Intermittent Fasting Support Group?

Just started reading primal blueprint because it combines low carb with IF

Fast until noon today and will have a huge grassfed sirloin steak & salad to break it. Trained StrongLifts5x5 (Madcow workout C) at 4:30am fasted with only Scivation Xtend watermelon BCAA's in my stomach. Excellent, heavy workout with plenty of energy.

So, I have been checking out this thread and some of the links provided, and I am very seriously thinking about startinf IF next week. I think the 18/6 plan with two meals prior to my workout would work great for me. I am intended to keep my caloric goals the same as they are now, but I will look to eat 20% @ meal 1, 20% @ meal 2, and 60% @ meal three.

Anyone have any recomendations on my macro percentages and/or what the macro makeup of the post workout meal should be? Or any other tips/advice for me???

TGIF to all you IF Peeps! Today is an IF day for me, hope it turns out to be a good one....

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if that is you currently in your profile pic, you are way done! You look very skinny!

Thanks I am just trying to tone up and drop some lingering body fat.

So, the only information I can find is HOW to fast. I want to know why this works??? Say I use the lean gains approach (18 hours fasting, 6 of eating) .... I am still consuming the same amount of calories in a day as if I weren't fasting right (just in smaller window of time) ??? So why does it work?

There are many things involved with IF and why it works.

-Upregulation of the adrenal hormones increase metabolism.
-Growth hormone release increases during fasting.
-stable blood sugar and insulin levels during fasting.
-lipolysis or the breakdown of lipids/fats increases during fasting.

I fast every day with the LeanGains 16/8 approach. Have continued to shed weight/fat.

There are several different methods of IF. If you follow Eat Stop Eat (ESE) by Brad Pilon, you would fast every day, eating all of your daily calories within a certain time window - maybe noon to 6 p.m., or whatever works for you. I personally choose to do two days a week of a 24-hour fast. The last time I ate was dinner last night, and I will have only water or a bit of coffee today until dinner tonight.

I am relatively new to IF, so I'm still learning. You can find some information at www.bradpilon.com or at www.marksdailyapple.com.... I'm sure there are other sites that people will recommend.....

I posted this up in it's own topic but so far no one has told me anything helpful. Do any of you gain on a non-fast gain? I've "lost" 2.5lbs in two days (probably all water) and tomorrow is meant to be a non fast day for me, but I want to keep seeing that number drop so I'm tempted to fast again (fourth day in a row). What do you all think? Are you supposed to have normal days, or fast ever day? I've heard conflicting things...

Thank you for this! I hadn't seen brad's website so I'm glad you told me about it

I think that ESE has been confused with Leangains. Eat Stop Eat by Brad Pilon is a one or two day intermittent fast where you stop eating after supper and don't eat again until supper the next day. Then you eat a regular sized supper and continue eating normally the next day. It is designed to provide the calorie deficit through the fast.

Leangains provides a calorie deficit through counting calories, and the fast is basically extending the overnight fast we all have to about 18 hours. Then you eat all your calories in the remaining 6 hours.

I use ESE, but have considered combining it with Leangains. I know a bunch of people who have done that and gotten good results.

BTW, today is a fast day for me ESE style.

I find ESE works best for me, although based on the research even doing a whole day and then some (no meals at all until breakfast the next day) won't hinder your metabolism. I seem to remember Brad being asked about that, and he picked 24 hours (supper to supper) to allow people to not do a day without a meal because some find it really difficult mentally. Research wise I believe the time before your metabolism slows is as much as 72 hours but I would have to research that again.

I know at Turbulence Training they have a contest for body transformation and many of the people use a hybrid of ESE and Leangains doing ESE one of two days a week and Leangains all the others. It seems to have worked for them.

As for me, I can easily go a day without eating as long as I have lots of water and tea available. I was losing well doing ESE, but fell out of it just eating within my calories. I still lost, but not the fat I wanted to. Now I am back to the ESE approach and may go with a mix of Leangains and ESE in the future, but not right now.

BTW, my fast today is going really well. I have more energy now than I did when I got up. Mentally I am good and clear and very productive. Now it is time to get back to work.

I'm jumping into the pool! Today is my first day doing a leangains approach... 16/8... I'm going to shoot to eat 20% of my calories at each of the two pre-workout meals, then the remaining 60% at the post workout meal. The scale has been stuck for a while, so I'm hoping this helps me break through my plateau...

Other changes I've been making with my diet are to focus on eating a lot more fruits and vegtables, and getting more good fats mixed in.

Wish me luck!!

Well, yesterday I failed at a weekly 30 hour fast for the first time in a year! I have no idea why that happened, fasting has been easy for me for a really long time.

Oh well, my resolve is strengthened for take 2 today...

I guess my point is to keep in mind that if you do the 24 hour non-daily fast thing, there is always tomorrow if you it ends up just not working out. (To a point, obviously. I don't really advocate the "oh well I'll do it tomorrow" attitude.) Love the flexibility of ESE!

When you do your fast do you make up for your calories in another day or just not worry about them? I've never done this before and an all day fast seems better for, just trying to gain information to make sure I do things right!

I just started leangains yesterday following my husband who started a week ago. So far i feel pretty good, a little hubgry (but i am like that with any diet). I need to take off the 20 lbs I managed to pack on in the 7 months. since I can't get to the gym for the next couple of weeks I did the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD as some sort of exercise. I am hoping the combination of the two will help me to really start seeing a change over the next few weeks.

What have the average loses been with leangains? Are you happy with the program? Are women still staying around 1200 calories a day?

Any advice is appreciated!

I'm happy with leangains, not because of anything magical, but because of the convenience. Being able to save time from not having meals all the time has been a blessing.

Since it's only been one day give yourself sometime to adjust for the hunger since your body needs to "retrain" its hormonal cycle.

I haven't lost any more or less fat with leangains (disappointingly) than with a regular 3-6 meals a day spread throughout diet. The number of calories I consume hasn't changed. If the number of calories you should be consuming for a fatloss deficit is 1200 don't change it just because you're fasting intermittently.

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OMG.
How am I JUST now finding this?!

Lol, I felt that way last week!

I just started 3 weeks ago.
I fast for 24-36 hours, once per week.
What do you do?!

I'm back ifing lg style since Monday as I am starting to be able to lift decent weights again post injury. Doing it with primal diet plus dairy (milk in shakes and cc before bed)

I did it for 2 months previously and got to my lowest ab skinfolds while still making PBS on lifts (and training a lot of hit mma)