Intermittent fasting. Thoughts?

MadisonDan

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
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Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
There are no essential carbohydrates. Getting your body used to burning fat instead of carbs for fuel is what takes time. It's going to suck for a few weeks or however long your body needs to adjust. There has been some really interesting research with ultra marathon runners who demolished their previous records by becoming fat adapted. There's no "wall" where your body has to switch from burning carbs to burning fat.
Anecdotal evidence, before I started this I always felt I would crap out after 40 minutes without something in my stomach. Doing 12 hour Spartan races in VT I packed food like I was camping out for days. The most I've done since has been about 3.5 hours but completely fasted and my energy was through the roof, no hunger pains, and no wall. That was compelling evidence to stick with it personally and my next project is to do an unassisted race or event, see how long my body can take me.

one issue is that it can't be digested faster than consumed - but it does extend "the tank" -

the fat adapted/keto thing is still interesting from a weight loss (fat loss) perspective. i read about the endurance athletes, but
the ones they write-up tend to be in the elite category, so i'm never sure what should apply.

my last big weight push had a couple fasting days, and no sugar or dairy. worked great, and i felt great afterwards
without the urge for cookies, or snacking. kept losing weight too. might have been the no-beer during the week thing. :hmmm:

protein breakfast - no bread, no extra sugars. seems to keep me from becoming out-of-control hungry by lunch, which then
requires a tube of pringles.
 

Big Dumb Animal

Hippo Nipples' #1 Fan
one issue is that it can't be digested faster than consumed - but it does extend "the tank" -

the fat adapted/keto thing is still interesting from a weight loss (fat loss) perspective. i read about the endurance athletes, but
the ones they write-up tend to be in the elite category, so i'm never sure what should apply.

my last big weight push had a couple fasting days, and no sugar or dairy. worked great, and i felt great afterwards
without the urge for cookies, or snacking. kept losing weight too. might have been the no-beer during the week thing. :hmmm:

protein breakfast - no bread, no extra sugars. seems to keep me from becoming out-of-control hungry by lunch, which then
requires a tube of pringles.
You're right about the research being done on elite athletes that's why I threw my experience in there. I did notice a major difference with weight training, my strength declined so I now I throw in a potato on those days and it's straight jet fuel for my muscles. Strength went back up, I'm looking leaner and feeling better. It's definitely a lot of trial and error to find the right combo. Also dropping beer to once or twice a week really helped.
 

Matt_

I Get Jokes
@Dave Taylor I've been doing this since Nov. I'm not overly strict with it, and I still have my beer or bourbon whenever I want. But basically all I did was cut out my morning eggs and snacks (granola bar, banana etc.) that I used to have to hold me over until lunch.

Dropped down to a size 32 waist, which I haven't seen since before college. I'm a stronger rider than I've ever been... cant comment about how much of that is due to the IF but I will say I haven't changed much about my ride frequency or durations over the past few years.

I decided to try it after 1) talking to someone who researched it extensively and 2) telling another nerd about it who then researched it extensively, tried it, and saw good results.

I figured I'd give it 2 weeks...but now I find waiting until lunch isnt really a challenge anymore so why not. Will eat normal on weekends especially if I'm riding, but during the week I'm stuck behind a desk, so cutting out morning food isnt a big deal. I find that eating a solid lunch (focused on protein) and a smaller dinner & evening snack works best for me. I'm not a nutritionist or anything, but like said this seems to have been working well for me.

YMMV. Cheers
 

Dave Taylor

Rex kwan Do
i understand your point but its contradicting because how can you be teaching your body to burn fat when youre carb loading? if you have some documentation that supports this i would be glad to read it...
How am I carb loading? This is only before hard days. The days that I fast is when you switch to fat burning. This is after your glycogen stores are depleted. Ultimately being an XC guy come race day I want to run on as much glycogen as I can so I also do fasted rides(first 1.5-2 hours) of an endurance ride to deplete glycogen stores and “expand” the glycogen tank. Glycogen is the best fuel for your muscles if you want horsepower.
 

Dave Taylor

Rex kwan Do
There are no essential carbohydrates. Getting your body used to burning fat instead of carbs for fuel is what takes time. It's going to suck for a few weeks or however long your body needs to adjust. There has been some really interesting research with ultra marathon runners who demolished their previous records by becoming fat adapted. There's no "wall" where your body has to switch from burning carbs to burning fat.
Anecdotal evidence, before I started this I always felt I would crap out after 40 minutes without something in my stomach. Doing 12 hour Spartan races in VT I packed food like I was camping out for days. The most I've done since has been about 3.5 hours but completely fasted and my energy was through the roof, no hunger pains, and no wall. That was compelling evidence to stick with it personally and my next project is to do an unassisted race or event, see how long my body can take me.
Marathoners are different. They typically don’t burn glycogen. Hell they don’t really even have muscle on their bodies.
 

Big Dumb Animal

Hippo Nipples' #1 Fan
How am I carb loading? This is only before hard days. The days that I fast is when you switch to fat burning. This is after your glycogen stores are depleted. Ultimately being an XC guy come race day I want to run on as much glycogen as I can so I also do fasted rides(first 1.5-2 hours) of an endurance ride to deplete glycogen stores and “expand” the glycogen tank. Glycogen is the best fuel for your muscles if you want horsepower.
Do you fuel during your races or are they short enough that whatever you ate beforehand is enough to power you through? I'm curious how you feel during a race when your glycogen runs out, do you feel that wall or is your body adapted enough to make the switch fairly seamless?
 

Dave Taylor

Rex kwan Do
Do you fuel during your races or are they short enough that whatever you ate beforehand is enough to power you through? I'm curious how you feel during a race when your glycogen runs out, do you feel that wall or is your body adapted enough to make the switch fairly seamless?
In races under an hour And a half I drink one bottle of supplement before the race and that’s it. I’ll carry a bottle with a small amount to keep from dry mouth. Typically I try to run off glycogen.
 

The Kalmyk

Well-Known Member
In races under an hour And a half I drink one bottle of supplement before the race and that’s it. I’ll carry a bottle with a small amount to keep from dry mouth. Typically I try to run off glycogen.


What supplement drink? I'd like to know if I know the digs

Look into Ketone Esters like HVMN- I don't know anyone there but the word on the street is they are legit. On the other hand, I do know the formulator for Generation Ucann- their products are designed for endurance athletes. I would be shocked if they do not take customers from the Hammer and GU users of the world in the near future.

Ingredion makes a very similar resistant starch as well but that isn't available in a finished product for end users.
 

Dave Taylor

Rex kwan Do
What supplement drink? I'd like to know if I know the digs

Look into Ketone Esters like HVMN- I don't know anyone there but the word on the street is they are legit. On the other hand, I do know the formulator for Generation Ucann- their products are designed for endurance athletes. I would be shocked if they do not take customers from the Hammer and GU users of the world in the near future.

Ingredion makes a very similar resistant starch as well but that isn't available in a finished product for end users.
$33/serving?! No thanks! I use Skratch for short stuff and Infinit for longer races.
 

soundz

The Hat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I heard about this on Joe Rogan recently so it must be true. He had David Sinclair on who is a Harvard phD and one of the leading researchers in the world for anti-aging. He recommends intermittent fasting, not necessarily for losing weight, but for anti-aging. Something to with body's defense mechanism. He is a night-time eater.
 

The Kalmyk

Well-Known Member
I heard about this on Joe Rogan recently so it must be true. He had David Sinclair on who is a Harvard phD and one of the leading researchers in the world for anti-aging. He recommends intermittent fasting, not necessarily for losing weight, but for anti-aging. Something to with body's defense mechanism. He is a night-time eater.


Sometimes the things that keep us around longer are counterproductive for performance
 

soundz

The Hat
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Sometimes the things that keep us around longer are counterproductive for performance

maybe but i can argue that for most of the population other than elite athletes, having those few extra years is more valuable than going 1-5mph faster today

also, bio/chem technology may be getting to a point in the near future (prolly not in our lifetime) where u can have your cake and eat it too

but maybe by that time, the polar cap has melted away and 50% of current land is under water so none of this shit matters anyway

everyone has to make their own choice
 

The Kalmyk

Well-Known Member
maybe but i can argue that for most of the population other than elite athletes, having those few extra years is more valuable than going 1-5mph faster today

also, bio/chem technology may be getting to a point in the near future (prolly not in our lifetime) where u can have your cake and eat it too

but maybe by that time, the polar cap has melted away and 50% of current land is under water so none of this shit matters anyway

everyone has to make their own choice

I won’t sit on your word being that you haven’t ran a Gallup. Speaking for the majority is pretty tough. Those last couple of years could be like squeezing blood out of a rock. What if the majority really cares about the present? I don’t know?

And what is the relevance if we can’t have our cake and eat it to- now.
 
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The Squirrel

Well-Known Member
I 5:2 IF'd for a bit and was able to bring my Body Fat percentage to 7%, and felt great and had boundless energy. My Dr. told me that he'd prefer if I did 3-5 day water fasts instead (low Body Fat was not the primary goal here), which brought my IF'ing to an end.

5:2 is a little different than what you're doing, Dave. It's a 24 hour fast, 2, non-consecutive days a week. Water only in that 24 hours. So, I'd start with B-fast, and resume with B-fast the next day. Once you wrapped your head around it, it became very easy to do. My meal times were habits and once I trained myself off them, I could breeze through the day.

My AM workouts are always on an empty stomach, so I just used the days after my fast for zone 2 type stuff, which worked well.

I hope this was constructive. Good Luck.
 

Joe J

Well-Known Member
Going from 7pm until noon the next day without food is fasting. That’s 17 hours. Typically with IF after 12 hours your start burning fat stores.

True but conventional thinking (possibly wrong) is that once you do eat your body immediately stores the calories because it's not sure when you will eat again.
 
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