Intermittent Fasting for the Zone

[Júlíus G. Magnússon]

I'm kind of confused with IF and I would love an opinion from someone with experience with both IF and the Zone.

First off, I'm 71.0kg (~157lbs), 173cm (~5'8") and 11% body fat (according to this).

What I'm after is to lose those last few body fat percentages (get down to about 5-8%), and increased performance.

The way I train is 2-3 olympic weightlifting sessions each week and 2-4 CrossFit metcon or max effort black box workouts, adding up to 5-7 workouts each week, usually 6.

Since starting the Zone (and messing around with blocks) I've settled down at 14/14/14 blocks and I'm steadily losing bodyfat while keeping my lean body mass (according to this). However, I haven't felt much of a performance increase...

That's were IF comes in. I was wondering if I could expect greater results if I combined IF with the Zone?

Also, although my blocks are mostly from good sources (except for some dairy), I'm not completely paleo as my budget doesn't allow for it.

How should I (or should I even) approach IF? Should I strive for a 6-8 hour eating window each day or start with a 20 hour fast once or twice every week?
Can I expect any health or performance gains by combining IF and the Zone?
Should I eat the same amounts of blocks each day when fasting or lower them?
Is there a book on IF I can read to answer all these questions (reading various articles has done little more than confuse me)?
Anything else I should know from fasting Zoners?

[Mike ODonnell]

You are doing alot of workouts, so what I would say first is just start off slowly to see what happens...so you don't put your self in a state of overtraining/underrecovery. Pretty simple, just take your normal amount of calorie you do now....and condense them into a 8 hour feeding window Mon-Fri and give yourself the weekends to expand the eating window a bit. Keep it simple and see what happens. Just remember that IF is what you make of it to work for you. You can always add in longer fasts (24 hrs) later on once you get the feel for it. You can read this intro....if it doesn't confuse you any more....

http://projectfit.org/iflifeblog/200...-start-part-i/

As for calories...you may find those naturally go down as you may have a harder time getting them all in the feeding window. But also the zone is a low calorie plan to start (with no fat multipliers added in).

[Júlíus G. Magnússon]

Thanks for the reply. I'm going to give the 8 hour feeding window a try the week after the next.

I've got one more question, though, if someone wouldn't mind answering... Assuming I sleep 8 hours a day, what's generally considered the best placement for the feeding window?

For example:
8 hour sleep, 8 hour fast, 8 hour feeding
8 hour sleep, 8 hour feeding, 8 hour fast
8 hour sleep, 4 hour fast, 8 hours feeding, 4 hour fast
et cetera?

[Mike ODonnell]

Eat when you feel your energy levels the best and you are enjoying food and not creating an OCD lifestyle....aka I eat mostly afternoon and night when I IF...as I don't want to interfere with going out with friends at night for food...that and I enjoy to eat big at night and sleep better. I feel more energy throughout the day by fasting or smaller meals early on....if I ate a big lunch or breakfast I would be asleep by 4pm. Go by how you feel....everyone is different.

[Júlíus G. Magnússon]

I also get tired after a big meal so I'll start by trying out having the feeding window the last 8 hours I'm awake.

Thanks.

[Mike ODonnell]

That's the best way to judge it....see how you feel...as you should have energy through out the day...and then start to slow down as it gets closer to bedtime. Nothing like a great big steak and some wine few hours before bed for good dreams!