Anybody else use a similar approach, or do you guys just stick to the protocol as written?[/quote]
I stick to it as written. I once forgot to take BCAA before a fasted squat session… bad idea. I felt fine during the workout, but was debilitated with soreness for 3 days afterward. BCAA definately helps with my recovery, but my energy in the gym is more dependant on the quality/quantity of the last meal I ate the day before. Huge, high fiber/slow-digesting protien/healthy fat meal before bed = great workout tomorrow.
[quote]andersons wrote:
I did that. All through high school and college. Of course it didn’t have a fancy name like “intermittent fasting”; it was called skipping meals. Not Good. I was hypoglycemic by my senior year. [/quote]
This actually makes me laugh, as I have recently been using intermittent fasting as a way to correct my girlfriend’s reactive hypoglycemia. You know what makes you hypoglycemic? Wildly fluctuating insulin and blood glucose levels, caused by dumping small (and therefor quickly digesting) meals into the blood stream every 3 hours. Since switching to a 16/8 protocol with larger, less frequent meals, she has had no blood sugar “crashes” for several days. These crashes often occurred several times daily when she was eating “like you are supposed to.”
[quote]andersons wrote:
I did that. All through high school and college. Of course it didn’t have a fancy name like “intermittent fasting”; it was called skipping meals. Not Good. I was hypoglycemic by my senior year. [/quote]
This actually makes me laugh, as I have recently been using intermittent fasting as a way to correct my girlfriend’s reactive hypoglycemia. You know what makes you hypoglycemic? Wildly fluctuating insulin and blood glucose levels, caused by dumping small (and therefor quickly digesting) meals into the blood stream every 3 hours. Since switching to a 16/8 protocol with larger, less frequent meals, she has had no blood sugar “crashes” for several days. These crashes often occurred several times daily when she was eating “like you are supposed to.”[/quote]
I agree, my glucose level feels more stable with 16/8 fasting. For those of you who get woozy if you don’t eat soon after getting up in the AM, I suspect you’ve messed up your system with too many quick digesting mini meals, my .02.
[quote]andersons wrote:
I did that. All through high school and college. Of course it didn’t have a fancy name like “intermittent fasting”; it was called skipping meals. Not Good. I was hypoglycemic by my senior year. [/quote]
This actually makes me laugh, as I have recently been using intermittent fasting as a way to correct my girlfriend’s reactive hypoglycemia. You know what makes you hypoglycemic? Wildly fluctuating insulin and blood glucose levels, caused by dumping small (and therefor quickly digesting) meals into the blood stream every 3 hours. Since switching to a 16/8 protocol with larger, less frequent meals, she has had no blood sugar “crashes” for several days. These crashes often occurred several times daily when she was eating “like you are supposed to.”[/quote]
I agree, my glucose level feels more stable with 16/8 fasting. For those of you who get woozy if you don’t eat soon after getting up in the AM, I suspect you’ve messed up your system with too many quick digesting mini meals, my .02. [/quote]
Either that or you’re slugging back a lot of coffee/caffeine first thing in the morning. This is something my girlfriend had to correct in addition to her meal timing.
We are going to be doing an experiment with a blood glucose meter in a few weeks where we will track BG levels throughout the day with the 16/8 protocol vs. traditional 6 meals/day.
Would eating larger meals within the time period given cause blood sugars to rise higher than usual or does eating after training better utilize the nutrients? I would like to give this a try do to school scheduling but, like to keep blood sugars pretty stable/low throughout the day.
[quote]xXSeraphimXx wrote:
Would eating larger meals within the time period given cause blood sugars to rise higher than usual or does eating after training better utilize the nutrients? I would like to give this a try do to school scheduling but, like to keep blood sugars pretty stable/low throughout the day.[/quote]
I have actually measured my bloodsuger over a period of time and during different eating scenarios.
After 18 hours of fasting my bloodsugar is around 4.0 mmol/l
During a whole day of eating nothing but pizza and drinking coke, it never rises above 6.9. After an hour of training it’s around 4.5.
So I actually never have ‘high’ blood sugar and the following crashes, because my bloodsugar never rises too much even when eating large amounts of simple sugars.
On the other hand, some people I know who have shitty diets and don’t train can drink a diet coke and have a piece of bread and get values above 10, whic means they are borderline diabetic.
I strongly recommend getting/borrowing a glucosometer and testing your response tom various foods, you might be suprised that you never have ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ and that it’s simply an idea you have copied from somewhere.
[quote]xXSeraphimXx wrote:
Would eating larger meals within the time period given cause blood sugars to rise higher than usual or does eating after training better utilize the nutrients? I would like to give this a try do to school scheduling but, like to keep blood sugars pretty stable/low throughout the day.[/quote]
I have actually measured my bloodsuger over a period of time and during different eating scenarios.
After 18 hours of fasting my bloodsugar is around 4.0 mmol/l
During a whole day of eating nothing but pizza and drinking coke, it never rises above 6.9. After an hour of training it’s around 4.5.
So I actually never have ‘high’ blood sugar and the following crashes, because my bloodsugar never rises too much even when eating large amounts of simple sugars.
On the other hand, some people I know who have shitty diets and don’t train can drink a diet coke and have a piece of bread and get values above 10, whic means they are borderline diabetic.
I strongly recommend getting/borrowing a glucosometer and testing your response tom various foods, you might be suprised that you never have ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ and that it’s simply an idea you have copied from somewhere.
[/quote]
Sounds like a good idea, I’d love to see how foods with different glycemic index/load actually effect MY blood glucose. However, I don’t need a glucose meter to tell me that my habitual consumption of raw carrots is putting me on the fast track to type 2 diabetes (sarcasm)
[quote]xXSeraphimXx wrote:
Would eating larger meals within the time period given cause blood sugars to rise higher than usual or does eating after training better utilize the nutrients? I would like to give this a try do to school scheduling but, like to keep blood sugars pretty stable/low throughout the day.[/quote]
I have actually measured my bloodsuger over a period of time and during different eating scenarios.
After 18 hours of fasting my bloodsugar is around 4.0 mmol/l
During a whole day of eating nothing but pizza and drinking coke, it never rises above 6.9. After an hour of training it’s around 4.5.
So I actually never have ‘high’ blood sugar and the following crashes, because my bloodsugar never rises too much even when eating large amounts of simple sugars.
On the other hand, some people I know who have shitty diets and don’t train can drink a diet coke and have a piece of bread and get values above 10, whic means they are borderline diabetic.
I strongly recommend getting/borrowing a glucosometer and testing your response tom various foods, you might be suprised that you never have ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ and that it’s simply an idea you have copied from somewhere.
[/quote]
Yes, for most people, insulin properly moderates BG levels. That’s why it’s there.
I’m talking in terms of an individual with reactive hypoglycemia, in which insulin does not properly moderate BG levels.
i’ll say one thing… since i’ve gotten leaner i no longer feel “tired and lethargic” after big carb meals (>200g).
i’ve also been taking fenuplex as well not sure if that has anything to do with it.
as for the person talking about PR’s, its really freakin hard to hit PR’s while cutting. in my experience and from what i’ve read and heard, the only time its really possible for an intermediate/ advanced trainee to hit PR’s on restricted calories is 1. the person is chemically assisted, 2. undertrained or coming back from a lay off, 3. picking a new exercise and hitting PR’s during the first few weeks.
however, if you’ve been deadlifting, benching or squatting for a few years, and suddenly restrict calories your strength will drop, its just a matter of how much and that is largely individual.
ever since i started IF, my strength has been relatively stable however this could be attributed more to me already having a couple months of inconsistent cutting under my belt prior to starting IF. i seem to recover better (probably mental) and pyschologically i feel better. then again, i’ve always loved to eat big, filling meals.
A great article about IF was posted on the primal/paleo centric community that I utilize for information and ideas. I have posted the link below, check it out:
Here’s a snippet from it:
“Numerous animal and human studies done over the past 15 years suggest that periodic fasting can have dramatic results not only in areas of weight (fat) loss, but in overall health and longevity as well. A recent article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition gives a great overview of these benefits which include decreases in blood pressure, reduction in oxidative damage to lipids, protein and DNA, improvement in insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake, as well as decreases in fat mass.”
Cool site and article… Are you still following the paleo diet? An IF style of meal frequency combined with a paleo diet sounds like a winner, although I’m currently too addicted to starch and cottage cheese to do paleo any justice.
[quote]tworkinhard wrote:
Cool site and article… Are you still following the paleo diet? An IF style of meal frequency combined with a paleo diet sounds like a winner, although I’m currently too addicted to starch and cottage cheese to do paleo any justice. [/quote]
Yes I follow the Paleo Diet, and the Primal Lifestyle in general, although I do make a few of my own tweaks. The site that the link is from, marksdailyapple.com is actually a very interesting site that discusses everything from diet to sleep, and utilizes solid references in every article. I think people can learn a lot from it, no matter what diet or lifestyle the choose to follow.
[quote]tworkinhard wrote:
Care to elaborate about the “tweaks”? I follow a psuedo-paleo approach, interested to see how others make adjustment to fit their bodies/goals[/quote]
The main one is that I eat all types of quinoa. I just couldn’t get enough carbs pre-workout, because I didn’t want to down tons of fruit, so I utilize quinoa in both my meals leading up to my workout.
It is actually considered to be a vegetable seed, so it falls in a gray area in the Paleo Diet, but I love it and use it in a variety of ways (they even make quinoa flour).
I have been looking into this diet not really for the benefits in health or fitness but, in hopes that it would help keep my occasional acne under control. With the help of the paleo diet I have been able to keep my pimples to a minimum, I am however always looking for better ways to help. After research I have found that raising blood sugars too high increases insulin production, this in turn increases sebum production which clogs pores resulting in acne. It was this realization that led me to a paleo lifestyle (no grains low GI foods)
My quesion is would following an IF diet with paleo diet principles work better, only spiking blood sugars in an 8 hour window or would the large feasts spike blood sugars more than eating 5-6 smaller meals spaced through out the day? I realize this is a weird question but, input would be appreciated.
[quote]EvanX wrote:
My quesion is would following an IF diet with paleo diet principles work better, only spiking blood sugars in an 8 hour window or would the large feasts spike blood sugars more than eating 5-6 smaller meals spaced through out the day? I realize this is a weird question but, input would be appreciated.
[/quote]
In my opinion, if you’re already eating a paleo-style diet, you’re probably not going to “spike” blood sugars whether you are eating 5 meals of 500 calories or 3 meals of 800 calories. Give it a try and see if you like eating bigger meals and starting later in the day. I doubt that this change will have a significant impact one way or the other on acne…it might simply be more about whether it’s a good fit for your lifestyle.
Let us know what happens if you decide to try it out.
I recently started the 16/8 method on Saturday. Not because I expect different results from more typical eating, but 1.) because it’s convenient especially at college (I’m testing it now so I can be more sure about the results when I do it at college in the first half of the day and with different foods) and 2.) because on the cut I’m doing now it’s nice to have bigger more satisfying meals.
What I am surprised about is that I really haven’t been very hungry during the morning, even from day 1. For most people that’s what I expect, because most tell me they either have no breakfast or “have a little something to hold them over”. I on the other hand usually am hungry right when I wake up and love eating a huge breakfast, but like I said it’s seemed fine. I’m actually hungrier now 3 hours after my first meal (eaten at 2:30) than I was prior to it during the fast.
Energy is good, so far the 2 workouts I’ve done have been fine…but I guess we’ll see. Today was my first off day and it feels a little weird doing cardio and then still not eating for hours (Whereas with the workout I just eat right afterwards)
Anyone doing this have diet soda during the fasting portion?