![]() So you've gone through the book, read every word (right?), and decided you want to try intermittent fasting. Good for you. But which style should you choose? Intermittent fasting helps remove your cravings for sugar and turn you into an efficient fat-burning machine, making it easier to maintain a healthy body. Hi Mark, I’m a woman (28 years old) who followed your recent fasting series with great interest, gave it a shot, but had mixed results. Then I read this post, which. Experiments with Intermittent Fasting Chapter 6. So far, my experiments revolved around entire days of fasting, with varying success. However, in the IF movement, some fasting proponents prefer shorter, more targeted fasts, especially for those who work out and are interested in improving both health and body composition. Perhaps the most prominent is Martin Berkhan, who is something of a nutritional contrarian. He blogs about loving alcohol, skipping breakfast, training in a fasted state, eating carbs before bed, and only eating 2- 3 meals per day. Despite not following more commonly established “healthy eating rules,” he boasts of a 6. Intrigued, I decided to play around with his ideas, which he calls the “Leangains” method. The Leangains program is based on a few simple rules. Fast 1. 6 hours every day. Eat within an 8- hour window every day. Exercise with high intensity, a few times per week, often while still in a fasted state. Use 1. 0 g of BCAA before or during your exercise session. On your exercise days, eat 2- 3 big meals of protein (meat), veggies, and carbs. Eat your largest meal directly after your workout. On non- exercise days, eat 2- 3 meals of protein (meat), veggies, and fats. Eat mostly whole, minimally processed foods, instead of processed foods or supplements. As you can see from my description, this isn't just intermittent fasting; there's actually a lot more going on. In fact, the approach is based on a whole host of well- accepted and non- controversial practices: High protein intake. Low processed food intake. Carb cycling. Calorie cycling. Intermittent Fasting 2017: The Definitive Guide on Informal Insights . No, I’m not crazy. I fast anywhere from 16 to 24 hours a day. Nutrient timing. All solid strategies for body composition, fitness, and overall health to begin with. To those, Leangains adds a few experimental twists. What makes this approach different? Here's where Leangains departs from more conventional nutritional methods. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Fasting. Most coaches are fine with a 1. Berkhan prefers extending it to 1. Breakfast. Most coaches recommend it; Berkhan skips it as a natural part of the extended fast. ![]() Exercise. Most coaches recommend eating prior to training; Berkhan usually uses a small dose of BCAA instead. Eating frequency. Most coaches recommend 4- 6 small meals; Berkhan says have 2- 3 larger ones. In my opinion, these are minor points of departure from the more commonly accepted nutritional best practices. But are they significant enough to make a difference? Note from Krista: Start Slow. If this style of fasting appeals to you, you don't have to jump right into it. I started gradually: by simply pushing back my meals a bit. If dinner was normally at 7 PM, I'd eat at 6 PM instead. Next day, at 5 PM. Next day, at 4 PM. Same idea with breakfast. Try eating half an hour or an hour later than normal. Like salivating dogs, our appetite hormones are trainable, and they're driven largely by our routines. They make us hungry when we expect to be hungry. If we have dinner every day promptly at 7, we can count on Ye Olde Hunger Hormone Factorie to start firing up around 6: 3. Thus, you can use the “cold turkey” method of just jumping into a 1. ![]() Intermittent fasting is quickly becoming know as the way to lose weight. Keep reading to learn how it can help you lose weight and keep it off for good.![]() From my fasting experiences, it seems that in many ways, hormones are just as “trainable” as any other skill. You get “better” at doing things when you practice. According to Berkhan, fasting (and training) this way means: Blood flow to fat cells increases. Concentrations of epinephrine and norepinephrine go up. Metabolic rate goes up slightly. ![]() Insulin goes down. Fatty acids are released for energy. Berkhan reasons that this scenario is the perfect storm for fat loss. However, as discussed earlier, extending the fast for too long could become counterproductive. So Berkhan suggests jamming in as many growth and recovery promoting nutrients as possible after the fast and during the post- workout period – without overeating, of course. After intense exercise, the body is most sensitive to nutrient uptake and subsequent protein synthesis. Thus, he recommends eating as much of your food as possible as soon after your workout as you can. In practice, that means eating your largest meal of the day immediately after your workout. With this plan, Berkhan reasons, you get fat- burning during one long, 1. Each day is the same. Rinse and repeat. The Daily Fast: the program. I wanted to test these theories. So I committed to following the Leangains principles fairly closely for the next few weeks with the “shorter fasts, more often” approach. I planned to fast for 1. PM until around 1 PM (skipping breakfast along the way). I'd train at the end of the fast; starting my workout around noon and then eating 2- 3 fairly large meals (depending on my hunger and the size of the meal) between the end of my workout and 9 PM. As recommended, I also took 1. BCAAs (in capsule form) just before my workout. On my intense weight training days – Mondays and Fridays – my meals included mostly protein, veggies, and starchy carbs. And on the other 5 days, my meals contained mostly protein and veggies. My schedule. Here's a single day's schedule. AM Wake up, drink 5. L (2 cups) water. AM Drink 1 L (4 cups) water with 1 serving greens+, 2. L (1 cup) green tea. AM 2. 50 m. L (1 cup) green tea. PM Workout session with 1. BCAA during session. PM Eat first meal, largest of the day. PM Eat second meal, moderate sized meal. PM Eat third meal, moderate sized meal. Here's what a week of the plan looked like: Day. Exercise. Nutrition. Monday. Upper body strength exercise – 4. Higher calorie and carb (3. Tuesday. Treadmill sprints – 1. Lower calorie and carb (2. Wednesday. Upper body circuit exercise – 3. Lower calorie and carb (2. Thursday. Treadmill sprints – 1. Lower calorie and carb (2. Friday. Lower body strength exercise – 4. Higher calorie and carb (3. Saturday. No exercise. Lower calorie and carb (2. Sunday. No exercise. Lower calorie and carb (2. As you can see, there were no “eat whatever I want” days and no days of complete fasting, as I'd used in the previous plans. Just a daily 1. 6- hour fast followed by a workout and then an 8- hour feeding period. There were also 2 higher calorie and higher carb days and 5 lower calorie and lower carb days. Despite the differences between this plan and previous plans, my average calorie intake was still around the same: 2. Note from Krista: When is the “right” time to fast? There's no good answer – although, of course, there are many theories. I didn't want to give up my big breakfasts, so I chose evening fasting first. I simply pushed dinner earlier and earlier until I eliminated it completely. I normally trained in the mornings, so this worked for me. However, I noticed three things about my sleep when fasting in the afternoons/evenings. First, I was much more tired. Once my “battery” ran out, I was done. Getting up the stairs to bed was a terrific ordeal. Second, although I'd conk out quickly, I didn't sleep well. And third, I woke up early – at a consistent 4 am – when my body released adrenaline to free up some stored blood sugar. Since many of our hormones run on a day- night cycle, this blast of adrenaline was nearly as accurate – and painful – as a buzzing alarm clock. Later, I experimented with skipping breakfast and lunch. At first, that felt like much more of a sacrifice, but it took advantage of the fact that I was already deep into the better part of fasting after 1. Eventually I got to like the efficiency of getting up, grabbing a cup of tea, and getting straight to work. And I slept a lot better after a good meal in the evenings. Bottom line, as always: Do what works for you. What I ate during the Daily Fast. Of course, my food rules had to change a little. First, I needed to cram the same number of calories – especially on the high- carb days – into 2- 3 daily meals instead of 4 meals. Second, I needed to gradually taper down my calorie intake after the post- workout meal. With this in mind, my menu looked like this, although it did vary from day to day: Low Calorie, Low Carb Days. Meal 1: immediately after exercise. L (2 cups) of water. Meal 2: about 3 hours later. L (2 cups) of water. Meal 3: about 4 hours later. L (2 cups) of water. Daily supplements: 1 multi- vitamin. IU vitamin D1 tablespoon fish oil. BCAA capsules before workouts. High Calorie, High Carb Days. Meal 1: immediately after exercise. L (2 cups) of water. Meal 2: about 3 hours later. L (2 cups) of water. Meal 3: about 4 hours later. L (2 cups) of water. Daily supplements: 1 multi- vitamin. IU vitamin D1 tablespoon fish oil. BCAA capsules before workouts. Another reminder to the obsessive- compulsive: I wasn't counting calories in or calories out. I just followed this general plan and wrote down what I ate in a little notebook. I analyzed everything much later, so I could report the results in this book. Sample meals – lower calorie and carb days. Here are some samples of meals I ate during the lower calorie and carb days: Sample Meal 1. Salt, pepper. 2 tbsp white vinegar as dressing. Udo's oil as dressing. Sample Meal 2. 12 oz scallops. I didn't go for pizza and wings regularly. I really do prefer eating lean meats, loads of colourful veggies, and more natural, unprocessed carbohydrates, and I eat this way 9. It's much more physique- and health- friendly to eat real, whole foods most of the time. Yet I'm also careful not to let orthorexia – a psychological term for developing a fixation with healthy or righteous eating – sneak into my lifestyle. Yes, food quality is on a continuum and some foods are “higher quality” than others. But it's not an all- or- nothing, “good” versus “bad” thing. Using “healthy” or “unhealthy” to qualify food choices isn't all that useful. In some cases, it's downright confusing. Most importantly for this book, occasionally eating “lower quality” food won't likely harm your physique or health. Just don't eat too much of it, too often. Bottom line: If you ever choose to follow an approach like this, make sure you eat high quality foods most of the time, while allowing a little latitude too. Of course, you don't have to eat “junk food.” But do allow yourself to have a few “whatever you want” meals after working out.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
October 2017
Categories |