Now I'm sure if you follow me on Instagram you probably think I've lost my mind with all the food I've been consuming! And well you're probably right haha ;) There is a science behind it and I do have reasoning for the foods/amount of food I've been ingesting. Its called Intermittent Fasting!!!
I'm not exactly sure how I stumbled across the idea of IF but one night I was doing a little research on different diets and I came across carb back loading. A lot of people that carb back load also practice IF. A basic description of carb back loading is where you would wake up, don't eat anything till like 12 or so and then when you do eat just eat proteins and fats. You would train around 6 and then after you would consume as many carbs as possible (within your macros). I don't mean brown rice and sweet potatoes either, I'm talking pizza, doughnuts, cookies, ice cream, burgers, burritos.....pretty much anything to get you a big spike of carbs. A protein shake is recommended to make sure you get enough protein with your meal. You could continue eating carbs until you went to bed! Then you would wake up and do it all over. Now at first I was like nahhhhh this cant work, but the people that were doing it were completely shredded!!! I thought long and hard about doing it and did A TON of research and then decided that even though these people were really cut, they weren't healthy!
So now back to IF......people that practice carb back loading do IF but you don't have to carb back to do IF. Intermittent fasting is basically where you fast for a 16 hour period and then feed for a 8 hour period. I don't mean stuff your face for 8 hours, you would have 2, 3, or even 4 meals within this window. Right now I'm doing 3. How do you know what times to do? Well that's all up to you and your schedule, that's the beauty of it! If you want to make your fasting period from 7pm-11am or 8pm-12pm its up to you! I'm doing 6:30pm-10:30am. So I would have my first meal at 10:30 and my last before 6:30. Like I said the times are up to you.
Its best to train on a empty stomach with a little BCAA'S in your system (I do it with coffee because BCAA'S upset my stomach). That's right you train on a EMPTY STOMACH! This goes against everything you've ever heard about loosing weight and all that, but it works. What happens is that your body actually uses fat as fuel instead of carbs. When you wake up and haven't eaten for hours your body is a calorie burning machine, once you eat your metabolism actually slows down! So breakfast is a load of crap (even though i love breakfast foods). While your body is in that turbo fat burning state its best to go as long as you can without food. After your training session you would eat your largest meal of the day which should consume 50-60% of your calories!
By now, you probably already know that training (either weight training or cardio training) plays a huge role in depleting your body’s glycogen stores. Glycogen is simply the broken down form of carbohydrates which are stored in the muscles, liver, and fatty tissues in the body. So obviously, in order to refill these stores your body needs carbs. And carbs play a critical role in the post workout state. The body releases cortisol as a reaction to this external stressor. In order to lower the amount of cortisol in the body, it is crucial to spike insulin. You see, insulin and cortisol act in a very close relationship. The spike in insulin post workout will hence lower cortisol levels and begin the all important cycle of protein synthesis (or in plain English – the rebuilding of muscle tissue). So how does one create an insulin spike? Through carbohydrates of course! Now keeping this in mind, in a post workout state you want to initiate protein synthesis as quickly as you can. The best way to do that is by getting a very fast and huge burst of insulin in the blood, and the quickest way to do that is by introducing high glycemic index carbohydrates – or basically simple carbs or sugars. This means that the faster digesting the source of carbs, the quicker you get an insulin spike. So wouldn't it make complete sense to instead of grabbing that slice of fibrous wheat bread to go for something far more fun and yummy instead (like a Pop Tart). Think of it it, Pop Tarts (and other highly processed foods) are nothing but straight sugar. When it comes to fast digesting carbs, there are MANY options available. The one thing you want to keep in mind is that although I am saying that choosing a fast digesting source is your best option at this time, you want to make smart choices as well. Generally, these carb choices should be low to non fat. Fat slows down the process of digestion which at this point is something we DON’T want. It will even somewhat blunt the insulin spike we’re attempting to stimulate. So rule number one is that the food choice should be low to non fat. This opens up a world of possibilities to choose from that are only limited by your imagination. Find out more here
If you train in the evenings you would still stick to your macros but save half of your daily totals for your post workout meal. Its really all about your macros. You have to weigh things and figure out what your body requires.
Here is an awesome calculator for lean gains. You would also be carb cycling except instead of low, moderate & high you would just have training days and rest days. A rest day would be where you just do cardio or nothing at all. On your rest days you would lower your carbs and increase your fat intake. Lean gains suggests that you only train 3 days a week (but train HARD) and don't do any cardio. Right now I'm doing weight training 4 days, cardio 2 days, yoga 1 and 1 rest day. This is what works for me, eventually I'll make changes.
These are MY macros, YOURS will be different
Training days:
Calories: 2,516
Carbs: 352g
Protein: 160g
Fat: 52g
Rest days:
Calories: 1,600
Carbs: 60g
Protein: 160g
Fat: 80g
There are many great articles that you can Google about IF that will tell you all the benefits to fasting and why this "diet" is so amazing. I LOVE it because it lets me have more fun with my food and gives me back the time I lost to prepping 6 meals per day. You actually don't need to eat that often to keep your metabolism up!!!! DO YOUR RESEARCH PEOPLE, EDUCATE YOURSELF! I don't have the urge to binge or eat bad because my diet isn't so restricted. I'm also not stressing over when my next feeding time is and if ill be home to eat it. I never felt satisfied with those tiny little meals, I began to hate healthy food and was so sick of the same crap. No I don't feel starving if I go 16 hours without food, I actually have more energy through my workout. This isn't for everyone and its not a solution to loose weight, its a lifestyle change, so like I said EDUCATE YOURSELF before trying any new "diet".
More great info
Some of the great meals I've been enjoying!
One week of IF and I'm already seeing results!
IIFYM ;)
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