I'm doing well! My weight loss is still being pretty stubborn, but eh. Patience usually does the trick. Now that I've moved on from Insanity to P90X, I'm going to incorporate intermittent fasting again. I really enjoyed it before, but I wasn't able to do Insanity without having some food in my stomach. Not a problem with P90X! I started IF today, and I definitely enjoyed my humongous post-workout lunch. Mmm.

My week is going well. I am trying to eat less calories per day this week to see if that helps with my weekly weight loss in addition to reigning in my cheats on the weekend. I also started weighing myself daily and tracking on weightgrapher.com (Thanks Kate!) and I kinda like it. It's cool to see the way your weight fluctuates and what actions cause your weight to go up or down. I quickly saw that it takes my body 2 days to recover from one cheat day! Anywho I really hope to have a loss this week!

I forgot how much I love intermittent fasting. It's so wonderful. )

Kate since I saw your post that you started IF again I've been reading up on it all morning. It's a very interesting concept and I'm very curious to see how it works. I may try it out for a couple of weeks - 16 hour fast, 2 pre workout and then 1 post workout meal. What has been your experience with IF? Have you seen a lot of success?

I had really good success with it before I started Insanity, but I did continue to have good results through Insanity. It's hard for me to say if it is more effective for weight loss or not, but there is lots of anecdotal evidence that it's a great way to lose stubborn fat. The way I approach it is that on strength training days (MWF), I have coffee (<25 calories) and then do my cardio for the day. So that is in a fasted state. I then have a protein shake prior to strength training, and right after strength training I have my largest meal of the day (at least 60% of my total calories for the day). Then I might have a snack between then and dinner, and I have a modest portion size for dinner. And of course my dessert. Most days I operate on 16/8, but sometimes it turns into 18/6 or 20/4 if I have a late start. My eating window is generally 12PM or later to 8PM. On cardio-only days, I just have coffee before cardio and then my large lunch afterwards, no protein shake.

My macro ratios also vary depending on whether it's a strength or cardio day. http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/ is a great resource for figuring out your eating pattern and macros. I use the -30%/-10% calorie ratio for cardio/strength days, and 50/50 carb to fat ratio for cardio and 75/25 for strength days. This is following the leangains pattern. If you want to learn more about leangains, here are two good things to read:

http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html
http://doubleyourgains.com/musclebuildingmastermind/The_Leangains_Approach_Final.pdf

It's a little bit more complicated, but once you have everything set up and figured out, it's not so bad. I just really enjoy exercising in the fasted/mostly fasted state and eating an absolutely massive lunch afterwards. It does take some getting used to, but I find that after a while of doing it, my hunger cues are greatly reduced. I don't feel the need to snack as often, which is great.

Heh, hope you like it! I personally find the one massive meal a day with a few other small things a really satisfying way to eat.