intermittent fasting question for weight trainers.

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Polishprinsezz
Polishprinsezz Posts: 249 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
is this something weight trainers practice too? i like to eat once a day allowing my body a daily fast of at least 18 hours. i would love some links backing this up for weight trainers so i can share with my brother in law. he weight trains and is afraid intermittent fast will make him lose muscle but i thought i read that this diet works well in conjunction with weight training. thanks.

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  • Chnkymamacita5
    Chnkymamacita5 Posts: 1 Member
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    I heard about this on YouTube. Try looking there. I do this at least 3 times a week. Notice my belly get flatter on the 3rd day if I do it consecutively. I also weight train. I'm not losing muscle. Just notice my legs getting firmer. They're still big/muscular 28" and I'm losing belly fat. Have been doing this for about a month. Difference is that I eat my breakfast later (after 3 pm) Wait 2-3 hours, eat lunch, wait another 2-3 hours and eat dinner.
  • Polishprinsezz
    Polishprinsezz Posts: 249 Member
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    anyone???(crickets chirping)
  • lelyke
    lelyke Posts: 47
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    I started doing this and I definitely lose more weight. I don't think you lose a lot of muscle unless you have low BF, there is no reason for your body to burn a lot of muscle when you have so much fat.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    IF is fine - however, most IF protocols have you eating more than once a day. It is probably not ideal to eat once a day for a couple of reasons, including:

    1) based on research it is probably most optimal re muscle protein synthesis (needed to retain/build muscle) to eat more than once a day on average
    2) fasting that long each day can be a bit screwy on the hormones, especially for women.

    IF has nothing really to do with weight training and is really all about adherence to calorie and macro targets (eating preferences).

    Check out the IF group here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/49-intermittent-fasting
  • chrisdavey
    chrisdavey Posts: 9,834 Member
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    ^^^ agreed.

    I do 16/8 ish IF and have done for over 4 years.

    I'm not strict on time as I realize that cals in vs out is MUCH more important than time fasted.

    If I'm not going to eat for a bit after training then I'll have some whey (or bcaa's if I want to spend lots of money :laugh:)
  • Polishprinsezz
    Polishprinsezz Posts: 249 Member
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    2) fasting that long each day can be a bit screwy on the hormones, especially for women.

    .

    Check out the IF group here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/49-intermittent-fasting
    thank you for the link. i find if i only eat one healthy fulfilling meal a day than i wont binge. as for screwing my hormones, i am DONE having babies. 5 is enough for me. :P
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    2) fasting that long each day can be a bit screwy on the hormones, especially for women.

    .

    Check out the IF group here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/49-intermittent-fasting
    thank you for the link. i find if i only eat one healthy fulfilling meal a day than i wont binge. as for screwing my hormones, i am DONE having babies. 5 is enough for me. :P

    Hormones are not only re reproduction. Diet impacts a lot of hormones.
  • douglasjv
    douglasjv Posts: 2 Member
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    Another difficult thing about eating once per day is just getting the amount of calories that you actually need to in one meal. I do Leangains, where my macros are split 35/65 on training days (the 65% is after my training) and 50/50 on rest days.
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
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    Hormones are not only re reproduction. Diet impacts a lot of hormones.

    agreed. hormones have a lot to do with many body functions... in fact, I can't think of a body function that doesn't heavily rely on hormones for its function. Including, but not limited to stress level, allergy and inflammation response, bone density...
  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member
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    is this something weight trainers practice too? i like to eat once a day allowing my body a daily fast of at least 18 hours. i would love some links backing this up for weight trainers so i can share with my brother in law. he weight trains and is afraid intermittent fast will make him lose muscle but i thought i read that this diet works well in conjunction with weight training. thanks.

    you or your brother in law can check out leangains.com the blogger has a lot of information about this. But of course to each their own, some people dont like him. :)
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
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    I have done IF an gained a fair deal of muscle. Maintaining muscle is more about the size of your deficit, your training, and your protein intake then it is about nutrient timing. I did intermittent fasting for the vast majority of this transformation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlEs4py6FUs
  • CanGirl40
    CanGirl40 Posts: 379 Member
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    Amazing video! Thanks for sharing!
  • Geloza
    Geloza Posts: 315 Member
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    I have found that the natural fast from overnights, after sleeping, is sufficient for me. That's about 12 hours of no food. I do my cardio first thing in the morning, then eat within the hour.

    I also use light/med weights 4 times/week and have for 6 months now and lost over 40lbs. The funny thing is that I have weighed 25lbs less than I do now, 4 years ago, but didn't use weights or do anything that I'm doing this time around and I look better now than I did then.

    The 12 hour overnight fast is great!

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