IF + Metabolic Diet

Matthieu Hertilus · 06-20-2009, 11:19 AM

I was just wondering if I could still reap the benefits of IF while following the Metabolic Diet (i.e. Nothing but fats and protein during the week, and carb loading on the weekend.) I was thinking of fasting on my rest days then going back to the Met Diet on other days of the week.

Here's an example of what I'm proposing if I work out M-Th, and Sat (Friday and Sunday as my rest days):
M-Th: Met Diet (4-7 meals made up of protein, veggies, and fat, <30g carbs)
Fri: Fast all day
Sat.: break the fast w/ a Pre-WO shake (BCAA + Creatine or a Quick digesting carb + PRO drink). carbs for the rest of the day (approx. 60% carbs, 30% protein, 10% fats from fish oil)
Sun: Fast all day

Would love to hear people's thoughts as I think fasting 2 days a week will help clear out my system from all the fatty meats and saturated fats I'll be eating during the week. And I love the idea of a weekend carb load( fruits, whole grains, etc.). Training mostly for performance and strength but wouldn't mind dropping the body fat% a bit. Open to your thoughts/ ideas/ concerns.

Steven Low · 06-20-2009, 12:05 PM

When you start IF you generally start with like 1-2 of 15-18 hour fasts... not 30+ hours like fasting all day. If you do that schedule I see some epic fail coming your way regardless of what your goals are.

Quote:

Training mostly for performance and strength but wouldn't mind dropping the body fat% a bit. Open to your thoughts/ ideas/ concerns.

Performance and strength you MAY need more carbs during the week depending on what you are doing and how your body reacts to low carb diets. Carbs aren't necessarily the devil or anything, heh.

I would just go Paleo and focus on high quality foods + maybe a short fast here and there IF it helps you.

Matthieu Hertilus · 06-20-2009, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steven Low

When you start IF you generally start with like 1-2 of 15-18 hour fasts... not 30+ hours like fasting all day. If you do that schedule I see some epic fail coming your way regardless of what your goals are.

Performance and strength you MAY need more carbs during the week depending on what you are doing and how your body reacts to low carb diets. Carbs aren't necessarily the devil or anything, heh.

I would just go Paleo and focus on high quality foods + maybe a short fast here and there IF it helps you.

It sounds like I could just alter my example just by shortening the fast to 15-18 hrs
Example: Fast from 11pm on saturday to 5pm on Sunday then fast again from about 8pm on Sunday until 11am the next day(which would end up being my pre-workout meal).

Based on what I have read about the Metabolic diet, performance should retrun to normal after the body adapts to using fats for energy, and as I mentioned earlier, I liked the idea of fasts because of how well it cleans out your system...just an idea I had to combine the two

Willem Koster · 06-21-2009, 01:01 AM

I've combined a low carb diet with 16 hour fasts... with weekly carbups .... works for me. Depending on what you cal "work" that is... I droppped weight like mad. 3 kilo (measured AFTER refeed) in 3 weeks without having a hard time.

Adam Gagliardi · 07-08-2009, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Willem Koster

I've combined a low carb diet with 16 hour fasts... with weekly carbups .... works for me. Depending on what you cal "work" that is... I droppped weight like mad. 3 kilo (measured AFTER refeed) in 3 weeks without having a hard time.

Could you be more descriptive? what does a week look like? Just curious thanks

Willem Koster · 07-09-2009, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam Gagliardi

Could you be more descriptive? what does a week look like? Just curious thanks

I'm not sure what you mean .. you mean what I ate ?

Days would look something like this:
13:00 milk + cassein
15:00 salad with chicken
17:00 yoghurt
19:00 meat and veggies
21:00 kwark + cassein

With all the dairy not really an extreme low carb diet (especially since I threw in some raisins) but my bodyweight dropped hard enough.

Refeed days were different ofcourse

(insert: fruitjuice, dextrose, bread, pancakes, pasta, ice cream)

I did some cardio or depletion work (both fasted) on diet days and did refeeds on proper weight training days.

Derek Weaver · 07-09-2009, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matthieu Hertilus

It sounds like I could just alter my example just by shortening the fast to 15-18 hrs
Example: Fast from 11pm on saturday to 5pm on Sunday then fast again from about 8pm on Sunday until 11am the next day(which would end up being my pre-workout meal).

Based on what I have read about the Metabolic diet, performance should retrun to normal after the body adapts to using fats for energy, and as I mentioned earlier, I liked the idea of fasts because of how well it cleans out your system...just an idea I had to combine the two

Performance is only going to return if you don't need glycogen. If you do glycolytic activity then performance isn't going to be good.

Weightlifters need very few carbs, to fuel activity and maintain performance, but may function a bit better with slightly higher carbs.

From there it's all about whether or not everything else is dialed in to optimize your fasts... like Steve said.

Someone with a crappy recovery schedule and crap nutrition is going to get wrecked adding fasting in. If everything else is good, fasting may put you over the top in terms of body comp, performance and health.

Matthieu Hertilus · 07-10-2009, 05:41 AM

Thanks for the knowledge Derek. I'd probably be overdoing it a bit if I added IF on top of an already reduced calorie diet (bodyweight x10) so I'll leave IF out for now while I try to maintain performance, or hold on to as much strength as possible, while trying to drop some body fat.