If you’ve been in this game long enough, you’ve probably heard about a nutrition approach called intermittent fasting (IF). While the verdict is still out on whether it’s actually a superior approach to smaller, more frequent meals, there is no doubt that people are using IF with tons of success. I decided to contact Martin Berkhan, a guy who has been in the trenches utilizing IF for years, not only on his clients but on himself as well. I’ve been to his website and have read his various contributions on the EliteFTS site, but I wanted to get a little more in depth with it. If you’ve ever spoken to Martin, you’ll know that he doesn’t sugar coat things or beat around the bush. And that’s what I was hoping for.
TF: Tell us about yourself, Martin. Who are you? And for the sake of this being an interview on nutrition, what’s your favorite food?
MB: I’m a nutritional consultant, personal trainer, and writer. I have a blog at www.leangains.com, where I post client updates and various articles related to nutrition, research, training, and of course, intermittent fasting. I earned a bachelor’s degree in medical sciences and education with a major in public health sciences.
My favorite food is without a doubt cheesecake. Or maybe a big steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. I’m a simple man with simple needs.
TF: I’m going to cut right to the chase and ask what I’m sure everyone is wondering—what the hell is intermittent fasting?
MB: Intermittent fasting is a pattern of eating where you alternate between periods of fasting and feeding. Fasting in this context basically means no calorie consumption. Water, coffee, and other non-caloric beverages are allowed in unlimited amounts. I’m also not the type to be too obsessive about this, so I use about 40–50 kcal worth of milk for my coffee. On my regimen, the fast is 16 hours and the feeding window is eight hours. Look around and you’ll find a few other approaches. Some suggest a 19-hour fast while others suggest two, 24-hour fasts twice weekly. The Leangains approach was developed with the athlete and weight trainer in mind. The eight-hour feeding window allows proper pre- and post-workout nutrition and it’s easy to adhere to. In practical terms, you might break the fast with a pre-workout meal at 1:00–2:00 p.m., train a few hours later, have a big post-workout meal, and then have a final meal at 9:00–10:00 p.m.
TF: How did you stumble upon this?
MB: Well I struggled for a long time trying to find a dietary regimen that I could maintain in the long term. The “six meals a day” approach just didn’t cut it for me. It made cutting a chore, and I found that a “nibbling” approach did more to trigger my appetite compared to not eating at all. On a diet, I would be miserable and on a bulk, I’d just get too fat too fast and start cutting again. So one day I just said fuck it, and I started eating according to my natural preferences, which was skipping breakfast and eating when I got hungry around noon. It worked surprisingly well, and I got very lean without any big effort. I also maintained strength and muscle very well, which I attributed to the particular pattern of the meals. The diet is set up to have the greatest caloric load in the post-workout window to aid in recovery and growth.
Because this worked so well, I started looking into the research behind many of the nutritional myths out there. The reason I ate every second to third hour before was because it was supposed to be good for you. It turned out that was a bunch of nonsense. For example, nothing indicates that a high meal frequency is better in terms of metabolism, anabolism, or any other of the touted benefits so common in the fitness media.
On the other hand, daily fasting seemed to have real benefits, which is what got me really hooked on the concept. So I started to experiment a bit, and I tried the approach with clients. Fast forward a few years and here I am. I’m now writing a book about the science behind intermittent fasting and my approach, and I’ve had numerous successful clients transform their physiques with daily fasting.
TF: What are some of the benefits of IF compared to high frequency meals?
MB: First of all, it’s very practical. You eat when you eat, and when you eat, you eat big. There isn’t any need to carry around protein shakes or Tupperware containers with food everywhere you go. It’s also a great way to diet without feeling constantly deprived because you get to eat large and satisfying meals. And contrary to what most people believe before trying it, fasting is very easy. Your appetite is blunted for most of the time, so it isn’t like you’re starving during the fast.
There’s also a range of mental and physiological benefits unique to fasting such as improved insulin sensitivity, increased growth hormone output, and increased mental alertness as well as cardiovascular and neuro-protective benefits. The nutrient partitioning benefits of eating most of your calories in the post-workout period should also be emphasized.
TF: Ok, this flies in the face of everything we’ve been told—breakfast is the most important meal; more frequent feedings “stoke the metabolic furnace;” your body can only handle so much food at once; large meals cause your body to store more fat. How do you respond to something like that?
MB: It’s a bunch of nonsense, but I’m frankly too tired to address those myths again at the moment. I’ve written about meal frequency, breakfast, and all those issues at my blog if anyone is interested in finding out how and why people came to believe all of that.
TF: Fair enough. And this is an approach you can use indefinitely?
MB: Of course. I’ve found that most people never go back to their old eating habits once they try intermittent fasting.
TF: I’ve seen the testimonials and case studies on your website, LeanGains.com, and I’ve got to say, the results are very impressive. Hell, everyone on there gets lean as hell, and from the sound of it, they also gain strength while losing fat. There’s a picture of you and your laser vision (literally) tearing through a massive cheesecake! Hey, I love cheesecake just as much as the next guy, but does it really have a place in a fat loss diet? I’m going to assume that you don’t recommend shit food, right?
MB: Well, I don’t eat cheesecake every day, nor do I believe such foods should be a staple during a fat loss phase. However, including small treats now and then is certainly beneficial during cutting—mainly mental benefits because you won’t crave what isn’t forbidden. They can also be used favorably in the context of a post-workout meal. Here’s where I think intermittent fasting comes in handy because it’s easy to fit treats into your meal plan without breaking the calorie budget so to speak. Considering that a post-workout meal on my approach can reach 1500–2000 calories even during fat loss, it isn’t hard to include a piece of cheesecake, some ice cream, or any other treat you may crave.
TF: Are you more of a low fat/high carb or higher fat/low carb kind of a guy?
MB: Both. I cycle carbs and fat so that carbs are typically higher on training days while fat is kept low and vice versa for rest days. This will get you the best of both worlds because carbs are more beneficial before and after intense activity.
TF: Can a very overweight person utilize this approach? I mean isn’t this the way Americans typically eat? We’re fat as hell!
MB: I would say it works very well for the overweight. If you look at my clients, you’ll see that quite a few people with a high initial body fat percentage have used the approach to lean down. I’ve found that many overweight men and women have no problems going without food for prolonged periods of time, but when they eat, they like to eat big. Therefore, intermittent fasting tends to fit them very well indeed. It’s certainly not comparable to the way Americans eat. Skipping breakfast and eating junk for the rest of the day will get you fat. That’s a no brainer, so don’t even get me started on that.
TF: What about someone with diabetes?
MB: Absolutely. Look around the net and you’ll find tons of success stories from diabetics using intermittent fasting to improve their condition. I’ve had a few diabetic clients myself, and there’s a post on my blog detailing one diabetic guy’s experience with my protocol. It’s just an issue of the client/individual being able to know the proper insulin dosage for the feedings.
TF: Now you eat all of your calories in the eight-hour window following your workout, which falls later in the day, correct?
MB: Yes but you could work out any time during the day and then have your eight-hour feeding window after your workout.
TF: What about the person who needs to workout in the morning before work, kids, family, and traffic? Is this simply not the approach for them?
MB: Try it and you’ll soon figure that out by yourself. However, for clients working out in the early morning, I may approach the issue a bit differently. That is I might not go with an eight-hour feeding window directly post-workout. But what I’m doing more specifically, I’ll save for the book.
TF: Let’s talk fat loss versus muscle gain for a second. This thing obviously works very well for anyone interested in leaning up, losing weight, dropping fat, or whatever. What about the strength athlete—the guy or gal looking for a little muscle gain? Is this still something they can use?
MB: Of course. But people with very high calorie requirements and weak appetites should stay the hell away because they might find it hard to get the right amount of calories in the feeding window. That’s really the only issue I’ve encountered. However, besides that, it works very well for muscle gaining. It’s particularly well suited for folks who would prefer a slow and qualitative type of weight gain—lean gains (that is muscle and not much, if any, fat).
TF: Switching gears, what kind of training do you recommend for this type of diet? Tons of cardio? High volume routines?
MB: That’s way too general of a question to answer rightfully, but I’m no fan of excesses. My clients don’t really spend a lot of time on the treadmill or in the gym. Fat loss is mainly managed by diet, not cardio, and my weight training routines emphasize intensity over volume.
TF: I read that you’re experimenting with a high training frequency right now. Without letting too much out of the bag, can you tell us what you’re hoping to find? Are you attempting hypertrophy, fat loss, recomposition, or strength?
MB: Yes, I’m actually through with my experiment, and I’ve learned quite a few things that I’m now applying to my clients. The high frequency routine was a deviation from my regular low frequency/low volume/high intensity style of training, and it was very successful in that it managed to expand my thinking and take my lifts to a new level. I got a bit stronger and probably gained a few ounces of muscle, which I’m quite happy with considering my advanced training status and relatively slow rate of progress at this stage.
TF: I’m not going to lie. One of the benefits for me would be a psychological thing. I love to eat. Dieting sucks because you’re always hungry. That’s a major reason people fail, right?
MB: That’s true. That’s how I kept failing at the conventional “six meals a day” diets I used to do back in the days. For me, discovering intermittent fasting was truly the Holy Grail in that regard. You’ll still be hungry from time to time, but on the other hand, you get to eat until you’re satisfied when you eat. When I was constantly fixated on eating every second to third hour like I used to do on the diets I did back in the days, I was pretty much semi-hungry all the time. I was miserable and always waiting on my next meal.
TF: You mentioned that you’ve been working on a few books. Can you share any information about them or is it “top secret, hush hush” kind of stuff?
MB: I’m working on two books that will be out this year. The first book is about my approach to intermittent fasting, and the second book is a book that will feature me, Lyle McDonald, Alan Aragon, and Borge Fagerli. I can’t say too much about the latter except that we’ll cover a bit about our different approaches to body recomposition.
TF: Where would someone go if they wanted to read more about you, Leangains, and intermittent fasting or if they simply wanted to try your approach?
MB: Check out my site at www.leangains.com.
TF: Thanks for taking the time to clarify some stuff for us.
MB: No problem, Tony.
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Tony Falaro is the owner of AST Gym (authenticstg.blogspot.com), a small warehouse based gym in Santa Fe Springs, California. His clients range from high school athletes to working men and women who want to get strong and healthy but don’t have the patience for gimmicky programs and trainers in spandex. Tony received his bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from Cal State University, Fullerton. 
I’ve heard of IF but I’ve never really given it much merit. I spent some time on leansgains.com and am very interested in trying this in the future. I have a few questions however.
Martin,
1. How do clients respond to jumping into IF from normal high frequency diets, particularly jumping from breakfast to no breakfast? I’m typically very hungry in the morning and on days that I’ve had the misfortune to skip breakfast, I’ve felt very lethargic.
2. Do you recommend steady state cardio during the fasted morning?
3. I guess coffee or another stimulant would be very helpful during the fasted period but when it comes to working out (after work 9am-5pm, 2 preworkout meals) do you feel run down without a preworkout stimulant?
Thanks for any help. I enjoyed reading your site (your writing speaks to me), and am looking forward to reading more and following your work.
this sounds like the warrior diet. the book was good and brought up a lot of good points just like the article
Martin,
Do you have links/citations to the scientific articles? I’m in medical school and we’re constantly bombarded with the whole anabolic/catabolic processes with shifts in glucagon/insulin, glycogenisis/olysis and all that stuff. The idea of IF is fascinating, but it’d be nice to the research. I know that ketogensis really doesn’t kick in for 24ish hours or until glycogen reserves are depleted, so it does seem logical that periods of fasting wouldn’t be horrendous for you. It would also make my life easier since I tend to forget to eat for long periods of time while studying.
Danny,
1. Generally speaking, people adapt fast. Some will not have any issues skipping breakfast from day one. For most people it might take three to five days.
2. Depends on your definition of steady state. I usually recommend non-exhaustive activities such as brisk walking for 45-75 mins to increase energy expenditure. Longer duration steady state cardio in the form of running, rowing or what have you, tends to interfere with anaerobic performance which is why I’m not too fond of it.
3. No.
In the beginning of the millenium I was doing the daytime fasting in warrior diet style. Man it sucked balls, I was ravenous hungry through the day all the time. I didn’t get super lean, I did gain some weight though (muscle and fat). I did this for many months.
There’s a merit to not being full of food all the time though. I’m on the velocity diet at the moment and will propably try doing only protein shakes for lunch and afternoon for a while, just with a good breakfast and a good dinner after training. I hate that drowsiness after daytime meals, and it doesn’t happen with the protein/fiber/fat shakes. But no all out fasting for me again, thanks.
This appears similar to The Warrior Diet, which was labeled as crazy when it came out but this type of eating is getting more popular. I’ve followed it in the past and felt free from having to plan multiple daily meals.
Isn’t this also similar to what Crossfit follows…The Paleo Diet?
@Osmosis
Cheesecake and mashed potatoes are paleo?
I think you might be confusing Martin’s system (and IFing) with diets that I believe miss the point and focus on food types (or food morality…).
Great interview.. I follow Intermittent fasting myself, and are very pleased. Really looking forward to your books Martin.. :-)
Crap!
@ Matt M.
Go to his website (leangains.com) and hover over “categories” and click on research.
@ Article
This seems pretty cool. I did this when I first started actually being active because I just wasn’t hungry. I probably lost more fat then than I ever have. Beginner’s adaptation probably has a lot to do with it, but I think I’ll give this ago on my next cut. It always seemed natural to just eat when I’m hungry. Hmm..
IF sounds awesome. But what about those who usually train late at night. I generally train around 8-8:30pm and I’m in bed by 11 at the latest.
@Jerad,
You could have your feeding window start earlier.(start at 4,7,10 or smthing?, you try it out)..
I personally prefer having my breakfast(so my wo are scheduled around that time) and then fast from 4 or 5..
But when going out, and all, the other way would be more convenient, so am trying to switch..
I’d like to hear what Wendler has to say about this type of Diet and 5/3/1. I personally haven’t tried this diet approach but plan to. I don’t like to Judge or critique until I try it.
Martin – how would this work with a split training regimine? I usually do up to an hour of cardio in the early morning (4am – 5am), and then train again in the afternoon (3pm). The afternoon session is strenth training and/or cardio. I tend to retire early in the evening too (by 9pm most nights).
With such a long gap between sessions I am curious as to when to start the feeding phase?
Assuming eight hours of sleep per day, cutting the available feeding window in half—from sixteen hours to eight—is not really a big deal. In fact, the way that many people implement IF, it’s actually just a version of the same multiple-meal plan that has been around for many years. Eating five smaller meals, spaced two hours apart, would be completely within an eight-hour feeding protocol.
As a way of indulging a preference for eating larger meals, IF is fine, especially for people who are smaller and/or do not need many thousands of calories per day in a bulking phase. But in my client experience, most people prefer to eat more often, regardless of their mass or caloric status, because of better management of hunger, blood sugar, stomach fullness, and job/workout timing.
Markus (comments above) makes some reasonable points – although the approach alluded to in the interview is genuine intermittent fasting – but it is very close to what most people do (people who eat frequent meals). Most people who don’t consider their diet to be fasting-based eat across a 10-12 hour window – so 8 hours is barely entering the realms of intermittent fasting (and also for that reason, an 8 hour eating window is not as effective for calorie restriction as a 19-21 hour one). Calorie restriction is the main benefit of intermittent fasting for fat loss.
The reason why 8 hours is probably working so well for Martin Berkhan and his clients is that they do regular ‘fasted training’ – training at the end of fasts, so that the body is driven largely by the remaining glycogen stored in the liver and muscles and by the fat stores. ‘Fasted training’ is extremely effective for burning fat, if you know what to do – which he obviously does.
Back to Markus’ comments above – his assertions about hunger, blood sugar, stomach fullness and workout timing are not valid – with regard to intermittent fasting. I personally prefer to use much more ‘extreme’ versions of intermittent fasting than the one promoted in this article (such as one big meal per day, or alternate day fasting, etc) with fasts of 19 to 30 hours duration (based on whether it’s daily or alternate daily fasting) and none of the issues suggested above really apply.
You don’t get hungrier (hunger is pretty much the same, regardless of your meal frequency – and much of the adaptation to fasting is psychological, as well as physical), your blood sugars fluctuate less (rather than more) under these fasting regimes (there are ways to ensure this is the case and genuine (clinically measured) hypoglycemia is not generally possible for a healthy, non-diabetic person who does not use insulin.
I hope that perspective is of help. Because the intermittent fasting system is not as mainstream as eating numerous tiny meals (and fighting your appetite all day and all night) many people just won’t believe it’s possible. Like the article above said, most people who implement intermittent fasting properly never look back. It’s simply more natural and our bodies are designed to function that way. But you need to experience it to understand it, if you are brainwashed into thinking the body cannot go for more than 3 hours without eating up its own muscles.
The biggest complaint I get from people who follow my advice on intermittent fasting is that they are disappointed by how slowly they start to lose weight – especially at the beginning. The body does not self destruct after a few hours without food. In fact, I have yet to see someone who exercises and uses intermittent fasting consistently who has a lower than expected muscle mass.
Hi Martin, if you come on the site, I just want to let you know that I’ve been following your approach for the last year. it’s certainly easier to comply with the diet with big meals.
My question for you is: would the approach of eating the SAME amount of calories spread throughout the waking hours as when you’re on the IF approach yield the same results? Sometimes, I break my fast at 10am instead of my usual 12 noon but still spread my calories throughout the day so I’m still eating dinner at 7pm, as on the normal 12 noon days.
This has been a pressing problem for me for quite some time. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
@ Idai:
My comments about “better management of hunger, blood sugar, stomach fullness, and job/workout timing” with multiple feedings throughout the day are absolutely valid—for the majority of trainees. These factors may not apply to you, since you admit that “much of the adaptation to fasting is psychological”. But when measured in a clinical environment they do apply to most people.
You misunderstand the point about eating smaller meals every 2-5 hours or so. This practice is not used because, as you stated, people “are brainwashed into thinking the body cannot go for more than 3 hours without eating up its own muscles.” It is used for two basic reasons:
1. People who train intensely to retain muscle mass while trying to lose bodyfat generally find it difficult and counterproductive to go long periods without eating. The maintenance of a steadier metabolic rate, hunger level, and blood sugar level is simply easier for dieters eating 3-6 meals per day.
2. People needing to eat thousands of calories per day in order to gain muscle mass generally find it difficult to eat that much in one meal. Thus their meal-frequency preferences have nothing to do with a worry about losing muscle tissue within a couple of hours.
The bottom line still remains that, as you agreed, eating multiple meals in 8 hours is not really a big deal when compared to eating multiple meals in 16 hours. People who have a primary interest in caloric restriction may be able to function well by eating one meal every 19-30 hours, since that is simply a lifestyle choice. But no one who has a primary interest in optimizing muscle and strength growth would choose such an eating plan.
Markus,you state that to “retain muscle mass while trying to lose bodyfat generally”..people “find it difficult and counterproductive to go long periods without eating”. Some may find it difficult, as not eating might be a difficult habit to break, particularly with so many social and physical cues around us seemingly directing us to eat, regardless of true hunger (a sensation most people rarely seem to experience these days due to our western world’s “obesity epidemic”)- lunch breaks at work, watching/seeing others around you snacking etc. However I fail to see how it might be counter productive. Eating when its unnecessary to do so is only productive of fat!! Not eating throughout the day can be liberating. No thinking what am I going to eat/what should I eat for breakfast/lunch etc, no planning/portioning/carrying containers to/from work. Plus you get more done. Use your lunch breaks to make phone calls to friends, pay bills, read the paper, reply to emails, whatever.
Also, IF isn’t just for a “primary interest in caloric restriction”, those who have a “primary interest in optimizing muscle and strength growth” definitely use IF of 20-24hrs with great success. Just check out Brad Pillon, both his book and his own pictures. He explains the biochemical science behind it also.
Although IF of any type can help maximise fat loss due to caloric management that seems to suit some people (IF can also help with minimizing the psychological difficulties of a “standard”calorie restrictive diet, as the meals you eat are generous and “normal”), with some biochemical advantages not available to standard 4-6 meal-a-day eating, in the end most experts agree it really is just a matter of calories in vs out, and that you cannot out train a bad diet!
p.s also worth checking out Rusty Moore’s blog :-www.blackbookfitness.com. He give great advice on different aspects of training/nutrition, and has some great contributors/associates.
Pretty good going, I’m going to post a quote of your content on my site (with a link back). I hope that’s ok?
@ Anna:
1. Pointing out that many people do not profit from IF does not mean that it is an undesirable practice for everyone. Someone who prefers to eat once per day is not threatened by the others who prefer to manage their diets with more than one meal per day. Too many IF fans seem to think that it is a quasi-religious movement, as if everyone should be practicing it. In fact, there is disagreement even within the IF community, with some people saying that one meal every 24-36 hours is best, and others saying that multiple small meals within an 8-hour window is best.
Pilon has written that for the past three years he has fasted only “once or twice a week.” So there obviously is no specific eating plan that is “the best” for everyone, and there obviously is no inherent inferiority in eating more frequently throughout the day, despite what people selling e-books about IF want us to believe.
2. A common focus of Elite FTS readers is exactly what I wrote: “optimizing muscle and strength growth”. That means gaining as much strength and muscle as possible for a powerlifter’s or bodybuilder’s or high-level athlete’s training phases. Such people do not fast, for the reasons that I mentioned above. This is backed up by what Pilon has written in his blog: “Did fasting make me stronger? I highly doubt it…But I know one thing: fasting didn’t suck all of the strength out of my body.” However, it goes without saying that not having the strength sucked out of one’s body is not the standard used for competitive lifters and bodybuilders and athletes.
For a person who needs 5000-10,000 kcals per day, eating all of that in one meal is going to be counterproductive. Those who use IF certainly can maintain or gain some strength, depending on the parameters of their eating schedules, but that is not the type of maximal result I referred to.
3. Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat e-book may seem to have an impressive amount of references, but once you actually check them out you find that many of them are misleading and do not support his conclusions. The religious references, for example, might make for interesting sociological phenomena, but they have nothing to do with scientific research into fasting. Similarly, Pilon quotes from a range of people whose views are irrelevant to IF, such as Paul Campos (who is a lawyer and not a scientist) and Brian Wansink (who is a researcher in food marketing).
One referenced study was done to determine the effect of diet alone in improving metabolic risk factors in obese women, compared to diet plus exercise—it had nothing to do with fasting. Another study compared the energy expenditures of lean young men injected with GH and similar men receiving a placebo—again, nothing to do with fasting. “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” is but one of many books that Pilon says influenced his recommendations, yet also do not support fasting.
Pilon also gets a few physiological facts wrong: the thermic effect of protein is not 10% of kcals, as he claims; metabolism is indeed affected by food intake, despite his claim to the contrary; the body does not switch from a fed state to a fasted state as distinctly as he claims, since it can take more than 24 hours for complete digestion to occur for some foods.
Therefore, much of the “biochemical science” that you mentioned is not actually supportive of Pilon’s contention.
4. Many IF fans refer frequently to a supposed “obsession” with food on the part of people who eat multiple meals throughout the day. Yet eating more than once per day does not require an “obsession”, since the smaller nature of such meals means that they can consist of ingredients as easy to carry and eat as a nonfat plain yogurt, nuts, and an apple.
The misunderstanding on this issue that many IF proponents have is related to their own previous obsessions with calculating precisely scheduled meals down to the last calorie and gram of protein. Of course, this process is not really necessary to begin with, and such people who have tired of it often have merely developed a strong desire instead to eat only large meals, as Berkhan has written. But in its own way, this preference can be just as “obsessive”. As Pilon states in his book, “The key to making ‘Eat Stop Eat’ work for you is self-control.” That control is not necessarily less demanding with IF. I have seen some clients experience serious hunger problems under different sorts of fasting regimens, and their obsessions with making it to the next feeding are no less severe.
My original contention was simply that IF is not that big a deal, especially since so many people already practice a form of it by going 10-12 hours without eating, between dinner one night and breakfast the next morning. IF has been around for a long time, and there is a resultantly broad range of ways to implement it. Berkhan’s recommendation allows up to five meals per day, two hours apart; Pilon’s is to go 24 hours without eating, perhaps once per week. Neither of these is demonstrably superior from a clinical perspective, nor are they scientifically superior to a diet that includes multiple meals per day. IF may well be a preferable practice for some people, and that is perfectly good, but preference is not the same as a clinically proven advantage or necessity.
I’ve been looking into IF and I have developed kind of a routine based on some things I have read – mainly the minium of 16 hours of fast time between my last meal of the day and my first meal the next day, but I still haven’t seen the issue of night workouts addressed. I work out at night – sometimes pretty late – not necessarily by choice, but because that’s what my schedule allows. So, this is my modification of IF, but I don’t know if it will work based upon the “rules” about IF I have read thus far.
I get up, go about my morning routine and day, I drink between 2-3 cups of coffee in the morning with light creamer and stevia based sweetener. I eat for the first time between 10:00 and noon, and I typically eat fairly lean but healthy meals high in protein, and if I get hungry along the way, I eat something sensible. I eat my last meal as a family meal between 5:00 and 6:00 pm – again, a sensible meal – usually 1 portion each, protein, carbs and veggies.
My workout comes anywhere between 8:00 and 10:00 pm, and I take BCAAs both before and after my workout, and then I go to bed. I do not eat a post workout meal. Wash, rinse, repeat for the next day.
I realize that this isn’t the prescribed method for IF, but it still seems to be working. I’ve lost size off of my waist, my abs are starting to poke through, and my arms are bigger and more solid than they have ever been. Oh, and I turned 40 about two weeks ago.
So, is this approach I use with a nightime workout a viable approach? Like I said, it seems to be working even though it’s not following the program to the letter.
Patrick, I’ve been doing IF for about 2 months now, only having started a weight training workout in the past 3 weeks (I’m a drummer who practices every day, but wanted to incorporate weights into my routine to improve my speed & coordination with the instrument). My IF eating window is exactly the same as yours, as I follow the natural rhythms of my body. I’ve never been one to be hungry for at least a couple of hours after I wake, & I tend to get hungry from 10.30 am forwards. Unlike other IFers who seem to enjoy going to bed on a full stomach, I actually prefer sleeping on an empty stomach (& have discovered that I sleep better this way since incorporating IF into my regime), so I find having my final meal around 6pm is no issue.
I’m yet to try fasted weight training, though will be attempting it as of this week. My drum practice falls within my eating window for convenience, plus I have found drumming empty tends to leave me dizzy & nauseous after a while (I have a gastrointestinal issue that prevents me from eating foods high in carbs & sugar, so high-carb refeeds are just out of question for me, as it causes a lot of health complaints). Despite this, in the 3 weeks since I’ve started to add weight training to my routine, I’m starting to see physical changes. But the biggest change for me is the improvement of stamina & strength on the kit (& improvement on my control of the double-kick pedal – I play metal!), which, for me, is the main importance here.
So I figure, if that eating window is working for you (you state you have seen progress), I don’t see any problem with sticking to it. It just seems to be the 16-8 ratio that is to be implemented. I know that I’ve tried to hold out till 2pm for my first meal, but unlike other people, I find myself thinking of nothing BUT food if I force myself to hold out for that long. But doing the 10am-6pm leaves my evenings free to just spend time with my boyfriend & relax. & I don’t nag myself about food as well.
I don’t mean to be overtly rude, but while the guy is definitely lean as hell, he just doesn’t have the fullness or quality that you see from guys using more traditional dieting.
It may be down to training, lack of foundational strength work or his body type in general but I tend to think not. Looking at the face, the cheek bones seem hollow and it almost looks anorexic except there is muscle all over his body… It’s very strange and I wouldn’t use this type of diet unless I was looking for radical fat loss and even then I wouldn’t do it for the entire length of said fat loss diet.
Not as full? Cheekbones? I bet you aren’t very full compared to him. He’s not trying to be “full” or bulky. You’re also not taking into account genetics. Some people just look more full than others. And cheekbones? You must be a troll for P90x.
Markus:
Though your comment is from 2010…I thought I should address the fact you think Martin is pushing a “one meal” approach. This is false…you can eat as many meals as you would like within the 8 hour eating window to reach your desired caloric intake. Martin eats 3 I believe. I have been IF’ing for months and I use a 3-4 meal approach.
Ryan D.:
Though your comment is from August 17th… I thought i should address the fact that you think Markus is thinking Martin is pushing a “one meal” approach. THIS IS FALSE!
Martin’s approach is phenomenal! I am a Fitness Athlete form Cape Town, South Africa and I have been an Iintermittent Faster LeanGains Aproach athlete since February. I would recommend this approach to any athlete/non-athlete out there. I will never go back to eating breakfast, EVER! I have found the calorie deficit created during the fast plus the added benefits of hormonal entrainmnet (GH) and the dietry compliance achieved with this style of eating surpass any other style or approach to weightloss/mass gain. Both can be achieved simulatenously and with dietry ease! Love it.
His site is great and I’ve been on leangains for almost 12 weeks now. I started with re-composition and then switched to fat loss in terms of diet, working out 4 days a week. I’ve been making steady strength gains, while slowly and gradually losing body fat. It would be great though, if he finally released those books he mentions in the article. He shares more than only a name with George R. Martin…