A few short, intensive bursts of exercise each week can bring dramatic benefits.

Michael Mosley is on the fast track to fitness | The AustralianThe Australian
January 18, 2014

Michael Mosley says a few short, intensive bursts of exercise each week can bring dramatic benefits.

A YEAR ago I wrote a book that changed my life. A middle-aged
medical journalist, I found myself the unlikely author of an
international bestseller, The Fast Diet, and the recipient of a lot of grateful emails. 

Now I'm hoping to do it again with Fast Exercise. Fast Exercise is
based on a surprising and radical claim - that you can get fitter,
healthier and better toned with just a few minutes of intense exercise a
day, three days a week.


For those who missed it, the Fast Diet - often known as "the 5:2" -
is based on the idea of intermittent fasting,
also known as IF. Instead of aiming for slow, steady calorie
restriction - the approach recommended by sensible dietitians that most
people find impossible to stick to - with IF you slash your calories,
but for only a couple of days a week (hence the catchphrase the 5:2).
Although it may sound faddish, intermittent fasting is based on careful
scientific studies (mainly animal, but some human) that suggest it not
only leads to weight loss but has multiple other health benefits.

I was convinced enough by the science to make a documentary and then
to write a book. I remember, shortly after we delivered the manuscript a
year ago, pointing out to my co-author, Mimi Spencer, that there are
about 50,000 diet books available online and the odds of us making an
impact were, to say the least, slim. Mimi, who is an incurably
optimistic Tigger to my Eeyore, was convinced we would succeed because
our approach was offering not just a science-based diet but a modern
take on an old tradition. Fasting, after all, has a long history. "It
will be huge," she announced, as we sipped our calorie-free tea. She was
right. As well as numerous doctors, politicians and a Nobel
prizewinner, there have been endorsements from the likes of food writer
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and actor Benedict Cumberbatch.



One of the most striking things about the Fast Diet is how many men not only
embrace it but are happy to tell the world they are doing it. I think it
helps that "fasting" sounds challenging. It is also simple and
straightforward, which again seems to appeal to men. Mimi's father is
certainly a poster boy for this approach. Over the past few months he
has lost more than 16kg and has had to buy new trousers. This is
something I can identify with as I have lost 10kg, a few inches around
my middle and found that most of my clothes no longer fit. I hate
shopping but fortunately I have sons whose clothes I can now borrow (I
haven't told them). I'm also wearing suits from 20 years ago that I
never got around to throwing out.

Although I'm pleased with the weight loss, for me intermittent
fasting was never about getting slimmer.

Eighteen months ago I went to my GP with a suspicious mole and
she suggested I have my blood tested. The mole turned out to be benign
but the blood results were not. I had a fasting glucose of 7.3 mmol/l,
which made me diabetic, and a "bad" cholesterol (LDL) of 5.5 mmol/l (the
recommended level is less than 3). I shouldn't have been surprised
because my father, who struggled with his weight all his life, died of
complications from diabetes in his early 70s. I'd never felt the need to
diet because I had never seen myself as overweight. Yes, I weighed in
at 85kg, but when I looked in the mirror I saw someone slim, ageing
well, almost athletic. This wasn't simply a case of middle-aged
delusion; the surplus fat really was invisible. My fat wasn't sitting
under my skin, bulging out in unseemly places. It was visceral fat,
buried deep inside my body. I went for an MRI and saw not just the odd
dab but litres of the stuff inside my abdomen, coating and clogging my
internal organs. Visceral fat is particularly unhealthy because it is
metabolically active, increasing your risk of diabetes and heart
disease. It is surprisingly common, even in people of normal weight.

Rather than start on a conventional diet, I decided to try intermittent
fasting. Unlike proper, hardcore fasting where you live for days or even
weeks on few if any calories, IF involves a few days a week when you
eat about a quarter of your normal calories. Being a television
presenter with a taste for self-experimentation, I naturally made a
documentary about my adventures. In the course of making Eat, Fast, Live Longer I
came across different ways you can do intermittent fasting. The
best-studied approach and the one that is likely to lead to the most
rapid weight loss is ADF, alternate day fasting. As the name implies,
you cut your calories every other day. I tried ADF but found it hard
going and settled instead on a 5:2 pattern, cutting my calories two days
a week. If you don't splurge on your non-fast days then this should
lead to a weight loss of almost half a kilogram a week.

Dr Michelle Harvie and Professor Tony Howell of the Genesis Breast Cancer
Prevention Centre, who have done proper clinical studies comparing two
days a week of calorie restriction against a standard diet, found that
those on the two-day diet lost nearly twice as much fat (about 4kg) as
those on a standard diet, as well as seeing greater improvements in key
biochemical markers such as insulin sensitivity. Intermittent fasting
won't suit everyone, but it worked for me. Not only did I lose a lot of
fat (10cm off my waist, 5cm off my neck) but I also saw huge
improvements in my fasting glucose and cholesterol levels, both of which
are now in the healthy range.



Yet even when I was doing IF I knewit was not enough.
I realised that if I was going to maximise my
chances of living into a healthy old age then I needed to do more
exercise. The trouble is I hate running, jogging or going to the gym.
Instead, I've taken up a very different approach, pioneered by (among
others) Professor Jamie Timmons of Loughborough University. Jamie
introduced me to HIT, high intensity training. Like IF, HIT is a radical
solution to a modern problem, in this case how to get the most from a
workout in the least possible time. HIT also eschews the "moderation in
all things" approach. Instead of plodding away on a treadmill or cycling
at a steady, sensible pace, with HIT you do a few extremely short
bursts of exercise, intense enough to get your heart rate soaring,
interspersed with a couple of minutes of recovery. A few such bursts
(lasting anywhere between 20 seconds and one minute) done three times a
week can produce dramatic changes. Numerous trials have shown that HIT
not only makes people aerobically fitter in a remarkably short time but
also metabolically fitter. In particular, it improves the body's ability
to process the glucose surge you get after a meal. As someone with a
genetic propensity to develop diabetes, this is particularly important.


Early versions of HIT were tough, best suited to those who were already
athletic. Modified versions have recently been tested on people who are
older, heavier and in less good health, such as those with heart
disease. Done properly it is safe, effective and surprisingly enjoyable.
It burns more fat than conventional exercise and, best of all, it's
over in less time than it takes to drive to the gym. A self-confessed
couch potato, I've been doing short versions of high-intensity training
for almost a year, with impressive results. During that time I teamed up
with journalist Peta Bee. Despite the fact that we have very different
attitudes to exercise (she loves it, I loathe it) and she started out
super-fit (I wasn't), we bonded over a mutual enthusiasm for HIT. We
hope HIT will be a hit.

Post Workout Fasting?

Post Workout Fasting?

Critical MAS

Blog for Michael Allen Smith of Seattle

I got an email from Don with a question that ties into my ice cream post on the topic of post workout fasting.

I am wondering what you think of the “no fructose (or any carbs, really) for about 4 hours after a fasted work out” so as not to suppress the natural growth hormone spike that occurs after this type of work out (and how ice cream cold fit into that)? I am a 50 yr old guy who is looking to add muscle and natural growth hormone release seems to be a great idea for me and I don’t want to suppress it. I am going to be going on a bit of a bulking cycle and I was thinking of going the ice cream route. Do you think eating ice cream right after my workouts will be more beneficial for me (as far as gaining muscle) than the HGH release or, should I continue with the no carb post work out window and then fill up on ice cream? Thanks!

I’ll start by saying that I am not an expert in hormones and that even the experts have disagreed on this point. I do have personal experience both fasting and not fasting post workout. My opinion has the context that I am an ectomorph at a healthy ideal weight.

When I fasted for a few hours post workout, I lost strength. It was fatiguing to my body. I covered this in the 2011 post Intermittent Fasting – Mistakes I’ve Made:

This may just apply to ectomorphs, but I what I discovered in 2009 was that fasted weight training not only resulted in fat loss, but without a post-workout meal I started to lose strength.

From a paleo perspective this makes sense. I was hungry and went on a hunt. At the hunt I engaged in a battle. For me that was lifting weights at the gym. A successful hunt would have resulted in a kill and a meal. After a few months, I kept returning from the hunt in a hungry state. From the standpoint of nature, I was being every bit as energy foolish as the cardio junkies. That behavior gets punished if it happens repeatedly.

Assuming one exercises safely, the limiting factors for gaining muscle are calorie surplus and reducing stress. Reducing stress increases recoverability. I believe that reducing post workout stress is even more critical for ectomorphs, because we have less glycogen stores.

By denying yourself food after an intense workout, you might have higher GH, but your body is also in a high stress mode. As a side note, there are concerns that growth hormone might be stressful for its own reasons. See the article Growth hormone: Hormone of Stress, Aging, & Death by Dr. Ray Peat. Matt Stone also has a good article on the topic titled Low-Intensity Exercise Part III – Lactic Acid and Growth Hormone.

I think that ending the post workout stress by restoring glycogen levels should be your primary goal. When glycogen levels are depleted or run low, the stress hormone adrenaline is released. That could impact your sleep, especially if your workout was in the afternoon. Poor sleep is no friend to muscle growth.



Ice Cream Horror by wee lakeo. Don’t fast post workout. Eat some ice cream!

For reasons I’ve already covered, I think ice cream is the perfect food to eat post workout. If you can’t handle dairy, make it coconut milk ice cream. Regular milk or dairy kefir with fruit work as well.
When I stopped post workout fasting, my strength returned. I was able to gain muscle. I had better sleep and I recovered from workouts faster. I’d love to hear from others on their experiences post workout fasting in the comments.

Early Morning Fasted Training | Intermittent fasting diet for fat loss, muscle gain and health

Early Morning Fasted Training | Intermittent fasting diet for fat loss, muscle gain and health

11:40 AM | Posted by Martin Berkhan

In the Leangains Guide I wrote the following:

"My general position on the fasted phase is that it should last through the night and during the morning hours. Ideally the fast should then be broken at noon or shortly thereafter if you arise at 6-7 AM like most people. Afternoons and evenings are usually spent in the fed state."

My reasoning was:

"The recommendation for fasting through the earlier part of the day, as opposed to the latter part of the day, is for behavioral and social reasons. Most people simply find it easier to fast after awakening and prefer going to bed satiated. Afternoons and evenings are times to unwind and eat. For adherence reasons during dieting, I've also found that placing the feeding phase later in the day is ideal for most people."

This poses a dilemma for those who can only train in the early morning hours. If you're training first thing in the morning and finish at 7 AM it would call for a feeding phase of 7 AM to 3 PM. That's just a bit too early for my liking. Could you still do it and start the fast in the middle of the day? Sure. But generally speaking, this would compromise diet adherence for most people.

Seeing that most my clients wants to lose fat, optimal diet adherence is high on my priority list. I always aim for a diet design that is easy, painless and maintainable in the long term. So how have I solved this dilemma, knowing the importance of pre- and post-workout protein intake?


The protocol

Most clients maintain their 8-hour feeding-window between 12-2 pm and 8-10 pm on all days. For those doing early morning fasted training I have maintained that feeding window and added small feedings of BCAA pre- and post-workout.

Similar to fasted training, 10 g BCAA is ingested pre-workout. However, instead of initiating the feeding phase immediately post-workout, which is the standard protocol for regular fasted training, another 10 g BCAA is ingested two hours after the first. A third dose may then be ingested depending on when the client prefers his feeding-window.


Early morning fasted training

Here's a sample setup for a client that trains early in the morning and prefers the feeding phase at noon or later.

6 AM: 5-15 minutes pre-workout: 10 g BCAA.
6-7 AM: Training.
8 AM: 10 g BCAA.
10 AM: 10 g BCAA
12-1 PM: The "real" post-workout meal (largest meal of the day). Start of the 8 hour feeding-window.
8-9 PM: Last meal before the fast.

For the sake of convenience, I recommend getting BCAA in the form of powder and not tabs. Simply mix 30 g of BCAA powder in a shake and drink one third of it every other hour starting 5-15 minutes pre-workout. Tabs are cheaper, but much more of a hassle (you're going to have to pop a lot of tabs). Check my supplements guide for specific brand recommendations.


Protein synthesis

I had some concerns before deciding on incorporating and recommending this protocol on a wider scale. After rigorous testing, these concerns have not proven to be valid.

My first concern was that results would be compromised if the post-workout meal was pushed back several hours. I haven't seen any trend, such as lack of progress or loss of strength and muscle mass, to indicate that this is the case. The results are on par with those obtained with the other protocols.

Consuming BCAAs every other hour through the fast is sufficient to keep protein synthesis stimulated and prevent protein breakdown. If protein intake is completely omitted, it would undoubtedly affect results negatively. Thus the compromise of ingesting BCAA pre- and post-workout through the fast, before the real post-workout meal, which is initiated at the usual time of the feeding phase.

Will we still derive the benefits from regular fasting if we consume small amounts of protein throughout the fast post-workout? Yes. If carbs are omitted, the increased insulin sensitivity will quickly bring back basal insulin to fasted state levels despite consuming 120 calories worth of fairly insulinogenic amino acids. The fasted state is almost fully maintained post-workout.

When the post-workout meal comes around is also when muscle protein synthesis is beginning to take off. Though muscle protein synthesis is acutely stimulated post-workout in response to resistance training and protein intake, studies show some latency in regards to elevation and peak. Protein synthesis starts to climb about 3-4 hours post-workout, reaches a peak at the 24-hour-mark and returns close to baseline values 36 hours post-workout (or 48 hours depending on who you ask; studies on this topic show slightly different results regarding length and peak of elevation). Even if you push back the post-workout meal a few hours, you will be in the fed state at a time when nutrient partitioning is optimized and muscle growth likely to occur.

By consuming small amounts of BCAA through the fasted state we are stimulating synthesis and halting breakdown. A few hours later, when protein synthesis is increasing, we enter the fed state. The latency seen with protein synthesis in response to training, and the fact that we have amino acids (BCAA) in circulation pre- and post-workout, goes a long way in explaining why clients following this protocol get equal results to those following other protocols.


Hunger and hypoglycemia

My second concern was that clients would be hungry or suffer bouts of exercise-induced hypoglycemia post-workout. This would compromise diet adherence and/or impair productivity during the fast and make the protocol worthless. Fortunately, this has not been proven to be the case.

For some it will feel unnatural to not eat directly post-workout. This is part of a learned response. After a training session we want to reward ourselves . Even if there is no real physiological need to do so immediately. If anything, high-intensity exercise in the fasted state tends to suppress appetite in the short-term and not increase it.

This is mirrored by my personal experience as well. If I train within the hour upon awakening, I still don't get hungry until the time I am used to eating - which may be 4-5 hours post-workout. Clients have reported the same.

There are no hypoglycemic episodes reported so far, but this was only a true concern of mine for those involved in fairly glycogen-demanding training such as CrossFit. Considering that there's a fair amount of liver glycogen available to maintain blood glucose levels during training after an overnight fast this is not so strange.

The only way I could imagine someone experiencing hypoglycemia post-workout, if a post-workout meal was delayed for several hours, would be after prolonged and strenuous training in combination with severe calorie or carbohydrate restriction. In such a case the training session would induce a substantial and acute energy deficit along with complete depletion of liver glycogen content (which would escalate protein breakdown and also increase the risk of hypoglycemia). I am not a fan of prolonged endurance training in the fasted state.

For others, hypoglycemia is not a concern. Even type 2 diabetics maintain blood glucose very well in the hours following fasted state training in spite of not eating post-workout. For a metabolically healthy individual, there is nothing to worry about.

BCAA vs whey
What's all this fuss about BCAA and could we not use another protein source such as whey protein? Strictly speaking, no. BCAA contains the three major amino acids intimately involved in activating muscle protein synthesis, including leucine which is the key player. Whey protein contains 25% BCAA. Other high-quality protein sources, such as meat, contain 17-18% BCAA. To get an equivalent amount of BCAAs into circulation during the fasted state would require 120-180 g protein from these sources. That's more than 500 calories (120 g protein plus tag-along carbs and fat), which is not far from a medium sized meal.

With BCAAs we are getting maximal benefits with regards to muscle protein synthesis for a minimal caloric load. The latter point being important to maintain the fasted state and to allow for a liberal 8-hour feeding window later in the day.


Summary

If all this sounds like micromanaging to you, that's exactly what it is. Inquiring minds would probably like to know what, if any, benefits there are in maintaining a fasted state a few hours post-workout when it comes to muscle growth and recovery. But I'd be hard pressed to make such arguments when there aren't any. The real growth takes place later in the day, when the feeding-window is initiated. Until then we make sure that:

* Muscle protein synthesis is stimulated and protein breakdown inhibited by regular feedings of BCAA pre- and post-workout.

* Appetite is suppressed and insulin sensitivity maintained throughout the fast.

* The feeding-window is initiated at the usual, entrained, time point.

This is how I have solved the dilemma of early morning fasted training without compromising the results of my clients.

Leangains Intermittent Fasting - Scooby's Home Workouts

Leangains Intermittent Fasting - Scooby's Home Workouts

The Hodgetwins have made Martin Berkhan’s Leangains Intermittent Fasting (IF) program even more famous. Is the incredible buzz about intermittent fasting deserved? In this article, I give you my un-biased opinion on what intermittent fasting is, if intermittent fasting works, and why it works.
For those of you who won’t read this whole article, let me give you the conclusion first. The Leangains intermittent fasting program will definitely help you gain muscle and lose fat, the question is why and whether it’s really works better than any other training and nutrition methods. If you want to know more, I suggest you get the book shown on the right, Eat Stop Eat. I know I say this all the time but I will say it again:

“Bodybuilding is not an exact science, you need to experiment and find what works best for you” – Scooby Werkstatt

There are an incredibly complex array of factors that goes into determining what workout style and nutritional style will be best for you. The only thing for certain is that it probably wont be the same as for the guy standing next to you at the bench press. For some people, P90X, Insanity, or Crossfit works the best. For others, 5×5, SS, or a bodybuilding style workout like my home workouts give them maximum results.
It’s all about finding what works for you and helps you achieve your goals. Nutritionally, many people find eating frequent, smaller meals too stressful and time consuming – for them intermittent fasting provides optimal results. Others find that frequent small meals help them keep hunger at bay with fewer calories so they can lose fat and get ripped easier. Again, find what works best for you.

“It’s far more important WHAT you eat and HOW MUCH you eat than WHEN you eat it.” – Scooby Werkstatt

Although I am still recommend to people that they frequent small meals, I would much rather someone eat just two healthy meals a day in an intermittent fasting protocol than eat five meals consisting of BigMacs! What you eat is far more important to your success in health and bodybuilding than when you eat in my opinion. If you do follow intermittent fasting, remember that your work does not stop when you decide to constrain eating to an 8 hour window. The biggest nutritional task for any bodybuilder is deciding what to eat.

What is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting is just like you would expect from the name. There are many other kinds of intermittent fasting, like alternate day intermittent fasting, but I will focus on the kind that Martin Berkhan at Leangains presents which is intra-day fasting – basically extending the night time sleeping fast a bit longer. Normal people fast for 8 hours during sleep and then eat for the other 16 hours. In the leangains intermittent fasting program, it’s the other way around – you fast for 16hrs and eat for 8 hours. If Leangains was just that the webpage would be just one sentence and we wouldn’t be talking about it now, Martin Berkhan’s Leangains website has hundreds of pages of information which I am going to try to boil down into a few bullet points below.  I apologize profusely to Martin for this oversimplification of his program but for those unfamiliar with his program I need to give them a quick idea of what it involves:

• Fasting 16 hours, eating window 8 hours long – number of meals irrelevant
• TDEE +20% calories on lifting days, -20% on non lifting days. (TDEE is your Total Daily Energy Expenditure,if you eat at precisely your TDEE you will neither gain nor lose weight.)
• For lifting, SS (Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength Program)
• Nutrition, consume at least 2.5g protein per kg of bodyweight

Intermittent fasting isn’t as new as it sounds, in fact it is thousands of years old. Ramadan is the most sacred month of the year for Muslims. During the month of Ramadan, they do not drink nor eat anything (nor sex, nor smoking either) from sunrise to sunset. This is a rather brutal type of intermittent fasting, brutal because the fasting period is during the day. Trying to concentrate and perform normally all day long without food is very, very difficult. If intermittent fasting by itself was the magical key to bodybuilding success then the pro bodybuilding contests would be won by practicing Muslims but this does not seem to be the case. In fact, a 2007 study of two Algerian soccer teams (practicing Muslims) showed that it significantly decreases athletic performance during Ramadan. As bodybuilders, this study is our first warning that we need to proceed very carefully with fasting.

Does Intermittent Fasting work?

Yes, Intermittent fasting does work well for a lot of people. If you are getting good results from it then keep using it! You will note this is very similar to how I responded when people wanted to know “What Scooby thinks about YouTube trainer …” Before I take a critical look at Intermittent Fasting , lets look at why I make the above statements – I’m not being wishy washy. If intermittent fasting gives you the desired results, the reason *why* it works is irrelevant in my opinion. Intermittent fasting will help you gain muscle and lose fat if you believe it will. “WHAT?”, you say! Please hear me out. It doesn’t matter if it works because it is a superior program synergizing nutrition with Starting Strength workouts or if it works because of placebo effect.

Brain – Ally or Enemy?

The brain is the most powerful and important part of our bodies, it determines what you can and cannot do. If the brain in convinced that your life is in danger it will pump out adrenaline like a geyser and give you super-human strength. On the other hand, if you are pessimistic and convince your brain that you cannot do something then you will not be able to do it. If you make a P90X enthusiast do 5×5, I can guarantee you they will whine and complain the whole time and they will have very poor results. This is the reason it pays to have a positive attitude, there is something to it. In a very poorly understood process, if you believe that something will help you then it will.

Placebo Effect

This poorly understood process is called “The Placebo Effect“. The placebo effect is well documented in medical literature which is why all good research studies include a placebo group to make sure that the benefit is from the drug itself and not because the peoples brains have been fooled into healing them thru positive thinking. The term “placebo effect” is most often used when talking about drugs but it’s just as applicable when it comes to training programs. In my opinion, this is one of the reasons that there is so much heated disagreement from all the experts about what is the “best” training program. It’s because what is “best” depends on what the person believes is best. If someone is completely convinced that GOMAD and 5×5 is the optimal way to get stronger and more massive – then it will work! If it’s a reasonable workout strategy and you believe it will work, then it will give you great results. If you don’t believe your workout program is good then you wont have results no matter how well it works for everyone else. I am serious when I say that bodybuilding is equal parts mental and physical, leave out one half of the equation and you get poor results. When you choose a workout strategy, you need your brain as an ally – it’s gotta be 100% convinced you are doing the right thing. Work against your brain and it’s you are wasting your time.

Intermittent Fasting and Placebo Effect

So what does all this have to do with intermittent fasting ? I think you see where I’m going here. Since there is SO much buzz in locker rooms and gyms across the world about the leangains intermittent fasting program, a lot of people are totally convinced it will give them the results they want. Since their brains believe this, it WILL work. When they believe in the program, they will workout more intensely, they will workout longer, they wont skip days, and they will be religious about their nutrition. The leangains intermittent fasting program has an incredible momentum behind it. This is why in my blogpost “What does Scooby think about ..” I say that if a program is working for you and giving you the results you want that it is absolutely the best for you – no matter what it is. If intermittent fasting works, does it really matter *why* it works? Does it matter if it’s placebo effect or if their is some magical synergy between intermittent fasting and Mark Rippetoe’s SS style workouts?

The Newbie Effect.

This is a good time to point out that rank beginners to bodybuilding can do virtually any workout program, no matter how stupid, and get stronger and more massive. They can also use any nutritional program, no matter how stupid, and get stronger and more massive. Rank beginners can do the “curl monkey workout” where every day they do 100 curls and 100 pushups and have great results. The reason this is important to bring up is that as you will find in the following critical look at intermittent fasting, there is a severe lack of applicable, well done research – almost none. With a lack of good research, all workout programs (mine included) resort to anecdotal short term “before and after” comparisons are used and these folks are often beginners. A great before and after of a beginner on my website is just as useless as one on the leangains website. What matters is, can an advanced bodybuilder overcome a false genetic limit and make further gains with the workout system and what is the maximum that someone can achieve on the program.

Recompositioning.

Leangains program seems to be associated with the term “recompositioning” in peoples minds. What is recompositioning? It’s what I have always referred to as gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. Every day on bodybuilding forums across the world people argue about whether bulking and cutting is the fastest way to a ripped, muscular physique or if recompositioning is. Many bulker/cutters seem to think that *everyone* has to bulk to gain muscle but the success stories pages of P90X, my website, and the leangains website suggest otherwise. Remember what I said earlier, that beginners and intermediates can do virtually anything and make good gains? From everything I have seen, beginners achieve their goal of obtaining a muscular, lean physique much faster with a recompositioning type nutritional program (set goal = recomp on my calorie calculator) than with bulking/cutting. This is true for many intermediate bodybuilders as well. It’s my experience that only when you get to within 20% of your genetic max that you need to start playing tricks with your body, like bulking/cutting, to coax out further gains. Leangains and I are in complete agreement on this issue, recompositioning is the way to go for beginners and most intermediate bodybuilders – in other words, workout hard while eating at your TDEE. If you are obese, then perhaps eating 5-20% under your TDEE is called for depending on your level of obesity.  For advanced bodybuilders, that is, those within 20% of their genetic potential it appears that bulking/cutting is the way to go.

Examination of Intermittent Fasting.

First it’s important to ask, does intermittent fasting work for *what*. What is the criteria that we are judging intermittent fasting on? Gaining muscle? Losing fat? Athletic performance? Endurance? Disease prevention? Reduction of cancer risk? Improved cardiovascular health? Better health markers (blood pressure, lipid levels, etc). Since most people here are young and healthy and are only concerned with the cosmetic aspects, we will stick to those: strength gain, mass gain, and bodyfat reduction.
Often in bodybuilding, arguments about nutrition or lifting programs turns into a ping pong match where the opponents take turns sending research volleys over the net to the opposing team where they point out the faults of the study which render it useless then smack their research paper over the net which ‘proves’ their point – and the game continues. At the end, if both players have the hundreds of hours at their disposal to find, read, and analyze the research, the game ends in a draw with both players exhausted both admitting that their needs to be better research done. In my opinion, this is basically what has happened with intermittent fasting between Alan Aragon and Martin Berkhan. I’m not going to re-invent the wheel here nor am I going to pretend to know as much about nutrition as Alan aragon.   If you want to see the definitive critical analysis of intermittent fasting based upon research, then see Alan Aragon’s An Objective Look at Intermittent Fasting. Alan Aragon is one of the top bodybuilding nutritional specialists in the world and he makes a living doing unbiased, critical analysis of published researched papers with a bodybuilding eye. If you argue with Alan’s opinion then you had better have done your homework and have a stack of research to back you up. If you don’t read his whole paper, please read at least the conclusion. I don’t want to copy it here but I think I can safely include one sentence from the two paragraph summary that gives the flavor of the whole paper without stepping into copyright issues:

“In the world of fitness, recommendations for improving performance and body composition often gain blind acceptance despite a dearth of objective data.”

In an objective review of intermittent fasting, thats not a very positive outlook! OK, so lets look at some of the main points of intermittent fasting.

Health.

I know most are not interested in the health aspects of leangains intermittent fasting program but I have some big concerns about it so I will cover it quickly. A bad omen is that as far as I can tell, the words “vegetable”, “fiber”, and “anti-oxidant” do not seem to appear anywhere on the leangains website but there is a whole section on supplements. I’m a bit concerned about what the people following the Leangains program are actually eating. As far as the health of the intermittent fasting itself. It does appear the following the leangains intermittent fasting program does improve your cholesterol levels but according to this study, it appears that the same benefit can be achieved by exercise alone. The other concern I have about the health aspects of the leangains program is that it does not include cardio. In my opinion, daily cardio is the kernel of any fitness program that has overall health and well being as a goal.

Performance.

By performance I mean strength, endurance, speed, balance, and coordination. The before mentioned study of Algerian soccer players during Ramadan clearly showed that Ramadan style fasting is detrimental to performance. What about leangains style intermittent fasting, is it detrimental to performance? We don’t know as there is no research other than the soccer study. It’s clear that Ramadan style fasting where no food nor beverage can be consumed during the day has a far worse effect on performance than leangains style intermittent fasting where eating can happen 8 hours during the day. So leangains style intermittent fasting isn’t as bad as sunrise to sunset fasting on performance but is it still a problem? My guess is it depends on when the athletic event is. If the athletic event falls in the feeding window like a football practice would, my guess is that there is no performance degradation at all with leangains intermittent fasting. On the other hand, if your athletic event occurs during the fasting window then I’m willing to bet there is a significant performance degradation. Research done by Bird points to me being correct in this assumption. There are many anecdotal reports of people “having so much energy” in the morning before they eat. To those people I say, “see you at the race”. If you have so much energy while fasting lets do a Half Ironman and see who wins – you keep fasting during the race and I get to eat my normal 5000 calories or so in energy drinks, gels, and bars. Well see how much energy you have then As I discuss in when to do cardio, I personally find that when I attempt cardio before eating in the morning my cardio session is much shorter than if I do it after a small meal. What works for me is to eat a small well balanced meal and then exercise.

Ability to Lose Bodyfat.

Lets start with something that is very clear. Meal frequency does not affect how many calories per day your body burns, your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). If the number of calories is the same, it doesn’t matter if you consume then in one large meal a day or ten small meals a day – your TDEE remains constant, as long as they are regularly scheduled meals. It does appear that an irregular feeding schedule can decrease your metabolism and make losing fat harder but nothing increases it and makes losing fat easier.

What about decreasing your feeding window from the normal person’s 16 hours to a leangains intermittent fasting participant’s 8 hour feeding window, does that make losing fat easier? Let the ping pong match between Alan Aragon and Martin Berkhan begin! As far as I can see, all the studies used when talking about this are seriously flawed and both sides agree that more research is needed.

According to Alan Aragon, the main study used to show the benefits of intermittent fasting has a number of serious flaws and I agree with him. There were only 20 participants and 5 dropped out which most likely means those 5 participants were having poor results. Leaving out all the people who have poor results out of the study doesn’t make it much of a study does it? The other huge problem is that they used a very inaccurate method for determining body composition, basically just measuring body impedance as the cheapo digital bodyfat tools do. Couple the inaccurate body composition measurements with the extremely short study period (6 weeks) and you get questionable results at best.
It’s clear that many, many people have gotten muscular and shredded from the Leangains style intermittent fasting. The question is why. Let me bring up something related, carb cycling. It’s clear that carb cycling works great but it’s very complicated to make a meal plan (which is why I made my automated carb cycling meal planner) so anyone who does carb cycling is making a huge commitment.

Does carb cycling work because there is some biochemistry behind it or does it simply work because it’s followers watch their macros and calories so carefully as the old admin of the AskScooby forum suggested? It’s pretty clear to me now that he was right, it’s not carb cycling that makes you ripped quickly without losing any muscle mass, it’s the fact that you get plenty of protein, lots of vegetables, enough good fats and EFAs, and run a tightly monitored caloric deficit. The same question applies to intermittent fasting, is something inherent in the intermittent fasting itself that makes losing fat easier or is it just the fact that you are paying more attention to your nutrition? Again, I ask the question – does it really matter if it works? No! Leangains intermittent fasting works for many people in helping them get ripped while gaining strength and muscle mass so who cares why? So does intermittent fasting help you lose bodyfat? Maybe, maybe not. What is clear is that more research needs to be done.

Ability to Gain Muscle.

So, will leangains style intermittent fasting help you gain muscle? As far as I can tell, Martin Berkhan’s Leangains program recommends that you follow Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength (SS) program. Yes, of course! Following Mark Rippetoe’s lifting program while following Martin Berkhan’s leangains intermittent fasting program WILL make you bigger and stronger. A number of questions arise though. First, is SS the best choice for you based upon your goals, age, and limitations? Second question which is more important, is it the SS alone giving Leangains participants their mass and strength gains or is it a symbiotic relationship between SS and leangains IF that causes some amplification of results? If you did a year long study of SS+IF vs SS+GOMAD, who would have the better muscular and strength gains? If SS+IF produces better results, is that because IF people on the whole are more educated about nutrition than GOMAD folks? So then you have to do another study, what if everyone did GOMAD and SS but half the group did GOMAD in the intermittent fasting style? You will see here that we have far more questions than answers. As far as I know, there has been no study to date that shows you can gain muscle mass and strength faster with an intermittent fasting protocol than with normal eating.

Summary

Does Leangains intermittent fasting work? Yes, intermittent fasting helps you gain muscle and lose fat but the reason why it works is unclear. It’s also unclear if it works better than other nutritional programs – maybe, maybe not. What IS clear that more basic research is needed.

So, cut to the chase, do I recommend that you follow Leangains style intermittent fasting? I would say “Yes” if you are sure it’s the best thing since sliced bread and “No” otherwise. If you are unsure, I recommend my top-down bodybuilding nutrition approach. I will also continue to recommend 3+ meals a day because I believe (but cant prove) it is a great tool in satisfying hunger with fewer calories as well as a great aide in maximizing muscle gain. I would also say it’s far more important what and how much you eat than when you eat it or in how many meals you consume it in. Beer and protein shakes at the “right time” is far inferior to a big pile of vegetables and a chicken breast at the “wrong time”.If you want to do intermittent fasting, I recommend the book Eat Stop Eat.

Who's tried the "Leangains" diet? - Health - Lifestyle

 http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1955143

 

User #465388   180 posts

RidingTheBoom

Participant

greenbird writes...

If you're one, how did you go on it?

Almost 1 yr on it and it has so many benefits its not funny. I have been using it to cut (9months) maintain (1 month) and now lean bulk (2 months).

I didn't lose any strength on my near 10kg cut, so can assume negligible muscle loss – and I'm not a beginner (training over 10yrs). At my lowest weight (74-75kg) was around 7% bf, and still deadlifted 200kg. I'm mid 30's and look/feel better than I ever have and I have always played sport, trained and been fit.

I now sleep better, I have more energy during the day. Its quite liberating as I don't need to continually be worried about eating every 2-3hrs. I just eat 2-3 big meals a day, cycle my carbs/fats.
Its great on holidays, all you can eat once or twice a day and no concern about going catabolic and loosing muscle.

It took 2-3 weeks to train the body that it doesn't need bfast as I had always eaten big breakfasts my whole life. Felt sick and all sorts, but after 2-3 weeks it just gets better. Haven't tried a 24hr fast yet. No real need.