Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
Nice to hear bro! I'm hearing more and more stories like these, and its always great hearing about more and more people changing their lives with IF. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Intermittent Fasting discussion thread!!
- Thread starter RickRock13
- Start date
Nice to hear bro! I'm hearing more and more stories like these, and its always great hearing about more and more people changing their lives with IF. Thanks for sharing your experience!
There are several take homes here for me, which I'll followup with a couple questions:
-this lifestyle is allowing me to accomplish my goals without forcing others to adapt to me
-my GF does ALL the cooking and depending on the meal I simply add more carbs or more protein. Easy.
-by doing nothing other than watching your feeding window and eating clean this plan works for me
-cardio is not a requirement, at my level anyway
QUESTIONS
-I've read this entire thread, most of it twice. I haven't seen anyone else, like me, who works out at 7pm. Given that one of the things I love about IF is how it also works socially I really value eating lunch with Clients or my GF at 12:30 each day. Thus, that's when my fast gets broken. Then I'm home for dinner with my GF each day, which is my pre-workout meal. Rick, can you recommend a caloric percentage breakdown for these three meals for me? 20/20/60? Is 8:30pm/9:00pm too late to have a big meal like that? I'm typically ready to sleep by 11pm and up by 7am. Morning or afternoon workouts are out of the question for me. Experience tells me I won't get there.
-I'm 36yo 6'2" 225lb 19%bf. My lean body mass is about 182lbs and I'm carrying about 43lbs of fat. Due to insecurity about being too small (used to be 275 and 25%), and a knee injury that motivates me to keep weight off, I'm really aiming to be 225 and 10%. Thats gaining 20lbs of muscle while losing 20lbs of fat. Using the +20%/-20% recomp model, assuming only protein, caffeine, and creatine as supplements, my question is how long do you think it would take me to accomplish that goal? Is it unrealistic? Any special pointers?
-finally, I've had success not paying too much attention to exact calories, macros, etc is that normal? At what point should I get more serious? For example, I haven't logged a meal in FitnessPal for days. I don't track my workouts closely, other than that I know I use compound lifts with 6-10 reps on 10-12 sets for upper legs for example. Push/Pull/Legs
Thanks so much Rick. This has been the single most impactful thread I've ever read.
-this lifestyle is allowing me to accomplish my goals without forcing others to adapt to me
-my GF does ALL the cooking and depending on the meal I simply add more carbs or more protein. Easy.
-by doing nothing other than watching your feeding window and eating clean this plan works for me
-cardio is not a requirement, at my level anyway
QUESTIONS
-I've read this entire thread, most of it twice. I haven't seen anyone else, like me, who works out at 7pm. Given that one of the things I love about IF is how it also works socially I really value eating lunch with Clients or my GF at 12:30 each day. Thus, that's when my fast gets broken. Then I'm home for dinner with my GF each day, which is my pre-workout meal. Rick, can you recommend a caloric percentage breakdown for these three meals for me? 20/20/60? Is 8:30pm/9:00pm too late to have a big meal like that? I'm typically ready to sleep by 11pm and up by 7am. Morning or afternoon workouts are out of the question for me. Experience tells me I won't get there.
-I'm 36yo 6'2" 225lb 19%bf. My lean body mass is about 182lbs and I'm carrying about 43lbs of fat. Due to insecurity about being too small (used to be 275 and 25%), and a knee injury that motivates me to keep weight off, I'm really aiming to be 225 and 10%. Thats gaining 20lbs of muscle while losing 20lbs of fat. Using the +20%/-20% recomp model, assuming only protein, caffeine, and creatine as supplements, my question is how long do you think it would take me to accomplish that goal? Is it unrealistic? Any special pointers?
-finally, I've had success not paying too much attention to exact calories, macros, etc is that normal? At what point should I get more serious? For example, I haven't logged a meal in FitnessPal for days. I don't track my workouts closely, other than that I know I use compound lifts with 6-10 reps on 10-12 sets for upper legs for example. Push/Pull/Legs
Thanks so much Rick. This has been the single most impactful thread I've ever read.
Its nice to hear that you are enjoying this lifestyle so much, and that is helping you reach your goals
In response to your questions...
1) Having a feeding window of 12:30-8:30 each day would be completely fine in coordination with working out at 7 PM. Your last meal of the day post workout would obviously need to be the biggest at ideally 50-60% of total cals for the day. There is no problem at all having a large meal this late in the day. The rest of the day you can split cals however you want as long as it fits your macro/cal targets. One of the smaller meal of some preworkout carbs and protein is probably a good idea too.
2) as for using the 20%/20% recomp protocol, how long it will take is dependant on too many things to give an accurate figure. Genetics, training, diet recovery, etc will affect it. One thing I can tell you is that recomp is a VERY slow process. It is the holy grail of bodybuilding...building muscle and burning fat at the same time, but it has to be spot on perfect for it to work in terms of diet and training. Realistically when training natural, a couple lbs of muscle gained with a couple lbs of fat loss would be possible over the course of a couple months. That usually is not enough for most, but if you want both its reality.
For me, I find a slight caloric shift one way or the other towards one of the goals to be better towards making progress. If your primary goal is burning fat, concentrate on that, if its muscle then work more towards that.
3) Tracking cals are not necessary as long as you know your limits to stay within your ranges. I haven't tracked a single calorie in over a year myself because I did it long enough to know in my head where I'm at each day without tracking it. I may be off 100-200 cals each day, bit it doesnt matter in the grand scope of things.
Tracking workouts I feel is important though for progression. You should always be trying to get better and beat the log book.
Chad Waterbury has his IF protocol that I follow:
Training Day
930am 20g Whey
330pm 20g Whey
645pm PreWorkout 54g Dextrose/Maltodextrin, 25g Whey, 3g DAA, 5g Creatine
7pm Train
745pm Post 72g Dex/Malt, 32g Whey
830-10pm Feast on Carbs, Meat
Non-Train
930am 20g Whey
1230 4-6oz Olive Oil, Meat
530pm 20g Whey
830-10pm Feast on Carbs, Meat
Trying to follow it but i keep eating candy and sweets..lol
Sent from my ZTE-Z990G using EliteFitness
Training Day
930am 20g Whey
330pm 20g Whey
645pm PreWorkout 54g Dextrose/Maltodextrin, 25g Whey, 3g DAA, 5g Creatine
7pm Train
745pm Post 72g Dex/Malt, 32g Whey
830-10pm Feast on Carbs, Meat
Non-Train
930am 20g Whey
1230 4-6oz Olive Oil, Meat
530pm 20g Whey
830-10pm Feast on Carbs, Meat
Trying to follow it but i keep eating candy and sweets..lol
Sent from my ZTE-Z990G using EliteFitness
That is an interesting variation that I haven't seen before. It technically has a longer feeding window because the whey will break the fast. It looks like it is set up to be pretty much a 12 hour fast each day. Do you have any links to info on this protocol?
This shit works, and i haven't even done it on purpose yet lol. Even a 10 hour work day with no food will bring me down a pound or two. I will be doing my first IF cutting period in a couple months and looking forward to it! Thanks rick for bringing this to light... at least for me.
This shit works, and i haven't even done it on purpose yet lol. Even a 10 hour work day with no food will bring me down a pound or two. I will be doing my first IF cutting period in a couple months and looking forward to it! Thanks rick for bringing this to light... at least for me.
Its my lifestyle, so its my pleasure bro. I'm sure you will enjoy cutting on IF much more than any diet.
Hey Rick,
Just read the whole thread. Thank you so much for all the help you've given everyone. Truly inspiring.
I've never had a lot of luck with diets/lifting. When I first started lifting a few years back I was told to bulk up from 6'2, 185lbs (where I was skinnyfat) and I ended up getting my big 3 numbers up quite a bit, gaining strength, but my bodyfat% didn't drop at all so I ended up at 220lbs and my body looked worse than before. My only goal is to have low bodyfat, I don't really care about muscle size, I just don't want to be flabby anymore. When I stopped lifting and went back to normal my weight eventually trickled back down to 185.
Now I discovered IF and I did a test-week last week, where I ate low carb all week in my 8 hour window. My scale said 174-175 for the past few days, and it hasn't read that low in YEARS! I know it's probably mostly water weight but it still feels nice to see. Once I start seeing changes in my body, that's when I'll be a 100% believer, but I'm working on it! I feel like I'm genetically predisposed to carry fat in an awful way despite looking lean with clothes on, so if this helps me fix this, AWESOME!
Today begins my first true week. Going to the gym in an hour and a half and working out. Just chugged some BCAAs not too long ago. My maintenance is 2500 for 175 lbs, 2250 for wrkout days, 1850 for rest days.
My only real questions involve food:
What is your opinion on sodium intake? If I'm ingesting a lot of water, will that be okay? A lot of the great foods for hitting macros/calorie goals are sodium dense. Example:
In-N-Out Burger Protein Style 3x3
710 cals, 53g fat, 11g carb, 58g protein
That's fantastic for a low-carb rest day, but there's like 1000+mg of sodium in it. What are your thoughts?
A helpful thing for this thread, also, might be people sharing low carb/high prot/high fat and low fat/high prot/high carb easy meals they utilize in their own diets.
Thanks again Rick!
Just read the whole thread. Thank you so much for all the help you've given everyone. Truly inspiring.
I've never had a lot of luck with diets/lifting. When I first started lifting a few years back I was told to bulk up from 6'2, 185lbs (where I was skinnyfat) and I ended up getting my big 3 numbers up quite a bit, gaining strength, but my bodyfat% didn't drop at all so I ended up at 220lbs and my body looked worse than before. My only goal is to have low bodyfat, I don't really care about muscle size, I just don't want to be flabby anymore. When I stopped lifting and went back to normal my weight eventually trickled back down to 185.
Now I discovered IF and I did a test-week last week, where I ate low carb all week in my 8 hour window. My scale said 174-175 for the past few days, and it hasn't read that low in YEARS! I know it's probably mostly water weight but it still feels nice to see. Once I start seeing changes in my body, that's when I'll be a 100% believer, but I'm working on it! I feel like I'm genetically predisposed to carry fat in an awful way despite looking lean with clothes on, so if this helps me fix this, AWESOME!
Today begins my first true week. Going to the gym in an hour and a half and working out. Just chugged some BCAAs not too long ago. My maintenance is 2500 for 175 lbs, 2250 for wrkout days, 1850 for rest days.
My only real questions involve food:
What is your opinion on sodium intake? If I'm ingesting a lot of water, will that be okay? A lot of the great foods for hitting macros/calorie goals are sodium dense. Example:
In-N-Out Burger Protein Style 3x3
710 cals, 53g fat, 11g carb, 58g protein
That's fantastic for a low-carb rest day, but there's like 1000+mg of sodium in it. What are your thoughts?
A helpful thing for this thread, also, might be people sharing low carb/high prot/high fat and low fat/high prot/high carb easy meals they utilize in their own diets.
Thanks again Rick!
For the food example you gave, the sodium is high no doubt, but the fat content is pretty high as well. While its high in protein its not exactly the healthiest or best food choice...especially for a rest day. Those are days you should be eating pretty clean, consisting of things like lean meats. A little fat is ok, but you can't expect to get ripped and cut up eating fast food if it is done very often. If you want to eat those things, that's fine but its better to have them on workout days.
As for the sodium issue, as long as your sodium is kept moderate it shouldn't be an issue. Try to keep from adding salt to anything and don't have too many sodium rich foods in a given day. Sodium has less impact on changing body composition, with more impact on overall health concerns.
I would definitely like to see examples some people have for their food choices as well....especially the high protein/low carb meals
I really need a workout that works in conjunction with IF. I was going to go with the "simple beginners routine" (google this: "A Simple beginner's Routine
You will do 3 work outs per week on non consecutive days. The first work out is your heavy work out. The second work out is your medium work out, use 10% less weight for your work sets. The final work out for the week is your lite work out, use 20% less weight." and you'll find links to it all over) but then I had a free personal training session at my gym and he told me that jumping right into the power/strength movements without building a foundation that I don't have is going to cause me problems down the road and that should build a foundation for 4-6 weeks with bodyweight/dumbbells/kettle bells/aerobic type supersets and stuff.
Will that kind of workout justify the high carb workout days for IF? If so, can anyone PLEASE recommend me a program to follow while I get back into the groove of lifting? You'd be my savior.
You will do 3 work outs per week on non consecutive days. The first work out is your heavy work out. The second work out is your medium work out, use 10% less weight for your work sets. The final work out for the week is your lite work out, use 20% less weight." and you'll find links to it all over) but then I had a free personal training session at my gym and he told me that jumping right into the power/strength movements without building a foundation that I don't have is going to cause me problems down the road and that should build a foundation for 4-6 weeks with bodyweight/dumbbells/kettle bells/aerobic type supersets and stuff.
Will that kind of workout justify the high carb workout days for IF? If so, can anyone PLEASE recommend me a program to follow while I get back into the groove of lifting? You'd be my savior.
Similar threads
