I had a week or so not worrying too much about what I ate but I’ve still been watching my carbohydrate intake during the week and indulging on the weekends, It’s hard to get out of the habit once you’ve been doing it for a while which I think is a good thing. Sunday was my refeed day and it involved me getting up at 9am cooking a pizza and enjoying it while watching the rugby then once it finished back to bed I went! Sunday clearly is my day of rest!
Over the week I had some time to think about what I’m going to do next and I decided to try intermittent fasting. For those of you who have never heard of intermittent fasting (IF) it is a pattern of eating that alternates between periods of fasting (usually meaning consumption of water only) and non-fasting. A specific form of IF is alternate day fasting (ADF), which is a 48-hour routine typically composed of a 24-hour fast followed by a 24-hour non-fasting period. The reason I choose IF as it claims to help get rid of stubborn body fat.
Stubborn body fat refers to areas of the body that hold onto fat the longest. Generally speaking, these areas include the lower abs and lower back in men, and the lower body in women. So that’s my goal, to get rid of the stubborn fat, I have no idea how this is going to go but I guess that’s the whole point of me doing this in the first place.
There are a few ways to carry out an IF diet but the one which got my attention the most is Martin Berkhan’s Lean gains. The Leangains protocol consists of two phases; 16 hours of fasting, followed by 8 hours of feeding. During this period, three meals are usually eaten. Depending on the day, the composition of those meals varies; on workout days, carbs are prioritized before fat, while on rest days fat intake is higher. Protein remains fairly high on all days.
So an example of the fast is as follows;
11.30-12 AM or 5-15 minutes pre-workout: 10 g BCAA or whey protein
12-1 PM: Training
1 PM: Post-workout meal (largest meal of the day).
4 PM: Second meal.
9 PM: Last meal before the fast.
Calories and carbs are tapered down throughout the day in the example above.
For me this is ideal as I normally train around 12:30pm most days and after a good session (behave) I always leave the gym famished so eating a big meal straight after is a god send!
I imagine some of you are thinking “16 hours without eating, that’s going to be hard” yes, 16 hours without food does seem daunting but if your last meal is around 8:30-9pm that means you’ll be asleep for most of the fasted phase. I’ve been trying it out this week to get an idea of what I can expect next week when I officially start the “experiment” and it’s pretty easy to get into. After the 2nd day I didn’t even think about food and my energy levels were pretty good, I was training at 100% and never felt drained once. One thing I will add is that when in the fasted phase you really have to stick to it, yesterday I had a bit too much milk in my tea and hunger pangs hit me hard, this happened because I consumed calories.
This is good time to list the key points to the 16/8 fast. Some of this information is from the lean gains site as I think it’s important to understand what to do to make the fast as successful as possible.
* No calories are to be ingested during the fasted phase, though coffee, calorie free sweeteners, diet soda and sugar free gum are ok (even though they might contain trace amount of calories). A tiny splash of milk in your coffee won’t affect anything either (½-1 teaspoon of milk per cup at the most - use sparingly and sensibly if you drink a lot of coffee). Neither will sugar free gum in moderation (~20 g).
* The fast is the perfect time to be productive and get things done. Don’t sit around, get bored and brood about food.
* Meal frequency during the feeding phase is irrelevant. However, most people, including me, prefer three meals.
* The majority of your daily calorie intake is consumed in the post-workout period. Depending on setup, this means that approximately 95-99% (fasted training), 80% (one pre-workout meal) or 60% (two pre-workout meals) of your daily calorie intake is consumed after training.
* The feeding window should be kept somewhat constant due to the hormonal entrainment of meal patterns. We tend to get hungry when we're used to eating and maintaining a regular pattern makes diet adherence easier. If you're used to breaking the fast at 12-2 PM and ending it at 8-10 PM, then try to maintain that pattern every day.
* On rest days, meal one should ideally be the largest meal, as opposed to training days where the post-workout meal is the largest meal. A good rule of thumb is to make meal one on rest days at least 35-40% of your daily calorie intake. This meal should be very high in protein; some of my clients consume more than 100 g of protein in this meal.
* If your preference is to eat a larger meal in the evening instead of noon, or whenever you break the fast, it's no great harm. Some people prefer to save the largest meal on rest days for dinner with their family instead of having a large lunch and that's fine by me if it makes them enjoy and adhere to their diet better.
There is a ton of information on the Lean Gains site and I highly recommend you take a look and soak up as much information as you can.
This is still a “free week” for me so any results that I’ve gained or lost will not be counted. This is just an introduction as if I posted everything next week the post would be huge!
I’ve been lazy lately with the posts as I’ve found it hard to find the time to sit down and write anything but I’ll change I swear! (Sounds familiar)
So until next time.................
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