Gaining Muscle and Losing Fat (2015)

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by Baron, Jun 30, 2015.

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  1. Baron

    Baron ET Founder

    This thread is a follow-up to the original thread I started a few years ago. I will contribute some ideas that I've found to be helpful in my constant quest to build muscle and lose fat in hopes that others can use these ideas, or even contribute ideas of their own. I certainly don't claim to have all the answers when it comes to health and fitness, but I will do my best to answer any questions you may have along the way.

    The first thing I'd like to talk about in this thread is a way to lose fat while eating somewhat normally and not appearing to your friends like you're on some weird restrictive fad diet, and it's called intermittent fasting.

    Earlier this year I felt like I had hit a brick wall in regards to fat loss under my old way of doing things, so I knew I needed to switch things up. I investigated a lot of different diet plans but ultimately decided I would try out intermittent fasting. Basically what that means is that I only eat between the hours of noon and 8pm, so my window of eating is 8 hours and I'm fasting for the remaining 16 hours. At around 11:30am, I do my 30 minute weight training workout, and since I haven't eaten since 8pm from the previous night, the training is done completely on an empty stomach. The logic is that when your stomach is completely empty, your body has no other energy stores to pull from to fuel your workout except for stored body fat.

    The main problem with intermittent fasting is that the workouts pretty much suck. When you're working out on an empty tank, you feel weak and lack motivation. So to combat that, I take a stimulant loaded pre-workout drink about an hour before the workout. Then I sip on a BCAA drink the whole time during the workout, as that prevents muscle loss while training on an empty stomach. After the workout is done, you can eat your first meal of the day, which is your post workout meal. This can be a massive meal if you want. In fact, you can consume almost 80% of your daily calories in that single meal! I don't do it that way, but prefer instead to eat 3 times per day, which translates to noon, 3:30pm and 7pm.

    Sometimes I may only eat two large meals, depending on what I have going on that night, which brings me to the following conclusion. Of all the diets I've tried, I like intermittent fasting the best and the reason why is simple: You never feel like you're dieting when you go out at night and hang with friends or family because you can eat somewhat normally, instead of the typical bird picking on micro-meals like you'd be forced to do if you were on a traditional diet. So if I know I'm going to go to dinner one night with a group of people, I may skip my 3:30 meal so I can have pretty much whatever I want when I go out: Steak, baked potato, bread, you name it. And the reason why you can do this, and this is very important to understand, is that the fasting portion of your day is the diet. So instead of watching every little thing you eat, you are narrowing the time frame that you eat in, letting the following extended period of fasting burn through whatever you consumed in the 8-hour feeding period. But beware, this doesn't give you a license to eat like crap, but it does give you way more wiggle room than you would normally have trying to eat perfect in 5 - 6 small meals spread throughout the day and fighting the constant temptation not to cheat when you're out and about with "non-dieters".

    The hardest part by far is acclimating yourself to this new eating schedule. The first two weeks are very difficult to be honest with you, especially if you're a breakfast person and wake up every day hungry. So what you have to do is come up with a strategy to keep your mind off food and moving forward until noon. And what I recommend is drinking lots of zero-calorie fluids non-stop throughout the entire morning. So here's how my morning usually goes:
    • 8AM - Large black iced coffee with one tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder (gives it that mocha flavor without the sugar).
    • 9:30AM - Large iced green tea (unsweetened). This really helps curb any hunger you're feeling. You can brew your own with two tea bags or just buy bottled green tea.
    • 11AM - Stimulant based pre-workout drink.
    • 11:30AM - Work out while sipping a BCAA drink.
    • 12 Noon - Eat your first meal of the day.
    Once you've got yourself past the first two weeks, your daily routine won't feel weird or challenging any more. You'll wake up, make your coffee and subsequent drinks throughout the morning and not even think about eating. And like I said before, the best part is that you'll be able to go out with friends and family and not seem like to them that you're restricting your diet at all, when in fact you are controlling yourself and losing fat on a weekly basis because of your daily fasting. :D

    Your 8-hour window of eating doesn't have to match mine. It can be whatever you want, but no matter what, you need to set your day up so that you have 8 hours of eating time followed by 16 hours of no eating. So if you're more of a night person for example, your window of eating might be 4PM to Midnight.

    If anybody has any questions, fire away.
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2015
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  2. I read about intermittent fasting not too long ago. I was inadvertently doing it for a number of years until about 3 years ago when I stopped. At the time, I wouldn't eat anything solid until late morning or noon, mostly limiting my intake to about 2 liters of tea. I would then eat a few times later in the day and well into the evening. My evening meal would usually be my biggest. I've always been able to control my weight and body fat quite well, since I don't eat junk and have been working out my entire adult life, with only a few short lapses, the most recent of which was over 15 years ago.

    But I changed that dietary regimen, at least insofar as timing is concerned, because I found that as I got older, eating a fair amount later in the day began to affect my sleep. And so, about 3 years ago, I began eating breakfast. In fact, I have 3 breakfasts each day; the first at about 7 am and the third by 9:30 or 10 am. Obviously, each of these is a small meal. I also eat lunch, have a mid-afternoon snack and then a lighter and earlier dinner than what I used to have in the past. Only occasionally, I might have a small snack after that. I haven't gained any weight; in fact, I lost a bit even though I wasn't looking to do so. However, that may or may not be the result of my changing my workout routine and/or getter older. I'm about ~similar in leanness as I was 3 years ago, but, as I approach 57, this is going to become more of a challenge I expect. On the plus side, I'm still wearing summer shorts that I bought in 1999, although I don't remember them being a bit snug in the waist...

    One thing that concerns me about daily intermittent fasting is the relatively larger blood sugar spikes that may result from the larger, fewer meals, all else being equal. I don't pretend to know the science here, but bottom line, I don't seem to be the worse for wear having left what appears to have been intermittent daily fasting in retrospect. And I'm never hungry. I imagine my caloric intake is roughly similar to what it had been before I began eating more often, although I haven't run the numbers.

    Baron, do you note an actual improvement in any measurable degree with your new dietary timing regimen?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 30, 2015
  3. If your workout is anaerobic, then wouldn't much of the energy come from your glycogen stores, especially if your workout lasts only 30 minutes?
     
  4. There's nothing wrong with getting and staying in shape and wanting to look good. Who works out to look worse? And the body is very much a use-it-or-lose-it proposition. The choice is yours.

    As to professional bodybuilding, it is all about aesthetics and not about health. Pro bodybuilders are walking chemistry sets, not examples of healthy living. I don't think this thread is about professional bodybuilding.
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2015
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  5. Gambit

    Gambit

    Thanks for your post, Baron. I found that intermittent fasting is a great way to control my appetite.
     
  6. I read something the other day where a guy was trying to gain 20lbs in 30 days. He essentially was force feeding himself all day everyday, and it worked. He got quite a bit stronger and didn't end up looking fat or anything. But a big kicker on what he did was fast one day a week. So saturday night he would eat his last meal, then sunday he would just drink water, green tea, and some BCAA's.

    The purpose behind it was to maintain his insulin sensitivity and also to give his body a chance to burn off some of those extra calories he was consuming instead of them turning into fat. I am about to kick off a couple month program to pack on some size and am thinking about doing the same thing with a day of fasting primarily from the insulin sensitivity standpoint and to keep from gaining much fat during the process.


    This is the breakdown of everything he did.
    http://www.biggersmallerbigger.com/
     
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  7. Gambit

    Gambit

    That's a great link FCX. I'll have to try it when I lean out.
     
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  8. 20 lbs. of lean weight gain in 30 days? I think there's more to this story than fasting, green tea and some BCAAs...

    Sorry, but I think you should try to be a bit more discerning.
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2015
  9. Gambit

    Gambit

    This guy is trolling. Baron should have left my post up.
    If anybody wants to learn about IF and evaluate its merits, check out this link:
    http://www.precisionnutrition.com/intermittent-fasting
    FCX's post has a lot of the same info as well its application in a real world scenario.
     
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  10. Lol who cares what he is on, if anything? The whole purpose of my post was discussing fasting and insulin sensitivity AND to share an interesting article with great details on a guy trying to put on as much weight as possible as fast as he can.

    20lbs in a month, no matter what you are on, is impressive to do without gaining a ton of water weight or fat.
     
    #10     Jun 30, 2015
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