> TMI but if I eat healthy and frequently I kill several trees w/ toilet paper consumption
Why would frequent bowel movements (which I assume were implied by the above) be an "improvement"? Wouldn't the best case scenario be once a day, regularly (same time every day), very low TP consumption (not too much fluid)?
And you do this every day? Not what I picture when I hear "intermittent" - the article mentions the 5:2 plan, but I'm curious what other schedules are common. I've always skipped 2 meals monthly as religious observance, but I'm seriously considering 5:2 to try out health benefits.
No on the weekends I sort of do a refeed to regain leptin and what not so I eat 2 calorie dense meals and follow the 8 hour regimen.
During the week I just find I need to start shutting it down earlier or tapering down.. or else. So I do a casein protein shake (just casein) and a beer (usually the beer is prior) as my second meal.
I don't think there is any magic except that I'm doing something that I can maintain (the beer being my treat to help maintain follow through).
Oh I forgot. Sometimes on Friday I will wait till 8:00pm to eat (24 hour fast). A guy on reddit does this and he/she calls it "Fast Fridays". The idea being Fridays and the weekends are usually a calorie fest. I like it for it practicality and for the catchy name.
IF coaches have reported that women tend to want to break the fast ~2 hours earlier than men. Men can generally make it 16 hours and women make it to 14 before the hunger really sets in. This has been my experience also, but I don't know the root cause.
My anecdotal experience is that my wife and various other females seem to loose more weight with additional meals earlier in the day. My next observation is that perhaps post fast my wife and others seem binge more often (again just an observation).
For me after I fast its almost impossible for me to pack 2k calories in 4 hours IF I eat healthy. I feel disgustingly full but my wife doesn't.
The other thing is my wife also prefers to eat before working out which I do not like at all.
My girlfriend and I are both dancers and whenever we have a hard training session she prefers to eat about 1.5-2 hours beforehand while for me it's more like 2.5-3 to feel the most comfortable. Just an anectode.
From my anecdotal experience, that's approximately where the mental "hump" is. If you can push past that point, the hunger becomes background noise, and maintaining the fast becomes easier.
I only do one meal a day (big lunch around 2pm) and then a protein shake and maybe a beer at 8ish. I like that I can have a beer every day.
I have noticed a couple of things with diet:
* shockingly you can still workout hard while starving.
* it seems to help regulate and improve bowel movements (TMI but if I eat healthy and frequently I kill several trees w/ toilet paper consumption).
* it doesn't seem to work as well if you been skipping breakfast your whole life.
* it doesn't seem to work on females.
Of course these are limited observations.