Eat every 3 hours vs IF for recovery

[kevin mckay]

Along the same line as Mikes question but in regard to recovery. I am guessing higher metabolism = more cellular activity = more healing activity... what do you guys think?

[Steve Shafley]

This is actually something I've thought about, Kevin, because, it seemed to me that bruised healed more slowly when I was on a cyclic low carb diet, and that might be the case while on an IF as well, though I haven't noticed anything.

[Allen Yeh]

I'd say I feel like I recover better now than I did when I was eating the 5-6 times per day. This is hard for me to compare as I've changed the way I train since shifting over to IF. So it could just be that my body is not being taxed as much as it was when I was eating 5-6 times per day. It could also be that I typically ate 2-2.5 x BW in carbs per day when eating 5-6 times per day also. As opposed to now where I try to limit it to 1-1.5 x BW per day now.

[Craig Cooper]

I would think that recovery would be enhanced with IF since you're giving your digestive system a break so that blood can be shunted to areas that are in need of recovery.

[Mike ODonnell]

I say healing is a whole body process....so the less compromised the immune system is, the more resources the body can allocate towards recovery from exercise. I think IF has a benefit to improving the whole body process of health so it may help more in the long run.....fasting has proven health and improved detoxifcation results...the more cellular waste removal you can do, the more you can get to rebuilding....after all hard to build a new house on top of a garbage dump.....wow, where the hell did that come from??

[Garrett Smith]

Note that animals, when injured, tend to stop eating.

Blood brings the nutrients, lymph carries away the waste. A hyper-fed state brings both of these in a concentrated manner to the gut.

Assuming proper nutrition on a regular basis, the body should heal better and faster in a fasted or eating-less-often state.

[Stuart Mather]

Originally Posted by Garrett Smith

Note that animals, when injured, tend to stop eating.

Blood brings the nutrients, lymph carries away the waste. A hyper-fed state brings both of these in a concentrated manner to the gut.

Assuming proper nutrition on a regular basis, the body should heal better and faster in a fasted or eating-less-often state.

7 years ago, I broke my neck. My appetite shut down completely for over a week, ie. I ate nothing. I was on a glucose drip though. I lost a lot of muscle and fat. The more serious the injury, the longer any animal naturally fasts. And considering that life itself is pretty damaging, IF is a theoretical no brainer. Seven months in, I'm discovering that the theory definitely matches the results.

[-Ross Hunt]

Originally Posted by Stuart Mather

7 years ago, I broke my neck. My appetite shut down completely for over a week, ie. I ate nothing. I was on a glucose drip though. I lost a lot of muscle and fat. The more serious the injury, the longer any animal naturally fasts. And considering that life itself is pretty damaging, IF is a theoretical no brainer. Seven months in, I'm discovering that the theory definitely matches the results.

I don't intend to bad-mouth IF; for all I know it may very well accelerate healing. But the fact that animals fast when they are injured is not a persuasive argument. It is wrong for the same reason the unsophisticated version of the argument for the Paleo Diet is wrong: Just because something is natural doesn't mean it's the best. Animals probably fast when they're injured for the same reason that muscles spasm unnecessarily around slightly injured joints--to increase the animal's chance of survival by discouraging motion that could aggravate the injury or jeaprodize the animal's life.


I fast only when I'm writing term papers... like now.

[Craig Cooper]

Originally Posted by -Ross Hunt

I don't intend to bad-mouth IF; for all I know it may very well accelerate healing. But the fact that animals fast when they are injured is not a persuasive argument. It is wrong for the same reason the unsophisticated version of the argument for the Paleo Diet is wrong: Just because something is natural doesn't mean it's the best.

True, but everything happens in nature for a reason. You can theorize why that is, test it, and hopefully gain some insight.

[Garrett Smith]

One thing that always throws people is when I say (now, after IFing): "If you're not hungry, don't eat."

Not common advice these days of 6 feedings a day...