Intermittent Fasting Roundtable: Eat Stop Eat and LeanGains Experts Talk
When I personally stumbled across the research and lifestyle of Intermittent Fasting (IF for short) many years ago, it just all made sense to me. In my past years I had been sold on needing protein every 3 hours or you would waste away. I was told everywhere that the only way to lose fat was to eat 6x a day (sure it can work, but only because of insulin control and lowered calories….but was it really sustainable for a lifetime?). But then I started looking around in the mainstream, none of that was working….none of that was really getting people results! I also just started to think about how the body was meant to function, and it didn’t make sense that people would need a constant intake of food all day long. That’s just not how we were programmed to survive. There were plenty of fit and trim people who only ate a few times a day…and they didn’t seem to lack energy or health. Lastly when I started working as a personal trainer long time ago, I was dealing alot with people who had autoimmune diseases and other illnesses. That experience really opened my eyes into how the body really can malfunction, and made me look deeper into what I could do to help those people out….and there was a common theme, one of the best things to start the healing process naturally was fasting! (along with proper quality food intake and exercise). For me the concept of Intermittent Fasting became something that was so simple, got me results personally, brought more enjoyment to my life (and health) and seemed like something everyone needed to know about!
So today I wanted to bring in 2 of the top experts out there on Intermittent Fasting as they have been dealing with clients and getting them results for many years with different IF approaches. First is Martin Berkhan who works as a nutritional consultant, magazine writer and personal trainer. Martin’s personal blog can be seen at LeanGains.com. Second is Brad Pilon who is a nutrition professional with over seven years experience in the nutritional supplement industry. He is the author of the top selling Intermittent Fasting ebook Eat Stop Eat.
Ok…..so let’s get started.
Question #1: “What’s the Best Thing You and/or Your Clients Love about IF?”
Martin: I would say that the biggest things are the relief and total freedom it provides. As a fat loss approach, another great benefit is the fact that you can eat satisfying meals and still lose fat; which is more or less impossible with the typical high meal frequency approaches people use when they’re trying to lean down. Also there are the positive cognitive benefits, such as improved focus and mental clarity. As for overall health the improved insulin sensitivity is key, which also results in a more positive reaction to feeding (i.e not feeling drowsy after meals from blood sugar crashes). For those who’s goal is to maintain a low body fat at all times, instead of doing endless cycles of bulking up and cutting down, IF is a very easy and attractive approach. It’s an excellent ‘lifestyle’ diet.
Brad: I’d have to agree with most of Martin’s points. It is the ease and simplicity of IF that makes people fall in love with it. Plus, in my opinion its the only way of eating that is based on positive rewards, after you are done your fast you have an amazing sense of accomplishment and this builds with every fast. It’s a great feeling that you do not get with traditional dieting. Also who doesn’t want to look and feel younger in the process? For example, take Catherine who won the Fat Loss Turbulence Training contest while utilizing IF/Eat Stop Eat principles. Not only did she lose weight, but now she looks 20 years younger and much happier. Seriously you have to see it to believe it as I am still blown away by the difference! (Click here to see her amazing transformation at the TT blog and also make sure to click on the smaller picture to make it larger.)
Mike: Going last is tough because both of you guys cover all so many great points! I’ll probably just repeat what I wrote a while back about why I do Intermittent Fasting (IF). Freedom was #1, to be free from the tupperware containers and shake mixers I used to have in my car (and man did those stink in the heat!). To me life is not about “living to eat”, but rather “eating to live“. Also I no longer suffered from achy joints, fatigue during the day, mental brain fogs and other things that took away from my work and sports performance. I think I could possibly be healthier at 36 than I was at 26! Lastly it’s my motto that “the only cure is prevention“, so it only makes sense to live a long healthy life, that IF should be a part of it (as you can see from all the studies about increasing longevity, improving brain/heart/lung function, reducing inflammation, reducing risks of cancer and other degenerative diseases, increasing insulin sensitivity, and so much more).
Question #2: “What are some of the Biggest Mistake you see people (currently or potentially) doing with IF?”
Martin: The biggest I see is still making poor food choices in relation to their goals and what they wan’t to achieve. Using a haphazard approach despite having clearly defined goals (i.e. people want to get ripped yet don’t have any clue about the amount of carbs, protein and fat they’re eating). If you have ambitious goals, count on having to invest time in getting your nutrition in check. I also don’t think people should be training completely fasted when it comes to weight training. Proper pre- and post-workout nutrition is important in my opinion. Lastly is people housing an irrational fear of carbs. This is counterproductive for anyone involved in anaerobic, glycogen dependent activities such as weight training, interval running, CrossFit and such. Carbs are not the bad guy, it’s how you use them that matters.
Brad: For me the biggest mistake I see people making is continuing with Obsessive Compulsive Eating, you know believing in evil foods (like carbs) and angel foods (green tea come to mind) that sort of thing. People need to relax and realize there really is no magic to nutrition. In moderation you can enjoy any food choices you choose to make. The beautiful thing about fasting is that it sets you up so that when you are eating you can enjoy the foods you eat, and as long as you are eating responsibly, it allows you a much larger feeling of freedom and less anxiety when it comes to making food choices.
Mike: Intermittent Fasting has gotten a little black eye from some people because their experience was not what others have found with it. The thing about IF I try and tell people is that it is just a tool to use, but there are still so many other factors to consider. Like any tool you can use it the right way and the wrong way (would you use a hammer to clean your windows?). The biggest mistakes I see is people using IF as a pass to eat whatever they want and still think they can lose fat. Eating one meal a day of cookies, cake and ice cream is not going to do much to help people lose weight…and it’s also just going to lead to bigger issues of increasing insulin resistance and causing more weight gain down the road (along with other illhealth). Now like Brad and Martin have said, in moderation and with the right combination of activity carbs are not the evil guy…..but in excess they create more problems. Second biggest mistake I see is people doing too much IF, fasting too much while extremely active and not being able to eat enough calories. IF it NOT about starvation or starving yourself. Eating little calories daily is starvation! So people need to just start slow with IF, just try it a couple times a week and see what happens. Since everyone is different with their goals and workouts, what is ideal for an active person looking to increase muscle may not be ideal for a more sedentary overweight person.
(picture above is a client testimonial on LeanGains with using IF to lose fat and gain muscle size)
Question #3: “What is Your Top Advice to anyone wanting to try or doing IF?”
Martin: First you need to figure out your energy needs and eat according to your goals. An ad libitum feeding approach will generally only work for fat loss if you have are very heavy or very active; in both these cases you’ll have a high energy expenditure and may get away with ’slacking’ on your calorie intake. But if you’re like most people wanting to lean down you need to be aware of how much you’re eating. Also keep it simple and eat less on rest days, and more on workout days. Make protein the dominant macronutrient on rest days. On workout days, make sure you get some carbs post-workout and try to eat the great majority of calories post-workout. It’s ok to include treats post-workout (within moderation of course). Lastly don’t be too rigid or strict; you don’t have to fast every single day if it interferes with social events or if other circumstances makes it impractical. Oh yeah, like your mom always says “eat lots of fruits and vegetables”!
Brad: The best advice I have it to learn from your fasts. When you commit to taking time off from eating, you really learn what cues you to eat. From unconscious habits like coffee at work, to television commercials and even certain smells, fasting allows you to really examine your relationship with food. For most people their first couple fasts are an eye opening food to how often the actually eat and how often they think about food, so fasting can be a great learning experience.
Mike: Intermittent Fasting is a way for you to help reset some of your body’s natural built in systems for feedback which are completely messed up in todays world. Learn to listen to your body and what it is trying to tell you. Is that really hunger or are you getting withdrawl from sugar addiction (which I like to term as legal crack)? I like to also say that IFOC (IF on Crap) will not get you good results. Unless you are Michael Phelps, training in the pool for 5-6 hours a day….eating 10,000 calories of junk food is not going to work for you. While said about in moderation people can still enjoy foods, the focus still should be on quality foods first. Your body wants vitamins, minerals and other important cell building/cleansing/repairing nutrients found in whole natural foods. Go slow with IF, focus on the quality of your foods and you will see the improvements start to happen. That and if IF is not working for you, then you need to stop and reanalyze what is going on. Sometimes you have to maybe find a few ways that do not work, before you find what fits your lifestyle, activity level and goals. Don’t go too fast into it only to burn yourself out, overtrain, undereat and then be left worse off than when you started. There are many variables to play with such as carb cycling, marconutrient ratios, total calorie intake, IF scheduling (how many days you do it) and so forth. There is a way that will work for you!
Roundup: “That’s all some great advice and observations, is there anything else you want to add to sum up IF?”
Martin: I’m quite confident that many will abandon their old ways of thinking about ‘optimal’ nutrition in the next few years, as IF gains ground through emerging research and successful real life examples of it’s effectiveness for fat loss and muscle growth. Ignorance and indoctrination is still a problem, but many are starting to question the dogma and think for themselves.
Brad: The secret to success with intermittent fasting is fitting it into your lifestyle. You should enjoy your fasts, even look forward to them. They should not be burdensome or hard. I like to say, fit your diet around your lifestyle, don’t try to fit your lifestyle around your diet. The key to dieting success is its longevity. the longer you can stay with a way of eating that allows you to eat less in an easy and enjoyable manner, the greater your results will be.
Mike: IF is not a D-I-E-T, it’s a lifestyle. So make it work for you! Enjoy the daily journey of health and fitness, enjoy the natural flavors of real foods, enjoy the mental clarity and being more in tune with your body that IF can bring. Be free and make it a daily journey, as that is the true way to lasting results (as quick fix diets don’t work longterm without lasting positive lifestyle changes!).
Wrap Up
I would like to thank Martin and Brad for taking time out of their busy schedules to contribute their great knowledge and experience. With intermittent fasting there is still much to be discovered in the research world, and with people like Martin and Brad leading the way in real world applications, IF will hopefully become something that people will learn and implement into their lives for improved health and happiness. If you would like more information on how to start with IF you can also read the Intermittent Fasting 101 article for more details.
About the Experts:
Martin Berkhan is a nutritional consultant, magazine writer and personal trainer. Through his work, he has shown that intermittent fasting can be used to lose fat and gain muscle effectively with numerous real world examples (on his site www.leangains.com). He resides in Sweden, has a bachelor’s degree in Medical Sciences and Education and major in Public Health Sciences.
Brad Pilon is a nutrition professional with over seven years experience in the nutritional supplement industry. He lives in the greater Toronto area and is the author of Eat Stop Eat (best selling ebook and now has over 2 hours of audio information above and beyond the ebook about IF. Highly recommended for those wanting more details about how IF works.)
Mike O’Donnell is a professional fitness and health coach. Mike has worked with a variety of people and is now moving to help spread the word about health and fitness online. Mike has his here at the Fitness Spotlight, has written IF ebook(s) at the IF Life and has started free online bodyweight workouts at BodyFit Workout inorder to help motivate people to make fitness a fun part of their lifestyle.
Top photo by ChrisB
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39 Reader Comments
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Hey Mike – I’m interested to know whether you (or any of your experts) think there is any potential for IF to go mainstream. I often wonder whether, even if the medical etablishment, the media and anyone else who matters started advocating the IF lifestyle, there would be the appetite (no pun intended) for it.
I have have been fasting intermittently for a year now and am a big fan, but my experience with trying to explain it to friends and relatives has convinced me that for the foreseeable future it is something that will remain on the fringes regardless of how clear the evidence for its benefits becomes.
I say this because the two challenges to persuading someone to fast intermittently are so great – first, convincing them to adopt a diet which will control their insulin suffiently for fasting to be easy enough and then second, their having the discipline to fast. The way people live their lives these days and the indulge-now-worry-later mindset that prevails in society seems to ill-equip most people for these challenges, so unless we start teaching it in school or something, I fear this valuable health tool will remain woefully underused…
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Methuselah – All depends on what you consider “mainstream”. Do I think MDs will start passing out info on IF to people? Not anytime soon. Are there already people out there trying to promote the health benefits of fasting? Yes, as I remember reading a brochure from the Arthritis foundation saying “fasting could help people with arthritis” but never went into much more detail than that. You will also see more “diet” books based on alternate day CR such as one that just came out called the Alternate Day Diet. Will it help? Sure. Is it really going to be something people can do longterm? That I can’t answer but would say that is the danger of any diet. I like to say IF is a tool and a lifestyle choice…..something one can control and use for a long time. Brad’s book Eat Stop Eat is very successful on the net in helping to spread the word about IF (and dispelling all the myths that it’s about starving yourself and you will just lose muscle and crash your metabolism….which is just wrong biased opinions instilled by the bodybuilding/fitness industry. Sadly enough I would of probably said the same things about IF 10 years ago, as I also got sucked into all those myths of needing meals 6x a day and constant intake of food was the only way to keep muscle and burn fat….luckily I saw a greater truth eventually). Fasting as mentioned above can help combat the #1 issue most people have with weight loss, and that is the mental game of it! (as that is why I did a whole post on how to win the mental battle of weight loss) People need to break their emotional and mental addiction to food and start to view how the body really works.
The great thing about the internet is that it’s able to reach millions and millions of people now more than ever, so hopefully even if so called traditional mainstream medicine never picks up on IF or fasting for health, the “new” modern mainstream of the internet can help spread the word one person at a time….and that is the only way we are going to win this battle is people helping people learn what is going on and take action, and not just waiting for some big solution from either science or the medical establishments. People need to take full control and responsibility for their health starting right now, and I’m here to help spread the truth everyday hoping people can also pass that along to others they know. I have hope….great hope for people to spread the word on the net and start helping one another! That and it’s never too late to take action….and the best time is always right now!
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[...] However, I’m always open to alternatives, like this article from the IF Life that talks about intermittent fasting. It’s an interesting idea and one I just might try one of these days. Just remember, the best [...]
Mike – you are right about the internet potentially being the tool by which ideas that the mainstream takes too long to appreciate can spread without their help. This is something I explored in a recent post, if you are interested:
Are we Underrating the Anecdotal?
As well as the great work you and others are doing to promote IF, there is of course always the possibility of sudden celebrity endorsement or interest from one section of the media that could set a trend in motion. I will keep my fingers crossed.
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We were talking about IF on another site and it was asked whether IF would suit obese people??
Also:
In an article it mentions a study that found impaired glucose tolerance in women (not men) on alternative day fasting. Here is the study:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15833943
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Great post!
Wondering, since there was a sort of discussion about IF going mainstream (or not), what about children? I can’t seem to see if that is just right path or the wrong.
Thanks
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I think the media likes “diets”….not lifestyle changes.
Dingas – In my non-medical guess (as I am not a DR), I don’t think kids need to fast but should first focus on the QUALITY foods to help their body growing (and stay away from sugar and other destructive things). Eating crap as a kid will just lead to health issues in their early adulthood, so quality (and insulin control for steady weight and proper insulin sensitivity) comes first. Their guts should already be healthy….unless it is already compromised with bad foods and junk. Even still unless there is a medical reason already present, a healthy kid should just focus on healthy foods. It’s still about calories, quality and getting enough to grow. Fasting can improve anyone’s health, but doesn’t need to be a focus during a time in which they are still growing and need nutrients.
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Great post Mike. Thanks for bringing together three experts on the subject. As I described in my story on how IF has worked for me, I’ve found the increased mental clarity, improved body composition, freedom from food, etc that you three discussed. IF is a way of life that makes staying healthy extremely easy.
Also, I had a series of posts on all of the positive benefits of fasting that I started here. Fasting really does appear to be one of the most healthful ways to live and eat.
Cheers
Scott Kustes
Modern Forager
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Scott – Yep, fasting does seem to have it’s natural place in having optimal health and lifespan (not too mention fat loss…as a healthy body means healthy organ function which leads to optimal fat burning and muscle repair/building). Really I put Brad and Martin way above me as experts….I’m just someone who loves and understands the concept and is just trying to help spread the word, like many other experts out there such as Robb Wolf and DeVany….2 guys who are also great IF information resources…and much smarter than me!
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Hi Dingas,
Generally, my thought is that you treat meal frequency like a continuum up until adulthood.
When a child is first born they nurse 8-10 times a day and night. When they move to childhood they still eat multiple meals per day, but typically no longer feed at night.
Once they have finished growing in height, generally they still have a large requirement for energy from calories, but there is much less of a need for calories for growth and repair (compared to child who is growing in height).
This is why I recommend IF for adults only.
While not hard science, and certainly a debatable answer, it does follow a logical progression of facts.
I hope this answer helps,
BP
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If you do resistance training on a regular basis does this ensure you do not experience muscle loss from fasting?
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Sue,
whether you lose muscle or not is largely a function of your diet, physical activity and body fat %.
Streneous, physical activity such as resistance training will spare muscle during weight loss. An adequate diet, high in protein, will also spare muscle during weight loss. These two factors are by far the most important factors in this equation, not meal frequency per se.
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Thanks for taking the time to provide this information.
I’m in the process of experimenting with IFing and my own personal athletic performance. I just competed in a triathlon in a fasted state and had good results. The total time for the event was about 2 hrs. I plan to continue to experiment with this and different work out protocols and see how it works for us old guys.
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Hi Mike,
My husband and I both LOVE your website and owe you a big thank you (and Scott Kustes) for getting us going on IF. We’ve both had great results so far.
This popped up in my inbox today and I thought you might be amused by it.
http://www.sparkpeople.com/community/ask_the_experts.asp?q=63
Unfortunately there is no way to add comments to their post.
Have a good one!
Kathy
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Hi,
I am doing IF twice per week. Just worried whether if I trained with weights the evening before and then had only a protein drink and then fast 24 hours whether it is detrimental to my muscle growth and my training has gone to waste. How is my muscle tissue going to repair while fasting?
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Great post. I truly enjoyed this interview and the information everyone provided. Thanks. Steven
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[...] fasting a post or two back, I wanted to point everyone to a short IF roundtable on another blog. Martin Berkhan of Leangains.com along with Brad Pilon, author of Eat, Stop Eat provide some good [...]
[...] public links >> healing Saved by iblee on Mon 13-10-2008 Intermittent Fasting Roundtable: The Experts Talk about IF for Fat… Saved by RDANWTAS on Mon 13-10-2008 NFSH Student Support in Bristol Saved by bishounenai on Sun [...]
I am interested in learning more about IF. I read a blog today of someone who just reached her goal weight through IF for a year and have heard good things about it. I will be back, thanks!
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Susan – Welcome to the blog. I am sure you will find plenty of info on here to keep you busy reading for a while on IF. Like I tell most people it’s important to remember that using IF is just a “tool” and not a “diet”…..many ways to go about it and many ways that you can make work for you. I would suggest reading IF 101 post to get started with a good overview and then of course many other posts (and comments) on here. It’s a great and freeing lifestyle once you can tweak it for your lifestyle and goals.
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Great stuff.
IF truly is about a complete mental shift towards eating, hunger, and calories. I’m still a fan of eating many small to medium sized meals, but Brad’s convinced me – and Turbulence Training users – that IF is a great way to lose fat without “the plastic containers” as mentioned earlier!
Craig Ballantyne
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Craig – What will Tupperware do without us? Ha. I agree on the many meals…as it helps in partitioning nutrients and gets great results. Thanks for stopping by.
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Craig, I’ll say this.
Since I started IF, my hunger level has gone down a lot. I’m amazed that one or two meals a day and not only do I obsess less over food, I enjoy full size meals guilt free when I do eat AND I’m way way way less hungry in between them.
And that isn’t my statement of how things “should” be, it’s totally how I’m finding it after weeks.
As an example, on Tuesday I ate once at 2 p.m.
I didn’t get hungry again until 9 a.m. the next day, but I was up all night so there was quite a gap between them of awake hours, so I ate.
Then my mom called me to remind me around 4 Wednesday (yesterday again) to say I’d promised to come to her place for supper at 6 p.m. I thought, “Gee, I wish I hadn’t eaten this morning because I’m not hungry.”
I was going to do the eat in the evening routine, and probably will for the most part, but I’ve still found it easy to stretch that out to 24 hours on a couple occasions just because my schedule is helter skelter.
The best part is I’m eating healthier foods too. It is a lot easy to plan and/or prepare one or two healthy meals than six healthy convenience meals.
I totally agree with you that people can live and eat healthily by eating frequently, however you do miss some of the extra health benefits of fasting per se as studies are showing, both animal studies and now human too. I’m sure you’ve seen Mike’s reporting on that.
But mostly it’s the freedom from fear I love. None of this, “Gee, I gotta eat or my muscles will disappear and exercise will be a waste of time.” If muscled inexorably atrophied after a day without food (but otherwise an adequate diet) then people who fasted regularly would die! Because they’d leach protein until they perished.
They don’t, obviously.
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Final thought.
Mom being the terrific person that she is packed up a take-home meal for me. Back when I was eating constantly, used to it, I’d have almost certainly cooked that up tonight, probably within an hour and a half of getting home.
It’s still in the fridge and will be until tomorrow sometime. I don’t know when exactly. Whenever I get hungry and feel like eating it, I guess.
To me this is progress.
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I have done IF going on 2 years now. I prefer a low carb/ketogenic diet and IF supports that. IF is something that I do on a daily basis regardless of my level of physical activity. I am not a body builder, nor am I trying to be. However, I am strong. I turned 51 this year and I carry around the book Fifty Things To Do When You Turn Fifty.One contributor wrote that you should eat fewer meals when you reach this age. Even once a day may suffice for your dietary needs. In the medical world this is a travesty but in real life it is true. I not only eat more than twice a day, I sometimes eat only once. Sugars are stable, inflammation has disipated greatly. I don’t even suffer menstrual cramps any more. My main goal is to avoid diabetes which is inherent for me.
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Mary, you’re an inspiration! Thank you.
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IF is a great way to live. I’m currently doing the Warrior Diet which is actually pretty much the same thing. I’m also a Nutrition Major at the University of Delaware and have a good background in the science of nutrition and whatnot, and IF/WD scientifically makes sense.
HOWEVER
When you guys fast, do you eat fruits and vegetable or do you just not eat anything? When fasting your body is detoxifying and releasing toxins from your tissue and into your blood and your body is swamped with free radicals. If you don’t eat fruits and vegetables during the fast then you can cause new damage! Fasting and taking out the toxins is only half a therapy. The other half is detoxify by helping your liver and kidneys excrete them (drinking lots of water) and by eating antioxidants to neutralize the free radicals.
This won’t ruin your fast either. Very light foods like low glycemic fruits and vegetables won’t activate your parasympathetic nervous system (which takes you out of the awesome fasting “high”). I’m currently drinking a product called Mona Vie which is a fruit blend focusing on the Acai berry (they’re the only company that uses a patented process the retains almost all of the nutrition from the berry. This juice is loaded with antioxidants and other detoxifying properties).
Overall though, I’m a huge supporter of IF or WD or whatever you wanna call it. The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are antagonistic to one another and it makes no sense to have them constantly fighting each other all day (which leads to low energy and that afternoon “sleepy” feeling).
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Hi Tim,
That’s what Ori teaches, but I don’t think it’s true. I found his book wonderful in general for the attitude and spirit, but a bit lacking in history.
For example, the early Roman Republic had not one, but FOUR named meals, and during the latter stages of the Republic and Empire, they had three: jentaculum (breakfast — like today, it was not always eaten), cibus meridianus a.k.a. prandium (lunch), and vesperna (early supper — over time omitted as the late evening meal was pushed back and became heavier), and cena (late evening dinner).
However, whether I’m wrong or right about undereating vs. fasting, I can’t think of any health problems with eating nutritious low glycemic fruits and vegetables during the day, and (a) healthy full meal(s) at night… provided you’re not diabetic.
So have at ‘er! Sounds great — much healthier than most people choose to eat.
Regards,
Christoph
P.S. An occasional full fast will still be useful as it causes a different stress on the body and seems to offer certain additional health benefits light eating doesn’t.
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Tim – I usually start the day off with Vit C and coffee (2 sources of anti-oxidants). I agree drinking plenty of water is important. As for free radicals, I think it’s important to know that our body is always under constant attack as they are a byproduct of just cellular metabolism (energy production inside mitochondria). For that, our body also has the ability to makes it’s own antioxidant in the largest presentable form of glutathione made by the liver, which means better liver health, better internal antioxidant production. I like fruits and veggies during the day, but don’t really have any during the early parts of IF (unless my blood sugar was feeling low….which it rarely does). Also I remember reading in the past about overdoing diet based antioxidants may actually be more harmful in that it could downregulate our internal process of production and other effects. Here’s an interesting story to ready about such a possible downside of over taking supplement based antioxidants.
you can read the whole thing here
http://www.kilkennypeople.ie/nhsgenetics/Too-many-antioxidants-39bad-for.4252007.jp
Interesting food for thought on that….as I like to think the body is a pretty smart design, and sometimes when we try and outsmart it….it backfires on us in the long term. More is not always better…never know. That and the stress response of the body (also known as Hormesis) is pretty powerful. That is give it a short term acute stressor and it will learn to adapt and overcome and be stronger for it in the end (hence the power of short term fasts with IF). Long chronic stressors are of course not a good thing…..more is not better.
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Hey guys, curious about low-calorie drinks during the fast period, and what makes for a sensible cutoff (calorie-wise)?
There are a handful of energy drinks I enjoy that clock in at about 10 calories, and kombucha (a fermented tea) is around 20-30 at high acidity.
Lemon water is in the range of 2-3 calories.
Would love to hear your thoughts–thanks in advance!
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hello…I have more of a question than comment…..I have been doing the IF program for about a week with good success I might add….I have a five hour window of 1:30 P.M. to 6:30 P.M. to eat…..I work all day…and I wasn’t sure I could go that long without eating…but its been better than I thought…..My question is about exercise…I have always read that you should eat protein and carbs within an hour after working out….I have no time at all to work out in the afternoon….the morning is my only time…but my schedule for eating is not till 1:30….am I defeating the purpose of working out If I am not eating soon afterwards…..???? Should I change my eating to mornings?….I really like this not eating till 1:30, but need to tone up as well as lose body fat….thanks…gene
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Jeremy,
tough question, I imagine this is simply a dose-response thing, where the higher your calorie intake is during the ‘fast’, the greater the impact on negating the positive effects from the fast. Are you moving around a lot during the day or do you remain sedentary? This is also an important variable to consider.
However, at <50 kcal, I wouldn’t say there is a lot to be concerned with in the first place. I myself have milk in my coffee during the fast, probably to the tune of an extra 20-30 kcal.
gene,
sip a BCAA shake during the ‘fast’ if you’re adamant about keeping your feeding window as it is. In this case, the benefits of having some protein (10-20 g bcaa’ or whey) post-workout/ in the hours until your feeding window starts, far outweigh being rigid about not eating anything at all during this period.
While you wont completely defeat the purpose of working out if you don’t eat anything pre-or post workout, doing so will negatively impact your results from the workout (protein synthesis primarily) and this is heavily supported by research on this area.
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Why are so many IF advocates still pushing carbs? Sounds like they’re afraid of admitting the truth. Yeah, I agree we shouldn’t be irrationally afraid of all carbs, but combining intermittent fasting with a low-carb / paleo diet seems like a pretty optimal choice.
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Great stuff!
Saw the most frustrating thing on TV last night on the BBC. Sir Alan sugar was on a talkshow and next to him was a “professional” nutritionist talking of the virtues and whole grains and why brekky is the most important meal of the day. Sir Alan said “thing is when I dont eat breakfast I can go through the whole day without feeling hungry but when I eat breakfast Im constantly hungry”.
Her reply? : “No you must eat breakfast because it prevents you from snacking”
OH REALLY!!!! WHAT DID HE JUST SAY! Really annoys me
a quote from Buddah relevant here is “never believe anything anyone tells you, even me if it goes against what your common sense tells you”
Rock on IF!!!
[Reply]
Andy – the media is in love with 2 things….making red meat evil and breakfast the most important meal of the day…..regardless of what people actually have to say or how the body really does work. This bias can see trickled down into every profession from doctors to nutritionists. Sad really that people can’t think for themselves once in a while anymore.
[Reply]
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