Bruce Banner has nothing on me when I’m hungry, so why would I want to try IF?
“If I don’t eat, I get mad.”
Have you ever said this? I sure have. I get “hangry”, meaning that I get pretty pissed off when I don’t eat, which is unpleasant. My wife isn’t a fan of my mood swings around feeding time, either. My eating routine comes from the old bodybuilding idea that eating more often helps you to build and maintain muscle, and is good for fat loss/avoidance.
Enter intermittent fasting.
When I started to hear about IF for muscle building, I was pretty sceptical; however, the more I looked into it, the more I found real science and doctors trying to debunk the old school eating regimen (every 2 hours, from wake up to sleep) that I had trained my body to follow. The claim (that I’m testing now) is that as long as you continue to consume the same amount of calories each day (perhaps even just each week), you can still build muscle from exercise, as well as enjoy the various supposed health benefits of IF.
Being “hangry”, muscle loss/weight loss and basic inconvience are a few of the items I had marked down in the “reasons to not do intermittent fasting” column. But there are a lot more reasons to give intermittent fasting a try, such as increased insulin sensitivity, a massive increase of HGH production, increased fat burning, heart health, brain health, skin health, increased life span, cancer prevention… the list goes on and on.
I’ll give most things a try once so I decided to dive into IF. I’m now several weeks into my IF routine and things are going quite well.
Here’s a summary of my concerns and my first few weeks of IF:
Getting “hangry” hasn’t been an issue. If anything, committing to that feeding window has made me just accept the hunger in the mornings. The initial hunger seems to pass with no problems, and my mood has been good throughout most of the test. Actually, during the day, I’ve been feeling quite positive and balanced. Maybe it’s a concidence, maybe not. Also, at least for the first week or two, I experienced a sort of body buzz in the final couple of hours before breaking my fast, and I didn’t even have to take any drugs, which is sweet.
Aside from minor hunger, my only uncomfortable side effect so far came after my first fasted workout, on my second day.
This was probably the first time in my life that I’d worked out without having something in my stomach. Both my strength and endurance were good. I did start to feel fatigued towards the end, but I was lifting as heavy as ever. On my light run home, I started to get MAJOR hunger pangs, to the point that I had to stop and walk home.
I got in the door, glugged some water and promptly made my way to the bathroom to dry heave. “Wow, this must be ketosis,” I thought to myself. “This sucks.”
Once I got that under control, I made a Green Tea and felt much better.
Inconvience hasn’t been an issue either. Infact, it may simplify my day. I get up and do my morning routine, and then my day has started. No fuss. When I finally do eat at 11AM, food tastes REALLY GOOD. I’ve also had extremely deep sleep with vivid dreams, which is interesting.
Muscle loss/Weight Loss – My first fasted workout was fine, except for the after effects; however, my next fasted workout was excellent. I hit maximums on all of my lifts, didn’t feel like I needed much rest between sets, and did a bit of extra work at the end. After this workout, I was hungry, but nothing nearly as intense as that first day. Several weeks in, my workouts continue to be excellent, and I actually DO feel like I’ve lost some body fat. I’m feeling muscular and lean (while lit by green lights, at the very least). It’s early to tell, but the scale seems to have moved up a bit (around 1lb/week).
I also seem to be experiencing one of the other main bonuses I was looking for from IF – less inflamination. A nagging knee injury, a sore forearm from powerlifting and a sore hip flexor, all injuries that had been bothering me more than two months, have all but disappeared. It could be a coincidence, but it’s pretty curious that in the first three weeks of IF all of these injuries seem to be sorting themselves out.
Also, in general, my energy levels seem to be up a bit. I’m a pretty energetic person as it is, but I’ve had less desire for a midday nap while at work, and I don’t feel as lethargic in the evenings as I did before IF. I continue to get between 6 and 7.5 hours of sleep each night, so there’s been no change in my sleeping routine.
Still no food. Is it feeding time, yet?
Those are my thoughts thus far. Am I finding IF mindblowingly life changing? Nope, but I was healthy and fit to begging with, and I’m not even a month into it. Do I feel better with not too much effort? Yeah – I’d say so, but it is pretty early on in this experiment. If nothing else, I’ll most likely continue to exercise on an empty stomach, as I’ve been really impressed with my performance at they gym in a “fasted” state.
I’ll continue to post updates on my fasting each #fitnessfriday, and next week is my one month mark of IF. I’ll also start to get into the nuts and bolts of what I do to maintain a good level of fitness. Remember, I’m just a regular dad with a regular job who’s trying to stay healthy and strong. I don’t have a personal trainer and I’ve never had one. I just make an effort. It’s not unrealistic for you to do the same.
What do you think? Would you give IF a shot after reading this? Considering making some healthy changes to your routine? Hit me up with any tips or questions you have on diet or exercise. I’m happy to help, or to be helped.
Cheers!
