Training Log Joel's 2013 log

[Joel O]

In the interest of not clogging up Steve's thread, I've started my own. I'll try to update the thread at least weekly

Stats first:

Age: 22
Height: 184cm
Weight: 90.0kg
Chest:
Arms:
Legs:
Waist: 82cm

Brief background:
mid last year I decided it was time to hit the gym and get stronger. I trained hard for 4 months and got some good gains, getting my squat up to 5 x 120kg just before xmas. I've been off work for 6 weeks for a bit of a holiday and now it's time to get back in the gym. first goal, drop ~4kg.

First problem, I love eating! I came across intermittent fasting as a possible way to cut down the fat a bit without always feeling hungry.

This follows on from my questions in Steve-o's training log:

What do you mean by the eat everything diet? Dream bulk? That does work I guess but when I did that i just got fat. there's no need for that kind of diet IMO.

I guess it's somewhat relative. When I had strength as my primary focus I was eating three regular meals (probably on the larger side), a shake twice a day between meals with 1.5 cups milk, ~30g WPI, a banana, handful of berries, 1/3 cup oats and a squirt of honey. Id also drink enough milk throughout the day to finish off the rest of a 2L bottle. I got some great gains and only put on a small amount of fat over about 4 months.

Now it's time to strip off some excess fat and I'm finding that even at about 2600cal, the weight is coming off, but i feel hungry ALL the time. I'm naturally a pretty big eater which i think contributes a lot to feeling hungry. A lot of what I've read about IF points towards it being well suited to somebody like me.

Eating everything in 8hrs is great too, this is why most people do it. I usually have 2 meals and snacks so each meal is nearly 1000calories! I'm not planning on bulking on IF or even maintaining because eating 2600-3000+ calories in 8 hours can be pretty hard.

The timing is the other big factor for me. having a strict routine is easy enough while I'm working full time in a desk job but as of march I will be back to studying full time and there is no way I can maintain it. IF seems perfect! Take a big lunch with me to uni, decent snack when i get home and then a big dinner. I can maintain a slight caloric defecit, never feel hungry or the associated weakness during workouts and training.

 

[Joel O]

I've been trying IF for about 4 days now and so far so good. I'm not feeling hungry like I would restricting calories across 5-6 meals and I've made it through a kickboxing session and a gym session without feeling flat at all.

I'll stick with it at least until the end of the month and see how it goes.

 

[Steve-0]

Yeh you can eat whatever you want and make great gains without gaining too much fat but because that method of dieting is largely uncontrolled, it can be very easy to go that little bit too far and over-eat. I put on weight quickly if I over-eat, but I also lose fat quickly too...

I guess from doing that though your metabolism is very healthy which is why you can eat such high amounts of food and still lose weight. Once I've finished dieting down, one of my first things to do is repair my metabolism by reverse dieting slowly back up. Goal is to eat as much as possible and still lose weight to stop the damage. 2600 sounds perfect. As for hunger, make sure you eat at the same times every day plus or minus an hour. Big servings of protein and fat helps me.


As for IF timing, That's pretty much the reason most people do it, for timing. Also for bigger portions, the rest of the advantages are just a bonus. I have no routine at all at work and I can be sent driving/working anywhere at any time so focusing on eating only 1 meal roughly between 11am and 1pm is much easier. Also when working away I don't have time for breakfast except maybe an up n go or something shit like that.


Focus on that 1 lunchtime meal and then add in snacks when you can, then all you do is eat one or two meals when you get home and your done! Although care does need to be taken regarding fasted training. If you are training fasted you need to have properly timed BCAA's or small amounts of protein supplement to help protein synthesis. If you train during the feeding window you are good to go.

 

[Joel O]

Well, I've tried IF for about 10 days now with mixed results...

I was eating 12-8pm which was really convenient, kept hunger under control and was really easy to stick to my macros for the day. I was training right before my evening meal and had no dramas there either. As a result I did lose some weight, ~2kg over the last 2 weeks (10 of which were IF).

BUT, and I wont go into too much detail here, I found that even with a fibre supplement 3 times a day IF backed me right up and made me quite irregular. That's enough to make me switch back to a regular diet for now. I will probably give it a try again some time in the next few months with a lot more effort put into what I'm eating, not just daily macros.