For those of you who HAVE DONE or are currently DOING THIS:
Which one are you doing?
What are your goals? (maintain/lose/gain?)
How did you eat before? (every 2-3hrs, 3 meals a day…?)
–>How was the transition?
In a few months, I’m going to be attempting to lean out and get my conditioning up and am considering something like this to kick start some fat loss so I wanted to start gathering peoples thoughts.
Intermittent Fasting (16/8) with fasted training (BCAAs only).
Current goal is fat loss.
I used to eat 6-8 meals a day.
Transition was easy. I didn’t really worry about wasting away from not eating, I thought of it as an interesting experiment.
I had a buddy do the Warrior Diet. He dropped a lot of weight on it but I havent tried it personally.
Why not go with something a little more traditional like carb cycling?
EDIT: Ahhhh I see you said “kickstart” things. Ok well I dont know if you’re interested or not but after I was recovering from shoulder surgery I became a little butterball. I did the Rapid Fat Loss diet to kickstart my training again and was very happy with the results. I did Cat 1 for 11 days and went from 218 down to 204 (<----crazy I know right?) and then after carbing up I leveled off at 207-208. After that I worked on getting more muscle and losing more fat… Just in case your interested thats something else you could check out.
The more options you have the better right? Just another tool for your toolbox
You can carb cycle with IF.
Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat, involving two 24-hour fasts per week.
Reasons: Fat loss and other health benefits.
How I ate before: I never fasted.
Also gonna jump on the IF bandwagon. What the hell I figure?
I get to sleep in 15min more now 
Currently doing IF/16-8/Lean Gains approach since last Sunday. Used to eat 4 to 5 meals and 1 to 2 protein/fat shakes a day spread out between 7am and 10pm. I am reading more into the LG site and I haven’t finished yet. I saw some encouraging feedback on this working for Diabetics and controlling blood sugar so I thought to trial this for at least 2 to 3 months.
I train in the evenings on most days so I have two meals before and one meal after. I still attempt to cover my 3000 calories in that time window (I weigh 233lbs). Eating a large meal at 1pm then 4/5pm then 8/9pm seemed like a lot on the first few days but I’m getting used to it now. I take my supplements after 12pm but I still take anhydrous caffeine in the morning. Martin advises black coffee etc is okay, but I’ve never been a fan of that so I usually drink 1 to 2 cups of green tea in the morning (I don’t know how much of an impact this will have if any).
One distinct change is that I’m aiming to get all my calories from whole foods and relying on protein beverages less now, so my 4pm meal is at work and this past week has included roast beef, cheese, carrots etc - I don’t mind that at all. Then I hit the gym at 7pm. Still getting my meals in on time but work’s pushing my schedule and it’s more crowded in my gym lately because a branch of my gym has closed to open a new facility, this should correct itself by the 22nd and I’ll be able to complete all my meals in 8 hours (currently it’s like 9/10 hours the last two days). I am trying to eat more carbs on workout days and more fat on rest days - usually my carbs come from vegetable/apple/berries sources but I’m trying out Quinoa and rice on selected days (just to see the effect on my blood sugar).
Training wise, Martin talks about high frequency training, I was reading training routines before that and came across Big Beyond Belief (4 day template) so that’s low volume-high frequency and I think that’s agreeable to my blood sugar management and schedule. I hope to show results in a few weeks.
I recently switched to 16/8 IF. My goals were mainly just to simplify my schedule because I hate packing small meals and bringing them to the office, especially because I travel almost every week. With that being said, I’ve lost about 10 lbs over the course of a couple months, and still increased strength. I’ve leaned out quite a bit and I’m floating around 8% body fat (down from 12%). The funny thing is that it was unintentional.
I just started IF using the leangains 16/8 method on Tuesday. I’m probably around 13-15% and trying to get rid of love handles. In terms of training, I’m doing a 3 day a week split using CTs low rep, high intensity principles.
U, off, L, off, U, off, off, L, off, U, off, L, off, off, repeat
U = OHP, Inc Press, Bench (shrugs / rear delts mixed in)
L = Squats, DL, (chin-ups / pull-ups mixed in)
On off days, I do a simple, quick neural charge type of workout like jumps. My job is pretty sedentary (R&D engineer) and so far, IF seems to fit that pretty well, seeing as I sit most of the day with a few longer walks thrown in to stretch my legs. I usually workout in the evenings, so on Tuesday, I consumed most of my calories pre and post workout. Just after the workout, I ate 1400 calories.
Usually after a workout evening, I’ll eat the same total calories that day, but not as weighted after the workout and I’m hungry the next morning. Not that time. I’ll see how it goes. I’m targeting getting leaner while maintaining strength. So far, there’s a bit of stomach rumbling, but nothing severe. Plus I have more free time in the morning to stretch, do some PT exercises (recovering from a facet dysfunction) and get to work earlier.
Thanks for the replies so far people.
Gregron, I am already carb cycling (hi/low days) and would plan to do that with an IF type diet too. But thanks for reminding me about the rapid fatloss diet, I read about that on eric cresseys site a year or two ago…but forgot. Good reminder.