Allen's IF experiment and observations

[Scott Clark]

Originally Posted by Steve Liberati

Here's my experiences with IF so far:

About 3 months ago I started implementing a 2 day-a-week fast protocol. Typically on sunday (good day to do nothing...that includes eating!) and one day during the week. Must admit at first it was extremely difficult to ignore the afternoon hunger pains. I stayed with it, and eventually my appetite subdued towards the end of the fast. Fast started around 9pm at night and lasted until 5pm the following day (20 hrs). Like others, in time I noticied increased energy levels, alertness, appetite control, and less water retention (love handles became less noticible). On top of the body comp improvements, the biggest benefit of fasting on those two days was not having to worry or think about food. It was a nice relief freeing my mind for a day not thinking about my next meal.

I liked the 2 day a wk fast so much, I then decided to up the ante and fast every other day (Art D style!). Been doing this for about a month now and the results have have been nothing less than stellar.

Besides the huge added convenience of not having to pack food for the day, I'm sleeping better than before ever before, better vascularity, increased energy (wife likes that one!), and just a better overall sense of well-being. Started off around 195lbs@8% bf. I'm now down to around 188lbs@around 6-7% bodyfat. Strength levels are on a slow incline and performance on WOD's have improved as well.

Can't say enough about IF. Life's much better now.

When you started with just the Sunday fast, did you eat at "normal" intervals throughout the rest of the week? I'm looking to start IF in the near future and something like the Sunday fast makes sense for a starting point. I generally take Sundays off from training and anyway, so why the hell just not eat that day like you said

[Allen Yeh]

I'm going to be updating this log soon as I have started to IF seriously again after a long layoff. This time around I started in the middle of July at BW of 192 (UGH!) ~15% and I'm currently down to 186 and ~12%? I'm noticeably leaner than I was when I started. Performance has increased since July.

[Allen Yeh]

Didn't realize I even had this log still here, started IF again leangains.com style.

Start Date: Monday 8/22/2011.
BW = 187
Bodyfat = ~12%
Eating hours = Between 1200-2000
Goal = Lean gain mode until November 2011
Food quality = Neh....it's Army food in A-stan....not much I can do about that but volume of food isn't a problem.

Supplements currently taking:
6 capsules NOW foods Ultra Omega-3 - daily
Scivation Xtend BCAA's - before fasted workouts
vitamin D3 - daily
NOW foods digestive enzymes - daily
5g creatine - daily

Training:
No good idea where all my 1RM's are at the moment, currently following the I, Bodybuilder workout plan just for a change of pace. Did 2 weeks of the phase 1 and just finished 2 weeks of phase 2.
Lifting 5x week
Running 2x week - vary in intensity
Pullups, Lunge, Pushups - adding 1 every day currently on day 11

[Arien Malec]

How are you doing LG with 5x/week lifting? When do you do the refeeds?

[Allen Yeh]

Originally Posted by Arien Malec

How are you doing LG with 5x/week lifting? When do you do the refeeds?

So far so good, it's only been a week right now.

I've been trying to follow the guidelines laid out here as best possible:
http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html

workout days - higher carb and moderate fats
non workout days - moderate carbs and higher fats

I try to workout by 1100 on most days and take my BCAA's ~1/2 hour preworkout. I'll take a postworkout protein shake right after my workouts and have a big lunch. Then I eat by feel until around 2000.

I know this won't be practical once I get home since I won't be working out at noon anymore but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

[John Alston]

I like this schedule. I have done the noon workout for over a year now. I can get away with it at a gym nearby my office and recommend it to anyone who can swing it. Coffee, BCAA pre WO, then lunch it up.
I think I saw something about benefits of training earlier in day as opposed to later somewhere recently, as well.
One thing I noticed is that a really hard, awesome session that used to be done after work would leave me amped for so long I would have sleeping trouble sometimes, but training at noon leaves a lot of time to mellow down.

[Arien Malec]

Are you doing hypercaloric eating 5x/week or isocaloric 5x and hypocaloric 2x? That's the part that I'm trying to figure out. Is your goal recomp or fatloss or what?

I'm interested because I'm doing daily oly lifting now with an IF setup where my biggest meal is PWO and figuring out how to get fat loss or recomp on that schedule is eluding me.

[Allen Yeh]

Only being on a week and not having IF'ed for a while before this I'm also figuring out my macro's. I'm looking at recomp right now for the next 2 months then fat loss.To be absolutely honest though it's pretty impossible for me to count macro's with this chow hall food.

[Allen Yeh]

Date: October 14, 2011
BW = 191
Bodyfat = ~12%
Eating hours = Between 1200-2000
Goal = Lean gain mode until November 2011
Food quality = Neh....it's Army food in A-stan....not much I can do about that but volume of food isn't a problem.

Supplements currently taking:
8 capsules NOW foods Ultra Omega-3 - daily
Scivation Xtend BCAA's - before fasted workouts
vitamin D3 - daily
NOW foods digestive enzymes - daily
5g creatine - daily

Training:
Currently doing a Westside variation of 1 upper ME day, 1 DE lower day, 1 RE Upper day and 1 ME lower day, running intervals 3x/week and 1 metcon/week. Going to increase my walking in the next few weeks also.

Thoughts:
In the last 8 weeks I've gained on my lifts quite a bit and been able to stay around the same bodyfat while gaining 4 pounds. Wasn't trying to gain weight surprised I have, I'm going to add in more walking and try to monitor my food intake a little more during my fasts. Would like to be down to 10% by the time we fly home. Going to keep training volume the same probably drop a running day after my next PT test (1 week from today).

Metnally I feel better now, for the first few weeks I was a miserable SOB! Very easy to anger and very irritable. Now I feel like I'm back to "normal" as normal gets being here in A-stan. I will update as I start to taper the food a bit and increase my NEPA.

[Derek Weaver]

Geez, I didn't even realize you were doing this.

That's cool that you have kept body comp more or less the same while gaining a touch. You're doing something right.

Keep safe and keep logging this.