Is Anyone Else Intermittent Fasting?

[Alexo]

Hey @JasonR , a couple ideas:

Morning Hunger: Try drinking some calorie-free BCAA powder in the morning (I use Xtend). I'm not sure if its the BCAAs, the flavor tricking your brain/stomach or just the extra fluids but it always helps tide cravings for me.

Feeling bloated: Try eating 3 meals or 2 meals + snack instead. I personally like being able to eat larger portions on a fasting diet but its not for everyone.

This is ridiculous.. why are people so adamant at tricking their brains when it comes to diet and health? Your body is giving you clues at what you need or if something is off, tricking your brain is not a solution! Most people are sold on magic pills, supplements and powders to regain health... Health is actually very simple - eat whole foods. Our bodies and brains have evolved on eating mostly meat and fat.

Eating 3 meals or 2 meals + snack will NEVER help bloating when you are eating garbage

 

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[SomeGuy]

What kind of clues does your body give you? You are feeling hungry? Well, eat something, right? How are you expected to lose weight doing this? I eat a lot of carbs, do IF, eat twice and not feel bloated at all? His body is just not accustomed to this, of course he is going to feel every single bit of change in a negative way, in the beginning anyway. I'm not a fan 'the magic pills' you are referring to. IF helps with bloating, it doesn't cause it - not unless you do it like this. It is true that it is more convenient to eat two times instead of 6, but you can't just completely change your eating schedule and not feel negative side effects at all. His morning hunger is due to his early breakfast habits, reducing his carb intake would increase his hunger, not reduce it. The hunger will disappear when his body is accustomed to running off of fat instead of glycogen. Don't force your diet on other people. I've done low carb diets, no carb diets , vegan diets, you name it - I tried it, none of them were easy. Diets like Paleo are one of the hardest to sustain long term due to the restrictions of foods, but none of these diets are easy when you first start doing them.It takes time for your body to adjust. Your body is accustomed to using fat as energy, because you are not eating enough carbs, but his body isn't. If he reduces his carb intake ( I'm not saying this is good for your health or bad for your health, this is entirely your own decision ) he will feel more hunger, not less, plus other negative side effects known as the ""Carb flu". People count calories in order to get the best results, if you are working out or losing weight - it is a must to get the best results. You can not count them and get results, but its not going to be the best way. You can get by by not counting calories on absolutely every diet if you are not after big goals, but sustaining your weight or slow weight loss.
I don't do any snacks, only whole meals, I don't feel hungry, I don't feel bloated despite eating garbage foods ( I'm not saying this is good for you, but I'm not feeling bloated, so you cannot just go and conclude that his bloating is due to poor diet when he didn't even mention what he consumed ).
I absolutely support whole foods and eating as clean as you can, it is the best thing for your body, but if weight loss is your goal it is not a necessity ( it is good, but not a necessity ). Consume less calories than you burn - you lose weight. Doesn't matter if you ate cakes, drank olive oil, how many carbs you consumed, if you are in a caloric deficit - you are losing weight. Unless you have some health condition, which to be honest, most people don't. You shouldn't force your dietary choices on other people, the only thing I don't consume in larger quantities is sugar , everything else I eat, but there are books/documentaries on how meats and fats from animals are detrimental to our health and they have data to back up their claims, not a randomly thrown post on the internet. It is true that our ancestors ate meats and fats from animals in order to survive and not until they discovered cooking did they start to consume carbs, but they had only one goal in mind - to survive. Life longevity was not a primary concern then, because people didn't live to be 100 years old. If you need to survive - meats and fats will do it and they are more calorie dense than other foods, but now that dying from a lack of calories is not a concern at all, other diets might be better in order to achieve the best life longevity. So, consider that the next time you are teaching somebody about nutrition

 

[BD64]

Well, good luck reading this post..

Dr. Jason Fung has an awesome book on the thread, but it is not exactly anything that isn't shared on the internet. He has an hour long interview with some guy on YT and there he explains the majority of his book. I have done IF for weight loss, but gained the weight back a few times after poor ethic. Few months ago I used it again and I lost about 15kg's , which I haven't gained back, I still have about 5-6 more to lose, but because I don't look as fat as I used to look, I'm not exactly feeling motivated to finish the journey. I still d**k around with food, but I do it in amounts to sustain my current weight and not gain anything back.
IF is the easiest method to start with ( 16:8 for example ), but if you are into weight loss specifically, One meal a day I found to be working best for me. I did it for a few days and after my body adjusted I started skipping days and working out more intensively. I would not do the same schedule all the time, to keep my body shocked, so I would eat once today, skip a day, then the next time I would skip 3 days, then 2 days and on and on. I did this for about 35 days, combined with working out almost every day ( light weight training with dumbbells at home, skipping rope and walks ) to lose the 15 kg's. Longer fasts are done easier than short ones ( A week long fast is easier than three 2 day long fasts ), because you don't feel hunger at all after the first day or two, and the first days are always the hardest.
16:8 is the best one to fit around your lifestyle, but if it allows you should create a closer gap, like 20:4, benefits would be better.

@JasonR IF is for everybody, because thats how the species are made to live. You are not made to eat multiple times per day, every day. There were periods of famine before, and long ones. This is why your body stores fat, so that you can survive off of it in periods of no food.But because those periods never come now, our bodies have a hard time adjusting to eating like this when you first try it. Jason Fung has a great interview ( about 1 hour long on YT that will answer the majority of your questions on the subject ) that you can watch to inform yourself.
How to adjust? All it takes is some willpower. People often say that willpower doesn't work for weight loss and such and it is true, because it is hard to stay motivated and inspired on long term goals, but it is not that way with IF. Your body will be very quick to adjust, it only takes a few days ( when I first started it took me 2-3 days ). Push back through those first couple of days and you are set. It is a hell of a lot easier to do it than people think, but you've conditioned your body to an entire different eating regime for your entire life, you can't expect that to change overnight.
You have shrunken your stomach from eating smaller meals multiple times per day, hence why you are experiencing these difficulties, but your body will adjust.
In my experience, it almost didn't matter what kinds of food I ate, I always experienced hunger in the beginning. Start drinking water and green tea. Coffee makes it worse, it doesn't help. But green tea does help tremendously, if you have a big cup of tea it reduces the hunger by a huge amount.
What are you trying to do is wrong, you can't just go from 6 meals a day to two, because of your stomach size, its hard to digest so much calories at once if your body isn't trained. To be able to eat your calories within one or two meals will be very hard in the beginning, but you can still eat multiple meals and do intermittent fasting. You can split your calories within 4 meals and eat them throughout 8 hours during the day, for example, then when you don't find it hard to do, you can start with 3 meals and on and on, but for me, two meals is the best one for me to fit around my lifestyle. If you work a regular job, you can eat lunch with your colleagues and have dinner with your family after that. I don't know if you run/train regularly, but you shouldn't do it like this in the beginning. IF stresses out your body, although it is a good type of stress, you shouldn't overstress it in the beginning. Being able to train on empty stomach needs adjustments too, what you read on the internet is true - you have explosive amounts of energy when you train on empty stomach, less recovery time and you don't get burned out as much, but you can't just start doing it today and get the full experience, it takes some time. It might be better for you to place your workouts within your eating window at first. Focus on adjusting your body to fasting primarily at first, then on the training fasted. If weight loss is a concern, wait a few hours after your workout, before you eat. After your body adjusts, working out will reduce hunger instead of promoting it.You can enter the gym hungry and leave it satisfied without eating anything.
On the caloric side, a study was conducted years ago, where they compared groups of people that fasted on , lets say 1000 calories a day, and the other group ate 1000 calories, but didn't practice IF. The both groups lost almost equal amounts of weight, so its literally how much you at and how much you burn, but on another study when they didn't restrict their calories, the group that practiced IF consumed fewer calories than the group that ate throughout the day. It is a very convenient way to control your calorie intake.After your body adjusts, you can consume 2k today and 1k tomorrow and not feel like its a big deal, but for somebody that doesn't fast, reducing their calories by 1000 is a huge deal. You also don't snack throughout the day, because you don't feel hunger outside of your eating window. Your body is quick to adjust to anything you throw at it. If you start eating at 12PM, it will very soon start to expect a meal at that time, and you will start getting hungry around that time everyday. And the same logic follows, when you stop eating at certain hours, it doesn't expect food so you don't feel hunger during that time. Now, when I eat breakfast, soon after that I feel hunger again, because your body needs about 2-3 hours to fully digest the food, then it expects more ( because you didn't overeat ), so I will feel hungry before time for lunch comes.But when I skip breakfast, I don't feel hungry until 12 or 1 o'clock ( it depends on how your body is adjusted, but that is how it is for me.This is why people that eat 6 meals a day feel the hunger most of the time. People that have overeating habits think there is something wrong with them, but that is how our bodies are supposed to function. We weren't meant to eat few times per day ( not everyday anyway ) and snack every hour. The cavemen hunted, killed and ate an animal at once, almost, because they couldn't store it like we can now ( no refrigerators ), but that didn't happen everyday. The few tribes that are left now understand this and force themselves to fast even when food is present. That is how we were supposed to function, so I don't believe anybody that says "This isn't for me", yes it is, just give it some time and see for yourself. It is incredible how our bodies function in periods of lack of food. The strength, the mental clarity, the focus, the 'excess' energy, the increased HGH, the effort to protect the muscles from disappearing .. all of this comes with a purpose. That you are able to hunt or gather ( climb trees ) your food.Hunger makes you stronger, not weaker. If you fatigued when you didn't eat, you would just lie in the cave powerless until you died. It runs off of fat first, dead skin, and muscle last. This is why you can heal scars with prolonged fasts, because the body consumes what is not needed. I'm pretty sure you can remove excess skin ( from losing lots of weight ) doing the same thing. Hunger also doesn't affect your brain and your reproducing organs, that's nature's way of making sure your species survive, no matter what. It is just incredible.

Summary; give it some time, start with smaller steps.Eat smaller meals throughout your eating window and don't force yourself to eat two big meals in the beginning. Drink lots of water and when you're feeling hungry - green tea helps. If you are new to IF do not train on empty stomach. If weight loss is a concern, do not eat right after your workout, but wait an hour or two.

Your right. This is hard to read, but necessarily because its long. It's because it is literally a wall of F*ckin text. Try breaking it up into smaller more digestible and less intimidating pieces.

Anyway thanks for the info. A lot of what you said runs contrary to what I was planning on doing -->Drinking a big cup of coffee right after I get up and brush my teeth/have some water. Also working out ~an hour after my first meal and eating majority of my calories right after. I'll have to try both approaches out.

I'd be interested to hear your take on gaining weight/strength during IF since you mentioned weight loss already.

 

[Etido]

This is ridiculous.. why are people so adamant at tricking their brains when it comes to diet and health? Your body is giving you clues at what you need or if something is off, tricking your brain is not a solution! Most people are sold on magic pills, supplements and powders to regain health... Health is actually very simple - eat whole foods. Our bodies and brains have evolved on eating mostly meat and fat.

Eating 3 meals or 2 meals + snack will NEVER help bloating when you are eating garbage

What would you say is the most unhealthy part of my response?

It is ok to be hungry but most Americans have a difficult time with hunger because we don't deal with it on a daily basis like millions of others who can't afford to eat. My suggestion was a method to help ease the transition to a new eating schedule.

I don't believe anyone mentioned or recommended eating processed foods. I think Jason is feeling bloated due to eating all his calories in a reduced time span, not because he is trying to eat 2000 calories worth of Doritos.

 

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[SomeGuy]

Your right. This is hard to read, but necessarily because its long. It's because it is literally a wall of F*ckin text. Try breaking it up into smaller more digestible and less intimidating pieces.

Anyway thanks for the info. A lot of what you said runs contrary to what I was planning on doing -->Drinking a big cup of coffee right after I get up and brush my teeth/have some water. Also working out ~an hour after my first meal and eating majority of my calories right after. I'll have to try both approaches out.

I'd be interested to hear your take on gaining weight/strength during IF since you mentioned weight loss already.

It's simple, already talked about that in my long post, but I'll say it again. Your body improves when you are hungry in order to be able to hunt and kill your food. If your body is already accustomed to intermittent fasting, you will way better workouts on empty stomach compared to when you have already had something to eat. That is due to two reasons, the first reason is because you won't get the bonus effects of being in the fasted state and the other reason is that your body uses resources in order to digest the food, this is why most people feel sleepy after they eat something. Eating food is a way to reward your body after a workout, not a necessity to a workout. The hunting example again, you chase the boar, you fight with it, kill it drag it back to the camp and eat it, then call it a day. That might not apply to professional bodybuilding, but for those of us that aren't - its a lot better and easier to manage. If gaining weight is your concern you should increase your meals within your eating window, for weight gain one meal is not the best thing. If your health is concerned - its better, but for weight gain its not. After your workout your body burns calories at a higher rate, it would be good for you not to interrupt the process by eating, but its personal preference.
Try both, but once your body becomes familiar with training in a fasted state, it's gonna be very hard for you to get better workouts when you have already eaten something. Hunger keeps you sharp and motivated.

You can absolutely drink coffee, it shouldn't contain any calories though, no sweeteners and creams. I drink coffee twice per day, but is not very good for your hunger if your body isn't trained. For me, sometimes I get hungry after I drink it and I've been doing this for a while now. I get an energy burst after I drink it, and then about an hour later I begin to feel the hunger. I still drink it though, not a major concern to me anymore.

 

[SomeGuy]

And for the record, IF and no carb or very low carb diets are basically the same thing. IF allows you to not feel hungry, because your body starts burning fat as opposed to glycogen when you are not eating. If you don't consume any carbs, no matter if you eat every hour, your body will be doing the same thing. If you get through the initial adjustment period of not eating any carbs, which is worse than the one with intermittent fasting, and longer too, you will stop feeling hungry after that. I tried those too, Paleo/Keto and such, for weight loss they are great, but boy are they restrictive. No pizza's and sh*t , around here you can eat at very few restaurants. You can order salads and stuff, but almost no meals prepared in such ways. But they work great otherwise.

The best diet, for me at least, is the one you can sustain long-term. And 0 carb diets are a no, no for me for that reason.

 

[Alexo]

What would you say is the most unhealthy part of my response?

It is ok to be hungry but most Americans have a difficult time with hunger because we don't deal with it on a daily basis like millions of others who can't afford to eat. My suggestion was a method to help ease the transition to a new eating schedule.

I don't believe anyone mentioned or recommended eating processed foods. I think Jason is feeling bloated due to eating all his calories in a reduced time span, not because he is trying to eat 2000 calories worth of Doritos.

A lot of Americans have a difficult time with hunger mostly because of their diets. Lifetime of overeating carbs spikes sugar levels giving a short term rush of energy and then a subsequent crash. This causes you to feel "hunger" and also wreaks havoc on your health. When you eat a low carb diet, your hunger practically disappears and you will also be able to do IF easier.

The point is that when you're doing IF, you will get some relief and health benefits but if you keep on eating poorly, your health will not improve. IF and having a bad diet is like trying to keep your room clean while pooping all over it and then cleaning over and over.

I can eat 2-3 lb of steak in one sitting with zero bloating

Bloating is caused by intolerance to carbs

 

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[Bishop]

I have been fasting intermittently for awhile now with great results.

I basically fast 5:2 and really feel great right for the new couple of days.

Also have lost about 20lbs in the last couple of months since I've started it though that isn't really the main goal I had in mind. I just wanted to be more healthy and have changed my diet along with fasting.

Just curious if anyone else has been IF for any period of time.

If so, what days and how do you fast, ie water only, juice, coffee etc?

I am in my 3rd week of the Ketogenic diet, and I feel friggin great. I can't recommend this enough.

I have been fasting after a small breakfast at 6:30 am until 5:00 pm when I get home. Water or coffee only. I am doing it 3 days a week to try and get as shredded as possible. I don't feel tired at all anymore. I have energy all day, and I'm pretty sure its all of the fats that I consume when I do eat. I make my coffee (Starbucks Pikes Roast from a bag) with Heavy Whipping Cream, Ghee, and Coconut Oil..and mix it an a personal blender.

The first week was a bitch to get thru, but every since about Day 5 I have felt unlimited energy.

No carbs = Your body doesn't have to basically shut down to digest this bullshit. You never feel sleepy.
No sugar= No crashes

 

[QDF]

To me, IF is just a way to reduce your calories. I'm not sure if the fasting part has as much to do with fat loss than actual caloric reduction.

Actually tons of research to back this up.

Short version: fasting promotes ketosis (when your body burns ketones/fat for energy instead of glucose/carbs), improves insulin sensitivity, and obviously involves a caloric deficit.

Also why fasting and low-carb/keto diets work so well together....your body is already in ketosis.

The guy who won the Nobel Prize last year in medicine did some substantial research on fasting and autophagy too, proving immense benefits fasting has on a cellular level.

If you're interested in fasting or the Keto diet, Dom D'Agostino is the man to listen to; he's done tons of research and lives what he preaches. Fasted for 7 days straight one time and went and deadlifted 500 lbs for like 8 reps or something crazy.

 

[Bishop]

Man, it's great a lot of you love IF, but I've tried it and I can't seem to solve a few issues:

Morning Hunger: I'm terribly hungry in the morning, even after coffee. I typically do fasted cardio, and then eat right after. On IF, I may do fasted cardio and eat 2-3 hours after and I'm famished, which makes me cranky.

When I eat my required macros/calories in 2 meals, I feel incredibly bloated and full. I really dislike this feeling, and it seems like it's unnecessarily hard on my stomach.

To me, IF is just a way to reduce your calories. I'm not sure if the fasting part has as much to do with fat loss than actual caloric reduction.

I'm love for someone to prove me wrong or offer suggestions to my two issues, as it is much more convenient to eat 2 times per day as opposed to 5-6.

@JasonR Do you drink your coffee black?

 

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[JasonR]

JasonR Do you drink your coffee black?

Yes. Black coffee or Americano

 

[Bishop]

Yes. Black coffee or Americano

If your not averse to it, try adding a tablespoon of heavy whipping cream (I get mine from Aldi's), Ghee (Trader Joes), or some Coconut Milk /Almond Milk Oil. It helps alot and sustains my energy without hunger.

 

[Bishop]

If your not averse to it, try adding a tablespoon of heavy whipping cream (I get mine from Aldi's), Ghee (Trader Joes), or some Coconut Milk /Almond Milk Oil. It helps alot and sustains my energy without hunger.

So I guess technically it's not fasting, but it's as close as I get...

Edit: I didn't mean to reply to myself. WTF

 

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[biophase]

I did intermittent fasting last summer. And here are my observations.

First, I found that I was never hungry in the morning. If I just drink a whole bottle of water my stomach would feel full. I worked out at 11 AM four times a week. The first couple workouts were rough but after that my body got used to it and I was able to make it through my workouts without eating breakfast. The hardest part of the diet for me was not to have any snacks between 8 PM and 12 AM.

Second, when I was living in Colorado I would go for about a one and a half hour mountain bike ride In the morning. Normally I would’ve eaten breakfast before that ride and brought a bunch of gels or Cliff bars on the ride. But I found I was able to complete that ride eating nothing other than drinking water. I’m sure I was burning a lot of calories every morning. Then I would eat a massive lunch at about 1 PM.

Third, on some days when I did eat breakfast. I found that I was massively hungry by lunch time and I was cranky. When I was fasting, if I was hungry, I was just hungry, but my mood did not change.

Lastly, this diet boosted my productivity a lot. I would wake up in the morning and grab a bottle of water and just sit at my computer and get work done. I could probably do 3 to 4 hours straight work and not realize it was lunchtime.

I stopped intermittent fasting because I am trying to gain muscle now, and there’s no way I can get enough calories in during those eight hours. I just cannot eat that much food in that short time span.

I feel that this is one of the easiest diets for people who are trying to get lean or lose weight. The fact that you don’t really have to watch what you eat during the eight hours is great. I would literally scarf down a whole pizza after my mountain bike ride and eat a big dinner, and still lose weight during this time.

 

[SomeGuy]

If you are overweight you will not lose more weight just because you are doing your intermittent fasting, if you have 20-30-40-50 pounds to lose, you need a caloric deficit.If you only have a few pounds to lose, though, ie the so called 'cutting', fasting makes a huge difference then. Cutting on eating multiple meals throughout the day is a very unpleasant experience that involves a lot of willpower.
@Alexo you can eat 3lb of stake in one sitting, because your stomach is accustomed to such eating. I can eat a lot of carbs too and not feel bloated, because that's the way I eat.If you take somebody who doesn't eat like you and make him eat 3 pounds of anything, he is going to feel bloated. You keep on with your theory, ignoring everybody else and forcing your opinions onto others, but again - he didn't say what he eats, you just concluded that his diet is garbage. He said he feels bloated when he is fasting, but I bet on his regular eating schedule he doesn't feel bloated on the same diet, otherwise he would have stopped eating like this by now.
Fasting on keto is easy, because you are basically fasting at all times. As the guy before me said, when you fast you use fat for energy instead of glycose, if you don't eat carbs, you will use fat at all times, so fasting then is not that big of a problem.
You can be healthy on a lot of different types of diets, because it involves activity too, not just what you eat. There are a lot of different diets that promote health, paleo is something that only gathered up popularity recently, there aren't, I'm guessing, people that have done it for a long long time to conclude that this is the best way of eating and promotes life longevity better than any other diet.

Enjoyed the discussion, but a lot of close-minded people here
I doubt anybody learned anything, have fun, and good luck to Jason , hope you get through the first days, bye.

 

[StevieB]

Man, it's great a lot of you love IF, but I've tried it and I can't seem to solve a few issues:

Morning Hunger: I'm terribly hungry in the morning, even after coffee. I typically do fasted cardio, and then eat right after. On IF, I may do fasted cardio and eat 2-3 hours after and I'm famished, which makes me cranky.

When I eat my required macros/calories in 2 meals, I feel incredibly bloated and full. I really dislike this feeling, and it seems like it's unnecessarily hard on my stomach.

To me, IF is just a way to reduce your calories. I'm not sure if the fasting part has as much to do with fat loss than actual caloric reduction.

I'm love for someone to prove me wrong or offer suggestions to my two issues, as it is much more convenient to eat 2 times per day as opposed to 5-6.

The fasting is a part of it because it changes how your body gives you access to fat. Long term fasting is very unhealthy but short term fasting has a lot of benefits. However yes, the lower calorie intake is another part of it.

Skipping breakfast isn't necessary. There are many types of intermittent fasting. There's a great article on the different types here :

How Intermittent Fasting Can Help You Lose Weight

In fact, there's been some studies done that suggesting eating less for dinner works better than skipping breakfast.

Weight loss can be tied to when, not just what, you eat - CNN

I eat a large breakfast / lunch and a very small dinner. I go to bed hungry which I can deal with a lot easier than going most of the morning without eating, because I know I'm just going to sleep soon so most of my 'hunger time' is while I'm asleep. Which is good because as the studies suggest you store less fat since there's not a lot of food in your stomach while sleeping, which is when you use the least amount of energy.

 

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[ruzara5]

IF is great but many people focus too much on fasting instead of their diet! Eat the right foods and your health will improve. Eat garbage and fasting will never help you.

Diet and fasting in a fastlaner thread. That is what you customize to your body and soul. I know from my experience usually I do a three day fast. Drink water. Then I start eating again. Difficult to go without my awesome cup of coffee. After the the third day I do get a increase in focus and energy surge. Weight loss is moderate with my increase that week as well. Fasting works. Just got to test and determine how it works for you. Only healthy food sources no garbage.

 

[Alexo]

Yeah I agree, everyone's situation is different

 

[• nikita •]

Been intermittent fasting for 2+ years now. It works great, I love it. I could never get used to splitting up my portions. I've always had a huge appetite, so splitting meals up makes me feel like I'm eating rabbit portions. Eating all my calories in one or two large meals just feels right. Helps my self-control by knowing I finish eating at a certain time/point, rather than waiting for my next meal.

I do it a bit different though -- I have all my food in the morning as opposed to in the evening. If I eat late, I feel all bloated in the morning. I work from home though; if I had to commute this would be impractical.

 

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[million$$$smile]

Well, I've been mostly on OMAD (one meal a day) for about three weeks now.
Once a week or so I have had to break it for one reason or another, usually due to a business lunch or breakfast. I just hate sitting there not eating and having questions asked of me, why I'm not. It just squelches questions if I partake.

A couple of things I've noticed. Like @AgainstAllOdds mentioned in a previous post, after two weeks one hardly notices any hunger pangs. For the first few weeks I was at times noticeably crankier and had to really watch my attitude around others, especially employees and coworkers.

I have usually waited to eat until around 8 pm in which time I'll usually feed on a plant based diet. Once in awhile I'll have a bit of meat but it is out of the norm.

Things I have noticed:

My energy levels have remained the same or gone up a bit. It is a little hard to tell because during this time I have upped my frequency of workouts from 3 days a week to 5. I feel GREAT.

My weight hasn't change much. Lost maybe 2-3 lbs. That has mildly surprised me. I'm thinking that I have exchanged a bit of fat for muscle but haven't yet checked measurements until I go a full month.

My clarity is definitely better. One of the reasons I began this journey of fasting/IF to begin with was I had been noticing for the first time in my life some short term memory loss. I feel this was due to allowing stress to be a large part of my life in the early development of various business ventures.
Definitely not healthy. My blood pressure at times was in the critical stage as high as 186/110. It now has averaged 138/95 and some days lower.
I attribute this to a complete change in my diet and more frequent exercise.

For this reason alone, this journey has been worth the sacrifice of my previous lifestyle.

Sometimes less is more.

There is so much contradictory information online regarding diet and lifestyle change that I feel one really needs to begin listening to their own body and decide for themselves, not what someone else says verbatim.

Life is not only an experience, but an experiment. What may be good for me, may not fit exactly for you.

Not sure if I'll continue this the rest of my life, but it has been a real benefit for me in this chapter nonetheless.

Gotta go check on my 15 bean soup in the crockpot. Dinner is almost here...

 

[JoshM]

I've been an IF practitioner for the better part of 7 years (the 16/8 or LeanGains protocol). I found the focus/performance benefits to be profound and I hovered around 7-8% body fat while only lifting 2-3 days per week.

Unfortunately, after some time, I got derailed from an accumulation of bad habits, lots of stress, and over-consuming bad foods. I went from a lean 175-180 lbs to a whopping 225 lbs in due time and looked like a blimp. I was in a pretty bad place. While IF can do wonders and amplify your efforts, it is nothing more than a tool in your arsenal. It won't prevent the eventual effects of overeating and bad lifestyle choices.

Anyway, I reached a pretty low point in my life and then something inside me just "clicked." I woke up and had my "F*ck this" moment... from that point forward, I dropped all of my bad habits, got back on track. 7 months later and I looked even better than I did before.

If it interests you and you need a swift kick in the pants to get started, this was my journey:

Disclaimer: My 'Lean Body Club' channel/website is defunct and I no longer maintain it, but I am always willing to answer questions and point others in the right direction. It's nice to see others change their habits, actions, and lifestyle for the better!

Nowadays, when I'm asked what I did to get to the best shape I've ever been in, I share these 7 rules:

1. Keep It Simple, Stupid. Overcomplicating the process leads to confusion and makes the goal unattainable.
2. Eat slowly. More times than not, I'd eat too much, because I didn't eat slow enough for my brain to receive the signal from the stomach that I was full.
3. Fuel the body with the right foods. I ate lean animal proteins, fibrous and colorful veggies, healthy fats, and fibrous, starchy carbohydrates. Nothing refined or processed. And I didn't go hungry either!
4. Eat Protein and Veggies at every meal. I made sure I had two palm-sized portions of protein and two fist-sized portions of vegetables at each meal.
5. Earn your carbohydrates. I ate carb-containing meals only after my workouts and on rest days, I'd either have only 1 meal with carbs, or just protein and veggies.
6. Intermittent fasting. I skipped breakfast (SOUND THE ALARM!) and ate my first meal at noon, and stopped eating around 8 or 9 pm. I kept nearly all muscle and dropped fat at a rapid rate. The whole skipping meals ordeal is pseudoscience at best... it won't harm you one bit.
7. Lift heavy. I trained like a powerlifter. Lower volume and heavy weight, with a focus on big, compound movements like Squats, Deadlifts, Bench Press, Overhead Press, Bent-Over Rows, and Chin-ups/Pull-ups. 5 sets of 5 reps, 2-3 days per week, with emphasis on adding 5 pounds to each lift the next time I hit that lift.
   
   That's all there is to it. Nothing special. Apply these rules to your own life and you WILL see a change in the way you look and the way you feel. If you have ever had your doubts about IF, I'd encourage you to implement it as a part of your daily routine. You will not be disappointed.

 

[justonemore]

I've been intermittent fasting for 2 years now. I don't do it to lose weight. I do it for the science and research behind it for life extension. I first learned about it from the Joe Rogan podcast, I think Dr Rhonda Kirkpatrick was talking about it.

The way I do it is simple. I only eat between noon and 7pm. So about 18 hours a day I'm fasting. The only downside is I'm very moody in the morning. Once I get coffee I normalize.

There is some debate on whether intermittent fasting gives the same benifit as real fasting. I've heard a few scientists say it doesn't, that the benifits only start after about the 3rd day of a real fast(water only for several days). Something I need to research more at some point.

 

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[papi016]

I've been an IF practitioner for the better part of 7 years (the 16/8 or LeanGains protocol). I found the focus/performance benefits to be profound and I hovered around 7-8% body fat while only lifting 2-3 days per week.

Unfortunately, after some time, I got derailed from an accumulation of bad habits, lots of stress, and over-consuming bad foods. I went from a lean 175-180 lbs to a whopping 225 lbs in due time and looked like a blimp. I was in a pretty bad place. While IF can do wonders and amplify your efforts, it is nothing more than a tool in your arsenal. It won't prevent the eventual effects of overeating and bad lifestyle choices.

Anyway, I reached a pretty low point in my life and then something inside me just "clicked." I woke up and had my "f*ck this" moment... from that point forward, I dropped all of my bad habits, got back on track. 7 months later and I looked even better than I did before.

If it interests you and you need a swift kick in the pants to get started, this was my journey:

Disclaimer: My 'Lean Body Club' channel/website is defunct and I no longer maintain it, but I am always willing to answer questions and point others in the right direction. It's nice to see others change their habits, actions, and lifestyle for the better!

Nowadays, when I'm asked what I did to get to the best shape I've ever been in, I share these 7 rules:

1. Keep It Simple, Stupid. Overcomplicating the process leads to confusion and makes the goal unattainable.
2. Eat slowly. More times than not, I'd eat too much, because I didn't eat slow enough for my brain to receive the signal from the stomach that I was full.
3. Fuel the body with the right foods. I ate lean animal proteins, fibrous and colorful veggies, healthy fats, and fibrous, starchy carbohydrates. Nothing refined or processed. And I didn't go hungry either!
4. Eat Protein and Veggies at every meal. I made sure I had two palm-sized portions of protein and two fist-sized portions of vegetables at each meal.
5. Earn your carbohydrates. I ate carb-containing meals only after my workouts and on rest days, I'd either have only 1 meal with carbs, or just protein and veggies.
6. Intermittent fasting. I skipped breakfast (SOUND THE ALARM!) and ate my first meal at noon, and stopped eating around 8 or 9 pm. I kept nearly all muscle and dropped fat at a rapid rate. The whole skipping meals ordeal is pseudoscience at best... it won't harm you one bit.
7. Lift heavy. I trained like a powerlifter. Lower volume and heavy weight, with a focus on big, compound movements like Squats, Deadlifts, Bench Press, Overhead Press, Bent-Over Rows, and Chin-ups/Pull-ups. 5 sets of 5 reps, 2-3 days per week, with emphasis on adding 5 pounds to each lift the next time I hit that lift.
   
   That's all there is to it. Nothing special. Apply these rules to your own life and you WILL see a change in the way you look and the way you feel. If you have ever had your doubts about IF, I'd encourage you to implement it as a part of your daily routine. You will not be disappointed.

@JoshM you have inspired me to start my fitness journey i’m currently combing an Intertiment Fasting 12/8 protocol with a keto diet but I haven’t implanted working out yet

I see you recommend lifting heavy but do you think I can get the same results you got using body weight exercises & hiit cardio

For example I’ll do body weight exercises Mon, Wed, Fri & I’ll do HIIT cardio Tues, Thurs, Sat & have a rest day on Sunday

 

[JoshM]

@JoshM you have inspired me to start my fitness journey i’m currently combing an Intertiment Fasting 12/8 protocol with a keto diet but I haven’t implanted working out yet

I see you recommend lifting heavy but do you think I can get the same results you got using body weight exercises & hiit cardio

For example I’ll do body weight exercises Mon, Wed, Fri & I’ll do HIIT cardio Tues, Thurs, Sat & have a rest day on Sunday

I don't see any reason why you couldn't employ body weight exercise and HIIT-style cardio. As long as there's intensity, you should have no issues preserving muscle mass during the process!

 

[justonemore]

@JoshM you have inspired me to start my fitness journey i’m currently combing an Intertiment Fasting 12/8 protocol with a keto diet but I haven’t implanted working out yet

I see you recommend lifting heavy but do you think I can get the same results you got using body weight exercises & hiit cardio

I would be willing to bet you can get 80% of the results just by restricting your eating to a 8 hour window. That an no soft drinks.

Also, again I'm not a scientist, but the keto diet seems a little scary to me. If you have a family history of heart disease, I wouldn't do it.

If you really want to get healthy(where the inside of you is healthy), IMO, go plant based.

 

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[papi016]

go plant based.

Me & carbs don’t really get along all too well I seem to do better on a high fat low carb diet

Is it possible to go plant based with a high fat & low carb diet?

 

[JoshM]

Me & carbs don’t really get along all too well I seem to do better on a high fat low carb diet

Is it possible to go plant based with a high fat & low carb diet?

You could kickstart the first month or so on keto to become a bit more insulin sensitive (thus improving how you respond to carbs), but if your intent is to follow IF as a lifestyle, you'll be better served eating carbs on lifting days and omitting carbs on rest days. For most people, it's pretty difficult to follow a keto diet long-term.

At the end of the day, it does come down to caloric restriction, as @justonemore has mentioned, although your macronutrient breakdowns can amplify/affect certain hormones.

Regarding a plant-based diet, this is entirely up to you, but you'll want to make sure you:

• Consume enough protein
• Supplement with Vitamin B-12 so as to avoid a B-12 deficiency... which can cause a whole host of nasty side effects. I have some vegan friends that weren't aware of this and had nervous system issues.

 

[million$$$smile]

• Consume enough protein

• Supplement with Vitamin B-12 so as to avoid a B-12 deficiency... which can cause a whole host of nasty side effects. I have some vegan friends that weren't aware of this and had nervous system issues.

I follow for the most part (I might eat meat once a week) a plant based diet, and take several daily supplements, one including B-12 and protein mix.

Even working out 4 days/week I haven't near your results, probably because I've focused on cardio and and my age. I'm what most regard as over the hill or more like down the hill... but I think I'm in better shape than I was 10 years ago and that is what is important to me.

I admire your focus. Great physical change for 7 months!

 

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[justonemore]

Regarding a plant-based diet, this is entirely up to you, but you'll want to make sure you:

• Consume enough protein
• Supplement with Vitamin B-12 so as to avoid a B-12 deficiency... which can cause a whole host of nasty side effects. I have some vegan friends that weren't aware of this and had nervous system issues.

Great point. Getting enough B-12 is extremely important on plant based. You have to supplement it.

I've heard mixed things about protein, so not sure. I've seen several vegan/vegetarian people on youtube who get their blood tested and their protein levels are always in the normal range. There's also some research linking protein and cancer I believe. Especially casein protein. But again, I'm no expert, I don't know for sure.

Me & carbs don’t really get along all too well I seem to do better on a high fat low carb diet
Is it possible to go plant based with a high fat & low carb diet?

By not get along, do you mean you feel bad that way?
All of this can get complex. But say if you turn to eating a lot of bread. A lot of people have gluten issues that aren't severe enough for them to realize, but are there none the less. For example, some people who get severe migraines get them from a gluten reaction and they have no idea and take migraine drugs instead of fixing their diet.

But to your question about fat on a plant based diet. There's not too many options that I know of, although I'm new to it and not an expert.
Avocado and nuts are about it that's healthy I think.

Even working out 4 days/week I haven't near your results, probably because I've focused on cardio and

Cardio burns calories while you do it.
Muscle burns calories 24x7.
If losing weight is a priority, building muscle is important. Focus on legs(squats), they're the biggest muscles you have.
But cardio is good for your heart, so I wouldn't stop doing it.

 

[TKRR]

I've been IMing for the better part of 2 years now. It's been a great lifestyle change for me. I essentially take the skip breakfast approach. Even when I eat shitty, I pretty much can maintain my weight for the last 2 years. And when I eat clean, I can drop weight rather easily.

I don't do well worrying about details, so IM works well for me. It's a simple rule that saves me calories and my mornings always feel good. I do love black coffee too, so that helps.

I like working out in the mornings (when I'm good about working out) and have never been bothered by having an empty stomach to workout. (I was a college scholarship swimmer once upon a time).

Big fan of the whole approach over here. I'm will happily still have breakfast occasionally though, (maybe once a month) with the family, cause I think the time is important. Though I don't crave it most days, if fact I feel way better when I don't eat breakfast. When I do eat breakfast, it's like the food floodgate is open and 2 hours later I'm starving.