So it’s 33 days before I go on holiday, at which point I hope to have visible abs for the first time in my life. If I reach this point, it will be the first time in my life I’ll feel comfortable and happy in my own body which will hopefully allow me to to topless without freaking out.
Having discussed Intermittent Fasting with @Stole_My_Sweetroll and also closely followed @jeffy89 's IF log, I’ll be implementing IF for the next 33 days experimentally using a 19/5 fasting schedule.
Fast will commence at 20:00 and end at 15:00 every day.
Not necessarily something for anyone else to follow or care about, but a lot will be handy to read back during my next cut…
Yesterday entailed a KFC 6 person family feast (minus the fries, bleugh), 3 cans of Koppaberg and12 VKs. Easily in excess of 5000 calories in total. Danced for 3 hours, so probably burnt around 500 back off again.
Weight: -
Workout: PPL Pull day. Rows, deads, chins, curls, face pulls.
Food consumption:
Pre-workout - Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard pre workout, 11g
Haha cheers, will be interesting to see if IF achieves anything my regular cut hasn’t for the last couple of months. I’m sceptical to say the least but we’ll see.
Yup, just water. Some people drink diet soft drinks which I think is kind of dumb. It might be artificial but there’s still an insulin response.
Meal 2 (17:45) - Visit to my parents’ house, no caloric measurements or control unfortunately.
3 butcher’s sausages, proper meaty rather than supermarket junk.
Large homemade Yorkshire pudding
1 cup carrots
1 cup mashed potato
1 cup broccoli
Half cup gravy
Meal 3 (19:00) -
0.76g Huel
60g Myprotein chocolate stevia whey
Had to scrap post workout shake due to generous parents giving me a homemade brownie. Sacrificed 0.76g Huel for said brownie…
Noticing a big improvement in energy in the gym. Usual cutting set for bench press at this stage (750 calorie deficit) would be 5 x 75kg followed by burnout sets of 10 @ 60kg. Cranking 4 sets of 5 @ 80kg today, no problem. Perhaps more freely available energy?
Workout: PPL Leg day. Back squats, sumo deadlifts, front squats, leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises, burnout on leg press.
Food consumption:
Meal 1 (14:00) -
220g chicken breast
200g sweet potato fries
6g olive oil
Pre workout (17:00) - Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Pre workout - 11g
Meal 2 (19:15) -
155g Huel
30g MyProtein Chocolate Stevia whey
5g creatine monohydrate
Orange Huel bar
Meal 3 (20:00) -
76g Huel
30g MyProtein Chocolate Stevia whey
Water consumption: 3 litres
Working overnight tonight, a solid 4 hour piece of work between midnight and 04:30. Not sure how I’ll cope with IF during this coming 12h, but soon find out.
Workout: PPL Pull day with grip strength training challenge, followed by brisk 2km treadmill walk at 5% incline to burn off 100kcal of pre workout.
Food consumption:
Pre-workout: Myprotein Lemon&Lime MyPre
Meal 1 (15:00) -
220g chicken breast
200g sweet potato fries
6g olive oil
Meal 2 (17:30) -
155g Huel
30g MyProtein Chocolate Stevia whey
5g creatine monohydrate
Meal 3 (19:30) -
155g Huel
15g MyProtein Chocolate Stevia whey
Water consumption: 3 litres
Weight is dropping off - Still seeing glycogen losses due to KFC binge at the weekend + 3000 calorie night out. Losses should stabilise at 0.75kg per week starting tomorrow.
Will be scrapping Intermittent Fasting tomorrow, absolutely not for me unfortunately. Best way I can describe it is the below relatable Reddit comment:
"In others it triggers an eating disorder.
I never had trouble sticking to calorie limits but I tried IF anyways. Suddenly I was starving all the time, and my eating window never left me feeling anywhere near satisfied. I eventually had to move to maintenance for 6 months just to keep myself in check. I was able to start cutting regularly again, but IF triggered cravings and binging in me. I managed to not fall into a cycle, but others may not be so lucky.
I wish I had never tried IF. It opened Pandora’s Box, and from now on I’ve got to watch myself carefully. I never ran into this issue just counting calories with spaced out meals."
I did 5:2 IF for around 9 months a few years ago. I lost a lot of weight and it felt doable at the time, but I was constantly hungry, both when fasting and on other days. Since then I’ve tried to get into 16:8 a few times. I can do it but it just makes me miserable. It’s not for everyone, and can certainly increase food preoccupation and anxiety.
IF isn’t necessary for weight loss at all nor is it necessarily beneficial, but I was curious about whether it’d benefit my insatiable appetite.
No luck, just made me watch the clock obsessively for when it was time to eat. I was so hungry at that point that I was blasting through my three meals within 2 hours. Just not sustainable.
Pity IF didn’t work for you! But well, never hurts to experiment to see what’s the ideal method that’s usually pretty individual!
IMO I think it really depends on where your starting point is: you’ve already had a pretty consistent weight loss method and routine which worked for you so IF was unlikely to have been an improvement.
Coming from a starting point of binging from the moment I awoke to the moment I slept, restricting my eating time frame was definitely an improvement (when you hit rock bottom you don’t really have anywhere to go but up! )…and also it fits my holiday lifestyle and gave me more room for snacks since I’ve never been the hugest breakfast fan (I just ate it because apparently breakfast is “good for you”).
But yeah, glad you’re attuned to your body and your needs, and great job on the weight lost so far!
Weight: 80.6kg - Serious glycogen top up after last night’s Indian takeaway. Would take helping a friend over weight loss 100 x over so no harm done. Damage control today, macros to reflect.
Workout: PPL Push day + Grip training program day 3