I'm fat again, but had awesome good results with the book: burn the fat, feed the muscle.
Biggest problem is, i get back into my old habbits.. It took 2 years to regain my weight that i lost in 6 months ( 25 kg = 55 pounds) -- way more muscle than i had before.
Short:
- Eat every 3 hours
- Muscle exercise ( male - see comment/reply below) - preferrable in the evening
- Cardio in the morning, after a protein shake ( Tip: Rope Skipping). Try HITT ( interval training) when you can.
- no alcohol
- Min. 5 x / week, doing sports
- Enough of sleep!
- Muscle confusion --> Change your exercise routine regulary due to muscle memory
Now, i'm back again at coding late at night, barely enough sleep and no sports :(
> - Muscle exercise ( male) - preferrable in the evening
Assuming you are implying that weight training is something that only men need do for this approach to work I would say that the health and fitness industry has done a huge disservice to women by suggesting that weight training is only for men.
My wife started lifting 3 years ago and loves it, she hated cardio and now rarely does any beyond weekend mountain biking but she lifts for an hour 5 - 6 times a week. The upshot of that change is that her back pain has gone, she can eat more calories than she used to (healthy food though), her posture is much better, she can lift heavy things without a problem and she carries less needless body fat. The benefit it had to her mountain biking was huge, she went from being last up the hills in out group to being the first up everyone with a decent amount of gap to second place.
There is no need for men and women to train differently.
I know what you mean. I'm not saying that weight training is not good for females.
But because of the hormone testostore, men create muscle faster and with that, loose weight faster because of the higher calorie requirements. I'm not saying it's impossible for women. I'm saying it's harder to have fast results with weight training.
For women, cardio is normally a faster way to get lean fast. I suggest to read the book: Burn the fat, feed the muscle which has really learned me a lot about "the body", metabolism and losing weight
This is just so wrong on so many levels. Female and former bodybuilder here. At my peak, I had a four day training split, tracked macros and calories, ate 33gP/33gF/33gC, and then did 1-2 HIIT cardio weekly. My high school PR bench was 135lbs, squat 365lbs.
Muscle burns more calories than fat. After gaining lean mass, doing HIIT cardio was that much more effective.
Fat people doing cardio without having lean mass often stay fat.
Cardio is not a faster way to lose weight for women (or men). The only way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories that you burn in your total daily energy expenditure. If one of the ways you achieve that deficit is with exercise (you can still lose weight by doing nothing and sitting on the sofa so long as you eat few enough calories) then you may as well lift weights rather than do cardio ( a nice mix of both would be better).
The main reason for this is that maximal strength is related to the number of muscle fibers pulling together, so when lifting on a calorific deficit your body will try to not burn muscle for energy as every muscle fiber is being employed to move weights, so instead will focus on fat.
If you lose weight on a cardio dominant exercise program the body will burn fat and muscle for energy as the fast twitch fibers primarily employed for lifting are not being used when running and so are as much a dead weight as the excess fat that is trying to be lost. This is why many cardio only people end up dissatisfied with their "goal weight" physiques because they lost as fat and muscle and still look quite soft - this can lead to excessive dieting and other such body image/eating issues.
Fundamentally (and barring any hormonal issues related to things such as the thyroid) losing weight is a calories in vs calories expended calculation. The type of weight you lose (muscle vs fat) is determined by the exercise that you do. Some studies have shown women who have low levels of fat and engage in a strength training protocol lose more fat than muscle compared to those who just stick to cardio.
The fact that women have low levels of testosterone compared to men is a big help as they literally can't get bulky and have very low amounts of visceral fat which is great for long-term health.
I don't think we are fundamentally disagreeing but I just want to highlight that women should lift just as much as men do.
If that book taught you all that, it didn't do you any service education-wise.
- Eating every 3 hours is useless. It's great for bodybuilders that need to increase or decrease their caloric input fast, because removing 100kcal from each meal yields a 500kcal deficit, and adding 100kcal from each meal yields a 500kcal surplus, which makes controlling weight easier when eating is your job. For most people however, eating often has no benefit.
- Lifting weights is great whether you're a man or a woman. Its benefits are not contingent on having high testosterone. Testosterone will only impact your ceiling and rate of progress but that's ok because you are here to improve, not compete.
- Cardio is good, but the morning part doesn't bring any benefit whatsoever. HITT is great but not recommended for overweight people because of the potential strain on joints and the fact that it has a huge negative impact on recovery (thus impeding the previous point on lifting weights). LISS on the other hand might be boring, but has no impact on joints whatsoever and can even help you recover from lifting weights. Before you go for a sprint, try going for a walk.
- No alcohol - no argument here
- 5 times a week is great if you can afford it, but not necessary - 1 time a week yields a huge improvement over 0, 2 a slightly smaller improvement over 1, etc.
- Sleep - no argument here, most people need more sleep than they think they do, and less time in front of a screen
- Muscle confusion is not a real thing, it's just a marketing term invented to get you to hire an overpriced personal trainer. You should absolutely not change your exercise routine as regularly as you might think. Your body responds to progressive overload of stressors. For instance, doing the exact same movement 3 times a week and adding one repetition to every set every session is taking a stressor, the exercise for a given sets x reps, and overloading it, which provokes adaptation and thus progress. Similarly you can add a small weight every session, or add a set, or combine all of those. This is how training routines are actually build. By systematising progress like this you can measure how well you are responding, and adapt the other variables accordingly (absence of progress often comes from dietary issues, or lack of sleep)
Scientific Principles of Strength Training, by Dr. Mike Israetel, Dr. James Hoffmann, and world-class powerlifter and coach Chad Wesley Smith, is an excellent and easy read on the general process of training.
I strongly prefer closed loop weight control [1], I've already lost about 4kg in 20 days. Yep, sometimes I'm hungry after eating too much on weekends, but this diet typicaly starts slowly so you have time to adapt. I've even made a simple webpage for phone to simplify calculations. I've used 200g daily weight loss as reference slope.
Thank you for posting this. This makes a lot of sense compared to something like the Hacker's Diet. (Quick summary of hacker's diet: weigh yourself each morning, use app/spreadsheet to calculate moving average, count calories and adjust amount based on current vs desired trend.) Also it makes a lot more sense than a thought I had: plot a trend line similar to the one in the article but only compare the daily weight to that trend and don't eat on a day that is above the trend (terrible idea).
I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask but:
Do you use a very accurate body weight scale or does it not matter as much over time? Mine can show pretty large fluctuations by weighing twice when there should be no change (weighed twice in 1 minute without eating or excreting). On the other hand, maybe it doesn't matter too much since the noise might be smaller than the difference between starting and ending weight for the day.
How do you measure the food and drink throughout the day? I have a good digital food scale but I'm picturing I'd have to probably carry it with me at first. Trying to picture how to do that at a restaurant. I suppose you would eventually know what works for lunch without a scale and then weigh yourself before dinner to see where things stand. I eat out at lunch a lot so I'm thinking about how to make this work.
Mine weight scale has resolution of 0.1 and accuracy of about 0.2-0.3. It doesn't matter that much because if your input is noisy your output will be noisy but if you use it intelligently you don't have to eat -0.2kg ;). I've seen that typically I need to eat about 0.7-1.5kg daily and if some day I get result lower than 0.2kg I just eat 0.2kg, no less. It may mean that I eat very little for about two days and then it's back to normal amount. Your mileage may vary, but if you use this diet you WILL lose weight. After going to target weight my calculator maintains constant weight reference so that I can control my weight and don't have yoyo effect.
Measuring food - I just weigh myself after morning piss and calculate amount of food to eat that day. 1/4 for breakfast, 1/4 for lunch and leave 1/2 for dinner, but before dinner I make last measurement and eat accordingly. Before that diet I've only eaten 2 toasts for breakfast, but now I'm feeling fuller through day. For food weighing I have small pocket scale which can measure up to 0.5kg (res 0.1g) but I could use a scale which has a resolution of 0.01kg. I don't measure drinks, this is a small source of noise but not really important. After several days of measuring various foods you have pretty good mental scale. I don't eat lunch with friends/coworkers, so premaking measured food portions was best case for me.
I think it's called Intermittent fasting with an 8hour food window. You can find lots of links, but the idea is to restrict the calories a bit within the 8h window if you want to lose weight. If you eat much more than your calory intake, you will gain weight. Intermittent fasting is believed to burn the fat within the 16hour fasting window, as the body would enter a ketosis stage. There are various forms of this intermittent fasting, but this daily one seems the most popular.
Don't forget an active lifestyle. In my experience the average Italian does plenty of walking. Caffeine and a constant slow burn make for a high metabolism and happy body.
But yes I think many of the Mediterranean cultures have it figured out. The espresso-high fat (croissant) breakfast and one huge meal work great with my intermittent fasting.
Has anyone here who's not trying to lose weight try any of these diets? I'm thinking of trying the every other day diet because it supposedly helps your immune system and boost focus (I don't know the validity of this part). I have no intention of losing weight though and have actually been trying to gain weight.
If you want to gain weight while training I would recommend the If It Fits Your Macros diet (http://iifym.com) and eating about 500 cals above you total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) coupled with a decent, tried and tested weight training program that incorporates progressive overload. Take a look at the FAQ on http://reddit.com/r/fitness
Thanks I'll look into this. For 3+ months I tried my best to eat well over my daily energy expenditure by drinking lots of juices and eating tons of pasta. I would just end up feeling bloated (I'm a guy) and have to cut down on actual food intake after a few days and my weight goes back to before. I know muscle gain is the best way to gain weight but I actually want a little more meat (I'm 5'8 and 135lb [~173cm/59kg])
If you want to put on muscle then follow a decent program and eat 1 g per pound of body weight of protein, 0.5 g per lb of body weight of fat and then set your carbs to give you a 300 to 500 calorie surplus. Don't drink your calories (well protein shakes are fine but chicken/tuna would be better), eat them. This might be of some help: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/4d6fg2/m_28_175_lb...
Have you ever felt sleepy after eating? I can't focus on that state, this feeling makes this claim very valid for me. Also, feeling an urge to eat and not do anything must be a good focus exercise.
After reading an article[1] from the National Academy of Sciences, I decided, with the blessing of my doctor, to try the intermittent fasting stuff.
Over the years my bloodwork has continually gotten worse, regardless of body weight (+/- 50 lbs) or exercise level (varied from a couple hours a week to jui jitsu training). I am facing diabetes and cholesterol issues, and looking at the trend it looked like my next appointment was going to have me on medication for both.
So I tried the intermittent diet. I gained 15 lbs and had the worst blood work to day.
Then, I tried (1) adding a few beans to my diet regularly, and (2) eating vegetarian (pescatarian I think- milk eggs fish are allowed) two days a week (and regular carnivore stuff the rest of the week). I also started eating a lot of curries and strong spices (I sailed Thailand) if that matters. I had always eaten that food, but now I'm eating it more because my kids are older and will eat it too plus I have my pescatarian days to myself (I cook different food for the rest of the fam) so I use those seasonings then.
Best blood work in decades.
So we are probably very individual machines- or at least it's not a "one rule for everybody to obey" situation- when it comes to nutrition.
Last summer I tried intermittent fasting as an experiment attempting to lose some body weight to become a more efficient runner. I figured it would work for me because generally I would not get hungry in the morning until I actually ate something. I regularly work out twice a day, so to accomodate I took some protein / BCAA's around the workout that fell outside the eating window. Within the window my diet was high in healthy fats, plants and protein - basically all the stuff recommended for this kind of diet.
It worked great for about a month or so, and I lost a couple of kg. Then the cravings started, mostly for sugar. Could no longer focus at work, was irritable, exercise performance declined. I ended up gaining all the weight back + about 1kg or so before I decided to cut it off. Right now I'm on a predominantly plant-based diet for about half a year now, feeling great, faster and lighter than ever.
My point: if you're a (semi-)serious athlete with the same goals I had, by all means try it out, but don't expect a silver bullet. The overwhelming majority of athletes follow a normal diet schedule and eat significant amounts of carbohydrates. I encourage everyone to experiment with their body to see what works for them - it's the one thing that's all yours, after all. Just don't assume you're the exception.
Just wanted to add my experience with intermittent fasting. I'm 38 yrs old now. I started in May 2016. My rules are:
1) from 8pm until noon next day - eat nothing, drink lots of water and 1 cup of coffee when I get up. On training days BCAA during the training and whey shake afterwards.
2) from noon until 4pm - eat 2 meals of proteins, fresh veggies and fats. Important here is no carbs!
3) from 4pm until 8pm - eat everything, and lots of it :)
Results are great! I am close to max strength now, my concentration is better than ever, sugar cravings are next to none. I lost 5kg of mostly fats. Subjectively I look better than ever.
To conclude, the best is to try - maybe it'll fit you, maybe it won't. You have nothing to lose :)
I think one (kind of specific) use case for that kind of diet as part of athletics is marathon prep. You really want to be prepared to burn fat during running a marathon.
In a normal (say up to half-marathon) running plan, getting faster and stronger by pre-feeding carbs feels good, but for the long distance it's a lot different.
Yes and no. Fat burning is an important part of distance running, but you can get many of the adaptations without running in a fasted state too often, whereas running fasted (/low glycogen) can severely hamper recovery and performance. I feel like the intense focus on fat burning is a bit of a fad (pun fully intended). You should also realise that boosting fat burning capabilities comes at the expense of glucose burning, which ultimately means you lose the ability to go into higher intensity zones. At the very least carb up before your speed workouts...
If you want to set yourself up for a successful marathon, I'd say being skilled in fueling yourself during the run is probably more important than optimizing fat burning.
From my limited marathon experience (two so far), the fuelling up doesn't really work 100%, even at large marathons with good supply stations, so you'll have to be prepared for fat burning (the little bags of carbs don't really suffice I found).
I lost an average of 400-500g a day (went from 100kg to 90kg) by eating only once a day (dinner - usually fish or chicken with vegetables) and no regular change to my activities. I did usually have 1 or 2 "cheat" days though, usually over a weekend when we had family dinner and/or when I went out drinking. Sometimes I had an apple for lunch.
I suspect that my body was just "normalising" and after a certain threshold it would probably have become harder to start losing weight without exercising. After I traveled for work my diet got totally screwed up and I went back to 100kg. I'm now on day 3 of the same diet and am currently at 98.5kg. As for my mood, well-being etc, nothing's really changed except for the mild hunger pangs (which I got used to quickly) and that I seem to get drunk quicker when I drink.
This is just a personal anecdote. Don't take it as medical advice of any sort.
I was doing something similar, two meals a day instead of your one, and then GERD occurred and fucked me really good for six months. My doctor told me that consuming all food in one or two sittings is the worst thing you can do long term because you end-up overfilling your stomach with food and given enough time acid will start escaping upwards. Of course everyone's organism is unique, I'm just expressing my concerns from my experience with similar dietary habits.
3 days is not a long enough time to see a trend, that's water weight...
There is literature out there that intermittent fasting is an effective tool in weight loss. I think the jury is out as to the metabolic effects, but just not snacking away all day helps you lose weight.
Yes. It has been scientifically proven that if you eat all your foods in an 8 + \epsilon hr window that you will gain 5lbs whereas if you eat them in an 8 hr window you will not gain any weight.
What works for me is eating in the evening (from 6pm to when I go to bed), mostly low-carb, and then not eating until the next evening. I do drink coffee over the day, which contains some fat (if not filter coffee).
I often do running in the morning, in that case I have some protein-heavy stuff afterwards to ensure that my body doesn't burn muscle tissue instead of fat.
This works well to reduce body fat at a rate of about 1-1.5kg per week.
Low-carb and in particular low sugar is really key for not being hungry over the day. Sugar is basically the recipe for getting hungry very soon again for me.
I think that "works for me" is really important though here.
Here are a couple of posts that I wrote about my fitness routine and diet. Hope it helps even though I am not a great writer. Happy to answer any more questions too :)
Having tried multiple diets (keto, 8 hour window, 4 hour window, alternate day fasting) I have come to the conclusion that everyone has a different body and YMMV.
What works for me is skipping breakfast, just drinking some coffee and eating regularly throughout the day (lunch, dinner) while trying to generally eating some protein rich foods. This works for me, but my girlfriend for example cant skip breakfast because she'll faint. Again, YMMV.
This diet will work of course, as it is just a variant of the "eat less" diet. My own heuristic is to not eat after dinner, which typically lowers the window of eating to maybe 10 hours a day for me. I eat as much as I can (tending towards vegetables and maybe 40% of calories from the fat in healthy oils), but I don't consume any sweetened drinks or much packaged food.
I agree. I follow a stricter eating window of 23/1 where I eat all my calories in about 1 hour. The benefit of keto is you do not have sugar crashes, and if you are careful with caffeine you can eliminate those crashes as well. A constant supply of energy is wonderful.
I also lift weight at the end of the fasting window, before I eat, and have not experienced any issues. I have been keto for a few years though, so I'm very keto adapted. My carb intake is less than 5g per day (I don't eat plants).
I have a 4 hour window of eating my main meal. I usually eat 2 meals in that one setting, one of the meals being a keto protein shake (w/MCT oil). At work, however, I will keep some almonds or pistachios to snack on. I normally don't experience headaches or hunger and my energy supply is great throughout the day.
While I can't say keto contributed to all of my weight loss, I will say it has been an extremely important factor of maintaining my weight and is my lifestyle choice. I would prefer bacon over bread any day.
I was thinking of the same thing.
Bulletproof coffee in the morning with the 8h window would certainly force your body to switch to ketosis pretty aggressively.
I can talk to 10 lean muscly people at the gym and get 10 different sets of dietary advice.
At the end of the day, the majority of diets are just tricks to help you lose weight, like how mnemonics are a trick to help you remember, they don't actually physically improve your memory.
It does exist, your neighbourhood Amphetamine variety will do just that. You will be able to eat whatever you want, you just won't want to eat anything.
Biggest problem is, i get back into my old habbits.. It took 2 years to regain my weight that i lost in 6 months ( 25 kg = 55 pounds) -- way more muscle than i had before.
Short:
- Eat every 3 hours
- Muscle exercise ( male - see comment/reply below) - preferrable in the evening
- Cardio in the morning, after a protein shake ( Tip: Rope Skipping). Try HITT ( interval training) when you can.
- no alcohol
- Min. 5 x / week, doing sports
- Enough of sleep!
- Muscle confusion --> Change your exercise routine regulary due to muscle memory
Now, i'm back again at coding late at night, barely enough sleep and no sports :(