Tuesday 18 March 2014

Intermittent Fasting - moving from 1 to 2 days a week.

A big part of my life 2 days a week is my Intermittent Fasting Days. That's 104 days of fasting a year!!
Does it work?
That depends on what you are trying to achieve.

Stabilising your weight.
This depends on how much you eat a week on your days off fasting.
For a while I was stable with my weight. I was training regularly, running regularly, weight training... and not over-eating on my days off.
However, after about 11 months my weight started increasing slightly(1.5kg). Around the start of winter I would say the following year.
I was very tired around beginning of November 2013, so I decided I would not do some of my heavier training for around 4-5 weeks.
I realised I should switch to a twice a week fasting to make sure I didn't increase any weight over that time.

Switching from 1 day to 2 days I feel one needs to be ready for it. After nearly a year of IF Fasting 1 day a week I felt ready to give it a go.
So over December, right through Christmas I stuck to my 2 fasting days. I managed to lose the 1.5kg I'd gained. However, I will add that as I wasn't training my appetite was a lot less as well.

After Christmas Period

Once I got to January and started training again, I felt I probably needed to fast twice a week. I would make my second day a bit looser, up to 800cal on that day.
I also wanted to fast that extra day. I kind of really liked the idea of the second fasting day. Although I haven't got to that point yet, I get my days where I wish I had a 3rd day of fasting!
I haven't taken any recent pictures of myself but I can see my stomach has flattened yet there has been no muscle loss. I've been training my legs more in the last 6 weeks, I'm sprinting on the track again so I need to weigh myself to see where I am. I generally hover around the 76-77kg mark. I'm 5' 8".

Sometimes I find the day after fasting and training my appetite picks up a bit the following evening. I go with that. As I know I probably need the extra calories for the weight-training work.

As a bodybuilder

As a bodybuilder I've spent years trying to get this peak point of training week in week out, gaining muscle and losing fat. But it never happened. If I increased my training it pushed me into over training and reduced my Immune system.
But I can confidently say now, as long as I'm training regularly each week, with the running included, I can do the training, build muscle, lose bodyfat.
I'm 53 this year. I'm not interested in getting huge gains in a short period of time. I work the long term. The lifetime term. I'm looking better than last year.
I feel the size I am now just needs refining. If I get too much bigger than I am now I'll look too big for my frame(in my eyes not a serious body builders eyes:).
The 5/2 IF diet is ideal for this type of goal. It will work even if you want to get bigger I would speculate. You just need to eat more on your days off. ( If you can!!)

Reduction of Portions

I have found since I switched to 5/2 in the week, I get my mealtimes where I just can't face anything heavy. Whereas in the past, before fasting, I could eat a bigger portion. These bigger portions would usually coincide with heavier training. But I found after about 4 weeks or so, fat would start creeping onto the body as well. Often this isn't that visible and before long you've moved into a look that's too bulky and chunky rather than shapely. But now I don't get that anymore. I get the days sometimes where I feel really hungry. I go with it. I find that within a day I'm back to normal eating again.

Training without fussing about food portions

My favourite thing at the moment is that training and eating are now in harmony. I can just focus on the training and know my weekly diet and fasting program keeps the fat-burning optimised and I am feeding my body the calories it needs.

My heaviest loaded training day is once a week. It consists of a 2 mile run. Some sprinting on the track. Either an 800; 400m & 200; or 200 & 100m. This is followed by a full body workout in the gym!
I prefer working with weights after running as I'm properly warmed up then. I also fast on this day. At the moment I  only weight train once a week. I only run once a week. I do about 15 miles a week cycling(5 miles at a time), 7 tai chi classes of teaching and 2 self practicing sessions. I've just introduced a 20 minute swim once a week and I'm hoping to get that extra tai chi practice day in.