Intermittent Fasting: Martin Berkhan

Nutrition
161

To be honest, I did leangains for 9 or 10 months out of the past year, but more recently I’ve been having just one, PWO meal a day. I always train fasted, with the exception of pre-workout BCAAs. The longer I stuck with leangains, the easier it was for me to fast for longer periods of time, which eventually just evolved into what I’m doing now.

Especially when it comes to consuming a certain number of kcals, the fewer meals I eat the easier it is to stick to a desired kcal level based current goals (i.e. deficit, maintenance, or surplus). Additionally, it seems that with IF in general, body recomp can be achieved while eating maintenance kcal, albeit at a very slow rate.

I’ve been gradually getting stronger and leaner simultaneously while eating maintenance kcal, and when I cycle in period of less frequent training/under eating (deficit kcal), I get noticeably more lean in a short period of time with no effect on my strength levels.

162

[quote]tworkinhard wrote:
To be honest, I did leangains for 9 or 10 months out of the past year, but more recently I’ve been having just one, PWO meal a day. I always train fasted, with the exception of pre-workout BCAAs. The longer I stuck with leangains, the easier it was for me to fast for longer periods of time, which eventually just evolved into what I’m doing now.

Especially when it comes to consuming a certain number of kcals, the fewer meals I eat the easier it is to stick to a desired kcal level based current goals (i.e. deficit, maintenance, or surplus). Additionally, it seems that with IF in general, body recomp can be achieved while eating maintenance kcal, albeit at a very slow rate.

I’ve been gradually getting stronger and leaner simultaneously while eating maintenance kcal, and when I cycle in period of less frequent training/under eating (deficit kcal), I get noticeably more lean in a short period of time with no effect on my strength levels.[/quote]

Your success is impressive. Over what time frame did it take you to get to that level of leanness? Were you strict in your adherence to the protocol through that entire time?

163

Posting so I can follow.

164

[quote]ashylarryku wrote:
Posting so I can follow.[/quote]

Yeah same here. Getting very interested in IF, as my fat loss has sort-of stalled. Seems stupid how I’m stuffing my face with food while I sit on my ass at the office, IF might be a welcome change.

165

[quote]LVZzed wrote:

[quote]ashylarryku wrote:
Posting so I can follow.[/quote]

Yeah same here. Getting very interested in IF, as my fat loss has sort-of stalled. Seems stupid how I’m stuffing my face with food while I sit on my ass at the office, IF might be a welcome change.
[/quote]

All potential body-comp improvements aside, I find it to be a very enjoyable way of eating.

166

[quote]ADvanced TS wrote:
Your success is impressive. Over what time frame did it take you to get to that level of leanness? Were you strict in your adherence to the protocol through that entire time?[/quote]

Well those pictures are from last summer. In November of '09 I ruptured by left bicep distally (at the elbow). So over the next couple months I got fairly out of shape for my standards, probably like 12-14% body fat. I was still training legs and the right side of my body, which definitely mitigated the muscle loss and fat gain, but without regular squats and deads my body just falls to shit. So the point being, once I got the doc’s okay to start lifting again, which was in mid spring, to May or June, when those pics were taken, I lost 4-5% body fat. Significant fat loss on its own, but its worth mentioning that I was simultaneously putting on lost muscle on the left side of my body.

Over that summer I was strict with some of the leangains guidelines, but lax with others. For example, I ate the same amount of kcals every day (whereas following LG the kcals would fluctuate based on training/non training days). Also I kept my macro %'s the same, regardless of if I was training that day or not. That being said, I kept track of my kcals, ate super clean, never deviated from the 16/8 eating window, and always trained fasted.

I don’t count Kcals anymore, and follow more of a 20/4 eating window currently. Still eat clean 98% of the time. Not quite as lean as those pics either, but I spent my winter trying to get back to previous stength/mass levels, and therefore was in a mild kcal surplus most of the time. Currently 210, just as strong and carry amount of mass when I was 225 (before bicep rupture). Key with IF is patience; train heavy, get stronger, rest often, and let IF do the rest.

167

Yeah, so I jumped in head first, this is day five. 16/8 schedule for now, with one meal pre-workout, workout three times a week on sort of a 2-split (one push one pull, including legs)

Experiences:

  • No big hunger feelings, no energy issues. In fact, better focus on the things I have to do instead of thinking about my next meal
  • Bit of a bloat after eating due to the bigger meals, need more time to digest before I hit the gym after the pre-workout meal
  • Improved transit, yeah I said it, seems like my body is letting go of a lot of, erm, crap
  • Less day-round bloat,a dryer look

So far so good, will evaluate further.

168

I noticed a few different things.
1.) More energy and focus during the day and during workouts.
2.) I never feel weighed down during a workout.
3.) A more lean, dry look during the day but a bloaty, kinda fat look at night after consuming 2-3k in a couple hours.
4.) Complete comatose for a couple of hours after the giant meal.
5.) Very lean proteins (whey or casein shakes work best) combined with some simple sugars from fruit or vegetables during the day, especially pre-workout. I find it is most important to get a few carbs in before workouts, other than that, you really don’t have to eat anything during the day.
6.) Psychologically, it is really nice being able to pig out during the feeding times. Usually when you are busy, it’s easy to not eat so I find that is not a problem but then when it becomes night time, my day is pretty much over and then I can relax and eat alot. Works well if that is your typical daily schedule.

-The Warrior Diet is a type of IF that I think makes a lot of sense. Michael Keck on elitefts, who is a huge strong mofo, uses a modified warrior diet setup and he seems to be making alot of progress.

This works very well for me and I’ve actually made the best gains in the weight room and energy levels since starting a warrior/IF type diet. I’m sold and will probably do this for a long time.

169

[quote]heavylifter36 wrote:
I noticed a few different things.
1.) More energy and focus during the day and during workouts.
2.) I never feel weighed down during a workout.
3.) A more lean, dry look during the day but a bloaty, kinda fat look at night after consuming 2-3k in a couple hours.
4.) Complete comatose for a couple of hours after the giant meal.
5.) Very lean proteins (whey or casein shakes work best) combined with some simple sugars from fruit or vegetables during the day, especially pre-workout. I find it is most important to get a few carbs in before workouts, other than that, you really don’t have to eat anything during the day.
6.) Psychologically, it is really nice being able to pig out during the feeding times. Usually when you are busy, it’s easy to not eat so I find that is not a problem but then when it becomes night time, my day is pretty much over and then I can relax and eat alot. Works well if that is your typical daily schedule.

-The Warrior Diet is a type of IF that I think makes a lot of sense. Michael Keck on elitefts, who is a huge strong mofo, uses a modified warrior diet setup and he seems to be making alot of progress.

This works very well for me and I’ve actually made the best gains in the weight room and energy levels since starting a warrior/IF type diet. I’m sold and will probably do this for a long time.[/quote]

ive experimented witt all aspects of IF since i swiched about 18 months ago . whats working bes for me is 18/6 with 25g whey+50g hi gi carbs pre and the same again pwo after that 2 more meals with my last one being pro+fat only , also i keep my macs/cals the same on rest days i just switch the hi gi carbs to low gi carbs. i aint never switchin back to 6 small meals n constant hunger and fixation of your next small meal and i too have made my best gains with this and its still strange to me to keep increaseing your lifts evan when your losing weight/fat !!!

170

I’ve been doing IF after playing around with other diets.
What works best for me when I was leaning out was that I was able to enjoy a regular sized meal when I ate with my family.
Because I eat from 1-9, no more late night binges on anything in my cabinets or fridge.
After a couple of weeks, no stomach growling.

171

I’m very interested in this but can’t seem to find the page on the Leangains site with macro breakdowns, calorie recommendations, etc, or even just the basic protocol in any detail. Am I going blind, dense, or both? A link to the page would be appreciated if anyone has it. Thanks.

172

[quote]Donkiwi wrote:
I’m very interested in this but can’t seem to find the page on the Leangains site with macro breakdowns, calorie recommendations, etc, or even just the basic protocol in any detail. Am I going blind, dense, or both? A link to the page would be appreciated if anyone has it. Thanks.[/quote]

They don’t exist. IF isn’t about calories or macros, it’s about when you have your meals and the size of them.

You can apply whatever dietary framework you want on top of that.

If you need your hand held, try this:

Maintenance kcal: bw x14-16 (higher for men, lower for women)
Set protein at 1.5g/lb bw

Bulking:
Off days: 90% maintenance, 1.5g/lb protein, .75g/lb carbohydrate, rest from fat
Training days: 125% maintenance, 1.5g/lb protein, 2.5g/lb carbohydrate, rest from fat (should be fairly low)

Recomp:
Off days: 90% maintenance, 1.5g/lb protein, .5g/lb carbohydrate, rest from fat
Training days: 110% maintenance, 1.5g/lb protein, 2g/lb carbohydrate, rest from fat

Cutting:
Off days: 60% maintenance, 1.5g/lb protein, set carbs at 50g, rest from fat
Training days: 105% maintenance, 1.5g/lb protein, 2g/lb carbohydrate, rest from fat

173

With the bodyweight calculation there - would you use current bodyweight or bodyweight you want to acheieve?

174

[quote]Stronghold wrote:

[quote]Donkiwi wrote:
I’m very interested in this but can’t seem to find the page on the Leangains site with macro breakdowns, calorie recommendations, etc, or even just the basic protocol in any detail. Am I going blind, dense, or both? A link to the page would be appreciated if anyone has it. Thanks.[/quote]

They don’t exist. IF isn’t about calories or macros, it’s about when you have your meals and the size of them.

You can apply whatever dietary framework you want on top of that.

If you need your hand held, try this:

Maintenance kcal: bw x14-16 (higher for men, lower for women)
Set protein at 1.5g/lb bw

Bulking:
Off days: 90% maintenance, 1.5g/lb protein, .75g/lb carbohydrate, rest from fat
Training days: 125% maintenance, 1.5g/lb protein, 2.5g/lb carbohydrate, rest from fat (should be fairly low)

Recomp:
Off days: 90% maintenance, 1.5g/lb protein, .5g/lb carbohydrate, rest from fat
Training days: 110% maintenance, 1.5g/lb protein, 2g/lb carbohydrate, rest from fat

Cutting:
Off days: 60% maintenance, 1.5g/lb protein, set carbs at 50g, rest from fat
Training days: 105% maintenance, 1.5g/lb protein, 2g/lb carbohydrate, rest from fat[/quote]

Awesome, thanks Stronghold!

175

I’ve been using IF just for convenience. I have class at 8, and I usually don’t want to wake up earlier to make breakfast. When I used to eat breakfast, it was only 2 scoops of protein with 3 tbs of PB, so it wasn’t very nutritional anyway lol.

Now, I just have 25g of hydrolyzed whey, go to class from 8-11, and then start my usual diet when I get back at 11, and then hit the gym at 3 (I drink my usual peri-workout drink of 40-50g protein and 30-70g carbs), and then feast when I get back at 5. I feel great during the day, nothing crazy or any much different than my normal eating, but I like it. Plus, I like stuffing myself after a good session knowing I’m not going to gain uber fat.

176

[quote]jibbsy7 wrote:
With the bodyweight calculation there - would you use current bodyweight or bodyweight you want to acheieve?[/quote]

Current. Adjust as needed when your weight changes. If you are a man with a slow metabolism, go on the low end of the range when calculating maintenance.

177

Thread revival…

How’s everyone going with this???
Cbf’d checking through logs and stuff.

Just started this IF thing today. Just feasted, haha. Was bothered at all by the fast. i mean i was a little hungry sure, but im always hungry!

Coming from 5-6 meals every day, this is quite different.
Plan on doing for 2 months then re-evaluating.
More for body re-composition. Was all going well, but it becoming very hard mentally to stay on top of my nutrition due to all my “planning” for my meals(generally days ahead, but still everlastingly annoying).

Basically spending too much time on thinking about it all, so this seems like a great alternative.

See how i go eh.

178

Been doing this for 3 weeks now on 1800 calories a day and a 300 cal workout shake. I have three big 600 cal shakes over the 8 hours feasting period. Currently lost about 10 lbs and my lifts have increased. Feel pretty energized during the fast also and I do enjoy the full feeling in the evenings.

179

[quote]benmoore wrote:
Been doing this for 3 weeks now on 1800 calories a day and a 300 cal workout shake. I have three big 600 cal shakes over the 8 hours fasting period. [/quote]

  1. if you are having anything during the fasting period, you arent fasting
  2. if you meant feeding, I would not be having 3x600=1800 of my all 1800 cals from shakes
180

Great stuff, giving IF a try.

Love to here some updates.