IF for Dummies.
Intermittent Fasting is one of the latest dieting crazes hitting the web, popularized by Martin Berkhan at www.leangains.com.
However the common person is far too lazy to read Martin Berkhans website and learn valuable info, so here's an addition I've added to my own;
So the rules to intermittent fasting are simple. You eat within an 8 hour period of the day (or less), every day. so if one day you eat between 1-8pm, stick to it or you'll just be doing yourself over. And when I say you eat within that time, that means DO NOT EAT AT ALL AT ANY OTHER TIME. Not at all, you can drink! Drink to your hearts content, well...coffee and water I guess, we don't want anybody thinking this is an excuse to start taking up alcoholism.
Training days: On this day your diet is 50% protein, 50% carbs, plus some EFA's. None Training days; Same protein levels, higher fats and as low carbs as possible.
How much do you need?
Well if you're bulking, 2x your Lean Body Mass in carbs and protein. So if you're 150lbs at 10% bodyfat, cut off your bodyfat which gives us 135lb of total weight, x that by 2. That's 270g of protein, 270g of carbs and try to get in 10g of fats from EFAs. On your none training days just eat the equivelent calories of carbs but from fats. 1g carbs = 4 calories, so if you eat 250g carbs then that's 1000 calories. 1g fat = 9 calories, so you'd eat about 110g of fats instead of carbs on this day
Women; (Sally can be the example athletes name)
1g protein per lb of lean body mass = (135 x 1 = 135g protein for example athlete)
0.7g carbohydrates per lb of lean body mass = (135 x 0.7 = 95g carbs for example athlete)
Fats are limited to 30g per day no matter who you are.
Men; (Greg can be the example athletes name)
1.5g protein per lb of lean body mass = (150 x 1.5 = 200g protein for example athlete)
0.75g carbohydrates per lb of lean body mass = (135 x 0.75 = 100g carbs for example athlete)
Fats limited to 30g.
On none training days I wouldn't even bother changing those just for ease of your life, cutting weight can be hard times.
So you eat in an 8 hour period. 50% (at least) of your food intake HAS to come post training. So most people find it best to eat 2 meals pre training containing 25% of their calories in each meal. So someone on a 2000 calorie per day diet may eat 150g carbs and 150g protein post workout, and eat 2 small meals of 50g protein + 50g carbs pre workout.
So 2 meals pre training, 1 meal post training. Your carb sources should be low GI pre-training, post training they can be half high GI and half low GI, so you can have a nice little dessert after your monster sized meal.
Eating within this feeding window optimizes hormonal levels and in some cases when people get it right, they can drop bodyfat whilst gaining muscle. Either way bulking on IF causes minimal fat gain due to it's nature, and cutting weight is easy as pie. If you want more in depth info, visit www.leangains.com
