I need an authoritative guide to Intermittent Fasting - any recommendations?

shiphen

Member
Hi

Where is the most authoritative guide to Intermittent Fasting?

Background
- I do not wish to use artificial stimulants (e.g. caffeine) because I already have glucose regulation issues (I have IBS & food intolerance issues and am mildly hypoglycemic).

- At the times when I am hypoglycemic (i.e. my blood sugar is low) I feel a bit ill and my mental performance suffers quite a lot, making me under-perform at work.

- I am NOT in a hurry, but I do need to lose about 9lbs of body fat.
(I am 6ft tall, weight about 80Kg [i.e. 176pounds] and c12-15% body fat at the last count.)

My questions:
- What is the least painful way of fasting (i.e. that would interfer with my work the least !)?

- How long should a fast last... and how often should fasting be done?

- Is it best to fast completely or to eat slightly too few calories over a period of time... ?

- How do you stop the body from going into "starvation mode" and storing as much fat as it can as soon as you end a fast?

- How do I stop the gut from being irritated? (e.g. Wheat & [lactose free] milk products seem quite irritating...)

- What is the best type of exercise to take to lose body fat?
(Running/interval training/ weights etc?)

- Any other dos and don'ts ?

I think I need a Beginners Guide to Intermittent Fasting !

With thanks


John
John Smith
 
I don't know if this provides exactly what you are looking for, but Martin is the sharpest guy I know of who is well-versed in IF. Good luck!

http://www.leangains.com/

Leangains is the best site I've found that covers this topic. I'd also recommend Lyle McDonald's site, some of the threads in his forums cover IF and are pretty informative.
 
I am utterly confused by what leangains.com is saying !

He seems to be saying you need to fast 16 hours/day (including sleeping time) and eat for 8 hours per day.

1. But is it every single day of the week?(!)

2. How does it vary with HST-type training?

Personally I prefer to go to bed with a near empty stomach at night, because if I dont I wake up in the morning with undigested food in my guts and this encourages me to feel VERY rough first thing.

Also according to the renouned gut specialist from Austria (Dr FX Mayr) it is much better for the digestion to rest overnight, otherwise the guts are likely to gradually become more swollen and irritated. My guts are already rather sensitive to various foods (including dairy & wheat) and this is a damned nuisance (!).

So that would mean if I do eat breakfast (e.g. at 8AM) that I should not eat after 4PM, yes? And do that every day?

OR perhaps I can fast at *both* ends of the day. Supposing I eat my breakfast at 11AM. Add +8 hours taks me to 7PM, so I must have finished eating by 7PM. i.e. In practice this would mean: Skip normal breakfast, eat instead at 11AM, lunch say at c.2PM, and supper at 6PM.

Is that really going to work!? Or would I be better doing a fast for most of the day on rest days, and then eating my first meal at stay 4PM or 5PM , ready to train at 7PM?

I am doing HST training of about 60 minute training sessions on 3 days per week. Because I work a long office day and because the gym is my more free in the evening, I tend to do this training late in the day (often finishing at 8 or even 8.30PM) - so eating a lot after that is tricky. I suppose I could try moving my training to very early in the morning, but then I would need to go to bed very early - and I find that difficult. (In fact if I seldom feel tired at my normal bed time, and if I go to bed EARLY, then I normally wont sleep...!) Also how do you get a meal in BEFORE training if you have an early training session? (i.e. training before I go to work).

Maybe would be simpler to fast on only training days. (Or should that be only on rest days?) Or perhaps only at the weekend?? Also I still dont understant if traing when fasting is a good or bad thing.
As you can see I am utterly confused by all this...

- Any advice?


John
 
I am utterly confused by what leangains.com is saying !

He seems to be saying you need to fast 16 hours/day (including sleeping time) and eat for 8 hours per day.

1. But is it every single day of the week?(!)

You can have a cheat day once a week, just don't go all Caligula with the Doritos on that day or something.

2. How does it vary with HST-type training?

It doesn't. All he recommends so far as I know is to up the carbs a bit on workout days.

Personally I prefer to go to bed with a near empty stomach at night, because if I dont I wake up in the morning with undigested food in my guts and this encourages me to feel VERY rough first thing.

Also according to the renouned gut specialist from Austria (Dr FX Mayr) it is much better for the digestion to rest overnight, otherwise the guts are likely to gradually become more swollen and irritated. My guts are already rather sensitive to various foods (including dairy & wheat) and this is a damned nuisance (!).

So that would mean if I do eat breakfast (e.g. at 8AM) that I should not eat after 4PM, yes? And do that every day?

Yup

OR perhaps I can fast at *both* ends of the day. Supposing I eat my breakfast at 11AM. Add +8 hours taks me to 7PM, so I must have finished eating by 7PM. i.e. In practice this would mean: Skip normal breakfast, eat instead at 11AM, lunch say at c.2PM, and supper at 6PM.

That's how I do it. I don't start eating until 12 PM usually.

Is that really going to work!? Or would I be better doing a fast for most of the day on rest days, and then eating my first meal at stay 4PM or 5PM , ready to train at 7PM?

Keep it consistent is all.

Maybe would be simpler to fast on only training days. (Or should that be only on rest days?) Or perhaps only at the weekend?? Also I still dont understant if traing when fasting is a good or bad thing.

You could workout fasted or fed. There's apparently some evidence for an advantage in nutrient partiioning with fasted training, I doubr it will matter for anyone but those already pushing the limits of body fat loss. And when training fasted it's not really fasted, you're supposed to down some BCAAs first, then eat soon after.

You're not confused. I think after too much internet exposure you're just expecting things to be more complicated than they are is all. Common with information overload.
 
I like the idea of sleeping on a near empty stomach - I hate feeling bloated first thing. So suppose I fast between 11AM and 7PM. Now what happens if I want to do evening training as well? i.e. My training would start at 7PM, finish at 8 or even 8:30PM.

Am I then banned from eating after training?! I thought eating right after training was crucial.

The other alternative would be to go to traing before work in the morning. I suppose I could train 7AM until 8AM, but that means going to bed AND SLEEPING (could be a problem) really, really early. So I would have to be out of bed by 6AM, and so get to bed by 10PM, right? But even then I still wouldnt be abel to eat until 11AM !
 
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