Fasting isnt what people think it is. The new fad fasting allows 500 calories on the fasting day. You still eat but its restricting calories.

Dont think of it as not eating for 24 hours. You still need to get your blood sugar up a bit.

Eating more vegetables(not carrots since those are higher in sugars) can fill you up.

I strongly believe that restricting caliries help but without fiber to draw out more waste you can possibly make yourself ill while the body releases toxins and reabsorbs them.

Theres a lot of great advice from everyone. Bottom line is you need to find something simple and easy to achieve success with.

I do eat a lot of vegetables. I try to get organic.
I use a lot of supplements. Eyeofra mentioned going ketogenic. I love eating organic virgin coconut oil. Your body still needs fats and more than you think.

Im complicating it. Start slow and ease into a lifestyle that gets you healthier.

The only fasting protocol that worked for me was Leangains on a long term basis. Look up Martin's stuff. He is very intelligent and knows his stuff.

Lean Gains worked for me because of a few factors:

1. Limits Insulin Spiks

Six Small meals, although touted my the medical community now, is by in large false - which is reinforced by the human trials of insulin, cortisol, caloric expenditure and over all health. The Insulin Spike is something which is debated as the pinnacle of why six meals is superior. Six Small spikes means not as large a fat absorption period. But eating once, with the large spike, has been on par with how your body reacts in the long term. In addition, depending on a personal blood sugar response, a small spike can cause a person to want to eat more foods which spike aforementioned insulin. Eat a meal without carbs and your body wants carbs, which is the insulin spike craving. Personally, although I have glucose level and insulin level sensitivity, my condition in large part improved by such fasting with a windowed eating period, the one meal allowed my body to cruise the 18 hours until the next meal.

2. Practicality

When I first got into nutrition I was in Secondary School/High School and I boxed. With my limited knowledge I could not realistically eat six small healthy meals. If I had known then what I do now - that I could eat one meal and my work outs would not suffer greatly if timed correctly, I would have converted. Eventually in College, working nights 5 nights a week and boxing/grappling for competition and coaching I simply had not the time to be as healthy as I wanted. I compromised sleep as it was. I also struggled with my weight - I needed to shed 50 lbs quickly. I found the IF style of living and I excelled with it. I just had a shake by my side in the gym for the six hours I spent in it. Desk Job? Time to eat. Wings with your buddys at the bar? Time to eat. Family BBQ? Time to eat.

3. Easy Caloric Accountability

When I diet I count every calorie. Ask me how many calories are in a dish I can tell you. But even when you micro manage, when you break down food to grams of fat, protein, carbs, and sugar - then into type of fat/carb/protein, you tend to get lost. Protein sources based on dissolve rates (Types of Protein dispenses into our body at different rates, eg Casein/Whey/Egg/Soy), carbs based on form (Alcohol, Sugar, Bread, Grain, etc all have different break down rates in your stomach) and Fat (Trans far vs Protein based fat vs Grain based Fat) as well is far too much for a person to remember. I would write it down, but taking a break to count a breath mint and how many calories it has is tedious and you most of the time tend to forget over the course of the day. If I am eating for only four to six hours a day, I plan my meal out and I know what I put in. It took so much chaos out of my life.



I do not ever advocate 24 hour fasting. Although starvation mode is in large part a myth (It takes a while for your metobolic rate to decrease, around 72 hours for a slight drop IIRC) the fact is you need the nutrients for your body to survive in a healthy manor.

(03-27-2013 2:50 PM)eyeofra Wrote:  Heh. No offense taken, I know what I'm talking about.

Fad diets come and go. Right now the paleo diet and fasting are trendy. That does not mean I will lend more weight to a program because it is popular with the mainstream. The mainstream is usually five to seven years behind the world-class/professional athletes that I rub elbows with. And believe me, you don't see bodybuilder's fasting. You see them saying "I must eat carbs and protein NOW! My alarm went off, it's been two hours since I last ate!!"

The diet community has moved on. Fasting has it's place as a specific tool, but we now know how to get fasting's benefits without its vast drawbacks. Namely reduced metabolism and body temperature, as well as increased A2 receptors (so your fat cells store more fat). Your body wants to be able to survive this self imposed famine, so your thyroid slows your metabolism. And like I said your fat cells start gaining A2 receptors so they can better capture what calories you are taking in as fat.

I'm not saying fasting doesn't work, or that the stop eating eat diet doesn't work. I' just saying that they're like an enraged moth(fasting) compared to a 3000 pound bull(keto). Hey, it's great that it works for you. But half of every pound lost will be muscle.

Read the book underground bodyopus by daniel duchaine,or read any of the 1000 articles about the cyclic ketogenic diet found on any bodybuilding site.

I don't care what works marginally. I only deal with what's optimal. And fasting is far from it.

Where's thundr when you need him? He knows what I'm talking about here.

I thought Keto was a trend also and pretty mainstream. See a lot of body builders and the like hopping into it for fast results and because a good number of other body builders are doing it. Also thought Keto was quite similar to Paleo but with specific macronutrient percents.

Not sure what classifies as world athletes, but I've talked to several figure competitors and I don't hear them say "I NEED CARBS NOW" close to competition date. Much less if they're following a ketogenic diet.

I´ve tried 24 and 36 hour fasting, but the y were very tough mentally. I like leangains approach best.

I have also tried 5 - 6 small meals a day, and also bulking and cutting, but leangains has given me the best results so far.

I´m gonna try to sumarize it for you. I think it´s, by far, the most effective and convenient strategy for wight management. It´s for sure the only one I´ve been able to stick to for prolonged periods of time, and by far, the one that has given me the best results.

1) First, you eat every day. You only fast for 16 hours and have an 8 hour window to eat one, two or three meals, whatever suits your schedul best.
I usually eat only two meals, one at 14.00 and another one about 20.00 or 21.00.

2) On training days, you eat more than on rest days, because you are burning more calories. You can start by eating your maintenance
calories + 20% on training days and your maintenance calories -20% on rest days. YOu still need to know your maintenance calories and count how manu calories you are eating, but after a coupel of monts you are familiatr with almost everything. I tend to eat the same food over and over: chicken salad, brown rice, oats, whey, casein, eggs, avocados, olives, peeper, broccoli, salmon, tuna, onion, milk, yoghourt, olive oil, whole bread... it easier if you keep your meals simple.


3) You always eat lots of protein, and cycle carbs. On training days, you eat mostly protein and carbs; or rest days, you eat mostly protein and fats. Lts say taht on training days you eat 40% protein, 40% fat and 20% carbs. On training days you keep proyein at 40%, fat at 10% and carbs at 50%.

4) You train 3 days a week, intensely, for about one hour, and that´s it. You don´t need to do cardio, but can add some sprints aftyer your workout.

5) If you want to keep motivated, keep track of your weight and take pictures of yourself. Do it only once a week, the same day of the week, at the same time. It does not make any sense to weight yourself everyday. Ther eare too many things that can have an effect on your weight and you don´t want to get obsessed with it. It´s just a number. A picture is a better tool, specially if yiu can compare it with one of the week before.

I also use an accumeasure caliper. It´s inexpensive, easy to use, and accurate enough to give you an aproximate fat% that you can keep track of.

SOME CONSIDERATIONS

A calorie is a calorie. If yiou want to lose wight, it does not matter where it comes from. If you need 2000 calories a day to keep your current weight, and you eat 1500 calories from oce cream and cheeseburger, ypu will still loose weight. However, If you want to loose weight and stay healthy, you better choose healthier meals.

This means you can eat dessert and drink some alcohol fron time to time and still loose weight. I know this sounds too good to be true, but you can certainly do it. However, don´t think that you can do it every day, or every week. Alcohol is not only calorie dense, but also kills your willpower and one drink can easilly become a lot more. However, not drinking at allcan ruin your social life. Try to go out at night without even drinking one beer and see everybody getting dumber and louder... you need some social lubricant to socialize with drunken people. Be wise and don´t over do it.

Also, one or two cheat meals week seem to be good for your mental health. My family meets once a week and we have large meals. I usually go to the gymn before such reuninon, and eat whatever I want. It´s teh only day of the week I have a chance to eat real home made food and also see my family, so I don´t want to be eating lettuce and grilled fish while everyone else is feasting.

Supplement with Omega 3 and multivitamin. Calcium is not needed it you eat dairy.

Whey protein is not needed, but it´s very convenient. You can prepare a protein dense drink in a couple of minutes, drink it, and keep working or doing whatever you are doing.



Hope this helps.

Talk to you soon.