If this sparked your interest- keep reading.
*From article #2 listed below if you want to check it out further.
^This is after my 1 WEEK experiment^
My whole experiment is all down below!
Are you familiar with the term intermittent fasting (IF)? I've been doing my research, but I'm still far from being an expert. This may or may not be for you so don't think I'm trying to encourage this. Just something I've been researching lately to see if it's something I like and want to maintain as a lifestyle.
Basically, you choose to eat during a 2-8 hour window and fast the rest (not eat). There are different ways that people do this, and even people who fast up to 24hrs, but basically you are still eating your calories/macros that you normally would through an entire 24 hours, just in a smaller window, within however many meals you want. Less time to eat = bigger meals = more satisfaction = less obsessing about food. That's how I see it anyways. I will also be training fasted because I train in the mornings. If you workout in the afternoons/evenings, and want to workout fasted, you must wait at least 4 hours since your meal.
There are so many benefits of IF. I would write them all out, but honestly I'm no scientist and would just be copying out of these great articles, so instead, I listed my 5 favorites.
Of course there are pros and cons and articles about the negatives out there as well- such as muscle loss, etc- but as with anything, it's about what works for YOU. I found the most helpful and easy to understand articles, and if you're interested to learn further, click through them.
1. A Beginner's Guide to Intermittent Fasting
2.
Wanna Lose Fat? Then Stop Eating! Dr. Sara Solomon
3.
Fitness RX for Women - Intermittent Fasting
4. Intermittent Fasting 101 - How To Start Burning Fat
5. Muscle & Strength - Understanding of IF
I'm experimenting for ME, for one basic reason:
My eating was out of control after my show after being deprived and controlled for so many months- I have always had the mindset, that the fitness industry has fed me over the years, that I need to eat as soon as I wake up, I need to eat 6-7 small meals a day and I need to eat every 2-3 hours if I want to gain/maintain muscle and burn body fat. It's been driving me crazy. I feel unsatisfied after these 6-7 small meals, being hungrier in the evenings because I had to eat my biggest meal for breakfast and causing me to want to snack all damn day and going all over my macros. Once I start eating, I just wanted to eat from the time I woke up until the time I went to sleep! Weather you choose to do this the "clean eating" way or "flexible dieting" way is up to you, macros are macros. I choose flexible dieting of course. #iifym
**IMPORTANT**
-This all does not mean that you will lose xlbs a week
-This is not for everyone
-This is not a starvation diet!
-This is not a temporary fix nor a fad diet
-I'm currently reverse dieting
What I will be doing:
-Hitting MY usual "full days worth" of reverse dieting macros
-Eating window from noon-2000 (8hrs)
-Fasting window from 2000-noon (16hrs)
-1-2 cups coffee in the AM; Will be using sugar free creamer and stevia drops and not exceeding 50 calories to stay in the fasted state
-Usual supps and vitamins before/after gym
(Xtend BCAAs, Beast creatine, multi-vit, fish-oil)
Monday: Sucked it up and stepped on the scale… Hoping and praying it was all water weight last week and I wouldn't be far up from my stage weight. Wrong. I was up 11 freakin pounds. 137.6. (I stepped on stage at 126lbs- still high for my height). You can understand how upsetting this is. Yes, my dieting wasn't on point with reversing, so I guess it's my fault. It's amazing how fast my body rebounded. I know things need to change, which is mainly why I decided to try this.
Today I did heavy legs & HIIT cardio. I was worried this morning that I wouldn't have strength and feel tired through my workout, but I wasn't! After getting over (ignoring) the initial hunger and stomach rumbles, I felt focused and ready. I did my workout full-force and felt great. Of course I was hungry by noon and broke my fast with a huge stack of protein pancakes! YUM! I think tomorrow I'll go bigger for my fast breaker. Yay carbs!!
meal #1
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#2
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#3
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#4/Dessert
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Today went awesome. I also had a few Haribo gummy bears & 1/2 pack of Nature Valley's PB granola bar because I had carb macros leftover (surprisingly), but I felt full and satisfied all day instead of snacking 6x between my 6 small meals. Last meal was a little before 9 because I couldn't get it in by 8. Oh well, feeling in control again and hopeful that this my be the right route for me.
MyFitnessPal: coralbaby
IG: coralsuarez
Tuesday: This morning I felt a bit hungry but soon forgot about it and went about my morning. Went to the gym for back/bis and cardio and felt great. Didn't feel sluggish, lazy and tired from having breakfast. By noon my tummy was growling though and I broke my fast with another giant loaded pancake and added oatmeal on the side! Feeling full and satisfied :)
Today's menu hahaha
I used to have it set up as meal #1-#6. I would eat 6 small meals and snack all between them. Now I have this plus a "breakfast" part up top, where I just add in my vitamins and coffee/creamer for the whole day. My meals are pretty basic at the moment as I'm still trying to gain control of this reverse diet. I probably should eat more fruits & veggies, but my fiber has been totaling up as I want.
Wednesday: Woke up earlier than usual with Sylas and he took a longer nap so my time from when I was up until I hit the gym was a bit longer and I was tempted to nibble at something… but I resisted. My workout went great and I was HAAANGRY by noon! As I cooked my giant protein pancakes & oats I went upstairs to check my weight. I was super nervous. 133.0! That's 3.6lbs down since Monday!! Phewwwww. Sure, it may be water weight. But, I know what I'm doing is working now and I feel fantastic as well. Of course I'm not one to be "all about the scale" but it's nice to know that I can gain control again WHILE I feel good, healthy and strong. Super important to have energy and love the process again.
#1
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#2
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#3
forgot to take photo of my chicken, egg whites and spinach mix..
it wasn't that special lol just had to get that protein in
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#4/Dessert
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I originally had different stuff planned for #3 and #4, but I decided to make those 'Soda Cupcakes' that I found on pinterest and had to adjust. Fiber ended up being lower than I wanted but it happens. I have been eating my second meal around 1600~1700 so I'm actually cramming down #3 and dessert right at 2000.
*WARNING* You can't eat just one! Soda Cupcakes: You can opt out the protein powder, but I added 2 scoops of Cellucor Cor-Fetti Cake Batter, 1 can room temp Diet Coke and brownie mixture. That's it! Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes, just like regular muffins. Enjoy!
Thursday: The hunger feeling in the AM doesn't bother me anymore. I was kind of thinking… Even the days I'd eat breakfast, I was still hungry and just wanted to keep eating after anyways, so having this time frame control is nice. Feeling hungry again is nice. Not that I'm saying I like feeling hungry, but before, every time I felt a little hunger I would just fill it with whatever. I worked shoulders, tris and chest and had a great pump! Soooooo, I had my whole days' of food planned. I broke my fast again with the loaded pancake buuuuuuuut, I didn't go with what I had planned for the rest of the day and didn't feel like tracking. Today I intuitively ate. I still ate within my window, but I know I went over my carbs, and I'm okay with it. I didn't bother tracking so I wouldn't feel guilty for having some rice cakes with peanut butter and white chocolate… heheee :p I'll go back to my plan tomorrow. Had a nice chill day. It's nice not constantly being on MFP and weighing food.
Friday: Weighed in at 134.0lbs. One pound up from Wednesday, but not surprising considering all the chocolate and peanut butter I had yesterday. Oopsie. Life goes on ;) But I plan on sticking to it today because I actually want to follow my little experiment through. Worked legs and HIIT cardio and felt wonderful. Didn't break my fast until 1:30! Omg I was so hungry. Not intentionally. Went to the gym later and ran a few errands right after and by the time I was home, put Sylas down for his nap, showered and done cooking, it was a lot later then I thought... but I survived ;)
#1
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combined #2 & #3
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#4/Dessert
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Surprise. I don't always take pictures of my food :p
Saturday: Saturdays are my days I promised myself I would not track anything. Intuitively eat. I know I did that once unintentionally earlier this week, but I'm still sticking to it for mental breaks. I'm not in prep, I'm in "off season" or "improvement season" or just ME season, and need to learn to not obsess. So, instead of going to the gym, I skipped it and went to the Hartford Europa Expo! I've always wanted to go to one of those. I ended up fasting until 330pm when I got home! I left around 11 to the expo and was busy walking around, entertaining my son and watching the events that I didn't think about food and my body wasn't starving. By the time I got home though, I felt it and broke my fast with a diff kind of huge protein pancake. Instead of the coconut flour (because I'm out) I used 10g of Phillsbury Confetti pancake mix (no fiber though) with the rest the pretty much the same. Idk, I didn't measure the ingredients out. Soooo fluffy. Sooo yummy. I had a baby shower to go to for the second half of the day and since it's at my in-law's there is always really yummy food! Had a DD iced coffee with 1 scoop protein powder before, and then I had some steak and cheesy potatoes and a piece of marble cake! Eating window still closed at 8! No guilt was felt.
Sunday: Usually my "rest days" from training, but I decided to go train. Because I wanted to! Not had to. Had a great fasted heavy back day and short HIIT cardio. Broke my fast at noon and stuck to my plan as close as possible. The family had a pool and grill day so I had a hamburger. Not worth the fat and calories that I had to work around and adjust :/ I had to lower my carbs because my fats were so high today. But when stuff like that happens, you just move on. You just pick back up and keep on going. No point trying to "erase" damage by lowering calories or adding in extra cardio to beat yourself up. Especially if you're not in prep or anything. Life happens. Things come up. You're HUMAN when you slip up and fall off the plan. You haven't failed until you've given up. So don't give up! I feel like when I try to "undo" the damage, I cause more.
#1
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#3
#4
Monday Conclusion: I went back and forth thinking if I should weigh myself. I don't want to get consumed with numbers again so I will not be weighing myself 3x a week after this. Not even once a week. I decided to just to finish out this experiment though- 132.6! Probably a lot of water weight, but not all. THE POINT is that I was able to gain control of myself again, I didn't feel obsessed over food or snack all day and felt satisfied! Sometimes even so full that I didn't know if I was going to get it all in before 8. I didn't feel weak in the gym-- I actually always felt more focused and kept adding weight and lifting heavier. My body and mind feels better. It's amazing what the body can do. I ate intuitively 2x and trained 6x. This week I was in about a 700-800 calorie surplus too than from those last 2-3 weeks of prep! 300ish calories from nutrition and 300-400 calories from not doing cardio twice a day. You cannot outsmart your body! Feed it. Take care of it. Love yourself. I will definitely be sticking to this intermittent fasting lifestyle. I loved it! I hope to get better and better at it and see some awesome results in the mirror- body composition, strength (mental and physical) over NUMBERS on the stupid scale. That's all that matters!! You could reach your goal weight, but that does not fix how you feel on the inside and abut yourself. A goal weight does not and will not change the inside… that all takes time. Self-love, confidence, knowing you're worth it, feeling happy and healthy is so much more than a goal weight. I don't even have a goal weight?? I've fluctuated between 120-135lbs and have looked many different ways so it really doesn't matter!
Hope you found this all somewhat helpful?? :D I'm so glad I tried it!
If you have any questions on this, interested in online coaching (training and macro nutrition pal), or anything feel free to contact me:
suarezcoral@hotmail.com
IG: coral.suarez
xoxo
