Intermittent Fasting Experiment: Week 2 Recap

UPDATED STATS:

Current Weight: 181 lbs

Barbell Deadlift: 190x3

Barbell Bench Press: 135x2

Bodyweight Chin-Ups: 3

Front Barbell Box Squat: 140x2

WEEK 2 THOUGHTS:

Squat day's Red Velvet Cheesecake (recipe from epicureanbb.com)

I am still enjoying this set up very much!  However, I did not lose much weight this week.  (Scale weight isn't the most important thing; an improvement in body composition can happen even while gaining weight, especially with heavy weightlifting involved) It may just be a small scale fluctuation or it may be because I had a couple small hangups this week.

I did eat more calories this week than last.  I had family in town which was awesome, but I changed my schedule around a bit and ended up eating a little on a rest/fasting day.  And then I had a training day in which I didn't track my calories at all so I may have over shot my target by a bit.

Even with the large amount of calories allowed/budgeted on training days, it is still easy for me to just start an all out feast and quickly get to or go over my target for the day.  I've always been the type of person that can eat too much if I am not keeping in check at least little bit.

GOALS FOR THIS PROJECT:

Even though scale weight doesn't mean everything... ideally I would like to get back to a 170 pound body weight by the end of this 8 week experiment.  All while hopefully retaining or gaining strength.  That would be a huge success.  If I continue to hit my protein targets without going too crazy on the calories I think this is doable.  Anyways that's my awesome goal for this project!

CHECK OUT THESE WEIGHT LOSS STORIES:

Mashable: Reddit Weight-Loss Community  These people have truly inspiring stories!

I talked a little about my history in my first post, but I hope to post my story in full in the near future.  (At the moment I don't have access to that many photos of when I was larger.  I need to scour my old files and photos from my computer I left with a friend in Las Vegas and I am planning a trip out there after this project is over.)

LONG TERM GOALS:

-Get Lean! (get to and maintain somewhere between 6 and %10 bodyfat)
-Get Strong! (get to and maintain at least an intermediate level of strength)
-Possibly helping others transform their lives like I have :-)

If people are not laughing at your goals, your goals are too small.

Stay tuned!

Intermittent Fasting Experiment: Week 1 Recap

I am going to try to keep this week's post relatively brief.  I am just one week in to the experiment (read lasts week's post if you haven't!) and I am doing quite well, but I don't want to start drawing big conclusions and waving a victory banner of accomplishment or anything!

I'll just recap a little about how the week went according to plan.

Current Weight: 182 pounds (-4 pounds)

One thing to note: if you do try heavy caloric cycling, be prepared for massive changes in day-to-day scale weight!  I went from topping 191.5 lbs after Thursdays's post-w/o feast and on down to 183lbs after a day of fasting.


AWESOMENESS (TRAINING) DAYS:

As long as I kept an eye on about where I ended up for the day, I did not feel guilty about being able to eat some pretty awesomely satisfying meals.

A particular favorite meal of mine this week came on squat day.  After hitting the gym I stopped for a foot long double meat BBQ pulled pork sub.  I followed that up at home with half of a pint of Ben & Jerry's Vanilla Heath Bar Crunch!

This "Meatsplosion" of a sandwich may become a post-w/o staple of mine.  I ain't Jared, but this was quite tasty.

I generally landed near my calorie goal for the day, and ate a lot of protein!  I ate a lot of meats, went out a few times for lunch or dinner and even had a few drinks on one particular day.  I thoroughly enjoyed my training and eating.  The freedom that comes with having a large caloric budget is very nice.

Main lifts this week:

I am not going to comment too much on the lifts either, because this is still just an early week 1 baseline.  However, I am really happy I pushed myself to finally get the 135 on the squat!  A baby step really, but it feels like a big one.

Barbell Deadlift: 190x3
Barbell Bench Press: 130x3
Bodyweight Chin-Ups: 2
Front Barbell Box Squat: 135x3

FASTING DAYS:

Cheetor says, "Did someone say 'Fast?'"

This will obviously be the main potential for downfall and where I will have to focus my reports on how they go.  So far I have no major or unbearable hunger pangs to report.  I have a few hours before work on my fasting days where, if I am bored, I feel a little hungry.   In that scenario I have been drinking diet Mountain Dew Code Red or finding something to do (something mentally stimulating).  But usually I have had enough awesome food the day before to tide me over.   

After work, late at night, is when I do feel some hunger.  I can probably attribute this to a combination of tiredness and stress.  The snacks on the drive home are key for me.  (Just to reiterate my plan, I fast pretty much entirely on my non training days, except for a pretty small allowance after a work shift)

Quest Bars are my favorite option for this purpose.  They are tasty, chewy and full of fiber.  (Another fist pound to RogLaw for introducing them to my life!)  One night after 2 days of fasting I caved and had 2 bars instead of one but that only added 170 calories to my fasting day.

On one particular day, I did not allow myself enough time to stop and buy a bar on my way to work and I had to settle for vending machine Cheetos.  These were not nearly as filling as a Quest bar and the thought of cheating on my fast afterward did come to mind, but obviously I let the thought go, brushed my teeth and went to bed.

As I planned, I believe I have fit this well into my lifestyle because I am busy on my fasting days.  (It also feels nice to fast and feel light on my feet and thin on days where I am serving/bartending.  )

Boom! One week done!

More to come! I will really look at if and/or how I am adapting to the schedule in the next few weeks.

READING MATERIAL:

You didn't forget that this is a nerd's blog, did you?

Here are a couple recent articles by people doing fat loss experiments that I have been reading.  Both talk about some interesting issues, and I will have to take a look at how my own experiment compares.

"The Derek" of TheGreatist and his six week grind to get a six pack of abs:
http://greatist.com/fitness/absperiment-over-week-six/

RogLaw's 2 week update on the experiment that is of course the inspiration for my try at this:
http://www.roglawfitness.com/intermittent-fasting-experiment-the-update/

Also worth reading is this blog that has some recent interesting articles on the possible benefits of caloric cycling:
http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.co.uk/

Welcome! And... A fasting experiment!

WELCOME! 

I plan to post awesome things here on my blog so I hope you enjoy your stay!

My first post on my blog will set up an "Intermittent Fasting" experiment that I plan to partake in.  I don't know if anyone will follow this even, but it will be a good place for me to put down my thoughts at least! (If anyone is reading this, please bare with me as I have very little writing experience!)

ME.

First, a quick history of my health and fitness past is in order.  I undertook a pretty huge life transformation not too long ago. (I plan on going in to detail and really exploring this further with pictures some time down the road)

From the fall of 2007 to summer of 2010 I went from morbidly obese 424 pounds to a healthy 170 pounds.  That's more weight lost (>250 pounds) than anyone on "The Biggest Loser!" 


I mention that not to toot my own horn, but just to show how much of an amazing adventure this has been for me.  I did this through determination, hard work and a constant desire to do better.  I love striving to be healthy, sexy and in control of the quality of my life.

However, the last two years have been a little up and down.  I've learned so much, but fitness wise I've kinda been stuck in a "skinny-fat" stage.  On one hand I've kept the weight off that I lost and could not be more proud of what I've accomplished. (I look amazing and not even like the same person I once was.)  On the other hand, I am always striving for more. (I wanna be stronger than the moon)

THIS YEAR, RogLaw, & IF...

This year in particular has been a bit of a struggle as I tore my meniscus in my right knee and had to have surgery.  I was laid up, out of work and out of the gym for a couple months.  I currently work as a waiter (sometimes bartender).  This led to me straying from my focus and gaining a little fat back. The upside is that it spurred me to hire an truly awesome consultant, Mr. Roger Lawson of RogLawfitness.com. Together we have gotten me back in the gym, hitting the weights hard and I'm on the path to being strong.  

I have to have a boring, stale diet to get lean and strong?

Roger is a fan of Intermittent Fasting (IF).  This is a style of eating that I've gone through phases of using in the past few years.  It cycles periods of little to no calories, to almost "over feeding" periods. (read more at LeanGains.com)

The basic structure of IF is that you plan to eat big meals late in the day when you're likely to be gathering socially and you fast the rest of the time.  You average the same amount of food intake, but with more of an on/off, with intermittent eating and fasting periods.

So, inspired by my coach's own recent fasting experiment, I'll be taking IF to the extreme.  Or actually reducing it to its basic premise depending on how you look at it.  I'll lift weights in the early afternoon 3 days a week and have all of my calories in the post workout period before bedtime.  Then I'll fast on the other 4 days.  These are days that I am fairly busy because I work 8 hours on my feet.  I usually don't eat much on these days anyways!  This set up will, in theory, allow me to go out and have awesome meals and still make progress towards my goals without much sacrifice.

Note: IF has shown to have some cool effects on the ability to gain muscle and lose fat.  It is not, however, some magical end-all-be-all diet, just something I've practiced in the past and want to give another go at.  As long as you hit your caloric needs on average at say the end of the week, the most important thing is what works for your lifestyle!

I'm actually adopting my training and diet to fit my lifestyle for once, and not the other way around.  Which is pretty cool!

THE PLAN:

After thinking about the idea for a little while, and how to adjust it to my personal schedule and food habits, here is my (almost every-other-day) IF experiment:

"Off Days" 
-These are days when I work 8 hrs (waiting/bar-tending)

-These days will be mostly spent in the fasted state (I will allow diet soda, coffee with a splash of cream if I need it.  I tend to ingest a decent amount of caffeine at work anyways and this is an appetite suppressant.)
-Exception: a single-serving snack (~250kcals) in the car for the long drive home after work

"Training Days"

-Train "fasted" with BCAAs before hand

-Eat a lot of deliciously awesome food!  I will eat relatively high amounts of protein  (No particular eating window, just all day)
-I do have macronutrient (pro/carb/fat) targets (I am not going to be super strict, but I will be tracking my intake.  This is because I don't do well with completely free form unchecked eating)

-Take a few supplements like a multivitamin, vitamin D, creatine and some fish oils

That's it!  I want to keep it fairly simple and easy to follow. 

Lots of sushi will be easy to fit into the plan/belly.

 --HERE WE GO--

Length of trial: 8 weeks (or until I fail miserably and go back to a more typical day to day nutrition)


Potential Difficulties:
avoiding food situations on work days 
morning hunger?
staying relatively close to macronutrient targets on eating days (not just free for all binging)

Potential Benefits:
fat loss
muscle gain  
being able to go out and eat a decent amount
becoming a ninja




Starting weight: 186 lbs

Recent Lifting stats:
Barbell Deadlift: 185x4
Barbell Bench Press: 125x4
Body weight Chin-Ups: 3
Front Barbell  Box Squat: 115x5

I will update this post every Wednesday with a weekly recap !