Note: Martin Berkhan (http://www.leangains.com) recommends 14-hour fasts for females, for various reasons. I believe Jason Ferruggia makes this allowance in his Renegade Diet, too.
“For losing weight, it simply comes down to how many calories you take in as compared to how many calories you burn.”
Benefits of Intermittent Fasting (And Why They May Not Matter)
There’s a lot of benefits that are being touted as reasons to follow Intermittent Fasting as the protocol for weight lifters, dieters, etc. Many of these benefits are unproven or the proof is somewhat tenuous- and most people just want to look better in their clothes, so they don’t care about IF’s effect on muscle gain. I am worried that as IF becomes more mainstream through various diet programs, it will become as confusing as Paleonutrition has become, and as gnostic as the 6-meals-per-day mythos. I would hate to see people lose sight of what’s important when it comes to fat loss because it’s really NOT that complicated. Here’s my bottom line:
For losing weight, it simply comes down to how many calories you take in as compared to how many calories you burn. I learned last winter to NEVER lose sight of that basic truth.
I have tried the 6-meals-per-day approach and it did not work for me. I don’t think there is a magical explanation, but I do think there is a logical one (outlined below). Like Martin and Jason, I prefer to eat big when I do eat. In order to do that and not suffer from calorie overdose, I need to NOT eat at all when I’m not eating. Grazing, snacking, etc. throughout the day add calories that (a) I don’t enjoy eating all that much; (b) aren’t consumed in company I enjoy; and (c) are usually forgotten about in my brain long after they have settled into my fat.
Examples: Why IF Succeeds Where a 6-Meals Strategy Failed
This is a day I took from my food journal, nutritionally (all calories are (over)estimates- I’m not a big “weigher” of food, but I have learned to overestimate my calories):
9PM to 4 PM: Fasted State
4PM: Sweet potato with cinnamon (tastes like Sweet Potato Casserole, which I love, to me). 200 calories.
7PM: Chicken fajitas (without the shells). 500 caloriesBroccoli with white cheese dip (I’ve learned to flavor foods, so there was very little cheese dip). 100 calories*Note: I don’t eat the shells because I’ve learned that they’re not worth the calories for the experience.
9 PM: Almonds, Frozen grapes and cinnamon toast (double fiber whole wheat). 400 calories
TOTAL: 1200 calories
That was a light day for me, because I didn’t work out. If I had worked out, I would have added about 600 calories, mostly protein and carbs, from vegetables and whey.
Now, this is how an optimum day would have gone five years ago, when I was trying to have a “light” day:
7 AM: Yogurt and toast. 200 calories
10 AM: Sandwich, maybe fruit. 500 calories
2 PM: Protein Shake. 250 calories
4 PM: Protein Shake. 250 calories
6 PM: Chicken fajitas (I would have eaten the shells). 700 calories
8 PM: Snack/Dessert. 300 calories
TOTAL: 2200 calories
And the second example would have been an OPTIMAL day. Those didn’t happen very often. What did happen on the 6-meals-per-day plan? Something like this:
7 AM: Yogurt and toast. 200 calories
10 AM: Sandwich, maybe fruit (for “energy”). 500 calories
12 PM: Damn Birthday Cake Someone Brought to Be Nice. The Jerk. 300 calories.
2 PM: Protein Shake. 250 calories
4 PM: Protein Shake. 250 calories
6 PM: Chicken fajitas (I would have eaten the shells) and I may as well have some rice and beans with everyone, since I had that “Damn Birthday Cake Someone Brought to Be Nice. The Jerk.” 1300 calories
8 PM: Snack/Dessert. 300 calories
TOTAL: 3100 calories
Even if we assume I didn’t work out that day, and so I didn’t take a protein shake, I was still at 2800 calories. And even if I felt stuffed and didn’t have fajita shells or dessert (which I would have, but say I was “being healthy”), that’s still 2200 calories. That’s a lot of assumptions that I can make if I want to be delusional, but I would have eaten more. Once I start, it is difficult for me to stop. I have references who will support this.
I know myself very well. If I start eating, I will continue eating. But when I don’t eat, I can go for extended periods without it. So, when I don’t eat breakfast (usually on-the-go, anyway), I don’t miss lunch and I don’t have any trouble not eating the cake some jerk brought to be nice.
Note: I have not experienced this “broken metabolism” everyone keeps parading around as vehemently as rapture predictions. I occasionally (every five or six days) go way overboard and have 2800-3000 calories, but when I do, I ENJOY them- with family and friends. None of this strategic snacking, which then forces me to control myself when family and friends have a sudden get-together.
Intermittent Fasting Allows Adaptation to Sudden Food Parties
Take a look at what might happen if a pizza party suddenly broke out in the evening:
9PM to 4 PM: Fasted State (I’m burning stored calories or calories from the night before)
4PM: Sweet potato with cinnamon (tastes like Sweet Potato Casserole, which I love, to me). 200 calories.
7PM: Attack of the Pizza. 1500 calories
9 PM: Almonds and frozen grapes. 250 calories
TOTAL: 1950 calories
Even a moderately bad day, with some alterations, can stay below my maintenance. If a pizza party massacre occurred during a 6-meal-per-day, I would have taken in an additional 1000 calories that I didn’t enjoy or need (see the examples above for the math)- I was taking them in to “be healthy” and to “keep my metabolism going”.
My conclusion is that Intermittent Fasting- if it provides NO other benefits- allows me to adapt when fun and food suddenly spring up.
But wait, there’s more!
More
Since I routinely stay between 1200 and 1800 calories and follow an exercise plan, the bad days don’t really hurt me. In April and May of this year, I have had several celebratory occasions that led to overeating- but I’m still at 175 and I look leaner than I did when I finished the TT contest.
I believe that I am creating regular caloric deficits that compensate for my overeating- essentially, my fasted states force my body to burn the excess calories. So when I do overeat at night, my body has twice as much time to burn the calories as it did to consume them. Even several days in a row of less-than-great eating can be offset with intermittent fasting, or that’s been my experience.
Another benefit is that I’m not eating when I feel like I should- I’m eating when I can enjoy the experience and the company. On top of that, I don’t crave food like I used to. Rather, I crave the light, energetic feeling I have right now (about 13 hours into a fast) and I can look forward to some carefree eating later on. Fasting taught me- someone who could NEVER resist food- to control myself. As an example, the faculty lounge had a HUGE cake- vanilla icing laid on thick on top of chocolate cake with caramel inside- yesterday. There was a knife. And plates. One little slice. Or one big one. I could just not eat for the rest of the day, right? I didn’t have that struggle, because I didn’t crave it like I would have before. I control my eating!
Caveat Emptor!
Now that I have written all of this, I do have one caveat: I don’t think it’s for everyone. It does take some willpower in the beginning, although everyone I have introduced to the concept who has done it for a couple weeks has found what I found: other than a couple of regularly scheduled bitch sessions from the stomach, “hunger” doesn’t exist. This past weekend while on a weekend getaway with my lovely, never-has-to-diet wife, I really went overboard (3 days in a row, although always after 4 PM). So, I did a 24-hour fast Sunday night through Monday night, kept my total calories on Tuesday to about 800, and then resumed regular eating habits yesterday. And tonight, we may overeat a little because the girls are staying with my parents. But I’m not worried about it, because my body is handling it very well.
So, can you use a different strategy? Absolutely. Mine took about 12-weeks to perfect, and I’m always making little tweaks. Does a typical day for me involve “clean” eating? Definitely. You simply cannot go wrong with vegetables, and I don’t think you can get very lean while eating processed or junk food- unless you’re one of “those” people. Even on my nutritionally poor days, I pre-stuff myself with vegetable. I don’t know if the fiber is helping in some way, or if I’m just eating less than I used to, or both, but the bad days don’t get me.
Try different methods out. However, I say this to anyone who says they cannot use 24-hour fasting or intermittent fasting because they like to eat (this is what I tell me 5-year old twins when Mommy is fixing their hair): just because it doesn’t feel good doesn’t mean you can’t do it. And now, on the other side, I would never change how I eat.
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Frozen Veggies Equivalent to Fresh Veggies?
http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/frozen_food/
The title says it all. This, according to Men’s Health. It could be good news. Of course, it could also be more of the selective analysis and myopia of which MH is sometimes guilty (e.g. MH only recently said something good about fasting, and you know my opinion on that topic.)
I’m going to look into this a little bit more because it could save me a lot of money (and shopping time). In theory, I guess, how much worse could frozen be when compared to fresh, pesticide-ridden veggies and fruits?