For years....decades even, bodybuilding told us that multiple small meals throughout the day was the most efficient way to build the physique of your dreams. That concept, along with many other well-established concepts were completely turned on their heads once intermittent fasting hit the scene. Almost every dietary protocol used by natural bodybuilders was reversed or completely re-worked with intermittent fasting protocol.
Intermittent fasting is a dietary technique in which a person does not eat any calories or almost no calories for prolonged amounts of time (literally a fast). Once they have finished fasting, they "break" the fast by eating all of their daily calories within a given "eating window".
Source: blogspot.com
The idea behind intermittent fasting has been played around in bodybuilding circles before, but has recently seen increased popularity from Martin Berkhan's "Leangains" website (www.leangains.com).
I've tried intermittent fasting before, and so I can offer what I experienced while on it, as well as the pros and cons that I think come along with this way of dieting.
Some of the theories surrounding intermittent fasting are:
* When fasting, your body has no other source of energy to use than your fat stores due to a lack of food to break down. Prolonging the amount of time your body is in a fasted state prolongs the amount of time your body will turn to fat for energy.
*While fasted, your body does not have the same amount of insulin floating around in response to food that would normally happen from constantly eating throughout the day (spiked insulin is thought ot be a bad thing to have during most parts of the day for muscle gains). Without an insulin spike from food, your body has a more beneficial hormone response, releasing growth hormone from lack of insulin (insulin and growth hormone are thought to be counterproductive to one another in bodybuilding).
*When training while fasted, your body will again turn to fat for energy, and burn it at a quicker pace in response to not having readily available energy from food.
Source: skinnymom.com
A general protocol for intermittent fasting is:
* Fast for 12, 16, 18, 20, or even 24 hours (this includes the time you sleep if you want it to). Nothing is eaten.....at all. No calorie foods like water, diet drinks, black coffee, and tea are acceptable during this fasted period. Note: those who fast for 24 hours do not do it every day of course. They usually atlernate days of eating and not eating.
* Once you've fasted for however long you wanted to, you take the remaining hours of your 24 day to eat all of the calories and macros you've calculated to be necessary for whatever your fitness goals are.
*BCAAs (Branched-Chain Amino Acids) may be consumed during your fasting window.
After your fast, you eat all of your calories for the day during a "feeding window"
Source: sunsetstation.sclv.com
That's pretty much the basics of IF. You eat all of your calories during your feeding window and don't eat ANYTHING during your fasting window.
IF actually has multiple studies indicating benefits of such a diet, such as on brain health and longevity of life. Systematic reviews even exist on the subject, which I was happy to see. If you would like to be pointed in the direction of some of these articles, I'd be happy to show you.
I've tried intermittent fasting before. I'm not sure I've ever been on it long enough for it to be super effective, but I've never, during my time on it, thought it was THAT much of a gamechanger. I will say this though: Intermittent fasting seems to work really well for certain people. If you are one of those people who loses weight very easily (ectomorphic), intermittent fasting seems to be a good choice when determining which diet is right for you.
Do I think IF is THE diet of all diets? No. I admit that many people have found success while on it, and I definitely think that IF had something to do with said success. However, it's important to keep in mind what other variables might be confounding one's conclusion that it was IF alone that made them find success. Perhaps restricting calories throughout most of the day and then trying to eat 3000+ calories over the course of a few hours skews the caloric abundance one would have from allowing themselves to eat throughout most of the day, i.e. they don't snack as much and go over their caloric maintenance for the day. Who's to say that someone actually sticks to eating ALL of that food in that window as well? I can tell you from experience that eating all of that food in such a short amount of time can make you feel full to the point where it is literally painful to move at all. I wonder if there are many times while one is on IF that they don't actually completely follow through with all of the calories they are supposed to eat and are therefore in a caloric deficit for the day. I could definitely be wrong though.
There's also the issue of whether or not you are able to properly function while on IF. While on IF, I found it extremely hard to focus at work and give 100% to what projects I had to work on and the workouts that I had later that night. My workouts dragged on and I didn't feel like I had enough gas in the tank to really push it to the limit with the weights.
Also, while on IF, I found that I was more likely to fall into cravings for junk foods. When your body is in a prolonged state of hunger, your mind's survival instinct kicks in and starts to make you crave foods you know would ruin your diet to a more intense level. Sweets and snacks started to look a LOT better and I craved them a lot more than I did when I was eating small meals throughout the day. So that's a pitfall to IF in my opinion.
Finally, while on IF I also found that it took a lot out of my day preparing 2700+ calories of food, eating the food, and then cleaning all of that up while still going to bed at a reasonable hour. It didn't fit into the lifestyle I currently have.
Honestly, I think that your body transformation success from a nutritional standpoint comes down to whether or not you're eating more energy than you take in. If you eat more energy than you use, it will be stored and vice versa. Whether you choose to eat those calories over 1 meal or 5, after fasting, before fasting, or throughout the day, I think it's all about what you need and how much of what you need you're eating. Food choice is also important. I find IF to be more of a tool for your diet rather than being the thing that the rest of your diet revolves around.
However, bodybuilding is very much a trial and error thing. Maybe you try intermittent fasting and you notice it fits perfectly into your lifestyle and you see amazing progress. A lot of people swear by it, and you might be one of those people. But do not think that it's THE diet that gives you the most success. While some people swear by it and might try to push you towards doing it, the best diet is the one that fits your lifestyle and mentality the best, and allows you to train the best.
-Jtrain
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