My IF experience

After reading many articles and studies about the subject, I've recently decided to experiment with intermittent fasting. I'm using this thread to post my impression, experiences and such.

First I'd like to add a little disclaimer. I absolutely don't think that IF is necessary, neither for optimal body composition or for general health. It has been proven to be beneficial when dieting to lose fat (which is not my current goal), but it's really anything better than any other diet. On the other hand, no big downsides have been found so I have nothing to lose by trying it out.

My current goal is to eat mostly "healthy" unprocessed foods in a very small calories surplus to promote strength and muscle gains. I'm tracking my macros and calories for some time because having a smaller eating window could give me the wrong impression of how much food I've actually eaten. I'll cut that out once I get the hang of it.

I started fasting 3 days ago, following a loose 16/8 protocol. Generally I'll finish my last meal around 8 pm and I'll break my fast somewhere between 12 and 2 pm the following day. I don't stress overly if I happen to go out and drink a beer at 10.30 a Saturday night, or if I fast a little more (or less) than 16 hours. I generally just try to push the first meal of the day after 4-6 from waking time. As far as training, I'm on the 3 days Foundation schedule + 2x H1 and the stretch series. A part from Monday and Tuesday, due to schedule issues, I'll train just before breaking my fast, so on an empty stomach. The only think that I'll ingest is black coffee, since it has been proven to decrease hunger (and, as we all know, it's a pretty good stimulant).

For now everything is doing great. I love the fact that I'm able to sleep a little more since I don't have to eat breakfast. I now consistently get between 8 and 9 hours of sleep every night, which is amazing. In the mornings, probably thanks to the coffee, I don't feel hungry at all. I've noticed that my productivity during the fasted period has skyrocketed: I can now accomplish so much in the morning, while before it was always the least productive part of my days.

Friday was my first time training fasted, and it was great. I thought I would have been weaker (is this correct in English? Mmm..) or have less work capacity, but that wasn't the case. I felt very energetic through the whole session and I didn't see any drop in strength. I've noticed that I'm a little more sore than usual, but it might be because it was my first time working on RC/PE7. I'll report back and say if that was the case or simply IF is reducing my ability to recover (which I doubt).

So, after a 4 days trial, I'm impressed. It can be a little hard to get 3100 kcal in 7-8 hours, but it's very doable ( I enjoy the fact that I can eat bigger meals very much!). But for the same reason, I can see how someone who needs to eat 4000 kcal or more could have some issues with IF.

I'll report here every once in a while to add any new things that I might notice or experience

Very interesting, thank you !

i also tried, and it's impossible for me, i need to eat so much to stay in shape

maybe this type of diet is not appropriate for teenagers.

Yeah, that's true, especially if you want to avoid calories dense foods (which, a part from a couple of exceptions, are not that healthy). I'm 21 myself, I know the feeling I'll have to evaluate that for myself too since my goal is to get to about 85-87 kg (currently 82) while maintaining my current body fat % (which I estimate around 7/8). I'll see how the weight gain goes!

I did IF for about 2 years, 2pm-10pm (8/16). Trained on an empty stomach, first thing in the morning for the last year I was doing it. Workout was 6am then I would have some BCAA over the next 6 hours till I broke my fast at 2pm. 

To be honest I didn't notice a difference; positive or negative. I enjoyed doing IF but I would only do it again if I was following a leangains template and lifting heavy 3 times a week.  

I would have also liked it if my workout and breakfast lined up, but a 2pm-6am fast was just too anti-social and working out in the evening clashed with life.  

The only time I didn't like IF was when I was bulking, it became a chore to eat so much (I was trying to do it with healthy foods as well). 

Been doing it for years (right after Martin Berkhan started experimenting with it) and probably will never go back. It just fits my lifestyle.

I would only do IF when trying to cut fat. Dont think it's very profitable if gaining or maintaining. A 24-36 hour fast once a week would be fine in that case.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

@Murray: I'm skipping the BCAAs thing since a) I eat pretty much right after my last set of the workout b) although they are beneficial, they are not necessary, so I just don't see the need for it. Why are you saying that you would go back only on a 3 days per week lifting program? Is that for a calorie intake reason or something else?

@Tybalt: That's probably the biggest advantage that I see now too

@Sean: One of the supposed benefits is to minimize fat gains when in a calories surplus in order to build muscle. I'm willing to test the accuracy of this statement!

I started 16/8 fasting this summer. Lost 21 lbs on an average of 1.3 lbs weight loss per week. I tracked my weight daily to record progress. Life simplified now with only eating twice per day and not trying to eat breakfast while chasing my toddler around in the mornings. Also being at a lighter weight helps tremendously with GST.

Stephen M said:

I started 16/8 fasting this summer. Lost 21 lbs on an average of 1.3 lbs weight loss per week. I tracked my weight daily to record progress. Life simplified now with only eating twice per day and not trying to eat breakfast while chasing my toddler around in the mornings. Also being at a lighter weight helps tremendously with GST.

Add me to the club of dads whose life got simplified by IF. I've been playing with it for the last couple of months and it really makes keeping a calories deficit much simpler, both logistically and psychologically. I cannot do it everyday though, as there are always social/family reasons to have lunch a couple of times a week.

Stephen M said:

I started 16/8 fasting this summer. Lost 21 lbs on an average of 1.3 lbs weight loss per week. I tracked my weight daily to record progress. Life simplified now with only eating twice per day and not trying to eat breakfast while chasing my toddler around in the mornings. Also being at a lighter weight helps tremendously with GST.

Hi Stephen and everyone else,

I am interested in the results from this 16/8 plan and your weight loss. I am 5'11", 185 lbs.

Do you mind elaborating how to do this? I may try it.

Also, I do not understand all the acronyms, (and not sure how to spell acronym, Lol)

BCAA? Beer, Coffee, and ?? Ha ha.

Thanks,

Ryan

Anabolic-androgenics.

Not really.

Branched-chain amino acids

I'm told BCAA's are only necessary if you're still fasting for a few hours after your work out. Most don't need them.

Ryan Bailey said:

BCAA? Beer, Coffee, and ?? Ha ha.

Thanks,

Ryan

This had me laughing quite a bit 

Murray Truelove said:

To be honest I didn't notice a difference; positive or negative. I enjoyed doing IF but I would only do it again if I was following a leangains template and lifting heavy 3 times a week.  

 

I second that. I did it very similar to you, 6am fasted training with BCAA, 16/8 style IF with food window from 1pm to 9pm. It was easy to do but not much did happen, neither positive nor negative. The first time when my body really changed the way I wanted it to was when I

a) started counting calories and using a kitchen scale religously and

b) following a classic bodybuilding 6-meals-a-day type diet (morning oats/eggs, lunch chicken/broccoli/rice, evening fish/vegetables) with calculated macros.

That's what I'm still doing and enjoying the most, adjusting calories and macros as needed. I still train fasted 6am, but I love the breakfast afterwards

Hey guys,

Just started day 1 of this today.

Woke up: 6am.

First meal: 12pm.

Realized I drank > 10 glasses of water during that time. Are you guys really able to keep this up for consecutive days? Wondering how this will impact training. I definitely had food on my mind and not training the entire morning. Will see how the afternoon session goes.

Great post Edoardo.

Satiated,

Ryan

You will get used to it to some degree. Still, from my own esperience, there will be days when it's easy and you could go fasted all day and others where you'll be craving food like mad.

By the way, I often feel really cold until the first meal of the day. Do/did you others also experience this?

Having started just a few days ago, I can say that the first day ever was great, but the two following days were kind of hard, so I guess I agree with you Leonhard. Now I'm getting used to skipping breakfast so it's becoming easier.

I've noticed that if I'm getting stuff done I'll not think about food. On the other hand, if I'm chilling at home or just not doing all that much I'll get hungry earlier.

As far as the water goes, I drink a cup of black coffee and about a liter of water in the morning. I'm not "tracking" it, I just drink when I'm thirsty. As a point of reference, I usually drink between 3 and 4 liters of water every day.

A thing that I'll add is that I'm noticing that after breaking my fast with a huge lunch (about 1200 kcal) I get really sleepy and just overall less energetic for around an hour. I guess ingesting all that food is really making my body work to digest it!

Leonhard Krahé said:

By the way, I often feel really cold until the first meal of the day. Do/did you others also experience this?

I would say that's pretty normal. When your body digest food it creates heat. So no food, no heat. When I was doing IF I was cold very often. 

Leonhard Krahé said:

You will get used to it to some degree. Still, from my own esperience, there will be days when it's easy and you could go fasted all day and others where you'll be craving food like mad.

By the way, I often feel really cold until the first meal of the day. Do/did you others also experience this?

After doing it for years I can´t really say I notice a different from day to day. It´s not difficult, its just what I do.

Today was unexpected and thought I would share. Yesterday I tried IF for the first time since reading this post.

I thought I would eat around 16 hours after yesterday's meal but I decided to move more instead.

It just happened that my first and only meal was at 6pm today...

My last meal was yesterday at 6pm.

Today was also my GymnasticBodies rest day: morning activity included 1.5 hours of mobility for straddle up followed by 45 minute middle split stretch series, some light hinge row and pushups variations later on...

Oddly, I felt resilient on sleep, movement and water for 24 hours. I am not trying to overthink what just took place as I am very calm, cool, collected, and feeling unexpectedly robust from my day.

Ryan

Stephen M said:

I started 16/8 fasting this summer. Lost 21 lbs on an average of 1.3 lbs weight loss per week. I tracked my weight daily to record progress. Life simplified now with only eating twice per day and not trying to eat breakfast while chasing my toddler around in the mornings. Also being at a lighter weight helps tremendously with GST.

Stephen/Edoardo and others,

Do you mind sharing a bit more about your training schedule experiences as it relates to timing of meals? I know some of you train fasted, but are you really able to push your foundations work effectively in this state?

For me, I've noticed a difference between F7 sessions vs. Stretch or H1 work.

Stretch series went well following 14-16 hours post meal. Where as F7 went well a few hours post meal. I am really interested in this process as it is a new avenue of training I have not explored before and I've felt more mobile throughout the day lately.

Thanks again for the post and everyone's insight,

Ryan

I do GST in the evenings so I have never done it fasted. I do walk for an hour every morning while fasted and feel very energized during and after my walk. I have never strength trained while fasted so I can't comment on that.

Ryan, on your rest day you did 1.5 hours of mobility followed by MS stretch, then hinge rows and push-ups? Now that's what I call staying busy to keep your mind off hunger!

Ryan,

I am following a very relaxed (to say the least) IF regimen. When time permits it, I workout in the morning fasted and usually don't really see a difference compared to workouts in the evening; keep in mind though that I only do F3, F4 or H, full F7 would probably be something different.

Btw, I find that pwo I often feel less hungry than I would had I not worked out.

Ryan,

I follow the 3day foundation +2 handstand workouts and the 3 stretch series. Apart from Monday and Tuesday (because I have lectures in the morning), I'm training completely fasted. I didn't see any big difference, although I was surprised that by the fact that my strength and work capacity did not drop. F7 requires a completely different level of work capacity, so you might notice some performance drop for that. If I were you, I'd try to avoid train fasted if this is interfering with your performance. At the end of the day, your primary focus should be your training, so you want to create optimal conditions to optimize it. I'm still unsure whether to train always fasted or just shift my workout before dinner. I'll have to experiment some more to make a solid decision. The most important thing is that you consume food somewhere around your training. This window is pretty loose (4-6 hours), but pretty important (advice from Alan Aragon, a pretty darn good expert when it comes to nutrition). Hope this helps!

Last days have been a little bit of a struggle. I like the incredible mental focus that I have when fasted and I love the time gained by skipping breakfast, but, since I've increased my calories by 200), I sometimes struggle to reach the 3200 goal. More experimentation needed here too.

Good info here from everyone. Sounds like no negative experiences so far in regards to training.  I definitely agree Edoardo, the fasting schedule should not interfere with training performance.  If things felt off with training, I would immediately eat 6 meals, or something;  or maybe polish off some of the kids Halloween candy 

Today (Off-foundations day) I tried late morning mobility/Handstand work/Thoracic-B stretch (16-18 hours post meal), so pretty "relaxed" IF schedule as well.  Mobility/Stretching sessions have been a pleasant surprise with a somewhat empty gut for some reason (Or it could be the fact that the last week I started the stretch series, not following an intense foundations workout).

Foundations Training

Took Edoardo's advise regarding training foundation workout with a loose eating window and that went well.  I've noticed a physical focus with this approach as its been really centered around training and not so much about nutrition.  I can see Edoardo how it could be difficult to increase the calories like you are, however.

Also, another question about weight loss (Stephen?) . 

If Intermittent Fasting is a decent approach to try and dial in an effective weight for GST performance, then does one eventually go back to a 3,4 or more meals a day plan again?  I read some might be continuing with IF for long term.   At the present, I am thinking it is somewhat short term for me, and may get more IF relaxed once I see GST performance lining up a little better, who knows as I was also enjoying the training progress prior to IF.

Ryan