As American obesity rates continue to soar, due to poor nutrition, vacations that make you fat, and general laziness, I can’t help but notice all of the nutrition and fitness trends that circulate around from the “experts.” The most common advice I hear, that everyone must abide by, are these points:
- You must eat breakfast the moment you wake up, the bigger the better
- You must eat eight small meals a day to “keep your metabolism going”. This one makes me laugh because it is a direct contradiction to the first point.
- You must eat lots of carbohydrates if you want to have energy – in fact, carbs are GREAT for you!
- If you eat lots of fruits and veggies, you will automatically lose weight, but they fail to mention that eating 3,000 calories worth of rabbit food without exercising will result in you not losing any weight
The list goes on and on. At the end of the day, obesity “experts” don’t actually want to completely eliminate obesity, and why would they? People are paying thousands of dollars for easy methods of losing weight like surgeries, consultations, and fitness programs. Doctors, like you and I, are in it to make money. Obesity doctors do not want to cure obesity because they would take themselves out of a job, for the same reason that fertility specialists encourage young girls to be on birth control when they are most fertile, because they get to then rob them financially later in life when they can’t get pregnant.
Intermittent fasting has become very popular in recent years with blogs such as LeanGains pouring out a wealth of information regarding it. If you’re not familiar with the concept, it involves cutting down your food intake to twice a day – none of this constant snacking bullshit. General guidelines are to allow for a 16 hour fasting window, with an 8 hour feeding window. Here is what my personal setup looks like:
- 7:00am – Wake up
- No breakfast
- Drink lots of water throughout the morning, and a cup of straight black coffee if I’m really hungry, as it seems to help stave off hunger
- 11:00am – First meal of the day, I eat at my desk.
- 2:00pm – Workout
- 3:00pm – Very, very light post-workout snack or just a protein shake
- 6:30pm – Eat my second meal, hopefully finish up by 7:00pm.
- Repeat cycle
This means that from 7:00pm – 11:00am, I consume no food. The only calories would be that occasional cup of coffee. Truthfully, my routine isn’t perfect—the LeanGains site I linked before contains a wealth of knowledge about supplements you should be taking and the exact timing of your meals/workouts.
Here’s five reasons why you should also try Intermittent Fasting.
Greatly Improved Clarity
When your body has to process food, it expends resources that are usually used for other bodily functions to do so. That’s where the “food coma” term comes from – when you feel so tired you want to shut down, because your body is too busy processing the mountain of food you just piled into it.
Intermittent fasting eliminates this. When I wake up in the morning and start my work, I am much more mentally sharp than after eating. I attribute part of this due to it being early in the day when general mental fatigue has not yet set in, but certainly not all of it.
Self Discipline
This is something most people struggle with. They can’t bring themselves to go to the gym, can’t bring themselves to cook, and often, can hardly get themselves out of bed in the morning. Intermittent fasting teaches you discipline – you know the hours you can eat, and until then, you simply cannot. The allure of food is one of the most tempting forces out there. Don’t get me wrong, it’s hard to pass on the donuts everyone in the office eats in the morning, but I feel significantly more in control and awesome when I brush them away.
Eating Big
I recognize not everyone has the same outlook, but I personally love eating big meals. Part of this is because I sometimes lack self control once I get going. Before I know it, I’m rolling around and moaning about how I’m in a food coma.
The problem is, when you eat three large meals a day, you’re bound to gain weight. Intermittent Fasting cuts this by 33%, which is huge. It makes it much easier to do the next point:
Control Your Weight
Just doing Intermittent Fasting alone, and not completely stuffing yourself at every meal will maintain your weight. You won’t get ripped, and probably won’t lose any weight, but you won’t blow up and start putting money into obesity doctor’s pockets. If you do workout consistently, then congratulations—participating in Intermittent Fasting means you can eat whatever you want and maintain your figure. I’m not saying eat a Domino’s Pizza when you’re aiming to get a summer beach body, but I generally eat whatever the hell I want and easily maintain my leanness.
It’s Not What Everyone Else Does
Your average person absolutely has to eat breakfast, because all of the experts say it is the most important meal of the day—one you definitely should not skip. Of course, their breakfast is rarely healthy. Typically, breakfast consists of sugary cereals, protein bars which are as bad as candy, and other easy to eat on the go meals that hold little-to-no nutritional value.
Your average person snacks constantly all day because they are told to do that.
Your average person eats whenever they feel like it, even if it’s well into the night.
Don’t be average, because your average person is a fat slob. If you’re having trouble knocking some weight off, or just want an easier way to control your weight, do your own research give Intermittent Fasting a try. It made my life much simpler.
Read More: 4 Reasons Why Your Diet Sucks
I’d never do this, but everybody reacts differently. It might for some one else. What I do is have a bunch of small meals through out the day and a slightly larger dinner. That way when, I eat I’m not gorging. I sure as hell don’t know how people skip breakfast, but maybe because I do my work out @ 0500.
I was working at 5 am in a dream once. It was a thoroughly mediocre dream tbh…
The more we research diet it certainly seems intermittent fasting of some sort is the way to go. Greater focus and lower body fat are just two of the results often described. This can be done in this way by having fasting periods throughout the day or by the 5-2 style diet, where you restrict caloric intake 2 days per week.
I find the 5-2 split particularly useful if you are away from home for a while and aren’t as disciplined with diet and exercise as usual. By restricting the calories 2 days per week I don’t come home with the beginnings of a spare tyre as I might have previously.
For endomorphs it works wonders, but I wouldnt suggest this to people who need to gain weight. Still good article Trouble.
Great post Trouble.Maker. The reasons you list encouraging people to try I.F. are pretty creative and enticing.
One thing to remember too, is that you don’t have to start with a 16 hour fasting window. Sure a window that big is optimal, but you can certainly start with something smaller like an 8-10 hour fasting window.
I know some will talk about working out in the morning after an intermittent-fast and I have heard some rave reviews about having really high energy during such a workout.
In my 19 months of hard lifting I have tried the morning workout a couple of times and haven’t seen the explosion of energy but I have probably not done enough of it and probably need to have a longer fasting period than 10 hours.
IF is good shit. I combined intermittent fasting and a ketogenic diet for a few months after college. Lost all the weight I put on after years of gettin drunk and pounding food from the college cafeteria buffet. The hardest part about it wasn’t sticking to the diet, but having to hear all sorts of pricks tell me that it was dangerous. Especially coworkers. Then they saw me drop 50 pounds of blubber in 4 months and that shut em up pretty fast. Probably lost some muscle in there too, but I wasn’t working out before the diet so it didn’t really matter to me.
The problem is that your coworkers are ‘most people’, and ‘most people’ are fucking stupid.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10878625/Fasting-for-three-days-can-regenerate-entire-immune-system-study-finds.html
and, l’histoire
http://www.amazon.ca/Death-Food-Pyramid-Politics-Interests/dp/0984755128
I wouldn’t recommend reading food pyramid politics unless you want to be really really pissed off.
I haven’t read it but have some knowledge of the disgusting food lobby / subsidies involved.
Every single major religion has had fasting for periods for a reason. Fasting also helps destroy cancer cells by depriving your body of energy. There’s many advantages of fasting that we probably aren’t even aware of.
Cancer cells feed mainly off of Glucose.
Acid. Cancer only grows in an acidic environment.
Meaning eating alkaline foods like vegetables to alkalinize the body is crucial
What happened after you stopped fasting? were there any negative drawbacks, like did you gain back some weight? and did you keep continuing working out? I’m not sold on this.
Nothing is for sale. It drastically improved everything in life for me. Drawbacks? People that were not physically fit constantly told me I was too thin. It makes other people uncomfortable because it’s uncommon to look and BE ‘that’ healthy. Oh, and the added energy you have, increased mental clarity, positive outlook on life with such fitness lures more opportunity … so, people will think you have unfair advantages when the ‘lucky break’ comes for you in reaching your dreams. You have to be ok with not following what everyone else is doing. I kept the body fat off for most of a decade until the injury this year.
Yeah you always get the “too thin” people, or the fatasses like the ones below saying this shit is for girls, fuck them, IF takes discipline and willpower, something most people don’t have, they can’t sacrifice anything.
Yep. I got people accusing me of being “naturally fit” after I started doing IF. As if I had some sort of advantage they lacked other than studying how the body works. People love excuses.
Three meals a day is a concept based on our “slave system”. We should not be packing meals into 3 a day and (wait for it, it’s something the fatties revolve their life’s failure around) “eating until you are full”. Yes slave, you get three shots at this so get as much as you can before BACK TO WORK!!!
Lots of truth in this. When I was younger and had crappy jobs, I only had 30 minutes to eat lunch. As a result I developed a habit of wolfing down my food.
slaves had three meals a day???
BUUUUUUUULLLLLSHHHIIIITTT
slaves were often very well fed for the same reason you keep your car full of gas, oil, coolant and windshield wiper fluid
The slave diet is a bowl of carbohydrate mush for breakfast, a bowl of carbohydrate mush for lunch. No dinner.
I thought that was called the UN Aid to Africa diet. Exercise is standing around a dusty field waiting for it to drop out of the sky.
Bacon and eggs being advertised for breakfast isn’t healthy either. Eating something you eat in dinner should be what you eat in breakfast. Bacon and eggs for dinner it’s reversed
I could see that; perfect spread throughout the day to give them something to look forward to. I work for a top 15 fortune 500 company and my fellow employees use food to motivate themselves. Every hour on the hour my coworkers make their trip to the breakrooms and get a “treat”. It really is difficult to not go with the herd but I just look around and take in the obesity; best motivation ever.
sounds like the army . . .
Army Rangers eat only 1 meal a day
The industrial age was far worst. Men worked for 16 hours a day. Ford company started the 8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep and 8 hours of recreation which increased productivity and all other so called slave systems followed suit.
Never abuse food as women are known to do.
You will ruin your insides and have a low grade stink about you
and bad breath the doesn’t go away. You will also get love handles
that never go away. It will reach a point where a woman would
rather have sex with a chimpanse and a dog before they would have
it with you.
great article. If you want to kick it up a notch look at Kiefer’s carb backloading and go keto through the morning and early afternoon and then after you workout (earn your carbs) you are allowed carbs at night (when your body utilizes them MUCH better than early in the day)
I read somewhere that occasional fasting recharges and re-energizes the immune system. I’m fasting on lobster today…okay, not fasting at all, just bragging to you sorry fucks.
Here it is:
Prolonged fasting ‘re-boots’ immune system
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/277860.php
And now for a STUPID BITCH NEWS update:
I’ve always contended that if an animal the size of a coyote or smaller runs in front
of your vehicle while driving fast, you run it the fuck over and carry on. Swerving is dangerous and can make you lose control of your vehicle and either go off the road or hit another vehicle. But what this silly bitch did goes way beyond braindead-stupidity: she stopped her car in the passing lane of a busy highway to protect a few ducklings, in the process killing a man and his daughter. There are too many fucking ducks in the world; that’s why we hunt them. If she had simply run them the fuck over those people wouldn’t have died. Also, it’d be cool to see puffballs of feathers in the rear view mirror! I blame Disney.
Emma Czornobaj guilty in 2 highway deaths after stopping for ducks
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/emma-czornobaj-guilty-in-2-highway-deaths-after-stopping-for-ducks-1.2682200
Slightly relatedly, I like to run over smallish dead and bloated roadkill for the satisfying splurt sound as the rotting innards splatter under my tires; I especially like cats. Gotta have some fun in life!
Intermittent fasting is the greatest thing ever, if you do it in conjunction with a diet you can lose weight at a tremendous speed. I went from being 6’3” 400 lbs down to 320 lbs in just 4 months of intermittent fasting along with a low calorie diet consisting of high protein, decent fat intake, and low carbohydrates. It should be said that IF takes a lot of discipline, I unfortunately fell into a depression and gained back a lot of the weight and even more. Stick with your diet while doing IF and I promise you the results will speak for themselves, I’m back doing it again just started this week and the feeling is great.
It’s not a “diet” that most people need. A diet makes it seem like there’s some quick fix and comes off like a gimmick. What most people need is a lifestyle change. They have to actually prioritize their health rather than just follow some gimmick.
Totally true, I meant diet as in what you eat on a day to day basis, not something like eat cabbage soup every day for 2 months, that may help you out in the short term but for weight people need a long term solution.
Indeed. Thats actually what diet means – what you eat. People trying to make money changed the popular meaning of the word.
Completely agree! Once you start to watch your body transform, it really becomes a necessity. You can’t go back to being skinnyfat/whale mode.
There was a 450+ lbs of fat guy that starved for 380+ days and survived he was on a long fast. He’s now 180 lbs. Second longest record of a person that starved that long and survived.
You sound like a bulimic girl on a binge starve cycle. Next you will be throwing up too.
Get a life and stop obsessing over food like a little girl.
You said it bro. These little boys should post this shit over on Cosmo or something…fretting about weight loss? Put it right in there with waxing your chest. GAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!!
Seconded. Men have more important things to think about than food. Eat to feed the organism so that it has the strength to obey you.
The reason IF works so well is because back in the early days of mankind food was NEVER AS READILY AVAILABLE AS IT IS NOW, nor was it so dense calorie-wise and nutrition-wise. In order to adapt to an environment where nutrients are not as plentiful as the one we have now our bodies had fat stores which would be filled up when we hunted an animal, because the reliability of a next meal was not guaranteed. If you’ve ever done IF you notice that almost immediately when you wake up and don’t eat breakfast you have a strong hunger pang sensation, this sensation is what motivated our ancestors to go out and try to find more food. However, that same sensation is what is making people obese and fat now by being controlled by their bodies’ desires to eat, we need to once again go back to controlling our primal impulses in a modern society.
it’s a theory but from my experience not eating in the morning puts your system under lots of stress, high adrenaline and then when you do eat, big pressure on the pancreas to produce insulin…..
It puts you under stress but understand that in modern times we needed that stress to go out and hunt, and when the hunt was successful we would eat as plentifully as we could since we would not know when the next meal is, so if we overate our calories, especially in a time where human beings had much smaller bodies than we do now, we would be able to gain weight which becomes saved as fat for future use during times of famine. BTW you write amazing articles, one of my favorite manosphere writers.
You body produces insulin whenever you eat unless you have type 2 diabetes.
Wrong. Type 1 DM is when the Islet Cells that produce insulin are gone. Type II diabetics actually overproduce insulin to overcome tissue/cell diminished ability to respond to insulin (usually due to obesity – fat ain’t as sensitive to insulin as is lean muscle, ceteris paribus). We constitutionally express insulin throughout the day (called a “basal rate”), and surge it out in response to meals.
That sensation only occurs to fully fed 1st world people because they aren’t getting a wider variety of nutrition like vitamins, minerals and omega fatty acids. The other stimulus that makes them keep eating is lack of extensive recreation, these people’s hobbies involve low energy low brain energy activities. They eat because they’re bored and not challenging themselves. The other cause is stress and eating food to trigger feel good hormones to ease the pain like drugs. Finally the other reason people stuff themselves when full is because they have fond memories of when things were happier and they were eating that food like remembering eating pizza in college when they were more content makes pizza bring back those memories. Why people like alcohol so much even though it’s nasty, bitter and bad for you is the same reason. Alcohol brings back memories of youth and sex
It is a terrible idea because most food is low in nutrients, even the best organic food.
It is true that skipping breakfast rests the intestines for a full 12 hours or so, which is beneficial. However, the nutritional problem with skipping meals is far worse than any benefit that may occur due to resting the intestines a little longer each day. Skipping any meal means you will receive even fewer nutrients in your diet. Do not skip meals, and be sure to eat at least three meals daily.
If your body fat levels are relatively high (>16% or so), your body won’t partition nutrients properly anyways. Also, the way your body absorbs nutrients isn’t linear (i.o.w. giving it 100 g of nutrient X every day has a completely different response than giving it 0 g one day and 200 g another day).
I didn’t say it was linear just on the contrary, read it again.
A far better way to lose weight is to follow a diet of mainly cooked vegetables several times daily, with animal protein daily and a small amount of cooked whole grains and a few other foods. In addition, one must take about 8 targeted supplements to assist the thyroid, the adrenals, the eliminative organs and other aspects of body chemistry. When this is done, many people lose 100 pounds or more quickly, easily, without a need for exercise or drugs, and most importantly, they do it safely.
Calorie in – calorie out. You now know the secrets to weight loss and weight gain.
I do basic Adkins/Paleo, heavy weight lifting and intermittent Scotching (mid shelf minimum, top shelf preferred). Weight is pegged firmly in the very healthy range for my height (6’3″ 225), 14%-15% body fat, perfect cholesterol/triglycerides, benchmark establishing blood pressure, the works.
Fasting is supposed to give one focus, but the one time I tried fasting (in the military) I was only able to focus intently on mental pictures and remembered smells of cheeseburgers. If I went particularly deep in my focus I could even envision french fries.
This is a really interesting article… the only point of contention for me seems to be about the breakfast. My whole life it seems that if you got to school or work without eating it’s difficult to concentrate because your hungry as hell and your brain needs something. Of course, if you pour black coffee into that void of an empty stomach perhaps the caffeine stimulates the brain. I don’t know.
Might depend on your job. When I was a roughneck on an oil rig I moved heaven and earth to make breakfast happen or I’d be miserable. Now, sitting at a desk all day I feel more alert if I skip breakfast. Only downside is if I have to work during lunch because a pack of jackasses fubar’d something critical. You go 16 hours without food lunch becomes real important.
It’s a habit that your body expects. If you eat at the same time everyday, your body aligns to this schedule. You can change the schedule by changing when you ate the previously but it takes about a week or so in my experience.
I think black coffee on an empty stomach every morning would be really hard on your stomach over time.
You remind me of a diet I’m currently practicing, you should check the book out, The Warrior Diet. They call it controlled fasting, basically you eat very little during the day, just fruits vegetables and some little protein like almonds and yogurt and you feast at night. You function on hunger.
All this triggers the innate predator instinct, you’re much more alert, selective, energetic and out for blood ( in our case its acing your life). It also helps lean the body, cut fat easily and build more lean muscles, detoxifies etc.
Its amazing when I started eating less I have more strenght and endurance, walking 3 to 5 hours a day, working and practincing 2 hours of MMA a day. And my overall results, and drive have improved in all areas of life.
don’t forget Martin Berkhan’s site, the premier source for all things IF: http://www.leangains.com
Muscle loss FTW.
Not true. I never eat breakfast and do a 24 hr fast every other week. I’m still a lean 200lbs at 6″1′
As with everything diet/body recomp related it is a highly subjective and individual.
I really don’t believe that. Human beings are very consistent in our biology, otherwise the entire field of medicine wouldn’t exist. There are only a few basic standards (the three body types) and outside of deviations (sickness, chemical imbalance, genetic defect) we all act and react the same way to exercise and diet. Less calories in than going out = weight loss. More physical activity than less = muscle gain/endurance. It works the same for everybody.
I get the jist, but genetic differences can be quite significant. I may not be able to tolerate the foods another person eats and it doesn’t mean I have a genetic defect because of that fact.
You really do need to tailor your diet to you as an individual, macro nutrients may be less of an issue granted.
One day every two weeks is nothing like the typical protocols people are advocating. I’d say your way is smart. What’s being commonly recommended is way more aggressive than that. Near daily 16 hour fasts is common.
Nah, I’ve been eating mostly as described in the article even tho I never heard of IF, and during a fitness challenge I joined 5 weeks ago I’ve consistently increased resistance during workouts. As a recovering fatass I’ve lost an avg of 6 pounds/week with six 50 min workouts per week. My best results happened after I abandoned the challenge-suggested diet and made lunch the first meal of my day and stopped counting calories – just eating “reasonable” amounts of what I want, when I want. The hard workouts put me off of junk food and start craving proteins. Maybe if I was loaded down with muscle it would be different, but anyone who’s at that fitness level already knows what works for him.
How many guys in the gaming community are fat? I need to eat like 3500 cals a day minimum to bulk up while lifting. Fasting is out of the question.
Keep it up fatbros, but there are too many articles about losing weight and none about putting it on.
Just wait until you hit your early 20’s and you will be looking for ways to lose body fat.
I’m in my mid 20s and I’m still not fat. Get your shit together tubby.
Seriously. Fat people have so many fucking excuses. This guy is in his 20s and he has the eating habits of a 6 year old, so he acts like it’s normal for someone in their 20s to be chubby and gooey.
There is no fat gene. There are no people other than maybe Samoans who are genetically predisposed to be on the heavy side. Stop making excuses.
Fat people are worse than feminists with their idiotic excuses.
Be a fucking adult and develop a little god damn willpower. That’s my rant about fat-asses. So many of them out there.
lol
That is because all you have to do to put on weight is EAT MORE YOU DUMBASS. Is it that hard for you? Eat a stick of butter every day on top of your regular eating. Drink a gallon of milk every day. How many guys in the gaming community are fat? Probably the majority are over 10% body fat and therefore should focus on losing weight.
If you are part of the minority of people that naturally have a low body fat % then that is fantastic. Most people aren’t under 10% body fat and have to work on it (whether due to genetics or shitty nutrition early on). Instead of humble bragging about how low your body fat % is maybe take the time to eat some food.
As someone who has worked their ass off to reverse their body composition I can tell you are totally full of shit. When skinny dudes lift (really lift; not bench pressing a few times) they gain muscle and get “jacked” (so does everyone else, their fat is just hiding the gains). Quit whining bitch.
I clearly struck a nerve, you fat peice of shit
“everyone has it easy but me! You’re a dumbass!”
Stay mad, fatty
Getting jacked for skinny guys is more than just doing some bench presses and eating more, it takes practical programming and a solid lifting program and a ton of effort. Its something thats worth writing arguments about.
Enjoy having disgusting skin flaps when you lose all that weight you fat fuck
It’s pretty simple – if you are fat then eat less and lift, if you are skinny then eat more and lift.
I haven’t read one comment from a fatty on here complaining about what they have to do. You on the other hand made a comment whining about how you have to eat more and lift. Suck it up and eat some food bitch.
And yes, skinny dudes need a solid program (just like everyone else, dumbass).
>It’s pretty simple – if you are fat then eat less and lift, if you are skinny then eat more and lift.
Its not quite that simple. If fat people literally stopped eating they would lose weight. Cals in Cals out
Skinny dudes don’t want to put on fat when they say they want to put on weight, they want to get muscle and bulk up, so its not as simple as eating a stick of butter as you suggested earlier, which was just ignorant.
Sets and rep ranges are worth talking about. The benefits of 5×5 over 3×10 for instance when trying to bulk up, and the benefits of compound lifts over isolation movements. I’m considering writing an article about it for the beginners here since there aren’t enough fit guys to do it, and you clearly don’t know what you’re talking about, so I’d recommend you keep an eye out for it.
I’m not sure why you think I’m skinny, or why you think my post was whining, its almost like you didn’t even read it. Note that even the name I chose, “bear mode”, denotes largeness. I guess fat people just like to take their anger out on people who aren’t fat.
You mentioned you put in a lot of work to change your body, that is commendable. I also put in a lot of work to change mine. But the knowledge it takes to go from skinny to bear mode has yet to be discussed.
This isn’t bodybuilding.com, the specifics of your lifting program are up to you based on your goals. I think it is pretty clear you were taking a shot at fat guys for an easy ego boost. If you grew up skinny in the US then you are fortunate; most americans are overweight and out of shape from an early age. I don’t hate on guys that were fat from age 5 and are now taking responsibility for their lives, you were just being a prick. If anyone is taking their insecurities out on people it is you.
You guys should make out. This is getting hot.
I took a shot at one fat guy in particular (you) and no, if you read the comment without your fat insecurity glasses on you’ll see that I’m suggesting there should be more articles on bulking up, because a lot of us aren’t fat.
God, why are fat people so sensitive and full of excuses.
You must have a lot of baggage from being a fat ass growing up.
How many sticks of butter did you eat today? Be honest, tubby
Haha, it is pretty clear that you are quite sensitive. Sorry I called you out on your bs. By all means keep taking shots at guys trying to improve themselves if it makes you feel better.
“How many sticks of butter did you eat today? Be honest, tubby”
You write with such a unique eloquence; perhaps you should write this article that is so desperately needed on bulking?
Please grace the world with a preview of your coming masterpiece on the incredible complexities of eating slightly over caloric maintenance and doing compound lifts. I hope you can fit all the information into just one article, I think they are supposed to be under 2,000 words for this site.
If my comments rustle this hard, I’d hate to see how you handle real life.
This place isn’t a hug box for the overweight. Sorry pal
youre a fucking idiot. but you should definitely be a personal trainer or a life coach, your advice is spot on BRO
Goat milk.
You can gain weight with intermittent fasting. Both bulking and cutting can be accomplished. In fact, IT aids with the production of growth hormone so you can take advantage of that by lifting and gaining more muscle.
I understand your complaint though. Perhaps ROK could post another article on intermittent fasting and how one can actually gain weight/improve body composition using it.
IF*
you’re an ignorant dumbass…
bulking is much easier while fasting.
if troll, 10/10
otherwise, you’re actually suffering from a learning disability.
>not eating
>bulking
pick one
No, bulking is far harder and more expensive. I got more important things to do than you apparently that I find bulking harder to do since it means continuosly buying groceries and cooking
Wanna gain weight? Carb Backloading. Check it out.
Or you know, do what everybody does and just eat more calories than you consume. The problem with that is you gain 50 muscle/ 50 fat and then you need to cut.
Search “leangains.” You can fast and eat enough calories to bulk with lifting. It will actually help your muscle development.
There should be more articles on gaining more muscle mass
I tell this to people all the time and they think I’m crazy. If you exercise it doesn’t matter when you eat, your metabolism will rise and your body will put that food to work. You need to experience ketosis every once in a while, its more healthy than not.
That’s not true at the beginning of losing weight however. If you’re obese you need dietary caloric restrictions AND exercise. In fact reducing calories is probably 70% of the battle, at the beginning. Once you’re in shape and have defined, large muscles and little fat however, yes, the muscles take up a lot more energy to sustain than fat does, so you can enjoy life a bit without worrying about ballooning up immediately.
You dont even need to exercise with IF, if you do it right you will lose weight with the diet alone, i lost 66 pounds by just doing IF.
if you do efficient exercise. most people just go to the gym, do the elliptical for 20 or 30 minutes while reading a book, and call it good. you have to do stuff that is hard and pushes your body to get results, along with eating healthy. i do things like P90X and insanity, and i eat whenever i’m hungry, but only stuff that was available 500 years ago (except maybe protein shakes). i’m 6’2 and i went from 202 lbs and not being able to fit into my 34×34 jeans a few years ago to 185 and 31×34 jeans now.
not saying that fasting doesn’t work for some people, but my philosophy is work out hard and never be hungry.
allahu akbar this is what Muslims do this is why they are very fit
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/02/08/article-2098129-01A4E91B00000578-524_468x566.jpg
That boy got cursed with some right vile genes.
I went from 235 on Jan 1, 2013 to 180 as of today by doing IF. I can definitely tell you it works, and has become my new permanent way of eating. It’s funny to hear people tell me “How can you skip breakfast?? Breakfast is the MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY!!!” and then watch as they pull out a snack from the desk drawer every half hour and gobble it down, and chase it with a diet soda. Then they wonder why they can’t lose weight. When I tell them I do IF, they look at me like I have a second head growing out of the side of my neck or something. I feel clearer, more energetic and sharper than I ever have, and it’s an awesome feeling to fit into a pair of size 32 jeans for the first time since high school. I walk around feeling like a king now, and have more confidence than I ever have in my life.
Actually, a small breakfast of eggs and coffee works better for me, although I have no problem skipping breakfast if I had a large meal the day before.
If there’s any meal you can dump completely, it’s dinner.
Thanks for the article. I’d like to add what I do:
My breakfast consists of
a) a big mug of black coffee, about 1/2 liter
b) two eggs fried on 50 gram of air-dried ham in coconut fat (not every day)
For lunch on most days I eat 100g air-dried ham or a half smoked trout (100g) plus some fruits (orange, banana) and about 2 Liters of juice. Sugars only very occasionally. About 3 days a week I get a steak with some rice and a salad in the evening. I seldom eat out as affordable restaurants normally use ingredients of very bad quality.
On exercise, I wake up 5:30-6:00 most days. I do pushups/lift weights etc. while drinking coffee. I then feel fresh and awake for the rest of the day.
Man eats everything and when he is hungry. Fasting is gay.
This article is a good start, but without providing the actual biological mechanisms involved in Intermittent Fasting the case for it is weakened.
As has been stated already in the comments, the human body evolved (or is designed) to stretch energy. When one begins a period of fasting, after approximately 12 hours the bio-machine that is the body will begin to produce excess HGH in order to combat the catabolic nature of an extended fast. This HGH production peaks after 24 hours, wherein it begins to degrade rapidly. As such, muscle loss does not begin to occur until after approximately 48 hours of fasting.
http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/50/1/96.full
The reason IF works is because of this mechanism. As the author fasts from 7 PM to 11 AM the body will begin to secrete HGH into the bloodstream during the cyclic phases of sleep (Some 12 hours after the fast has begun). Because the fast is broken after some 18 hours all of the HGH circulating through your blood stream is then recruited into building new muscle mass.
I will note that it is important to arrange your fast in such a way that the bulk of it occurs during sleep. When the brain enters the gamma state that is when the body is best able to regulate its hormones – if it is in a fasted state during the deep sleep cycle it knows to produce the HGH and Testosterone in order to counteract muscle decay. If one does not begin their fast until, let’s say 10 PM, and then falls into sleep at 12 AM, HGH production will not begin in earnest until 12 PM the next day – curbed because the brain is busy interacting with the world rather than regulating its own machinery.
I’ve been following IF for over a year now. All I did was skip breakfast. Breakfast is the most over-rated meal of the day. I personally couldn’t stomach force eating cereal in the morning so I just don’t eat until 12pm.
The main benefit I get from IF is that it’s just less stuff to think about when you try eat every three hours.
It’s not a diet, it’s a meal timing protocol, it all comes down to calories in calories out in the end.
Not completely, macronutrient spread counts hugely.
Equal calories of protein, fat, and carbohydrates will affect you differently.
hmm, just going atkins/paleo worked for me.
Huh. This “diet” is how I’ve always eaten since high school. I didn’t know it was a thing. I’ve just always done it.
Couple that with how often I work out, and now I understand why I never have a problem with gaining weight… And why my body responds so well to just adding protein shakes at different intervals to put on muscle mass.
I recommend extreme caution with intermittent fasting. Some people do very well on it. Others induce bad health problems. I personally compromised my health quite a bit over the course of a year by trying to do just a big dinner and small lunch most days on a sustained basis. It took me nearly half a year of deliberately overeating with frequent meals to really recover my health. IF definitely works in the short term for getting shredded. In the long run, as in done for months, it tends to cause serious problems for many people. There are tons of guys online lamenting the mistake of doing IF for too long.
When you have burned through most of your liver glycogen after over 12 hours of fasting, the body enters a catabolic state. The idea with IF is you’ll burn a lot of fat, but it’s not that simple. Elevated adrenaline and cortisol do burn off fat, but your body also might also be dismantling your thymus and organ tissue and compromising your intestinal wall integrity. Sustained IF will also tend to suppress your metabolic rate and thyroid, making weight gain in the future more likely.
The IF approach is highly seductive because people tend to feel good at first. It’s the elevated stress hormones. Some refer to it as the “catecholamine honeymoon.” Over time that effect wears off entirely and the catabolic and metabolism lowering damage becomes apparent.
If you’re going to play around with IF I would strongly recommend one of the regimens that only involves fasting on one or two days. Also take steps to monitor your metabolic rate. You want waking temperatures up near 98F and a resting pulse rate over 70 bpm. If either of these measures are low you should not be fasting.
Three squares a day really is best. All those profiled people over 110 did three squares a day with nothing weird about the macros: they eat some starch, fat, and protein. Your great grandparents probably ate a good diet and meal pattern and I recommend you eat like them.
Well done for sharing your experience.
Just eat three times a day at precisely the same time every day. Proteins in the start of the day, carbohydrates towards the end of the day. That’s all.
“All those profiled people over 110” were eating NON-PROCESSED FOODS for the majority of their lives.
“intestinal wall integrity” ???
“Three squares a day really is best” … U S OBESITY RATE on three meals per day = ____?
If you are trying to cut fat weight, at most, IF should be done only twice a week for a 24 hour period and accompanied with resistance training three times a week. Sounds like you might have been doing more than that.
The goal with fasting is to release glucagon into your system instead of insulin.
Ha! Jokes on you sucker. Only beta-bitches have a diet. Men eat whatever the fuck they want, and if its too many calories, throw some more exercise in there to counteract. If youre obsessively counting calories, and staring in the mirror at your physique, you are acting like a chick. Man the fuck up.
To a point I agree with you here. However, there is something to be said about bettering yourself as a man. Keeping healthy and looking good boost confidence, therefore they should be something to strive for. But, as in all things moderation is the key. Women obsess over trivial things. Men strive to become a better person than they were yesterday.
Tell that to atheletes, bodybuilders, powerlifters, etc.
OK….lemme go look in the mirror: “Hey Senor! Eat whatever the fuck you want.”
Your statement is meaningless.
Athletes: anyone who does any sort of sport..including me. Im currently a sponsored competitive mountain biker, used to be sponsored windsurfer and snowboarder. In between has been surfing, motocross, and kiteboarding. Big fucking deal. See me on the street and you’d never look twice. A talent for sports has little to do with your diet. It’s almost all in your head, actually.
Bodybuilders: possibly the gayest, most superficial, and unhealthy exercise regimen you could engage in. I grew up in SoCal and I know plenty of competitve bodybuilders. Most of them will be dead by 50. Steroids, dehydration, tanning beds, and strutting in front of a mirror in a speedo. Fucking stupid.
Powerlifters: Don’t really know anything about it, but judging by the fact that most of them have a physique somewhere between Andre the Giant and a container ship, I’d guess diet is low on their priority list.
make california its own country!!!!!!
Dare to dream, Cassandra. We’d all be better off.
You boys are going to love this. Read it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jen-ml/jeremy-meeks_b_5515196.html
Hilarious!!!! Fucking cum dumpsters.
I’d love to experience life through the eyes of an attractive criminal. Guy’s probably swimming in it.
Another strategy for those who just cannot go long periods without eating.
1) Drink a lot of water during the day when you are not eating/ This will make you less hungry. Maybe a slightly/mildly sugared drink if you really need the sugar.
2) Eat only when you are absolutely starving and cannot do anything else without thinking about food. ONly eat healthy food/meals – no packaged or processed stuff,
After several months of this, your body is trained to only eat when it’s hungry, and knows when to stop when you have had enough.
People over-eat because their bodies have totally lost the ability to stop when it has had enough. Also, over-eating is an abomination – not just to your body, but to nature and the environment.
The goal of fasting is balance. If you want to stay lean or lose weight, you have two options.
-Eat whatever you want
-Eat whenever you want
You can’t do both or you’ll gain fat.
IF is just a very easy way to eat whatever you want. I lost 30lbs in 3 months and ate whatever I liked. Still use it to keep lean while lifting three days a week.
The science is based on hormones. When you eat, your liver makes Insulin to store fat. When you fast, your liver makes Glucagon to consume fat.
Fed state = releases Insulin = Fat storage
Fasted state = releases Glucagon = Fat releasing
Eat a huge fucking steak for dinner. Eggs for breakfast. Lunch is whatever the client or sales rep is buying. Get all your carbs from beer. Get a buzz from whiskey. Be sure to eat some veggies so you can still shit without blowing your o-ring. Thats a diet to live by.
From dating, to sex, to education and employment, to achievement, to the virtues, to when to eat and what to eat…
Everything we’ve ever been told by the conventional wisdom since we were kids has proven to be lies.
Eating is for when the day’s work is done, when one is free and at leisure.
Eating during the day, one is racing against the clock, wolfing down food without even tasting it. It becomes a soothing habit against stress during the day and one packs in far more than they realize.
Big breakfasts are a tradition passed down from farmers who needed to be outside working all day, they actually needed those calories.
3 big meals a day seems part of the secular religion as well. Perhaps because people whose guts are always full have dimmed minds and weak passions.
I first learned “IF” staying with a family while studying abroad in Argentina.
They had some coffee or yerba mate and maybe a croissant for breakfast with a smoke at 10 AM.
At noon, they might have a couple small sandwiches, another snack.
And then the big meal of the day, always with family and friends together, often wouldn’t be until 10 PM at night.
Raised with American eating habits and the myth that missing a meal is some kind of cardinal sin that would “cause my blood sugar to crash”, I felt like I was starving at first. I found myself loading my room with snacks to tide me over. I adjusted to this lifestyle and still keep to one main meal almost a decade later.
One just feels better and cleaner, problems like acne pretty much go away.
It becomes clear that chronic excess of food puts a huge load on the liver just like liquor does for an alcoholic. In a puritanical society like America, foodaholism is just about the only widely accepted vice, so gluttony becomes the most common form of debauchery.
Of course, they react with jealous disapproval toward those who do not copy their flaws and make them feel bad about themselves.
I can’t remember the exact breakdown but I read about the “big breakfast” for farmers actually usually took place after a long fast – they are asleep when the sun goes down and get up and work for a few hours when it comes up and by that time the women folk had breakfast ready. Otherwise the women would have been up at 3am cooking breakfast.
IF is the way to go for Americans, social situations in the evening always load up the calories so it is best to eat lightly during the day and skipping breakfast is the easiest way for most people to reduce overall calories.
Before the injury, social situations at night have been a part of my work and life. In those situations, when everyone else is feasting on stuff that looks like food as they drink spirits to make them feel better, the most fit person in the room doesn’t have to explain why he’s not eating the same stuff.
lost 33 pounds this way.
Lost 86 lbs for my show seven years ago doing I.F.
Victor Pride writes about it, and Mike from D & P does it. http://wp.me/P3P5mL-tu
Another myth: you must go low carb to lose weight.
You can eat a huge baked potato and its only around 100 calories, and very filling. The right kind of carbs help keep hunger away and reduce your overall calories. Much more practical than hardcore paleo (not that paleo isn’t effective). Really if you stick to “whole” foods you are golden.
The resistant starch is good for your gut biome.
I did IF for a while – the 5:2 plan. Pick two days a week (not back-to-back). On those days, do not eat. Once you get past the psychological barrier, it’s no effort at all. Only reason I stopped is that … shit. Why did I stop? I forget. It wasn’t because I got hungry.
I previously learned and read of this at Natural News.
I previously implemented this, to the point I dropped from XXL to L over the course of two years.
No a single day of fast in my life. Here’s the result
http://blog.bg/photos/170892/rakovksi-2013.jpg
Kudos if that’s you. Takes a lot of discipline to achieve a physique like that, even the men that use roids. People don’t realize you still have to go through the grueling process of tearing down muscle fibers to get that kind of growth.
Count macros and stay in the 40C/40P/20F range and workout regularly. Should be good to go.
Add that on top of intermittent fasting is amazing for natural loss of fat, especially in the stubborn areas.
If you’re on AAS though, IF is not needed.
Tried Intermittent Fasting for a month using the 16/8 protocol. I second this article. There is a lot of conflicting info out there but having tried this & getting positive results, I’d say this works.
Clarity & awareness definitely increases. I found my decision making improving as well. Don’t know if this is a possible downside but I found my overall aggression levels increased as well. That helped with rock climbing & kayaking & technical physical tasks.
I now do IF twice a week as work schedules make it hard for me to keep consistent hours.
The six small meals approach certainly does not work for me. 2 good meals a day with plenty of water & occasional unsweetened coffee & I’m good to go.
Drink raw milk in the morning, preferably lukewarm!!! I add this to my intermittent fast, because I’d get headaches if I didn’t eat anything.
Raw milk because is more nutritional and highly digestible as opposed to pasteurized.
Also, I just learned to never eat or drink while watching TV, listening to music, etc, because eating and drinking trigger your brains reward centers as does entertainment. So basically programming your body to expect a routine food orgy, which both promotes too much eating and too much entertainment.
Try reading something like bill notices and long emails while you eat. Try writing a letter or blog while having a drink.
Also, try not couple eating with drinking, unless your meal is particularly dry.
Do these things, and you’ll be eating similarly to an ancient Roman soldier, and others of that ilk.
I cant eat food unless I forced myself to. Eating is such a bother and wastes time. I don’t snack either.
You’re suggesting skipping a BIG breakfast, but instead you’re eating BIG lunch and BIG dinner. IMO better idea is skipping big meals altogether, and eating 3 medium meals. Key to not getting fat is not overeating like a pig.
Here’s what I eat: medium breakfast at 10am, medium lunch at 3pm, some fruit around 6pm, light dinner at 9pm
Yes, keep eating three meals a day while those of us that have had real results doing I.F. explain the truth. A meal of fruit? This…Is…Hilarious. (Simplified) Fruit = sugar = body fat. Great quote from Victor Pride “BLUEBERRIES ARE NOT FOOD” http://wp.me/P3P5mL-ty
Victor Pride, a man who plans to take steroids (test. enth) every day for the rest of his life, despite the fact it will mean permanent shutdown of his testicles.
Sounds like a real expert on health.
“Fruit=sugar=body fat” =credibility gone.
I would like to report on an insidious consprisary I uncovered.
The “Manosphere” is a plot by our enemies to turn white men
and women away from each other to destroy western civilization!
You think you are being told how to compensate for today’s white
female skank. No way! The white woman has been brainwashed by
culture, the media, and acidema, to be the way she is!
This is a specific plot to dumb down the white girl so she will
breed with men of other races. And destroy the white male.
Ridiculous you say? Impossible you say? Can there be lucious white
women “model” types, (Which for all intents and purposes, are the God
of this time) WITHOUT the white man? There certainly can!
There’s plenty of quality white male sperm on reserve! You can get
a gorgeous white female “God” without a single living white male!
And you can “compell” a woman who is carring a white male fetus
to undergo abortions, then through genetic selection allow only
Heidi Klum types to be born. Guess who these “Heidi Klum” types
will be for?
Admittedly, black scientists could not perform such a stunt without
Jewish expertise. They will get it, because this suits Jewish goals.
Later on, the Jews will emerge from behind the scenes and take over
the dumbed down bi-racial world which was thier goal all along.
Victor Pride recommends IF…
I’d like to lose some weight, but I have to admit since i bulked up and gained weight, I can’t even keep the ladies off me, everywhere i go beautiful women are batting their eyelashes at me and starting conversations with me when i try to ignore them. I’m 6’1 and 230 pounds, very muscular build but also could stand to lose some weight. I use to be 6’1 and 160 pounds (I wasn’t a stick just lean fit with little body fat) and I don’t recall getting this type of reaction from women. As to how I gained so much weight, steak and lobster is hard to lose weight with.
I have the Renegade diet book app on my phone, it’s intended for people doing fitnessand sports.
Good read.
Nice tips.
Generally though, I have found that the best way for weight control (in the framework of not losing or putting on any) is to only eat when you are hungry. It sounds simple because it is.
It requires some other (minor) changes, though. Such as setting a minimum amount of time you spend eating something, I’ve set it to 30minutes.
Works great.
Yeah. Especially if you have a low or non-existent refined sugar intake. Then your body gets a very accurate read on how hungry it truly is. Sugars deceive the body with artificial insulin spikes and correspondingly exaggerrated lows. That’s why a 300 pounder who ate syrupy pancakes for breakfast will be ‘starving’ three hours later having only sat at a computer. It’s all deception if you eat sugar. Cut out sugar and eat (fairly slowly as you recommend) when you’re hungry—done.
Strange because when I eat carb heavy I can’t eat at all throughout whole day. If I eat only meat and veggies I stay hungry and eat more
The Renegade Diet is a really good approach to IF
http://musclereview.net/renegade-diet-review-jason-ferruggia/
Hodge Twins explain Intermittent Fasting if you don’t like to read.
Love these guys! They were the ones that introduce IF to me.
Eat kimchi. Ever heard of a fat girl in Korea?
You can’t just eat kimchi; the acid and bacterial load can aggravate digestive conditions if you are deficient in certain vitamins.
Also, simply introducing probiotics into your system and then abandoning them is pointless. They must be fed via prebiotics or resistant starch sources.
IF is a tool, just like any other method. Calorie counting, carb back loading, weight watchers points. Its all the same concept with a different psychological gimmic. Bottom line, eat less calories than you burn in a day and you will loose weight. The key is consistency. Same goes for getting jacked. Lift a minimum of 3 to 4 days every week on the major compound movements for 5-10 years depending on your hormone levels and you will be stronger than 99 percent of the population. You don’t need a special program or some stupid pro anabolic genetic diet trick. Just put in the effort.
The post had it right on one point, self discipline. Don’t be a lazy sack of shit with no impulse control.
Fasting triggers some other fascinating events in our body. 24 hours or so seems to be the accepted time when IGF-1 is produced, the precursor to HGH. In addition, autophagy begins, where dead cells are recycled. My personal experience is that after 24 hours if you can make it that long, the brain function goes into overdrive. The hyperaware state and the ability to process through the problems at hand seems to elevate.
Don’t forget da Coffee Enemas too bitches! Nothing like taking the plunge and having a big nozzle shoot some black juice up your ass 🙂 lzzollzool
“Obesity doctors do not want to cure obesity because they would take themselves out of a job, for the same reason that fertility specialists encourage young girls to be on birth control when they are most fertile, because they get to then rob them financially later in life when they can’t get pregnant.”
How can I give you two fuckin’ million likes for this beautiful truth?
The same thing goes for orthopedists. They will never tell you the truth on how to self treat sports injuries. Watch YouTube and save your time and your money.
Trying to lose weight? Try my new book.
http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/rob-garcia/skinny-dragon-basic-plan/paperback/product-21600130.html
I wrote an article on the BS “People who x tend to Y” as a pre IF article as I wanted to preempt all of the “Start your metabolism” comments.
http://lindsayslist.co/2012/05/people-who-tend-to/
Watch your caloric intake and do some intermittent fasting and you will eventually look like a greek god at any age. I agree.
Just read this article. Not into fasting, but the idea that we need six to eight small snacks/meals a day is just insanity. Most people have no idea “small” because our food portions are so enormous. Constant snacking and eating puts you into a state of psychological not physiological hunger. Many people no longer have any hunger cues because they are constantly feeding. I try to explain this people and they just don’t get it.
I love this article and am thinking about trying intermittent fasting….not for weight loss per se but rather for a post winter shred…I am hovering around 12-14% bf right now and would like that to be closer to 8-10 by the fourth. I think this is a very easy schedule to follow except for the fact that my schedule makes 530 am the time for my workout. I haven’t found an eating schedule for IF which takes into account a person who wakes up at 4:15 am, is in the locker room at 530 and on the floor from 545-715. Any advice?
All true. At 59, 6’1″, 190 I could easily be a biscuit or two over 220 (actually, I have). Fasting from a no-white-carbs dinner of steak and greens until something for lunch, or no lunch, saves me. Between golf, my sport-bike motorcycle and working as a free lance electrician, I stay lean without a steady intake of shitty food and I save a LOT of money doing it. It’s disappointing seeing the young girls out there growing more obese by the week across the entire age-range. I give a shit anymore, I bang em older these days, but you poor average bastards out there have really bad options for the field of women to select from.
My apologies for the fat-accepting culture my generation left behind. There really is nothing worse we could have done to you younger gents.
I do IF involuntarily since I got a lot of things to do. I’ve noticed people that think more tend to care less about skipping meals