Intermittent Fasting Support Group?

elizabethblake

Hi everyone! I'm going to give this IF thing a try, using the LG method. I've read all the posts on both threads and think I have a handle on it, but still have a couple of questions. Forgive me if I've missed the answers to these questions, there were a lot of posts to read!

1. Martin suggests eating 80% of your daily calories post-workout. On a 1400 calories/day, that's over 1100 calories. I don't think I can manage that - that's a lot of food. Does anyone take a more equal approach to spreading your calories throughout the eating period? I'm planning to have a frozen strawberries/protein powder shake pre-workout (15% of daily calories) and I'd like to split my remaining calories between the post-workout meal and last meal of the day, and save another 15% for an evening snack. See any problems with this?

2. Do you strictly adhere to eating three meals/day, or do you still have some snacks? I'm looking at an eating window of 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., but I prefer to have my last meal of the day around 7. Am I messing anything up by having a snack at 8:30 p.m.?

3. Has this way of eating allowed anyone to lose fat who WASN'T already fairly lean? I need to lose probably 20 lbs. of body fat. I'm lifting heavy 3x week (following the New Rules of Lifting for Women program) and doing cardio intervals at least one other day/week, preferably two. My diet is pretty good - I eat moderate carbs and try to get 1g. protein per body weight each day, but I'm usually a bit short. I'm making a renewed effort to up my protein intake, starting today.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give!

Timdog57

Hi everyone! I'm going to give this IF thing a try, using the LG method. I've read all the posts on both threads and think I have a handle on it, but still have a couple of questions. Forgive me if I've missed the answers to these questions, there were a lot of posts to read!

1. Martin suggests eating 80% of your daily calories post-workout. On a 1400 calories/day, that's over 1100 calories. I don't think I can manage that - that's a lot of food. Does anyone take a more equal approach to spreading your calories throughout the eating period? I'm planning to have a frozen strawberries/protein powder shake pre-workout (15% of daily calories) and I'd like to split my remaining calories between the post-workout meal and last meal of the day, and save another 15% for an evening snack. See any problems with this?

2. Do you strictly adhere to eating three meals/day, or do you still have some snacks? I'm looking at an eating window of 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., but I prefer to have my last meal of the day around 7. Am I messing anything up by having a snack at 8:30 p.m.?

3. Has this way of eating allowed anyone to lose fat who WASN'T already fairly lean? I need to lose probably 20 lbs. of body fat. I'm lifting heavy 3x week (following the New Rules of Lifting for Women program) and doing cardio intervals at least one other day/week, preferably two. My diet is pretty good - I eat moderate carbs and try to get 1g. protein per body weight each day, but I'm usually a bit short. I'm making a renewed effort to up my protein intake, starting today.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give!

1. I think that adjusting the % of calories in your post workout meals wouldn't be a big deal. As far as I know there's nothing magical about those %'s. As long as the bulk of your calories comes post workout, it doesn't really matter how many meals or what the specific %'s of those are.

2. Similarly, the 3 meals a day thing isn't magical. The important pieces here are the fasting window, and the bulk of calories being consumed post-workout. If you are getting to those ends with some snacks, I don't think it matters much.

3. I have lost a fair bit of fat using the LG approach, and I still have a fair bit to lose. The success at fat lose will again mainly be driven by your caloric deficit.

elizabethblake

1. I think that adjusting the % of calories in your post workout meals wouldn't be a big deal. As far as I know there's nothing magical about those %'s. As long as the bulk of your calories comes post workout, it doesn't really matter how many meals or what the specific %'s of those are.

2. Similarly, the 3 meals a day thing isn't magical. The important pieces here are the fasting window, and the bulk of calories being consumed post-workout. If you are getting to those ends with some snacks, I don't think it matters much.

3. I have lost a fair bit of fat using the LG approach, and I still have a fair bit to lose. The success at fat lose will again mainly be driven by your caloric deficit.

Thanks TImDog! I don't think a calorie deficit will be a problem, and pushing my "breakfast" from 7-8:00 to 11:00 a.m. wasn't a big deal at all this morning. Drinking water and coffee took my mind off food and the strawberries/protein powder gave me enough energy for my workout, so I think this is a good option for me. I'm going to shoot for a 14 hour fast window this week and up it to 15 hours next week, see how that goes and if it's no biggie, I'll try for 16.

FaithHopeBELIEVE

70 more minutes and I will have finished my first 24 hour fast. Its Halloween and I have 3 kids so it will actually probably be 27 hours before we are home and I can eat. Maybe I should try for 36 hours?

pork_belly

Im in the middle of my 36 right now. Went off schedule for the weekend and going to do a couple of 36 hour fast during the week - one today and probably one before my weight day on Friday.

chrisdavey

elizabethblake:
1. no problem. Do whatever works for you. (I have become used to being able to smash large meals on LG though ) And having one meal post workout and then another a few hours later would still be considered a "post workout" meal IMO. No anabolic window BS.

2. Nope. eat whenever hungry during eating window.

3. Can't help you on that one sorry.


Did you have strawberries & protein powder in your eating window or not? *confused* If it's not in your eating window then that is definitely breaking the fast.

catwrangler

The only problem I am having is on weekends. During the week I have settled into an 11:30 am to 8 PM window and I find it easy and even end up with a calorie surplus which was unheard of when I was eating breakfasts.

The key to a successful IF day seems to be distractions. As long as I am busy in the mornings from waking to 11:30 I am golden.. But If I am just lounging around on a Saturday or Sunday morning I start to slide fast and furious. Gotta work on that.

How many of you folks eat back your exercise calories? My calorie budget is 1660 and I can burn up to 400 calories a day but not often. So I'm thinking by not eating back calories I would simply be zigzagging which is not a bad thing, right?

catwrangler

I am just wondering if people use LG to lose weight or use it to when they are lean to bulk up the muscle and to get leaner??

I am not only seeing LG to lose weight, but to have it as a healthy lifestyle. I have been told that it is mainly used for the latter, not to lose weight.

I am doing it strictly to lose weight. It's like an eating strategy for me and so far it works better than a traditional breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks schedule.

chrisdavey

I eat exercise calories +500ish.

moby77

Well I have done my first fasting, was going to be 24 hrs but started later in the evening so i didn't feel like eating so late the following day so went to bed and its turn into 36 hrs but i feel great, no probs doing it just hope that was ok to go 36hrs on first try ? Just wondering do you have what ever MFP gives you on your cal intake (i. mine is 1280) on all the other days? I would think so but just checking :-)

pork_belly

I am just wondering if people use LG to lose weight or use it to when they are lean to bulk up the muscle and to get leaner??

I am not only seeing LG to lose weight, but to have it as a healthy lifestyle. I have been told that it is mainly used for the latter, not to lose weight.

I am doing it strictly to lose weight. It's like an eating strategy for me and so far it works better than a traditional breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks schedule.

At first I used it to lose weight then to help me get leaner. It accelerated my weight loss and helped me get leaner when I reached my goal weight.

elizabethblake

elizabethblake:
1. no problem. Do whatever works for you. (I have become used to being able to smash large meals on LG though ) And having one meal post workout and then another a few hours later would still be considered a "post workout" meal IMO. No anabolic window BS.

2. Nope. eat whenever hungry during eating window.

3. Can't help you on that one sorry.


Did you have strawberries & protein powder in your eating window or not? *confused* If it's not in your eating window then that is definitely breaking the fast.

I had the strawberry protein powder smoothie at 11:00, so it broke my fast. I worked out at 12:30, so it wasn't a fasted workout, but I'd only had a couple hundred calories. I need to get some BCAAs this weekend!

Alloranx

Well I have done my first fasting, was going to be 24 hrs but started later in the evening so i didn't feel like eating so late the following day so went to bed and its turn into 36 hrs but i feel great, no probs doing it just hope that was ok to go 36hrs on first try ? Just wondering do you have what ever MFP gives you on your cal intake (i. mine is 1280) on all the other days? I would think so but just checking :-)

Hey Moby77,

Congrats on your first fast! 36 hours is OK, no worries. I do 36 every so often with no issues. As for the calories, that's what I did when I was using IF to lose weight. I set my calorie intake to -2lbs/week and just ate that much between fasts. For me it was in the 1500's range, I think, but I'm a fairly big guy. You'd probably be OK to set it a little higher, actually. I lost a little *too* fast...about 2.4lbs per week. Just keep track of it and adjust as needed, whether that be calorie intake, exercise amount, fasting frequency or fasting length.

EDIT: And on that note, do be sure to exercise so you will keep as much muscle as possible! Science shows that doing resistance exercise preserves your lean mass, so at least do some 3 times/week, I would say.

hush7hush

Does anyone here fast more than once a week? And by that I mean, more than one full day a week.

FaithHopeBELIEVE

Does anyone here fast more than once a week? And by that I mean, more than one full day a week.

I plan on doing another 24 hour fast Thursday to Friday. I read you can do 2 24 hour fasts a week.

Alloranx

Does anyone here fast more than once a week? And by that I mean, more than one full day a week.

I did previously do 9 weeks worth of a 24 hr fast every other day. I know that sounds like a huge amount of fasting, but if you add it all up (being careful to include the fasting you do on your eating days while sleeping), it averages out to exactly the same amount of fasting as Leangains, just divided up differently. It wasn't hard, really. It's hard to recommend it without qualification, because Brad Pilon of ESE says not to do more than two 24hr fasts/week, but then again he doesn't really give an reasons why you couldn't do more except that it's "less flexible/convenient" and it may make you burn out and give up. Didn't happen for me, but this is kind of "off the beaten path" of IF, so experiment at your own risk.

chrisdavey

LOL at off the beaten path

I would think that if you were doing 2 24hr fasts a week that you would eat closer to maintenance cals on your regular days because your weekly deficit would be coming from the fasting days. e.g. MFP set to 1.5lb loss per week, cal intake 1250, maintenance 2000.
M: 2000
T:0
W:2000
Th:2000
F:0
S:2000
S:2000
Total cals for the week 10000. TDEE for week: 14000. 4000cal deficit.

I'm no ESE expert though

And saw this awesome link for LG/Fast 5/Warrior diet people.
http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/

And here is my plan that I came up with from the above

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-WoET8qJLZqY/TrCj-BcpAVI/AAAAAAAAAvk/ewTV2CVrf6Q/s640/IF+Calculator.JPG

Alloranx

I would think that if you were doing 2 24hr fasts a week that you would eat closer to maintenance cals on your regular days because your weekly deficit would be coming from the fasting days. e.g. MFP set to 1.5lb loss per week, cal intake 1250, maintenance 2000.
M: 2000
T:0
W:2000
Th:2000
F:0
S:2000
S:2000
Total cals for the week 10000. TDEE for week: 14000. 4000cal deficit.

It's not quite like that, because if you do it ESE style, you never go a day without eating. You fast from dinner on one day to dinner the next day, usually.

Also, I went back a few months and looked at my logs, and my calorie intake was all over the place during this little adventure. Sometimes it was a little over 2000, other days a little under 1500 (My TDEE is 2600). Fasting days could be as little as 700 to as much as 1500. That was an insane month at work, lol. So anyway, my calorie deficit could have been as little as 5,700 (~1.6lbs of fat loss a week) to as much as 10,900 (~3 lbs of fat loss a week). That's with 3-4 fasts per week. My actual deficit was probably somewhere inbetween, which is consistent with what I measured at the end of the 9 weeks: 2.4lbs/week on average.

I only logged my calories for a little over 2 weeks. I probably ate more when I wasn't logging, lol.

pork_belly

@chrisdavey - Thanks for the link!!! Its pretty cool!

chrisdavey

Alloranx: aah yep, forgot about that.

and no probs. I thought some people would find it handy.

moby77

Well I have done my first fasting, was going to be 24 hrs but started later in the evening so i didn't feel like eating so late the following day so went to bed and its turn into 36 hrs but i feel great, no probs doing it just hope that was ok to go 36hrs on first try ? Just wondering do you have what ever MFP gives you on your cal intake (i. mine is 1280) on all the other days? I would think so but just checking :-)

Hey Moby77,

Congrats on your first fast! 36 hours is OK, no worries. I do 36 every so often with no issues. As for the calories, that's what I did when I was using IF to lose weight. I set my calorie intake to -2lbs/week and just ate that much between fasts. For me it was in the 1500's range, I think, but I'm a fairly big guy. You'd probably be OK to set it a little higher, actually. I lost a little *too* fast...about 2.4lbs per week. Just keep track of it and adjust as needed, whether that be calorie intake, exercise amount, fasting frequency or fasting length.

EDIT: And on that note, do be sure to exercise so you will keep as much muscle as possible! Science shows that doing resistance exercise preserves your lean mass, so at least do some 3 times/week, I would say.

Thank you, was easier than i thought thankfully. Will try an stick to 24 hrs next time so I eat something every day. Thanks for the info, I go to a curves gym 5 times a wk which has lots of resistance equipment in the circuit you do, plus I walk a lot and have a treadmill at home so do some every day.

FaithHopeBELIEVE

refresher...what does TDEE stand for? I also filled in my info for that table abover chrisdavey and it will take me until April of 2012 to lose 10 lbs but go from 24% body fat to 18%. Is it normal to take thatttt long. Seems like forever to me. Hope I'm understanding the chart right as well.

elizabethblake

Alloranx: aah yep, forgot about that.

and no probs. I thought some people would find it handy.

That is really interesting! Love how you can adjust the dials to see how different calorie intakes will affect weight/fat loss!

So - it's only been two full days of LG-style IF, and I got on the scale this morning. I'm down 4 lbs. from Monday morning! Crazy, and I know it's water, but hey! I'll take it!

boilermakerblaw

And saw this awesome link for LG/Fast 5/Warrior diet people.
http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/

Thanks for the link! I really like how this breaks everything down and presents it!

janiedoe111

I am fasting for 24 hours once a week. Anyone else on a similar plan?

FaithHopeBELIEVE

refresher...what does TDEE stand for? I also filled in my info for that table abover chrisdavey and it will take me until April of 2012 to lose 10 lbs but go from 24% body fat to 18%. Is it normal to take thatttt long. Seems like forever to me. Hope I'm understanding the chart right as well.

Googled it, nevermind...lol.

When I entered my stats and entered 0 workouts the schedule showed me losing 10 lbs by Jan with body fat of 18%. The april 2012 was when I entered 6 workouts. When I went to 0 workouts it showed my losing 1 lb a week. Soo my question is am I not understadning this correctly that the workout set at 0 means I'm excercising everyday and setting it at 6 means I'm resting 6 days? Seems backwards. Not sure if you can see at the link below:

http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/

TDEE says 1599, Rest Cals 1119 and workout cals 1439. Soooo like today I worked out and burned 377 cals. Mfp set me at 1200 but I upped it to 1300 so should I set it at 1439 and ignor the excercise cal thing? Or go by MFP and I should eat 1677 cals? Why am I always so confused?

FaithHopeBELIEVE

I am fasting for 24 hours once a week. Anyone else on a similar plan?

Me!

janiedoe111

LOL at off the beaten path

I would think that if you were doing 2 24hr fasts a week that you would eat closer to maintenance cals on your regular days because your weekly deficit would be coming from the fasting days. e.g. MFP set to 1.5lb loss per week, cal intake 1250, maintenance 2000.
M: 2000
T:0
W:2000
Th:2000
F:0
S:2000
S:2000
Total cals for the week 10000. TDEE for week: 14000. 4000cal deficit.

I'm no ESE expert though

And saw this awesome link for LG/Fast 5/Warrior diet people.
http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/

And here is my plan that I came up with from the above

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-WoET8qJLZqY/TrCj-BcpAVI/AAAAAAAAAvk/ewTV2CVrf6Q/s640/IF+Calculator.JPG

Chris: This is awesome. Any tips on how to best use this information?

rileysowner

I am fasting for 24 hours once a week. Anyone else on a similar plan?

Me!

Me as well although lately I have not been doing it for various reasons, I am back to it now with a fast today. It has went well overall, probably because I got a good nights sleep. It seems when I am tired I have a very hard time maintaining the fast, and end up eating way too much when I do break it. Today, so far so good.

chrisdavey

janiedoe111:
Read this http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=133634471 re your minimum protein & fats required. Then I'd use the preset cal targets based on if you want to lose, gain or recomp (rest/workout split) . (See how my protein is the same both days, & fats higher on off days (as per LG recommendations))

JeanineSchumm: This calculator is for everyday fasting like leangains not ESE. And remember the following.

Thinking fat loss is a linear phenomenon and setting a weekly weight loss goal (ie. I will lose 1.5 lbs per week every week and if I don't I am failing and might as well give up) for yourself is a short path to frustration. Don't set numerical goals. Set behaviour/program compliance goals and with consistency, the outcome will take care of itself. Fat loss is not, and never will be, linear. Ditch using the scale as the sole barometer of your progress and pass on the setting of a weekly weight loss goal. It's just another added source of potential stress.