- I'm not actually a full week in, so suck it.
- I'm about 5 days in.
- 5 days in and yesterday the morning hunger stopped bothering me. My stomach would growl, but I'd have a diet coke or whatever and I'd be fine.
- I actually have enjoyed not eating in the morning. Something I thought I'd never say until about two weeks ago.
- I'm already leaner. This is not in my head as my wife ran her hands across my stomach this morning, said "mmmmmmmmm" then attacked me. This was pleasant.
- I get hungry, but I have noticed it doesn't bother me like it used to when I was eating more often.
- My weight has climbed a few pounds actually, as I was 248 last night.
- However my pants are much much looser around the waist.
- So those two things together are strange.
- I get full and keep trying to eat. This was awful the first few days. I would be full for a long time. Now I eat and get full, eat some more.......and in a few hours I feel fine. I read many places this would happen. It's pretty cool how fast the body adapts to these things.
- I do feel lethargic in the evenings however. Not like exhausted, but, and this is coming from a lifetime insomniac.......I have been falling asleep really easy the last couple of nights. This has been awesome.
- Mentally I love the fact that I know, nothing is really off limits. It's fucking strange, once you do this, you actually stop craving anything. You can have it, but you're like "meh, gimme more steak." I have a bad sweet tooth, so I thought I'd be destroying whole bakeries on post workout feasts, but it hasn't happened.
- I totally plan on doing that however. I will eat a whole fucking lemon cake or 22 cookies if I want. It'll happen.
- I have, in the meantime, found an awesome addition to the PWO meal, and that's a pack of Met-RX in chocolate pudding with whip cream on top. It's not junk, ok so the whip cream is, but I get an extra 40 grams of protein in addition to the meal without much "junk".
- I have been slightly irritable this week, and have felt "off" a little. I can tell. My stomach has just felt weird at times. Not bad, just weird.
- And I have had extra gas. Farts that would kill a fucking silver back on meth. This has also been pleasant. Especially at night. Where the wife can smell it. She LOVES it. All of this is totally true. I know you believe me. Especially about the wife loving it.
- I know it's early but I could see myself being on this diet for a while. But it is early, I could hate it in 3-17 days. Who knows. So far, it's been a winner for me.
- Just for your edification here is how my eating looks on non training days and training days. Let me make note that I train once during the week, and on Saturday and Sundays.
- I'm not getting crazy about macros and all of that shit. Generally with a big diet change I just worry about getting the pieces in place in terms of schedules and meals/food, then adjust from there. So I don't care if the macros are right on right now, I'm just trying to get ball park.
Weekly Eating -
Non-Training day -
11:00-11:30 a.m. - meat and veggies - usually about 3-4 servings of protein and a ton of veggies
2-3 p.m. - Protein shake and 3-4 tablespoons of peanut butter or some almonds
7 p.m. - something similar to the 11 a.m. meal
Weekly Training Day - (training is at night)
11:00 - footlong roasted chicken sub from Subway on flatbread with lettuce, pickles, oilves, tomatoes, and ranch. A cookie or two.
3 p.m. - Smoothie. 40 ounces of the almond mocha.
5 p.m. - BCAA 10 grams
Train from 5:30 until 6:30
PWO meal - usually 4 servings of protein, huge amounts of carbs and veggies, then the protein pudding. This can be something like 3-4 chicken breasts, a whole full plate of rice and broccoli. Or it could be 15 ounces of steak with a couple of loaded baked potatoes and veggies. Either way, I eat GOOD food and as much of it as I can in that sitting.
Weekend Training -
If I have a big party planned for Saturday night (I do this often) then it looks like the weekly training day routine. If not............
12:00 - BCAA and then train
1:30 or so - PWO meal
4:30 - light meal
7:45 or so - light meal
Saturday and Sunday look like this so that way I can stuff face from whatever Tiff cooks for lunch. She's Italian so the Sunday big meal was already a big staple. Now it just fits right in with a purpose.
That's the first 5 days. I will make a post with adjustments or just how it goes.
It doesn't seem to difficult. So you basically are just loading all of your meals from around noon to the early evening, and not eating anything in between?
ReplyDeleteSo essentially this follows the pattern of the LRB shake diet, in that non-training days are low carb, with the only exception being the timing of the meals? I can totally do this. I need to lean my ass out anyway. I shocked to find out how flabby I still am 210 coming all the way down from 240. I ran the shake diet to great effect to lose that weight.
DeleteI would not compare this to the shake diet at all. You do a 16 hour fast with this. From 7 p.m. to 11 a.m. I don't eat. Then I have an 8 hour eating window.
DeleteI've been looking into IF also. Are you treating your Saturday from post workout on, as a "cheat window"? Good luck and keep us updated, this diet seems like it's not really tailored to the "heavy lifting" crowd so seeing the adjustments you're making would be really useful.
ReplyDeleteI haven't treated it like a cheat just yet. But I may. That's one thing I like about this diet. So much flexibility during the eating hours. Especially on training days.
DeleteAnd Chris Duffin, the #1 220 guy in raw powerlifting, uses IF dieting so it def can be done.
I've been doing an intermittent fasting-ish meal plan for a while now while cutting weight and I love it ("ish" because my work schedule doesn't always allow for a strict 8-hour eating window). I've lost about 15 pounds so far, pretty much all of it fat (I measure bodyfat % regularly), and my strength has stayed constant. I agree that you feel a lot leaner after just the first week. I try to eat "healthy" during the eating window, but I've had several days where I'd eat steak & eggs or a double cheeseburger, and those meals haven't derailed the diet at all. Thumbs up so far.
ReplyDeleteYour story sounds like all the other I've heard, which is why I've decided to try it. A nice fat loss shed and strength does fine on it.
DeleteAlso the same on eating anything you want. Basically you can't "derail" the diet unless you just fuck up the fasting period.
Paul how's your wife doing with the IF plan?
ReplyDeleteShe's actually liking it as well. She only has to do a 14/10 fast/feed time table so much easier for her really.
Delete"my wife ran her hands across my stomach this morning, said "mmmmmmmmm" then attacked me" sounds more like all the fetish pron has raised your testosterone levels bro.
ReplyDeleteI needed it after that shower.
DeleteWill you be trying this diet out while doing more conditioning/fight training?
ReplyDeleteNo I will be doing less. I don't want to add stuff while a new diet is being introduced. That's too many factors.
DeleteConfusing to me how people get leaner doing a diet just based around a specific feeding window/meal timing when the overall calories may be similar or in excess to a "mass gaining diet" at times. Weird.
ReplyDeleteThat's because you're looking at it on a day to day basis rather than a weekly, then monthly basis. On my non training days I typically eat 2800 calories or so. Which is about what I eat daily when trying to lose fat. So over time, you end up with a deficit. Just because you eat big on training days (when you have a far bigger energy inroad) doesn't mean it hurts the fat loss or body recomp process over time.
DeleteI've been reading some of Lyle McDonald's books, and one of the things he mentions is that insulin is one of the main factors regulating fat mobilization -- when it's elevated, fat mobilization is basically shut down, regardless of other factors. It turns out that it's not only carbs that up-regulate insulin, but protein and fat can do this to a certain extent as well. So it makes sense to me that if you want to really lose fat, you'll have to spend significant amounts of time just not eating -- essentially doing intermittent fasting.
ReplyDeleteSo while you're doing IF are you cutting out all conditioning? I've been doing hill runs 2x a week lifting heavy 3x and one light lifting day. I've been loving the "in shape" feeling I have from the sprints but it seems like the leangains system says to tone down cardio. Just wanted to get your 2 cents. Thanks
ReplyDeleteI'm doing conditioning twice a week. No way that doing conditioning twice a week for 15-20 minutes is going to make THAT much of an impact against the diet, but it's enough to maintain conditioning or even get in some shape.
DeleteYou will see the best results if you keep protein high. Probably around 450 grams on training days and 350-400 on rest days. Most people eat enough to meet 1-1.5g per pound lean body weight, but high protein is where it's at.
ReplyDeleteThe issue with that is, it's incredibly difficult to get in that much protein over 3 meals. That's more than 100 grams per meal.
DeleteIt's not as bad as you think. Getting a pound of meat and 50g of protein in water with each meal will do the trick.
DeletePaul, I've been practicing 16/8 for about a year. The tiredness you feel at night is the response of your body switching from sympathetic nervous system to parasympathetic mode.
DeleteAs soon as your insulin spikes (by eating a meal), it shifts the body into the parasympathetic mode.
In the sympathetic mode, you have higher amounts of adrenaline, more focus, and burn more fat. Pretty badass stuff.
Keep us updated. I loved hearing about your experiences.
IF principles definitely work. I've been using the Carb Back Loading method (touted as IF "evolved") for a few months now, and I dropped 4.5% bf while all my lifts went up. Jamie apparently hates Berkhan and IF with the passion of 69 suns, but it seems to be a viable method for dropping fat and keeping muscle, and CBL seems to offer even more flexibility and feasibility along those lines.
ReplyDeleteLOL I had no idea that Jamie hated IF or Berkham. AWesome. He should have busted my balls harder about it.
DeleteWell I could be wrong, but being that Berkhan's training and diet focus is weighted so heavily toward bodybuilding and aesthetics, the impression I got was that Jamie thinks he's a narcissist whose ideas are likewise suitable only for those who can't stop looking in the fucking mirror. Berkhan of course didn't invent IF, but all those retarded pictures he puts up of himself and his claims of 5% bf levels held year round probably sell a lot of people on his version of it.
ReplyDeleteCould be. As I noted, Chris Duffin is the guy that actually got me to looking into it.
Deletehi Paul!
ReplyDeleteCan you recommend some IF resources?
I have read Berardi's e-book and Pilon's Eat Stop Eat.
Any toughts?
I read a lot off the leangains blog. I also read the Berardi e-book which I found helpful.
DeleteI will be blogging more about it this week as well.
I read all of leangains stuff and it is very usefull.
DeleteEspecialy "Cheat Day Strategies For A Hedonist" :)
Almoust month into IF and starting to like it very much.
Tnx for info!