IF Overview and Roundup for Challenge
May 9, 2008
Photo by Landersz
Ok, well the IF challenge officially begins on Monday. I will be launching a new free IF intro e-book to everyone who is signed up for email or RSS subscription (so make sure not to miss out!). In the meantime this is just a little IF reveiw and follow up on many things.
Q: What’s the difference between IF and CR
A: IF is NOT about excessively restricting your calories when you are eating. IF however has been shown to give all the benefits associated with CR (see resources for all studies) PLUS has none of the drawbacks to CR and allows you to not be hungry all the time, shown better retention of muscle mass while decreasing fat loss and does a better job to decrease insulin resistance factors (which are important to all disease prevention plans)
Q: Which is better? 15-18h hours daily fasting or 24hour fasts a few times week.
A: Honestly there are so many variables when it comes to IF such as what you are eating, macro nutrient ratios, meal timing, your activity level, your state of health (insulin resistance, inflammation and other health /hormonal factors), your long term goals, etc. BOTH can work greatly! The key to anything that is going to get you results is how effective is this long term? So you have to find the plan that works the best for your lifestyle, energy levels and goals. Both can work, and there are still many factors involved that one can change along the way. Don’t think of IF as just another diet, it’s a lifestyle choice! It has to be in order for it to really work (as we know diets don’t work longterm). 24 hour fasts may improve some disease symptoms quicker, but smaller daily fast can also. Smaller daily fasts may just seem easier to do and therefore you keep up with it longer than trying to do 24hr fasts. Again, what are you going to do consistently? So start one way, tweak as you go and pretty soon you have a lifestyle plan that works for you!
Q: When doesn’t IF work?
A: Again, there are many factors and some people may not respond well to IF. Here’s some common misconceptions that can prove to be disasterous in the long run:
- “More is better when it comes to fasting” - Wrong!! If you fast too much/too often…you can compromise healthy thyroid/adrenal output and create an environment that may actually lead to more health issues.
- “I can eat anything I want on IF” - While this may seem like a saving grace for some people just starting off and having alot of weight to lose, like any quick weight loss you may see at first, it will plateau off. Then it becomes a question of the quality of foods that need to be used to continue down the road of health. Quality of foods is just as important in any eating plan for real long term health and success
Q: What are the most common mistakes people do when trying IF
A: Like mentioned above, here are some of the most common mistakes:
- Fasting too often/too long
- Not eating enough when you are supposed to eat (remember this is not about serious calorie restriction, you will still need some calorie deficit average for weight loss but we are not starving ourselves in the process)
- Not eating the right foods (binging on sweets and sugar will lead to more insulin resistance and other diseases down the road, like diabetes). We still have to eat right and healthy, when in doubt no sugars and whole food sources. When in doubt, sugar is bad and if it wasn’t around 1000 years ago, chances are you don’t need it!
- Trying to eat all the calories in one serving. This is not a good idea as your body can still raise up insulin levels after big meals, therefore creating more fat storage. Smaller and more frequent (to a certain extent…don’t need 6x a day…3 works fine…see below) meals is the best way to go.
Q: What about people who say eating 6x a day is the key to weight loss and keeping the metabolism strong?
A: That is just a myth, as there is no proven research to say that eating 6x a day is any better than having 3 meals a day (one meal a day can be a negative thing though…see below). Fat loss comes down to 2 main things, daily calorie intake and insulin control. Your metabolism will not drop if you skip breakfast, that is quite ridiculous to think your metabolism and body responds so quickly like that. If you starve yourself for a couple weeks, then yes…it will drop the metabolism, but nothing will happen in the same day, never mind a week. (A trick is to use weekends to eat up, signal there is no starvation going on if your weekly calories are too low…highly recommended for everyone doing IF, of course we are talking healthy calories…but you don’t have to deprive yourself 100% either if you want to go enjoy a nice meal out with friends once a week…remember weight loss is still about calories, so don’t get too crazy).
Q: So why is IF such a great choice?
A: For me it was a personal decision after spending decades of trying different eating plans. Now I can: gain muscle and lose fat while eating less food overall. I am not obsesssed about meal timings during the day. I can eat as much as I want provided the choices are mostly healthy. I take a day off on the weekend and just eat whatever I like. I can go out with friends and not feel like I am depriving myself. I know how food effects me and how to control what I eat. I feel better all day long with more constant energy levels. I have less inflammation issues from old injuries. I rarely get sick (if I do it doesn’t last 24hours and can count the number of times from the last 5 years on one hand..that and is usually due to me not recovering properly from playing sports). I have no digestive issues. I feel fine exercising in a fasted state, and enjoy it more. I am no longer paranoid about “losing muscle” because I didn’t have a protein shake during the middle of the night or during the day every 2 hours. It’s a simple and easy way to live life as things can always change daily. It makes sense from an evolutionary perspective of how the body was designed for periods of feast and famine, how the body can heal itself if you give it time, and protect itself better when exposed to small doses of stress. That and what it can do for disease prevention and longevity makes it a logical choice on how I want to live my life as I get older. But hey…that’s just my opinion. 
So to sum up, how do we begin to IF?
- Start slow at first, more is not better in most all cases. (Start with 16-18hr weekday daily fasts or if you want to do 24 hr fasts try them only 1-2x a week….see how your body responds, how you feel, how your energy is and more importantly what works best in your lifestyle) Note: remember 24hr is NOT skipping a whole day, it’s stopping at say 6pm one day and eating again 6pm the next.
- You should be able to eat enough healthy foods as you want in your eating windows (no real restrictions needed…only when sugar and processed foods come in do we need to control the portions).
- Best results hands down for weight loss, muscle gain, reduced inflammation and increased longevity and disease prevention are seen with eating lower carb, moderate protein and higher healthy fats. That will signal all the right hormones needed for muscle growth, muscle retention, fat burning, anti-inflammation and disease prevention.
- Eating smaller meals during your feeding window is better than 1 big meal. For starters you just won’t get enough healthy calories in that window, and most people may take it as a pass to eat anything they want….which will just lead to weight gain. So try and aim for in your eating window 2 smaller meals if you are doing 24hr IFs or 3 meals equally spaced apart if you are doing a daily IF. Break up the calories and eat as much healthy food choices as you want. If you do only fit in one…then don’t use it as a pass to jump face first into the dessert buffet…try starting off with a salad first…and then eating your main meal a little while later. Keep control of your cravings!
- Take the weekends off from fasting schedules, keep your metabolism strong by letting your body get in enough calories (especially if you think you are not eating enough during the week)
- Know that you can adjust as you go. Nothing is set in stone, just what you make of it. Outlined above are the ways to get great results but you have to do them consistently to make it work. So if something feels wrong, take a look back at what you are doing and then move forward with a new plan.
MikeOD,
Great information concering IF. I typically IF during the week and relax on the weekend depending on my family plans. If a soccer or baseball game is around lunch time I will feed the kids and continue the IFing until the later afternoon. I try to eat clean and controled during my eating window. The key as you stated in your article is to start slow. Once you get into it, it’s a good feeling to know that you have control over your hunger.
I exercise in a fasted state and will have some ACV afterwards and for break-fast around 1-3pm a protien shake+glutmaine+cinnamon+water and an apple and peanut butter. After that I will eat more protien and fruit and then have a sensible dinner with the family.
It has worked for me for about a year and a half. I have not missed a day of work due to sickness and am in better shape than I have been in my entire life.
Thanks for sharing the research.
MikeB
Mike B - Well done! Yep…we all need to start slow and learn how to control and make IF work…otherwise some people go too fast and then have negative setbacks occur. Great part….is anyone can modify as they seem fit to their lifestyle….following some basic rules of course that work. IF should be all about never feeling deprived of food, eating how much we want of healthy stuff, not starving ourselves or ending up in a state of malnutrition, keeping muscle, losing fat, increasing performance and living a long and healthy life without having to resort to full time CR (which is not ideal in my opinion….as I don’t want to end up at 140lbs at 6′1″, being around 185-190 right now, and feel like I am starving every day).
Fasting is putting your body under stress. I see no mention of the fact that fasting causes cortisol levels to rise in the body and the implications of that. The number one stressor for a hunter gatherer is starvation. Trick your body into thinking it is starving and you are playing with fire.
Good luck!
Mike–You’re on. I’ve been saying I’m going to start IF either since I read Fast 5 or found the thread on Pmenu (can’t remember which came first but either way its probably been close to a year). I’d say the 30 day challenge is enough to finally get me to :do something: or get off the pot.
Kyle - That’s the purpose….give it a shot…see what can happen. The rest….well….is up to you, but no action will get you no results 100% of the time.
Hi Mike,
Been reading for a while, also a reader over at Modern Forager. Love what you guys are doing.
I’m joining your challenge tomorrow, just thought I’d drop you a line. I’ve been doing IF for about 3 weeks already, I just want to commit to this lifestyle further. I fast 24hrs Monday, Wed and Friday and eat paleo style Tues, Thurs, Sat and Sun.
I’m about 20% body fat, but I’d love to be more like 10% and gain a little more muscle. I really want to increase fitness. My husband is a personal trainer, so he’s got my weights sessions covered twice a week, I’m going to walk for an hour on the other days. As my fitness increases I’ll walk/run until I’m a runner!
So basically, my goal for the thirty days is: lose some body fat, gain some more muscle tone, perfect my IF technique and become a bonafide runner.
Wish me luck! I’m off to set the alarm for my walk before work.
Louise - Good luck with the challenge! Getting down to 10% is very ambitious, but never impossible! Will take some tweaking on your part as you go with your carb intake and keeping up the active lifestyle activities (will never call it cardio). Remember the IF is not a quick weight loss scheme, but a lifestyle approach to lasting results for health and fitness. 3 24-hr days is going to be alot, so either make sure you are getting plenty of healthy calories in on the off days or you may want to try with 2-24hr fasts to start…to see how your body reacts. Anything can be changed and fine tuned as you continue on your journey, just focus and it will happen!
Joe - The reason “chronic” elevated cortisol is not mentioned with IF, is because it is not a real factor! Chronic starvation may be, but that is not what true IF is. As for IF being a stressor, of course it is! You are putting your body under stress to get an anabolic response! You are correct in assuming that “starvation” is not good over a long period of time, however you are jumping the gun assuming IF is about starving yourself, as you get plenty of calories in…you just condense the eating windows to take time off from digestion. People doing IF the right way can lose fat, keep or gain muscle, and improve health….so does that still sound like starvation or malnutrition? Does losing fat and gaining muscle happen in high chronic cortisol environments? No, of course not. Cortisol is a necessary part of overall body design and function (as it rises as you sleep naturally…and peaks in the morning so you can wakeup), as if you find someone that can not produce any…then you will find other health issues. You want your body to break down and rebuild at the cellular level, otherwise how do you repair diseased and malfunctioning cells? Lifting weights raises cortisol and is catabolic too, should we all stop that? Looking at short term cortisol “peaks” during the day (vs damaging high chronic levels) is a paranoid line of thinking that you need a positive nitrogen balance 24/7 for optimal muscle (supplement companies anyone?). Whereas you also have muscle sparing hormones such as ketones (which does well when carb cycling to pwo windows especially fruits, which is fructose and goes to liver glycogen replenishment first…and ketosis is based on that being low or empty) and GH (get some deep sleep for that) that prevent it from happening and keep cortisol in check. Your body can also recycle it’s own recirculating amino acids from muscle breakdown into rebuilding them again. Also if your cortisol is going to be an issue then you would also suffer from hyperinsulinia and insulin resistance since excessive cortisol means an elevated blood sugar. So if you are doing IF and you can increase insulin sensitivity, lower insulin levels, lower inflammation (see the resources sections for more studies)…how does one actually suffer from chronic cortisol levels (outside of any other stressors)? The answer is that you don’t as IF can also show lowered blood cortisol levels as well. Cortisol has a half life of about an hour after it rises, so it does goes down. It’s the chronic elevated levels of cortisol from ongoing stressors such as inflammation and environmental stimulus (what we call stressing out) that are dangerous. IF is not a chronic stressor, it is acute. Fasting for days would start to signal the body into a chronic state of stress, starvation. However IF reduced inflammation, so it will lower cortisol through that pathways as well. For optimal health you need periods of acute catabolic activity (not chronic) for the body to respond in an anabolic way. If you want to focus on a bigger cause of chronic cortisol is lack of sleep, excessive aerobic activity and daily stress (or lack of relaxation)…those are the real factors to worry about. To be successful with IF you have to keep your fasts brief and eat enough calories so you are not starving yourself. IF with little sleep…can be disasterous. IF with consistent little daily calories…can lead to muscle loss. IF done with the right nutrition and lifestyle factors…gets results. I’ve already said many times that more is not better when it comes to fasting…like in the post above. IF may not be for everyone, but it can have tremendous benefits and create a happier lifestyle for many who do it correctly. Your body doesn’t waste muscle as fast as supplement companies who want you to keep positive nitrogen retention with all their supplements want you to believe. In the end cortisol’s function is as a blood glucose regulator, IF and ketosis promote a fat burning environment and can lower cortisol output. There are other factors more important in cortisol control such as proper sleep and recovery. Symptoms of chronic cortisol will be fatigue (adrenal exhaustion), mood swings, brain fog, muscle loss, weight gain in the face and stomach (as a result of high blood sugar/insulin) and elevated blood pressure. Again…not something people on IF have ever reported.
Honestly if one’s goal is muscle gain/retention you could play around with BCAA (esp leucine) supplementation during the day….as long as it is easy to digest (does not stimulate a nervous system response) and has no sugars to elicit an insulin response. The jury is still out on how effective it could be….but it may help increase muscle retention adding more BCAAs to the circulating blood stream for use while muscle repair and breakdown is occurring. It also may have interest especially to those that may do longer based aerobic workouts (whether fasted or not). Here’s an interesting study that does say Leucine supplementation did improve body composition in rats that went through periods of restriction and refeeding.
Mike
Just started IF 3-4 times a week with a minimum of 15 hrs between meals. I aim to eat Paleo, however I’m not superstrict on it. Don’t eat/drink junk, and most meals are created from scratch so I know my base nutrition is good, and has been for years. This is just relatively recent discovery.
I also started crossfit 3 months ago, and aim for 5 days a week (usually 6am). I’m 32, 88kg, 175cm, lost some fat since crossfit and am very happy with improving performance. Just have a question re: my realistic expectations for lowering bodyfat in this manner with an aim to make it a lifestyly is say 1month, 3 month, 6 month periods? I don’t want to have an expectation of being <10% bodyfat with a 4 min Fran if it’s totally wild. In your opinion, what changes would you expect to see at those time periods?
Your advice is appreciated.
Maciej - Make sure you are getting at least 15-16 hours for IF, as you need it that long to get the right hormonal triggers going. As for your BF and performance, I honestly have no idea where you are right now…so I can’t even guess. There is no reason you can see great results…as many do. Plenty of people have <10% BF on IF protocols. But you have to also take into effect other factors that go with any diet...such as carb intake, insulin control, total calories, etc.Realistically you should be able to drop 1-2% BF per week if you are getting all your calories/ratios correctly on IF (possible more to start..but 1-2% is a good estimate…of course the lower you go..the harder it will be to lower the BF). Best results are seen with people getting moderate protein, higher fat and lower carbs (and keeping the majority of the daily amount in the pwo feeding window). Benefit of IF seen is that once hormonally adapted to it, people can still see great results even if their carb intake does goes higher. Of course sleep and recovery play into it. All the same rules apply like any other weight loss plan…but it is just easier not to sweat about food all day and the shorter windows make it hard to really overeat. Find what works for you so you keep with it consistently, tweak your ratios of fat/carb as needed, get enough protein, stay away from sugar, drink plenty of water, get enough activity, have an “up” calorie day once every 7-10 days and you will see great results.
Just curious here as to food planning. I have been eating carbs at every meal–my carbs are veggies basically green leafy ones! Yet I have read recently that “carbs” are not needed at each and every meal–perhaps with only carb intake PWO. So my question is are the carbs that are “not needed” those of the starchy variety or any and all carbs?
If this has been written elsewhere already, please refer me there MOD! But how would one go about best structuring their meals with regard to macronutrient contents?
Sarena - Keep it simple. Meat+Fat+Veggies for meals, Meat+Carbs pwo (veggies are non-starch,starch based veg/grains/etc fall into carbs). So when you hear “carbs”, it’s mostly talking about the starch based ones, not vegetables like spinach, broccoli, etc. If you mess up a meal once in a while, don’t sweat it. Use the common rule if fats are higher, carbs should be lower….and if carbs are higher, fats should be lower. Great thing about IF is some people still seem to do well even if they are higher carb intake. (although best results will be higher fat/mod protein/cycled carbs)