If you look at the guys in the Olympia, they all eat like clockwork throughout the day. They treat their bodies like machines, and that's how they get down to 5% or less body fat.

Whether you IF or not is up to you, since yes, everyone's body is different. It also depends a lot of your caloric intake. If you are in the 3500-4000cal range, it would be pretty hard to get that much into your system in a 7hr time span and still have it all be quality, healthy food. That's why I have skepticism with this diet. Much like Paleo, I question whether this is another fly-by-night trend supported by anecdotal accounts as opposed to empirical data.
I'm not saying "don't do it", but rather to just maintain some objectivity and perspective if you decide to.

[Endless619]

Originally Posted by OmidHariri

Whats the forums take on intermittent fasting? I've been hearing alot about it lately and I seems like an unattractive idea to me. The fact that i can't eat until a certain window period during the day. This is especially awful to me because I'm now a college student and I need some kind of meal early in the day to keep me going.

Currently im 18, 5'8, 170lb. Im a pretty muscular guy and i think im at about 14% body fat. I really want to bring that down to about 10 to where i believe i have a nice set of visible abs showing.

I would also like to mention that I do go to the gym alot and do weight lifting. I avoid cardio because I just hate it. I don't think its healthy to run until my body hurts. I sometimes do some workouts with little to no break inbetween to keep my heart rate up and keep me sweating. Which in turn is like a muscle building cardio. And I jump rope for a minute in between sets to keep my heart rate high and keep my body heat up.

So i would like to know what your take on IF'ing. And if you recommend I try it at my physical standpoint. And your stories with it.

*Id like to note that i want to gain muscle weight and lose fat weight.

Cardio is the best. Maybe do a bike or even swim laps.

Also, just an FYI that most Centurions (folks that live over 100 years of age) eat one meal a day and keep their calories low. This is known.

Although all medical doctors say that breakfast is the best meal of the day and to not skip it is correct for most folks, but not all folks.

I haven't eaten breakfast in 20+ years and i currently eat one meal a day. I also work in the medical field so know all about what doctors are taught to tell patients.

If you must eat something in the morning, have some fruit. Then eat a late lunch and avoid eating after 7pm. Then throw in a 60 minute cardio session at full speed. Done and done. Did it for 10 years straight and it was the best for me. Everyone is different though.

When I was on the swim team I ate 1.5 meals a day.

[tranism]

I can only speak from experience. In March I started at 200 lb and I'm only 5'8". I calorie count, work out 5-6x a week, switching between cardio kickboxing, rowing, pilates, and resistance training. Started IF 2 months ago on top of all that. I basically eat the entire time while at work and stop eating before 7 PM. I now weigh 172 lb with my goal weight some where in the 160's.

The first week of IF was terrible. I was so dizzy. It was like my body was in shock or something but it quickly adapted and oddly, I don't get hunger cravings anymore. Can't say for sure but my body knows I'm going to put food in it between certain hours so it can concentrate on burning fat and repairing tissue instead of digesting food. I do allow myself a cheat day which is usually a Saturday when I hang with friends but even then, I'm calorie counting.

Lessons learned? I'm not as hungry as I thought. I think wanting to eat was just a social habit - either out of routine or sheer boredom. Before then, I never understood how these skinny people would go hours and say they're not hungry. F*ck that! I was always down to eat! When you put yourself on a schedule, you become acutely aware of what you're eating, e.g. I knew I only had 6 hours to eat so am I going to waste calories eating this bag of chips or am I going to get some real food. Eat fiber. I can't stress that enough. Sweet potatoes, broccoli, metamucil if you have to. Just make sure you get your daily fiber and lots of water. Drop the juices, milk, coffee, tea. Drink f*cking water. Biggest lesson is ignore all the "diet" foods and meal plans. If you want to maintain your results, you're going to have to learn how to eat in the real world, with all its evil temptations. F*cking Nutter Butters man. Must resist! Anyone can lose weight with a boring meal plan, but losing weight by consciously deciding what to eat - that's real.

Losing the first 5 lbs sucked because you feel like you're working so hard and the results are dismal but something happens after those first 5 lbs. The weight just keeps coming off. You get motivated and find yourself going above and beyond and then the weight comes off even faster. I actually like exercise now. A year ago, I would NEVER have said that.

[cisc0tek]

Keep in mind IF is not creating any deficit. Its not restricting calories ...just compressing the eating 'window'. The idea of eating every 2-3 hours is bullshit. Man wasn't designed to eat like that. We were built to go extended periods of time without food. I used to eat 6 times a day (Clean) like 'you're told to do' and I never touched single digit body fat. Each time your eat you release cortisol. This stores fat. Your cortisol levels are the highest in the morning and tapers down during the day. IF simply moves your first meal forward to let the cortisol levels drop. You can fast for 16 hours... your metabolism will not fall and you will not tear down muscle, and you will not be a zombie until you break your fast.