I'm a 30 year old male, 183cm tall, average muscle mass but larger than average frame. Two weeks ago, I started with 88.4kg, which is too much. My target weight is 80kg, which isn't slim, but puts me solidly into a normal body mass index and feels like an adequate weight for me.
The way to get me there is an intermittent fasting method called 10in2. It's very straightforward: one day you eat, one day you don't. You're allowed to eat whatever and how much you want, but only every other day. Every second day, you must not eat anything and are only allowed to drink water, tea, coffee without milk or sugar etc. This means that on the eating days, you'd have to consume around 4000 calories just to hold you weight, which you don't do, so you lose weight.
I already used this diet a couple years ago, losing 14kg in 4 or 5 months. Two friends of mine have had even more success. Now the time has come to do it again, although with a less ambitious target weight. Back then, I went down to 75kg, which is just not sustainable with my body type and lifestyle. 80kg is a much more realistic goal and a weight that I might keep for a while. So I need to lose 8.4kg, and I expect that to take around two months.
People often ask me how I do it. They think they could never go 36 hours without eating, they'd underperform or even break down on the fasting days, or they'd never accomplish that kind of willpower. It's really not an issue for me. Of course I get hungry on the fasting days, reaching a peak at around 4 or 5 pm, but it's no biggie. I can work, do sports, whatever (well, maybe not a 9 hour mountain hike). On the eating days, I eat a bit more than I normally would, but not excessively.
The diet has two nice side effects. Firstly, not having to cook and eat saves a lot of time on the fasting days. Secondly, the rare meals are too precious to waste them on junk food. I often cook fresh and have a higher quality nutrition in general.
Anyway, I've been going for two weeks now and have lost 2.4kg so far. I use a spreadsheet for self motivation, documentation and bragging purposes: Link. I was hoping for slightly faster results, but I'm currently unable to do any sport I enjoy due to this year's weird winter (too cold for summer sports, but no snow for winter sports either). Oh well.
Wish me luck!
PS: I'm aware that only going on a diet without leading a healthier lifestyle will likely result in me regaining the lost weight over time. So be it. I know myself and magically becoming a vegetarian sporting ace won't happen. So better lose some weight, even for a while, than do nothing at all.
Dude, sorry to say but that diet plan is the most stupid and unhealthy thing I've ever heard. How did you even come up with it?
There are no real shortcuts - diet is about math. If you wanna lose weight, the best thing to do is just eat a bit less each day. For example, let's say that every day your food is 6 dishes of pasta. If tomorrow you start eating only 5 and a half, you will lose weight. It's physics.
Don't do things that could damage your body. Not eating for a day and then pigging out is terrible for you.
I prefer the 16/8 lean gains fasting style, since it is not as extreme and works well for most people. 16 hour fast, 8 hour eating window, where half of the 16 hours are you sleeping. Of course it all comes down to calories in vs calories out in the end, but its way harder to over eat this way, though of course it can be done. Anyway, you should do what works for you, just be sure you don't destroy whatever lean mass your body has in the process. GL.
There is a similar thing you can do eating only 1 meal a day! I actually did it not to lose weight, but to save time... if I skip lunch at work I can leave an hour early.
Basically the idea is you have a one hour window to eat lunch at a set time (usually 5 pm). You eat all of your food at that time and then fast till the next day!
I don't feel hungry and have more energy throughout the day. If you are interested in experimenting I recommend you try it!
I learnt about it from this guy: (I am a software developer so follow a lot of programming blogs )
Although my goal wasn't to lose weight I did lose a stone in about a month!
if you are losing strength as you are losing weight you are doing it wrong.
both diet and exercise modifications are required for weight loss. generally overall, dietary changes have a bigger impact than exercise changes.
for the exercise component of any weight loss regimen i highly recommend the StrongLifts.com 5X5 program. http://stronglifts.com/5x5/
don't listen to the author's drivle about how important this exercise program is for weight loss. this program helps, but dietary modification is the primary driver in a weight loss program.
On January 16 2016 20:44 Scorch wrote: The way to get me there is an intermittent fasting method called 10in2. It's very straightforward: one day you eat, one day you don't. You're allowed to eat whatever and how much you want, but only every other day. Every second day, you must not eat anything and are only allowed to drink water, tea, coffee without milk or sugar etc. This means that on the eating days, you'd have to consume around 4000 calories just to hold you weight, which you don't do, so you lose weight.
People that don't know much about dieting are probably going to give you shit for this, claim it's unhealthy, etc. Those are largely unsubstantiated claims. Largely it comes down to what works well for you, and it sounds like this method is effective for you, so kudos!
I would get my ass kicked by this method, I get hungry like crazy and it just flat out won't work for someone training 15 hours a week on the bike. That and I'd easily eat 6000+ kcal every single eating day
On January 16 2016 20:44 Scorch wrote: Now the time has come to do it again, although with a less ambitious target weight. Back then, I went down to 75kg, which is just not sustainable with my body type and lifestyle. 80kg is a much more realistic goal and a weight that I might keep for a while.
I'll preface by saying that there is no reason you would need to get to 75kg.
That said, the above is just plain false, unless you take 'lifestyle' to mean doing exactly what you do now without any changes to either diet or activity. However, to stay at 75kg you would have to make very minimal changes to your pre-fasting diet lifestyle. You'd need to walk perhaps an extra 2km each day, and eat maybe 100-150 kcal less each day compared to what you were doing pre diet. Very minimal, easy changes that would allow you to maintain just fine at 75kg.
Or even 70kg...unless you have significantly more muscle than it sounds by your description.
On January 16 2016 20:44 Scorch wrote: PS: I'm aware that only going on a diet without leading a healthier lifestyle will likely result in me regaining the lost weight over time. So be it. I know myself and magically becoming a vegetarian sporting ace won't happen. So better lose some weight, even for a while, than do nothing at all.
Bolded part probably true, but not proven. Some evidence indicates that consistently yo-yoing weight can be not so great for you. Whether that is worse than just staying overweight/obese is still uncertain.
On the plus side you don't need to become a vegetarian sporting ace to maintain a nice, healthy, aesthetically satisfying weight for you. Balancing CICO is all you need, and doing that doesn't require massive exercise nor massive dietary changes or sacrifices.
On January 16 2016 23:16 JacobShock wrote: I prefer the 16/8 lean gains fasting style, since it is not as extreme and works well for most people. 16 hour fast, 8 hour eating window, where half of the 16 hours are you sleeping. Of course it all comes down to calories in vs calories out in the end, but its way harder to over eat this way, though of course it can be done. Anyway, you should do what works for you, just be sure you don't destroy whatever lean mass your body has in the process. GL.
Yea CICO is king. Can't really escape that one.
This is pretty close to what I do when I want to lose weight. It just works better for me mentally. With a regular 3-6 meals a day portion sizes just seem really small and I never feel like I get to enjoy a proper meal. Using an IF like protocol I can just deal with being a little hungry till around 13:00 or so, eat a massive 2500-3500+ kcal mid day meal, and then come back for a small snack in the night if needed to keep the deficit correct. No hunger most of the rest of the day and I get to feel good and full for several hours.
Transitions easily back into maintenance just adding back in a morning breakfast and a little more in the evening. Like many things, diet is largely about making the sustainable change that suits your personality and habits the best, and for me that is definitely the IF method.
On January 16 2016 23:05 SoSexy wrote: Dude, sorry to say but that diet plan is the most stupid and unhealthy thing I've ever heard. How did you even come up with it?
There are no real shortcuts - diet is about math. If you wanna lose weight, the best thing to do is just eat a bit less each day. For example, let's say that every day your food is 6 dishes of pasta. If tomorrow you start eating only 5 and a half, you will lose weight. It's physics.
Don't do things that could damage your body. Not eating for a day and then pigging out is terrible for you.
The classic "this sounds stupid so even though I have no evidence I'll just call it bad".
Findings to date from both human and animal experiments indicate that ADF may effectively decrease the risk of CVD, whereas results from animal studies suggest a protective effect on cancer risk. In terms of diabetes prevention, animal data suggest a beneficial effect, but human data have been equivocal.
ADF regimens also may be as efficacious as daily CR in improving certain indexes of risk of type 2 diabetes and CVD, although the number of studies directly comparing the 2 regimens is small. Further analysis of the mechanisms responsible for beneficial effects of ADF is clearly warranted, particularly if these effects occur in the absence of negative energy balance. Novel mediators and therapeutic strategies may thereby be uncovered. Finally, it seems intuitively likely that persons will find it easier to fast or reduce intake on alternate days than to reduce their intake every day. For this reason, ADF regimens may allow better compliance than would CR regimens and may represent an attractive area for investigation.
Bottom line is that there isn't a tremendous body of research yet on fasted diet protocols, but most of the research out there suggests relatively positive effects, and certainly no 'omg this is so bad for me' effects.
This isn't the type of response you're looking for. But I feel compelled to share my opinion.
Hey man do whatever the fuck you want. But if you're only eating every other day it is ABUNDANTLY CLEAR that you're not doing any significant amount of exercise, which means your lifestyle isn't healthy anyway.
I would suggest, get off your ass, join a GYM (since you're complaining about winter/summer interfering with your desired sport schedule, wtf seriously?) and get a proper diet. Get active now before it is too late.
Really, it sounds to me like any shred of muscle that you currently have is just being wasted, which might result in you having an increasingly lower basal metabolic rate and thus a harder time losing body fat.
edit: And just before L_Master is going to go all scientific on me (with one obscure study, just joking mate), I'm extrapolating from common sense. Who knows it might not be right, but I can tell you that our OP here isn't sporting a fucking six pack. He's also clearly dissatisfied with the way that he looks and doesn't even have the confidence in himself that he could persevere with a diet and a proper amount of exercise.
The question isn't whether you'll get results but the relative efficacy of the program. I can study math by hanging upside down, suspended from my ankles, and I'm sure I'd learn something.
Unfortunately, the discussion is also confounded by some people persisting in the calorie counting nonsense. I'm sure ADF is better if all of your meals consist of pizza.
And to add on to B-Royal's post. My main problem with this is that it seems that the OP is using this in sporadic intervals. Why not make some sustainable changes instead?
July 16, 2015 I weighed 226lbs. I weighed this morning and I now weigh 163lbs. I read this guide and made it part of my life. http://liamrosen.com/fitness.html
On January 18 2016 04:15 zelevin wrote: July 16, 2015 I weighed 226lbs. I weighed this morning and I now weigh 163lbs. I read this guide and made it part of my life. http://liamrosen.com/fitness.html
this method seems to emphasize weight-lifting for exercise.
op, nice you're showing results. I am now using the 16 hour fast and 8 hour feed cycle. I eat 3 times. I am training like 5 days a week. A training for me is 20 minutes cardio for warmup, 7 minutes nonstop core muscle routine, pushups (goal is 100. I am now at 60) and then 10 rounds shadow boxing with the MMA legend Bas Rutten wokrout. I shadowbox with 1 kg weights. I rest maybe like 2 minutes between different exercises. From the 5 days I do two times sparring sessions where the training is way easier than what I described so I run for 35-40 minutes that day too. I want to lose body fat, so I eat like 150-160 grams of protein and whatever fat the meat has, I eat chicken and eggs and whey protein, some milk. I don't eat carbs every day but just two or three days of the week, if I feel weak. So far it's working out great for me I and I will continue to do it until I am satisfied with my weight. I mean weight because I just want to be 67 kg just because I've never been that, ahah. Whatever is working for you, man, keep it up!
EPT
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