Leangains and competing
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apriltrainer
Posts: 732 Member
Just wondered if anyone else was doing leangains or some type of IF as their contest prep diet? I did leangains for an online transformation contest and it worked well so am doing it again with a few tweaks..i.e. paying more attention to getting my protein requirements in within my eating window.
Anyone else doing this? I know most people I know are doing 5-6 meals a day. But not too many seem to be doing this kind of eating.
ANyone? Anyone?
Anyone else doing this? I know most people I know are doing 5-6 meals a day. But not too many seem to be doing this kind of eating.
ANyone? Anyone?
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I don't know how many people you will find (I'm not one of them; I'm eating all the time), but if it worked for you..... :-)0
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It has worked for me. I sortof used to do it naturally and then I had a personal trainer make me do the 6 meal a day thing ....and it just didn't work for me. I found myself too food focused. I never was focused on food until then. For some people it works. I was one of the outliers where it ididn't work.
But I'd love to hear from others who do this...or who will admit to doing it...
Heck, when I was in the military they didn't wake us up and make me drink a protein shake before busting our butts.
They woke us up...made us work out...and then we ate breakfast.
And there were no snacks in between.
Pretty much just breakfast, lunch and dinner. HEarty portions though.
I put in alot of muscle at that time too. (lost alot of it when i decided to concentrate on marathons, which I no longer do, after I was done with my military service but that's for another post!) I guess I am a 3 meal a day person. DO the same thing now, just delay my breakfast time.
I did the 3 meal a day thing again for the online contest and it worked. But I feel soooo......alone!0 -
sounds to me like you are sane.
I hate IF, and I hate the constant feed meal plans. But hey, I'm just a cpt, not a nutritionist and can't fathom why a normal person who's not working out more than once a day would want to waste time eating more than 3 meals.
Both IF and constant grazing are fine for specific reasons, sometimes medical, but unless you need all that fuel in you constantly I think it's safer to just eat when hungry, typically one big meal a day and some smaller feeds as necessary.0 -
I think you should do whatever works for you as long as you aren't fasting for too long of a time. I will be starting to train/diet next month for a fitness competiton in June and my plan is to do the more traditional 5 meals a day. Luckily I have a job where I am able to take a break to eat that much. I used to be in the military too so I know what that is like. It definitely is time consuming to eat often but for me I feel like it helps and keeps my blood sugar really stable. Good luck with whatever you decide! Just focus on what works best for you.
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The whole thing about blood sugar stability...I am a school nurse at a high school and have access to a onetouch monitor...
I test my blood sugar in the am -70's. In the afternoon- 70's In the evening- 70's....(all blood sugars taken right before eating)
That's what sortof made me feel really suspect about the whole blood sugar stability thing and needing to eat every 3 hours, ... ..everytime I was "sure" my blood sugar had bottomed out and I just HAD to eat...my blood sugar was normal.
Yeah..Yeah..i know that normal bs is 80-120..but the 70's is normal for me. Just like my resting heart rate is 52 (which is low compared to the norm and my blood pressure is 98/50..
And the 70's is my blood sugar when I was not doing leangains eating. That's when I was eating 6 meals a day..
On leangains...
am- 70's, afternoon - in the 70;s... in the evening...in the 70's..(all blood sugars again, taken right before eating)
Which surprised me even more. Myblood sugar was the SAME when I checked before eating whether I fasted or not. If I checked myself at 8am before eating breakfast at a regular time- 70's. If I checked my blood sugar at 11am because that was my "leangains breakfast time"- still 70's.
And a few times when I felt really hungry and was sure my blood sugar had bottomed out while waiting to eat my "breakfast" at 11am instead of 8(checking it at 9 or 10)...STILL in the 70's. Stable. Throughout the day.
Alot of it for me was psychological. It was huge for me to find out that when I thought I was low...I wasn't. I was just Pavlov's dog waiting for my next meal.
But that's me.
all I am saying is...my blood sugar is pretty damn stable. Even when I am doing leangains fasting and when I am not. some people may not be as lucky. I am. Thank my lucky stars. I think this is why leangains works for me. And for others who have wild fluctuations...it won't.
One thing I do find though with the 5-6 meal a day, is it cuts down on bloating for me. Since I eat HUGE meals, I sometimes get bloated. It goes away but can be unpleasant. Other than that...I really prefer the satisfaction of huge meals.
And in both scenarios(6 meals a day or fasting)...when I have checked 1-2 hours after eating I am usually between 80-90, Stable. Anyways...leangains eating is my plan for bikini prep.
As is ...minimal cardio.
maybe I will come back here and tell you all how wrong I was and what a mistake it was. But it will be an interesting experiment nonetheless! It sortof makes the whole contest prep diet fun..0 -
I don't test my blood sugar or anything, but I'm a 6 meals per day person.
To the person who mentioned why anyone would want that much fuel, the trick is that most of my meals are 300 calories. I don't eat large meals at every meal, like a 3 meal per day person. Same amount of fuel, there are just different ways (meaning times and amounts) to eat it.
This is most likely because I accustomed my body to it, but I can tell when it's time for a meal within 5 minutes just by listening to my stomach. If I am late on a meal, or totally miss one, my blood sugar (or whatever, may not be the blood sugar), but definitely my energy levels take a nose dive for the worst. If I miss a meal, I feel like I'm going to pass out, or start eating my desk.
The most important take away from this, I believe, is that EVERYONE is different. 6 meals works for people, 3 meals works for people, fasting works for people, no/low carbs works for people. The list is endless. If you are happy with what you are doing, and your body responds well to it, then that's what you should go with.
As a trainer, while I would have recommendations, if a client told me after a couple weeks that things were not working, we would switch things up. Can't keep doing the same thing, and expect different results.0 -
I'm in Pre Prep, I have weight to lose before I can contest prep, But I read a wonderful study written by Doctor John M Berardi http://www.precisionnutrition.com/intermittent-fasting you can Download the study on the website. Its a really great read and very simplified. My husband for years had told me that I should do it and being the nutrition junky I am, I refused to look into it. So I finally was researching Macro Counting and where to start and stumbled upon a blog on it http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=4927546 here is a blog with before and afters from him. So a week later after planning everything out I started to do intermittent fasting with a full fast day on Sunday as well as count my Macros and make sure I get EVERYTHING in during my 10 hour eating time. I have lost 15lbs since Jan 1. I eat 5 meals a day and still get all my Macros in and the day that I do a full day fast those calories are not lost I add those to the Cal ratio during the other days of the week. So at the end of the week my body has gotten all the Calories it needs. I also to HIIT for 30-45 mins after I lift or on my flexibility days. Soon I will calm down on that probably with I start with my gymnastics coach. Anyway Your Not alone! I fully support IF It Does Work and you can still gain muscle using it.0
