[quote]Stronghold wrote:
[quote]XanderBuilt wrote:
[quote]Stronghold wrote:
[quote]AlisaV wrote:
a couple replies:
@scj119: yeah, I’ll always be heavier than what people think of as "normal weight for a girl’ because I carry some muscle. I’m 138 now. Don’t know what the ideal would be, but it’s probably not going to be tiny.
@lia: if I lose strength I’ll notice.
@Stronghold, I’ll be sure to check it out.
I only had one meal today, which involved salmon, chicken, cheese, parsnips, cauliflower, and avocado. I was hungry as hell, but I didn’t have any problems exercising or getting work done, and I didn’t feel sick. I could get used to this, probably.[/quote]
Remember that, since you are basically getting all of your calories for the day in one feeding, you should include at least some carbs. Maintaining muscle and liver glycogen will go a long way towards maintaining and building strength. This also means you can get away with a slice of pizza, a burrito, or even some sweet stuff.
I drink a ton of water during the first part of the day and I find this helps with hunger. As your body adjusts, you will find that you simply don’t get hungry until much later in the day. Makes you wonder how much of people’s hunger, “low blood sugar”, and absolute need to eat every 3-4 hours is either entirely mental or a product of the fluctuating blood sugar and small feedings associated with the “normal” way of eating for bodybuilders and strength athletes.[/quote]
Stronghold, good to read your posts again.
Just a clarification on your approach to IF,
- you mention above “since you are basically getting all of your calories for the day in one feeding” - is that in response to Alisa’s question or is that what you are practicing yourself (one meal in the 8 hour feeding window)?
I posted earlier in the thread that I’m adopting this approach to control my Type 2 Diabetes and attempting to stay strong in the gym and accepting any fat loss (even grams) that come my way. I’m eating my calories over a 3 meals and measuring my macros as well although my carb intake is low (less than 100g excluding vegetables/berries etc) most days.
- I was wondering also on how many using this approach used whey protein powders, casein and shakes for calories within their eating plan? I seem to recall Martin’s site recommending to eating whole foods and getting all calories from food sources. But the volume of food to eat (which i’m getting used to now) and the irregular work schedule require me to consider additional means to up cals. Anyway, was keen to understand your take on this. Thank you.[/quote]
First of all, glad to see some people appreciate my posts. I’m a big fan of doing things that work, whether it’s the “right way” or not, so I know I ruffle a lot of feathers here, haha.
On to your questions:
- That was in response to Alisa’s post about her one large meal. Personally, I eat a smaller meal (still 80-100g of protein, but not usually over 1/3 of my total caloric intake) in the early afternoon, train, and then eat a very large meal post workout, and then round out my protein intake before bed.
What you are doing sounds good. I’m assuming you are on some form of insulin and are keeping track of your blood glucose levels at least once per day since you are diabetic. Martin has some interesting feedback from diabetic clients on his website if you do some digging around. Being that you are a type 2 diabetic, losing weight and calorie control is the name of the game. You’re in luck, I haven’t come across a more effective manner of calorie control than intermittant fasting.
- I know Martin recommends that a majority of your calories come from whole foods, and he is entirely against whey protein, it seems. I understand his reasoning for this, and if I’m working with someone who has the time, money, and energy to get all of their protein intake from whole foods, then I strongly recommend it. Adherence, however, trumps optimization. If someone is much more likely to meet their macronutrient requirements, stay within their caloric limits, and enjoy life with the protein powders, then that trumps the small increase in TEF acquired from a whole food diet.
I personally get around half of my daily protein intake from powders for several reasons. First of all, it is far easier for me to reign in other sources of calories when drinking at least some of my protein. Protein shakes eliminate the extra fats that come with red meat and the extra starches or fats needed to make large amounts of chicken breast or tuna tolerable. Second of all, it lowers my monthly food budget considerably to get ~100g of protein from powders rather than meat.
At a stout 197 lbs (I’m 5’7") with visible abs, I can usually swing all of my groceries for the week for under $30, so I have no problem dropping about $100 each month on protein powder since that’s still $100 less than I would pay for an equivalent amount of quality meat. One caveat with this though, is that I don’t let whey powders constitute more than half of that protein powder intake, as I believe that casein is superior from a satiety standpoint. If you have the money to spend on it, Metabolic Drive is a good blend for this purpose.
The third reason for using a relatively large amount of protein powder is that I simply got tired of having to put down 2 lbs of meat in a short timeframe each day. I wanted to eliminate any possible burdens my diet could place on me, and that was a HUGE one. It is far easier to go out to eat, grab something on the run, or eat socially when I only need to get 40-60g of protein in instead of 150-175g.
As an example, here’s what I ate today:
0800- wake up
1300- “breakfast”- I’m flexible with my eating window and I was going somewhere. I refuse to be that guy who packs a cooler and acts like his eating schedule is more important than whatever else he is doing. Ate: 4 omega-3 eggs, 1/3c turkey sausage crumbles, 1 oz cabot 75% cheese, 2 tortillas, and some sriacha chili sauce, shake: 25g whey/25g casein blended with coffee and superfood
1800- trained, deadlifted, so it took a while. Had a Deton8 (energy drink powder) beforehand.
2000- dinner: 10oz chicken (cooked weight), 1/2c pasta with olive oil pesto sauce, 1/2c Ben and Jerry’s frozen yogurt.
2300- shake: 25g whey/25g casein, blended with another 1/2c Ben and Jerry’s frozen yogurt.
Calories today were pretty low, as I’m doing a little bit of cleanup after a 7,000+ calorie all-you-can-eat sushi challenge last week. Still had plenty of energy to train and hit a decent weight (80% 1rm) at a low RPE (averaged 7.5) and kept it up for a lot of volume before any sort of fatigue set in. As you can see, I still managed to keep my protein high (225g), fat low-moderate (56g), and carbs low-moderate (118g) despite eating breakfast burritos, pasta, and Ben and Jerry’s. THAT is the beauty of intermittant fasting.[/quote]
Another good post. I also can’t get in my required protein without powders. If you need to do it, do it. The alternative is far worse.
As an aside - $30 a WEEK on food??? Where do you live, Somalia?
