Intermittent Fasting Success?

Oh, and not sure if the OP has read "Eat, Stop, Eat" but here's the full manuscript as a PDF. This is what convinced me to give this a go...
http://aventadores.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/brad-pilon-eat-stop-eat.pdf

ive been IF since january. worked well for my cut. hard for me to get off of since its very convenient and satisfying for me to eat a big meal after working and working out. i usually fast for 20 hours .srs.

I did this for three months last year. I had a "window" from 6 to 8 pm every evening when I would eat, and fasted the rest of the time. I "rested" the fast on Sundays. I was also swimming over an hour four to five days a week, eating less that 1500 calories per day, and getting a lot of exercise otherwise. I lost about 15 pounds, and gained ten of it back with two months after I stopped fasting. HOWEVER, this diet did help me gain control over my appetite. Learning to tell myself no, even when I was starving, was good practice for the lifestyle I've adopted since. Now I count calories, restrict carbs, run/walk/hike every day, and I am regaining control over my mind and body.

I've been doing IF (which is not a diet, btw) for about a year and i love it. I have an 6-8 hour eating window and consume anywhere from 1700-1800 calories a day. Sunday is my cheat day. I have the same window (roughly 1pm-9pm) and I eat what i want on that day. I usually come in at about 2500-2800 calories on that day. I've lost over 25 inches and i've gone from a size 16 to a size 10 from January to April. I don't weigh myself so i don't know about that. I lift heavy and run 3.1 miles 3x a week.

I enjoy training fasted....my lifts have increased significantly and I find I am more focused while training. I also like eating big daily. My first meal is usually around 1000-1200 calories right after training, then the balance of calories later in the evening. I don't feel deprived, i'm not hungry and best of all, I feel it fits my lifestyle better. I don't have to cook as much and i'm not fussing over 6-8 small meals a day, sitting around twiddling my thumbs waiting for 2 hours to go by so i can eat some piddly cheese stick and apple snack, then sit around some more with a growly stomach waiting for my next ration.

that's just my story, someone else's experience may vary. i can see myself eating this way for the rest of my life. i remember when i first started, about a month in to IF. i actually teared up because i was so grateful to find something that finally worked for me. try out a few eating styles and see what works for you

Melissa the way you do IF is pretty much the way I do it and I have had similar results. I spin and swim on my cardio days and I lift heavy on my strength days using an inverted pyramid and working a major group of muscles to exhaustion. I started out at size 24 and I am down to size 14. Like Melissa IF 16/8 just fits my life style and really that is the key to weight loss, find the program that works for you and just do it and stick with it.

I don't find it a problem when I go out with friends in the evening because 16/8 is flexible. If you want to eat until 10 you can, just adjust on the back end and reserve your calories for when you want to eat (according to Leangains you don't have to eat most of your calories after the work out but it is more effective when you do).

I will say that occasionally my friends are annoyed that I don't go out for breakfast anymore because I fast and train mid morning. Some friends seem to feel that not eating breakfast is the dietary crime of the year, though they are impressed with my weight loss...but probably think I am a freak...yeah what ever

I love my friends, but I gotta take care of me in this season of my life and get on track health wise so skipping a few breakfasts is just fine for me.

I do it more for the benefits to insulin sensitivity, nutrient partitioning, cell repair, etc.


Also it's super convenient in terms of food preparation.

^^This, and I prefer to train fasted. I train in the mornings, so IF works great for me in that respect as well.

IF is terrible for social life. If you're dieting correctly and you eat your TDEE-20% you're screwed when you go out with friends after your window. Have one drink and a small snack and you just ate back more than half your deficit. Personally, I don't like anything that bars me from enjoying life in moderation. I liked IF and it helped with satiety, but, it definitely has its drawbacks. It's not for everyone, but, it really can help people who like to graze all day on food. Those little snacks add up.

IF bad for social life? You were doing it wrong. I do 5:2 (limit calories to 500 for 2 days and eat 'normally' (for me that's around 2000 cals) on the other 5 days). This means I am free to go out and have a nice meal/ drinks without 'going over' my calories for the week and I no longer have to feel like I am on 'a diet' all the time. I love it. Four months living like this and I am slowly but surely losing weight and feeling great. If the offer of an evening out comes up on a fast day I can go for it and just do the fast the following day. I am off to a Thai restaurant tonight and I am going to have lot of rich food and because I restricted calories on Monday and Wednesday I am safe in the knowledge I still have a decent calorie deficit at the end of the week. Yay.

IF is not necessary. it is no different than caloric intake in and out. meal timing is irrelevant but this provides structure for those who cannot do it freely.

I am not against it and I am not for it, however some people enjoy the structure of the diet. especially in times when they have to "cut"

I am a new father and haven't been to the gym honestly since August. I was sitting at 221 before I started IF on my last day of vacation on 10/7/2013. Weighed in today at 213. So it's working for me, and I am just making sure I eat higher fats and protien on most days. I eat within reason but I definitely no longer feel guilty having a beer or two with dinner, or having a slice or two of pizza once and a while. Just try to mostly eat whole foods.

That .org site linked above is NOT Berkhan's site!! It's some copycat site with a questionable affiliate link.

The legit site is http://www.leangains.com/

Please edit your post, it could spread bad info.

Hi, I'm the owner of http://lean-gains.org. I found this thread from a notification that my site was linked to. What you said is true - Martin Berkhan's site is http://www.leangains.com. I don't purport my site to be the official Leangains website, as the poster said - in fact, I mention several times on my site that it isn't.

When I first started Leangains nearly two and a half years ago, I found there to be a lack of clear and concise information on macros, training, and that sort of thing. Sure, there was plenty of information available, but you had to extract it from reading tons of posts on Martin's blog - there were no step-by-step guides.

So, I decided to create my site to help out people who were new to Leangains and got confused by the loosely organized info on Martin's site. It's not meant to be a copy of Martin's site and all the content is 100% original - it's simply there to help out Leangains newbies get started. I think it does a pretty good job, as evidenced by all the positive feedback I have received in my email from visitors over the past year.

I'm not sure what you're talking about when you say "questionable affiliate link." I have Adsense ads and an affiliate link to Eat Stop Eat on the website. It earns very little - not even enough to cover hosting or domain name renewal fees.

Anyway, I hope I've cleared things up for anyone who visits this old thread - I'm a huge supporter of Leangains and a fan of Martin's, not some guy out to make a quick buck.

Some other great Leangains resources to check out are r/Leangains on Reddit and rippedbody.jp (note: this site is not entirely based on Martin's original Leangains, but it comes close - and there's a lot of useful information on it anyway).