Switching from Intermittent Fasting to giving up Sugar

I decided to end the Intermittent fasting after 2 and a half years.

I learned a lot about my appetite and I generally just made sure I didn't overeat.

I did find that the Intermittent fasting couldn't get rid of the last bit of stubborn fat on my body. I wasn't prepared to lose weight, I was training 11 times a week, gentle, explosive, endurance, cross-training etc.

I was finding for a long time now that a lot of goodies that were on offer just weren't delivering on the promise. I'd look at the chocolates on offer by the counter and could never really find one that appealed. I notice a lot of people just stare at the goodies, undecided which one to take.

This feeling just started to spread in all areas where sugar was concerned.

In parallel to this I am taking care of my mum now who has diabetes and vascular dementia. So every product I got her it needed to be low in sugar. This is when I realised just how much sugar was in everything.

When you are forced to look at the labels for someone else's benefit, daily, you soon build up a knowledge base of what's got what out there. I found the co-op were the best in lower sugar, especially on a chicken korma(7.5%). Some other leading supermarket(not tesco) were the highest topping nearly 19% of daily intake.

So takeaways, unchecked; the mind boggles.

The BBC ran a wonderful series "the truth about.." which covered in one episode sugar. In truth I was ready for this. I had been thinking about sugar for a while. Watching the intake for my mum helped me make better decisions as well. So after that episode I began starting my journey to give up sugar as far as possible.

My first step was to switch to 90% dark chocolate. I restricted myself to 2 blocks. It's a funny thing about dark chocolate the blocks are thin but huge. This for me encouraged one to mow through half a bar because it was easy to chew and light. But I set out my first target. Now 90% is pretty bitter straight off. So I looked at other flavours on offer. Some jumped up to 50% sugar as soon as anything else was added to liven it up.

I then had a brainwave. To buy some essence that has no sugar, melt the chocolate down, add some essence and pour into a coffee bean mould of 30 beans. The bean mould was exactly the size of a coffee bean. So a bit thicker but far smaller than one block. Thereby eating less.

This restricted chocolate phase lasted about 3 months. Eating less and less of the chocolate.

Eventually I gave it up completely. I stopped doing the mould-making with essence after my 4th batch. I just broke the chocolate up into micro pieces and had a few small bits at the end of the day.

I then started on buying fruit, chopping it up and freezing it. I got the tip from somebody who said they freeze bananas. I bought some clotted cream and put a bit of that on it.

Well that was a transforming moment. That dessert was far more satisfying and contained natural fruit, with no sugar added clotted cream.

In time, about 6 weeks, I switched to double cream.

I started getting this white head spot above my lip. It went away and I got another one in the same place! After the 3rd one I realised the cream was too rich for me. So I reduced it to two heaped spoonfuls.

I also read about bananas. So I cut that down to one banana a day. I got some blueberries (which I never used to eat, but learned they are a superfood), some strawberries, chopped them up and froze them. [tip: if freezing strawberries, take off the green stem before freezing!! Also chop them up smaller, they freeze like bullets!] In time you'll only need a few of these desserts.

So when you cut out sugar desserts, after a few days you take more care on the quality of the taste on the main meal. I noticed that I used to have too much focus on the dessert afterwards as that was the end of the eating session rather than the main meal itself.

Also you'll find that you need to eat a bit more because the lack of daily desserts will leave a hole in you appetite.

The Results

I pretty much noticed a shift in the stubborn area on the belly after about 5-7 days. It was very slow, but it was continuous. I've noticed in the past it does take the body 6-8 weeks to acknowledge the shift and then make adjustments.

I can't remember exactly the date I made the switch but it must be about 4 months. The total no chocolate phase about 8 weeks.

It is in the last 3 weeks I've seen a significant shift in the bodyfat reduction. My bodyweight has remained the same.

A very interesting shift has occurred in my strength, speed and stamina. All 3 have improved. Unfortunately I've included some other changes like a pre-workout drink and I'm taking a b-complex tablet everyday as well, so it's hard to single out the removal of Sugar. But I feel confident that my bodies ability to function more optimally without the load of the Sugar is improving things.

Another recent change in the last few weeks is I am no longer randomly hungry. I'm eating less. Now and then I get very hungry but it feels natural so I eat more.

Whereas if it's craving driven, one is in danger of the hunger driven by a sugar craving.

At the moment I feel I've just begun the final phase of losing the last 10% of unwanted bodyfat. All indications are I'm moving in the right direction. By the end of the year I should be pretty close to where I would like to be with my body.

The other big benefit of a low sugared diet is the quality and regularity of stillness in the mind. Spikes in mood are quite different and a lot less now.

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.

Intermittent Fasting - stabilising your weight - for bodybuilders mainly

I've now been sitting on 76kg(12 stone) for about 2 months now. I feel I've gained more muscle with no gain in fat.

I'm now in my skinny jeans! 32". 

I weighed myself today, having avoided the scale for around 3 weeks. I had mixed feelings about what I might find really. 

I felt I'd been eating a bit more than in my earlier weeks. Ice cream about 3 times a week, the odd chocolate and generally a small increase in snacking. 

Also I'd dropped my cycling as well. I felt it was causing me to tip into over-training. I was not getting my second run in for the week.

I'd made a few changes to my weight training day. Two big changes really. 

The first one was to put in some running on the treadmill for 25 minutes. The last 6 minutes were going at high level speeds on the treadmill. When weather permitted, I'd go out onto the running track and bang out to 150m sprints at the end of my treadmill run.

The second change I made was to 'fast' on my training day...

According to the readout on my treadmill at the gym, my run burned 200cal. 

So if I assume a full hour of weights burns around 400cal that is 600cal. 

The overall affect is burning fat through my fasting day, resting state, then a further burning of 600cal through the training. So its seems like a double dose of fat burning.

I would imagine that this has greatly contributed to allowing me to eat a bit more, yet still burn bodyfat and gain muscle from my training.

As I introduced two changes its hard to pinpoint whether the combination or the fasting alone has changed my energy levels while training.

All I can say is my energy levels while training are utterly amazing!! I'm like a machine! I don't eat at all for the day before training. Training usually starts around 13.00. 

I allow myself a pepsi max while training for a bit of a zero cal caffeine boost. Not the best energy drink but it really works for me.

As a result of learning about natural hunger through the fasting, I try my best to feel whether I need more fuel or its just indulging. So far it seems I need the extra fuel. 

Its really nice to know that I can eat a bit more and get away with it. In the past when I trained and needed more fuel I just increased in weight. But now it looks like its just an increase in muscle not fat! Bodybuilding heaven!

Intermittent Fasting - Are you ready to try it?

I'd known about the Intermittent Fasting for about 4 months before I decided I wanted to give it a go.

My biggest fear was that I would lose all my weight-training gains for the year.

I'd also decided at the beginning of 2012 to train throughout the year without overly restricting my diet.

Once the year was nearly over I felt I'd gained a bit too much fat. So I was prepared to lose weight anyway and see what happened.

When I share with others my findings of the IF diet I can see a variety of reactions.

One of the most common is a repulsion to the idea of a 'DIET'. On top of that a 'whole day' devoted to half-starving seems to scare people away. It seems the idea of suffering for one day outweighs all the benefits received. The word 'FASTING' is also a red flag signal. 

I can see people of this reaction have this look in their faces. Its a bit of a complicated array of expressions. One of the more easily read is 'defensive'.

'Defensive' is usually associated with 'not ready'. I also probably had a similar expression on my face. It was for me a reluctance to lose all my training gains at that time.

One has to be ready, mentally. To be honest I've known of the benefits of 'fasting' or restrictive eating for decades. Which just goes to show how one's goals can affect a trial of a possibly useful and manageable lifestyle of eating.

I didn't really fear that eating less would affect me in any other way negatively, other than make me lose weight and all my muscle gains of a season.

One other reaction is a keenness to try out the one day a week fast. 

What I find often is although one is ready to try it out, it can get postponed for a further 6 weeks or so.

This is common. The brain has a momentum of its routines and beliefs. It requires a lot of convincing, reminders, processing and conscious thought to introduce something like this.

One important consideration is a firm decision to how long you intend to try this out. My delayed decision was in part due to a long term commitment before starting. One of my stronger reasons for trying it out was to do a regular detox once a week. As each decade creeps upon us, without a regular detox we start becoming less able to eliminate our excess toxins. 

So I felt that I wanted to put this in as a long term commitment and lifestyle change. 

I'm a person that makes a decision and then sticks to it, to the extreme. I only break the commitment if it harms me in any way. Like over-training for instance.

This was another reason why it took a while to make the final commitment. There is no point is just dabbling for 2 weeks or even 6. Give it at least 3 months. If you are doing it once a week that's around 13 days!! Around 2 weeks of dieting spaced over 3 months. In a year that's less that 60 days! 

It ticks all the boxes of losing weight slowly but steadily. One should be able to lose a stone(14lbs, 7kg) in a year. More than likely it will be more than that. The exception would be if you are training to gain muscle. But even then it would probably be possible unless one eats a bit more on the other 6 days of normal eating.

I'd love to be able at this stage give a 12 month report but I've only got just over 3 months at this stage to offer. 

I am trying to remain open to the idea of retaining/gaining muscle and losing fat and weight. The ideal is to continue gaining muscle while losing fat. I've never experienced this ability before now. It appears I am achieving this but it's still too early to tell. What I can say is my shirts are still tightish but my trouser waistline is definitely smaller.

Its very exciting really, I have to say.

Intermittent Fasting - Bodybuilder friendly

As the title implies, I've found the once a week restricted calorie day of 600 to 650 very effective in preserving muscle.

Years of stripping the fat down with a simple cut back of calories has resulted in the same. I just get weaker and more scrawny. 

I'm a big believer of sustainable bodybuilding. So I usually only go in once a week. At the moment I'm getting good results with rotating things on each of those workouts so that primary and secondary muscle use in exercises are worked in each workout.

As an example yesterday I did single dumbbell pullovers on a prone bench laying length ways. This works the chest quite a bit, Intercostals, Primarily Triceps, Abs, shoulders, back. Its a wonderful exercise really. But its a bit intense on shoulders and elbows. So by doing it once every two weeks, it keeps its momentum but doesn't cause too much overwork on one angle.

I've found that as I'm on an up cycle at the moment(increasing weights week by week) I'm getting growth spurts that exceed the fat loss for the week. The end result is a weight gain or a weight stabilisation.

I will know more after trialing this for 6 months and a year. Its only 3 months so far. I've had some winter blues of flu and low energy as well within that 3 months. But currently on my consistent training cycle of 4 weeks I'm feeling really confident about the results.

Depending on one's goal, a slow process of fat-burn and muscle retention is best served one day a week calorie restriction. 

I'm also keen to stay within my preferred bodyfat levels all year round. No more 'bulking up'. Its not always been intentional either. I find if I get a good run with my training I sometimes eat a bit more to compensate for the heavier weights lifted.

Now I can still go with those extra calorie eating days knowing that once a week I take care of any fat gain for that week. This just leaves the muscle growth for the week. 

I've now appeared to have gone off ice-cream.... So that's another dessert off my menu. 

I'll take another set of photos at the end of the month. If there is any change then I'll put them up. The first set were taken at a body weight of 76kg.

Like I said earlier, if one finds that a really tough workout requires more calories over the course of the recovery days then one can go with that.

I don't think its necessary to eat more for the sake of eating more though. This is where I feel doing a once a week Restricted Fast gets one in touch with appetite and food choices.

As a bodybuilder, there really needs to be a time when we decide that we want to look our best. Constant growth cycles end up making us look chunky and unfit. Personally I promised myself I would look my best at 50+. So I'm now delivering on that promise.

I trained under Reg Park in Johannesburg in 1984-85. With his yorkshire accent he used to call me 'Kung-fu Charlie". He told me that if I want to get anywhere with the weights I'd have to give up the kung fu. At that time I was obsessed with Wing-chun with Leo Sebrets. So I gave it up for about 18 months(weights). 

Intermittent Fasting - The Discipline

I'm a bit of a fan of Discipline really. Its the backbone of a successful life. 

My decision to overeat happened in my early thirties due to an obsession with bodybuilding. I read an article about gaining size, naturally without drugs. The downside to this was it started the journey of yoyo weight for the next 20 years. I never went over a stone in weight gain.

Each year I would slim down and get into a decent shape but lose the bulk of the muscle I'd gained. The whole thing eventually became time to decide whether I want to be lean, slim and scrawny, or a bit more chunky and muscular looking more like a out of season bodybuilder. 

I'd usually be one end of the spectrum or the other for a few months at a time. 

One of my primary fat-burning exercises was running. However, I unfortunately developed what a call chicken leg syndrome. This is where the knee feels unsupported and wants to keep extending back like a chicken. Plus a lack of support down the side. So after many failed attempts to cure it I gave up for about 9 years(see my barefoot running blog about over-coming this). During this same period I developed a problem with a muscle that attached to the forearm and bicep. It became a re-occurring injury. With additional injuries to shoulder, chest and lower back, my weight training took a big dive too. 

The upside to this downside was I poured a lot of my energy into Tai Chi. Which resulted in some new discoveries and methods for teaching from a beginner level.

So getting back to the discipline of Intermittent fasting. 

There can be no doubt that anyone who undertakes this restricted eating day will need to get re-acquainted with their own self-discipline.

Firstly, one will discover just how often we reach for food in a given day. Or it could be tea or coffee with sugar and milk. Or some alcoholic beverage. Or a sugary fizzy drink.

On this day that's pretty much all gone. As a guy 600-650 calories are reached very quickly. 500-550 cal for a women is also reached very quickly. 

So firstly one needs to be aware of everything that passes into your body. We do this extra eating with limited awareness during our normal eating days. Up to the point of never having to restrict your food, awareness is very limited. 

You'll get back in touch with your hunger. If you pace it right usually that can be managed till around 11 at night. I found my rhythm requires a second top up around 17.00. I then have to have something at 19.00. 

I switched to black coffee. Mainly decaf. I went down to half a spoon with instant decaf and one shot at Costa. I also went with sparkling water. I now add more still water. 

Once you've had several weeks of doing this amount of Discipline you are building up a new skill. During the eating days you'll see that you could tighten up between meals and go for 4-5 hour stretches of having nothing between meals. Even milk in the drinks stops the fat-burning process. I've switched to black coffee between meals and no extras. If I want a sweet it is included in the main meal.

What I am looking for in my changes is a willingness to change. Its always more permanent if one is drawn to making the change. That's what I believe is the great thing about this type of diet. You are not thrashing yourself trying to do it day in day out. That's not natural. But if you decide that actually that regular Friday end of day cake treat at Costa(guilty) is not only almost a days calories from a fasting day, but you really now feel its empty calories you don't need. That's a positive self-driven change.

The other observation I made is I have a gorging and snacking on the Internet, or TV programs, when I should rather concentrate on finishing some business work. So I have introduced Internet fasting hours too. 

I recently purchased an ACUS 15.6" laptop icore 5, 1 terabyte storage, 6 gig memory, aluminum casing, at 2.3kg in weight. So now its become more portable. With its 4 hour battery range its like a giant netbook only weighing 1kg more. I can do my video editing on it without a problem. So those downtimes between appointments I can catch up on my editing work.

To be honest my existing laptop of 18.3 " was next to useless to do video editing of HD Files. But at a weight of 4.5kg and its size it was more like a desktop than a laptop. Totally unportable. It was really by chance that I introduced the taking it everywhere policy on the new ASUS laptop. But it makes sense. Those little 90 minutes here and there soon add up.

So to conclude the Discipline you learn from your IF days carry over to other areas of your life. Awareness is really heightened. I can understand why in religion it is a chosen method to heighten focus and discipline. One day a week is really possible to do. I find on my IF days that I get a lot of work done. Snacking is distracting, and one can lose the flow of what you're doing. Taking proper, limited meals a day improves that working flow. Also to say no in a cafe is much easier now. You've developed an inner strength and also an increased awareness of your decisions.

Intermittent Fasting - the detox

One of the primary reasons I decided to commit myself to Intermittent Fasting is the Detox benefits I'd read about.

I've felt for quite a while that my whole system would benefit from a fast on a regular basis. I was hoping to target Arthritis, Blood sugar drops, Rest my liver and other organs, Have my body cannibalise any damaged cells, rest my digestive system and whatever else might benefit.

One thing I noticed after a month was that my body sweat returned to what I regard as normal. Usually a day of teaching ended up with a need to change a shirt midday. I had to stay away from certain materials. When  I filmed, long sleeved tops lasted 15 minutes!!

So I was really impressed that at the end of a day my shirt still smelt fresh. It was exactly the sort of thing that confirmed my feeling. I was toxic. The system was not getting a chance to rest because of continuous consuming of calories.

Now I know stools are a sort of taboo subject, but to be honest its a very graphic way to realise all is well or not well within our systems.

This too changed dramatically. I don't really want to expose myself too openly but suffice to say I've noticed some real changes in that area.

I feel stools are really a great measure of your health.

Moving swiftly along.....

So when I recently bought some new long sleeved tops I was very impressed that they lasted an entire day while filming indoors. I thought that perhaps I was emitting some sort of chemical because of the pressure to get the shot right or something. But it seems I was just too toxic.

Also one's breath can also be a good indicator. Personally it seems that that too has changed completely.

The Arthritis is much more stable now. If I overdo it with sugars, Alcohol, spicy food, too many tomato dishes then after a day it plays up. In fact I can feel this acid like feeling run through either my thighs or forearms.

I've some views on Arthritis. It all started improving once I saw a Naturopath. He explained that Sugar caused 90% of the problem. Through trials on my own I fully agree with that after nearly 8 years since seeing him. Its the hidden sugars in Alcohol as well. Acidic Drinks like Cider are the worst for me.

As this is slightly off topic and I don't really have enough time on my Intermittent trial to say if its dramatically improved or not, I'll continue for about year.