HST and Eat/Stop/Eat

[asteve5]

20 hr fast - no effect on protein turnover:
http://www.ajcn.org/content/90/5/1244.full.pdf

Protein turnover not affected for up to 72 hrs of fasting:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19508406

Catabolic genes not activated up until 40 hrs of fasting:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16931880

Possible MOA in protein retention during fasting - growth hormone:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11147801

One last note - most liver glycogen depletion rates (which is a major concern when discussing fasting and muscle loss) are based on calculations but insofar as actual human studies, atleast one human experiment shows that you can go a pretty long time (much passed 24 hrs) without draining your glycogen stores and that there is a pretty neat recycling mechanism at work by which the cori cycle works to retain muscle but can't find the exact paper at the momement, anyway - here's the liver depletion rates in humans.
http://cds.ismrm.org/protected/09MPr...iles/00208.pdf

[wwazza]

I've been doing IF 16/8 for a week now and am on my last week of 5RM's whilst on a cut. I am absolutely amazed at what fasted lifting can acheive and definitely don't look as flat or deflated as I usually do on a cut. My strength has gone up and lost an extra 2lb at least this week. I don't feel hungry anymore and am struggling to believe this level of success can continue. Definitely a leangains convert!

As I'm cutting I'll be going straight back to 10's shortly mainting a calorie deficit of -10%/-30% and will re-assess my maxes along the way, however when I start the standard recomp of +20%/-20% would it be wise to have a strategic decondition and start back on 15's.

Would you still follow the carb cycling on the decondition? or just keep carbs low and eat at maintenance mainting the 8hr feeding window?

[Major Twang]

The other con is that for larger individuals, it is difficult to get enough calories in the eating window.

I've used IF whilst cutting & think it's absolutely brilliant.

However, I can't get on with it for buking for precisely the reason you give above.

I'm 45 & currently weigh 180lb, but my maintenance figure is around 3,200cals. Even at a conservative 10% above maintenance, that's way too much food to cram down my neck in 8 hours.

[alam906]

Question about 16/8 IF. I plan to lift 3 times a week and maybe HIIT/cardio twice a week. Are you suppose to lift at the end of your fast before your first meal or eat a light one, lift then big meal?

Also, would it be more effective to cardio on empty stomach or same as lifting and eat a little first?

Height: 5'6.5"
Weight: 157lbs
BF%: around 18%

[Major Twang]

Question about 16/8 IF. I plan to lift 3 times a week and maybe HIIT/cardio twice a week. Are you suppose to lift at the end of your fast before your first meal or eat a light one, lift then big meal?

Also, would it be more effective to cardio on empty stomach or same as lifting and eat a little first?

Over on the Leangains site, Berkhan outlines several different ways in which the feeding window can be fitted around training. He covers pretty much every variant from training first thing in the morning & eating later to training later.

He doesn't think there is going to be much difference between the different approaches.

One thing that a lot of people miss about Leangains is that it's supposed to replace the obsession over meal timing with a more relaxed approach to eating that incorporates regular fasting.

The research that is coming out about Infermittent Fasting seems to be that the details don't really matter. The positive health benefits of fasting can be gained from pretty much any schedule - one fast day per week, two days of very low calories, 16/8 or whatever.

Berkhan champions 16/8, probably because it's a nice easy system & one that suits people who train regularly. The regularity of eating times allows your hunger to entrain to the pattern fairly quickly, making compliance much easier - unlike full day fasts which can be more difficult for athletes & can knock your training out of whack.

[Mule86]

So I've been continuing on with the E/S/E diet and HST. Most weeks I will have at least one 24 hour fast. My weight will fluctuate between 203-207lbs weekly. I have been pretty happy with the program. I would love to hover around 199-201lbs and if I truely stuck to a strict diet I think I could do it. However, I enjoy eating out with family, having a few drinks here and there so I am happy with where I am at. I really do enjoy the simplicity of both E/S/E as well as HST. I'm coming up on three years of HST and do not see stopping any time soon. I am stronger than I have been since my football playing days. I am more muscular and defined than I have been in 10 years. I just had a health screening assessment for our insurance and everything came out very good. (8.8% BF which I thought was low. Figured I'd be around 12%).

One thing that I would like to pick back up is cardio. I've all but abandoned any type of cardio in the past six months. I used to do some light elliptical work on my non HST days but have slacked in this area. I think picking this back up would help me in getting under the 200lb mark. Really, the 200lb mark is more of a psychological thing than anything.