Fitday, the Zone and IF

Nathan Stanley · 09-26-2007, 11:20 AM

Okay, so I've been IFing for about two weeks now w/ fine results. I feel fine all day. My workouts have been good. I actually feel great in the afternoons after a workout that finishes at about 2:00 and not eating until 6:00 (I thought this would be a problem).

After transitioning to IF, I've tried to eat a relatively paleo diet, although I don't avoid dairy (I've cut it out and found no affect on weight or general wellbeing) and I try to put any less desirable foods late in my feeding window. In any case, I've decided to take the next step and try to hit the Zone ratios and eat 18 blocks during my feeding window.

Because I am a) lazy and not too interested in weighing stuff out and b) I eat one or two large meals over the course of two or three hours, I thought I would use Fit Day to try and see how my Zone ratios are doing. My results for yesterday were interesting: I took in 1508 calories (which is lower than what I should be getting) 86 grams of carbs (9.5 blocks) 124 grams of protein (18 blocks or a smidge under) and a whopping 77 grams of fat (51 blocks)!!!

Without too much detail I had a large garden salad w/a chicken breast, a few tomatoes, some more mixed greens, some of Scotty H's Chicken and Apple Hash (ground turkey actually) a peach, and some pistacios. I think Fitday over estimated the fat content of the ground turkey (very lean) and that might have put me way over in regards to fat.

In any case I picked up a food scale so I will probably be a little more accurate tonight. Just a footnote-I wasn't planning my meals in order to have a perfect 18 blocks. I wanted to see how close I was to the target ratios by just eating what I felt like. Tonight I'm going to try and even things out although I think we're eating lamb. Probably not the best to bring down the fat totals.

Patrick Donnelly · 09-26-2007, 03:02 PM

Zone ratios are not IF-friendly; too many carbs, not enough fat, not enough calories. If you're feeling good with what you're doing now, keep doing it!

Nathan Stanley · 09-27-2007, 10:58 AM

I'm finding that out... I've just been trying to eat a fairly paleo diet so far. I do admit that I've eaten some ice cream, had a beer or two and continued to lean. I lost another inch off of my waist since I stopped the V-Diet and started IF. I've also lost a lbs despite taking in almost 1000 kcals more per day.

A quick update, I tried again to keep track of what I ate, as well as upping my carbs to a zone ratio, keep the fat down a bit and keep the protein about the same. I failed again. Its tough to eat enough carbs w/out resorting to non-paleo sources. I did bring the fat down some (again I think the turkey wasn't as fat as fitday.com assumed) and got the carbs up some, but need to just eat some more I think. I only took in 1600 kcals yesterday if I'm estimating fairly close to reality.

Troy Archie · 09-27-2007, 08:54 PM

You'll find it's pretty tough to IF and eat a paleo diet in zone ratio unless you go for lots of fruits and tubers. Fat is the key and is your friend. Olive oil. enough said.

Scotty Hagnas · 09-28-2007, 12:01 PM

What Troy said. Bump that fat up, I would consider 75g a light day!

IF will reduce your daily caloric requirements, though. You might eventually find that you can gain weight if you eat as much as you used to when eating "normally".