It's time for another Q&A session.

Intermittent fasting and women

Q: I'm a bit confused. Some people say I should do 16 hours of fasting, while others say that you now recommend 14 hours for women?

A: Females do 14 hrs fasting by default. The fast typically lasts 16 hrs, and is usually initiated in the evening. So in practical terms you might have your last meal some time between 8 and 10 pm in the evening and break the fast around noon on the next day.

But for women my default approach is to actually start off with 14 hrs and see how they do on that before eventually moving them to 16 hrs. When you look at the studies on gender and fasting, you tend to see that women may have slightly more adverse reactions to fasting than men, such as some degree of irritability and increased attention to food cues. 16 hrs is hardly prolonged fasting, but I like to play it safe, so that's why I have female clients fasting for a shorter time at the beginning.

Intermittent fasting at higher body fat percentages

Q: All the guys I've read that have tried this, are all lean, I mean, if you're that lean already, going on a keto diet would do exactly what intermittent fasting would do to YOU. Id like to see someone over 20% bodyfat share his experience.

A: Not at all. I have many clients with 20% body fat or more and they are doing great. Some of them are, for the first time in their lives, finding that they can show 100% adherance to a diet protocol.

I modify the caloric guidelines and macros depending on body fat %, as my first priority is always to lean people down if necessary. Besides that, I don't see how body fat would play into making or breaking an intermittent fasting diet.

There are many psychological sides to eating. I think smaller and more frequent meals throughout the day, even if they are low carb, may be a bad choice for some people; acting as a trigger for cravings or increased appetite, for example. A conventional high frequency "nibbling" approach is working against their weight loss efforts. It's often counterproductive.

But knowing that you can have a substantial meal after the fast makes dietary adherance very easy according to many of my clients. In my experience this is one great benefit to intermittent fasting that caters specifically to people with a higher body fat. They are big eaters, so they like to eat big. Intermittent fasting fills that need.

Intermittent fasting, mood and appetite suppression

Q: I remember you saying something about a minimum time for the fast ... like 12 hours ? After that point "stuff" started happening ?

A: Hours 8-12 are pretty neutral. Not noticing much. Sometimes I get a short hunger pang, which disappears rather quickly and is replaced by total absence of hunger.

Hours 12-16 I get a sense of focus and wellbeing. I feel inspired and involved in whatever I'm doing (usually working on consultations or writing articles). Call it wired if you will. The thought of food remains unappealing until the very last hour. Most people experience the same effects in the same time interval.

Intermittent fasting and regular meal patterns: mixing it up

Q: What's peoples experience with intermittent fasting on the week days and a "regular" diet on the weekend or something like that? I think that would fit my schedule perfectly, especially since i am much more active on the weekend and play sports/do cardio sometimes multiple times and very spread out.

A: Eating on regular intervals each day has it's benefits. Breaking the pattern may screw a bit with the ghrelin pulse. Ghrelin is a hunger hormone which rise in anticipation of a meal and is in tune with your day-to-day meal pattern. This is also part of why you can go for 16 hrs without getting hungry once you get used to it.

Practically, this might mean that it could be a bit harder to get back to fasting when you break the pattern (weekends). On the other hand, I've done it personally many times and I haven't experienced any problems at all. Fasting is still very easy after a day of more regularily spaced eating. It might take several days of a new meal pattern before a new ghrelin pulse pattern develops, so go ahead and try it.

On breaking the fast

Q: I break the fast with a large bowl of oatmeal and a whey shake, and have noticed I get a bit drowsy shortly after the meal. Any suggestions?

A: While I don't know the particular macros of your meal, I would wager it's fairly insulinogenic and provide a substantial glycemic load - and that may be the problem. Ditch the whey shake for whole food protein such as meat or eggs, and oats for something along the lines of veggies, beans and lentils (or other lower glycemic index foods with a decent amount of fiber). If you must, you can have your oats and whey post-workout instead.

Made a few short comments in response to a blog post I just saw on The Fitness Spotlight.

The post is here and below are my responses to some of the claims made.

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Just a few short comments on some claims here. Sorry if this has been covered somewhere among the comments, I haven't read through them all.

"Liver glycogen levels are depleted within 8-10 hours. Muscle glycogen falls by 50% over 24-hours, even without exercise. "

False on both accounts. Liver glycogen is completely depleted in approx 28 hrs (Cahill et al). And the second statement is also incorrect. In humans, muscle glycogen is barely affected at all after 24 hrs, assuming no strenous activity.

"After depleting glycogen, amino acids are recycled to be broken down for glycogen through gluconeogenesis. "

This is an ongoing process, but liver glycogen does not need to be depleted in order for amino acids to contribute to the maintenance of blood glucose. The longer the fast, the greater the contribution - for example, after 16 hrs, aminos will start contributing more than 50% to the amount of glucose in your blood stream. After 24-28 hrs, 100%.

"We see increases in three of the four hormones driving lipolysis, indicating a propensity towards fat burning. Somewhere around 12-18 hours, lipolysis becomes a major energy pathway, producing energy from body fat. "

Yes. In fact, after an overnight fast, 2/3 of the energy burnt are free fatty acids. Eat breakfast and you'll be putting the brakes on this process, of course.

"T3 levels fall slightly, indicating a slightly lower metabolic rate. Urinary nitrogen excretion falls, indicating less catabolism of muscle proteins. "

No. Are you looking at rats now again? Because the downregulation of T3 takes more than 72 hrs to occur in humans. A short fast in the 16-24 hr range certainly doesn't impact negatively.

Quite busy lately, therefore the lack of posts. But I'm still alive and here comes some more questions & answers.

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The window of opportunity

Q: Understanding that a caloric surplus is required for muscle building, is there a window post workout where nutrient partitioning is greater towards muscle building? I would think that the nutrient partitioning "curve" would ultimately swing back to muscle maintenance or fat gain in the absence of muscle stimulus, but the question is how long after that stimulus?

A: Have a pre-workout meal, train, go home and fix yourself a big meal. No need to count minutes or stress about this stuff. The 1-3 hours figure is for fasted-state training and not applicable to how most people go about their diet and training*. The 'window of opportunity' for nutrient partitioning post workout is much longer than a mere 3 hours.**

And since this question usually comes up in this context, never train completely fasted. Have some BCAAs/whey beforehand.

* Protein synthesis peaks acutely 1-3 hours post-workout and it is advantageous to have amino acids circulating in your blood stream during this period. Studies show that participants ingesting protein during this time frame gain more muscle - but these studies are performed on completely fasted individuals. For someone ingesting protein through a pre-workout meal or other source of protein pre-workout, those amino acids would be used for protein synthesis (making it less essential to stress about the post-workout shake).

** Protein synthesis is elevated above baseline for at least 24-36 hours after weight training.

Late night hunger

Q: It seems like lately, I have been getting a case of the late night (around 9pm or so) munchies. I usually eat dinner around 5:30 everyday, but I always seem to get hungry around the same time. I have always heard that you shouldn't have carbs within a few hours of bedtime, is there any merit to this?

A: One of my biggest downfalls before coming up with the 16-8 system/IF was late night hunger. The best solution was the simplest one, which meant eating a lot more before bedtime. Irrational fear of fat gain, much a consequence of the don't-eat-carbs-after-x pm-bullshit-myth, held me back from doing it in the past. I did my reading, figured out there wasn't much to it, and decided to try a different approach. Finally got lean as hell eating big in the evening, sometimes way past midnight. Lesson learned. Hope that answered your question (hint: a big fat no).

Catabolic cardio?

Q: Is there any way to perform cardio in a way that limits its catabolic effects? Is their any benefit to doing submaximal intervals vs. steady state?

A: The type of cardio that has the least impact on your recovery capabilities/gym performance will be the least "catabolic". If your conditioning is not adequate, don't play around too much with HIIT. Go with low impact cardio performed for duration rather than intensity if you want to play it safe, and if metabolic conditioning is of a lesser priority than fat loss.

Sodium and weight loss

Q: When I used to have to cut weight for wrestling I would eliminate sodium content about 3 days prior and see a nice drop. Also, drinking about a gallon of distilled water always makes me eliminate a lot of water retention(yes more than just chugging tap water)... purely anecdotal I realize and of course that might just be for the lack of sodium in distilled water. Any truth to this?

A: Yes, cutting sodium, or rather reducing it compared to your daily baseline intake, will cause you to shed water. Reduce sodium for a day and odds are you'll wake up a little lighter - but you'll bounce back on day 3, since this only works in the very short term. The hormones regulating water balance adapts rapidly (and you need to reduce sodium further to drop more water). And you're right on the other claim, as tap water usually contains (very) small amounts of sodium.

Fat loading

Q: Basically, we all know about carb-loading. This author promotes fat loading of 12-24 hrs, saying it will jack up the enzymes involved with burning fat. Drop the dietary fat back down low, and the enzymes will remain high for several days, helping to increase the rate at which body fat is burned. Thoughts?

A: Let's see

1) IMTG stores are extremely small vs glycogen stores
2) dietary fat has much less of an impact on leptin vs carbs
3) excess dietary fat gets stored efficently as adipose tissue vs carbs

Yeah, sounds like a great concept. Like carb loading, without any of the benefits.

Lyle McDonald chimed in:

Everything I"ve seen shows that the increase in fat use for fuel has everything to do with reducing carbs and nothing to do with increasing dietary fat per se.
Consider that the body will shift to using fat for fuel under the following conditions

1. lowcarb/ketogenic diet
2. protein sparing modified fast
3. complete starvation

What's the commonality? The lack of carbs. NOT the presence of dietary fat.

The bottom line is this, ingestion of dietary fat has very little impact on the body's use of fat for fuel and this has been shown endlessly.

EFA and growth hormone

Q: I was arguing with my friend regarding this issue. He stated that EFA (Essential Fatty Acids) slowed down the release of GH (Growth Hormone), however, i disagreed with him. We had this bet over it and i was wondering whats the truth behind this?

A: Eating anything affects basal levels of GH. Starve and you'll have high basal GH all the time. However, diet does not interfere with the nocturnal and the two daily pulses (though they are augmented with fasting). I am unaware of anything specifically related to EFA* and it's probably bullshit, as I have looked into this quite a bit.

* I would expect EFAs to affect GH no differentely than any other fatty acid, which is by lowering it.

This is the first in a series of posts with the most useful replies I made in the íntermittent fasting thread on www.bodybuilding.com. Answers have been edited/updated when needed.

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Calorie Restriction (CR) vs Intermittent Fasting

Q: I think CR in general is probably more healthy for some people than "fasting".

A: Depends on how you define "healthy". The whole premise of CR for life extension may sound great on paper, but it's not much fun to chronically restrict calories for rest of your life in order to live a few years more. Especially if the price you pay is hunger and weakness.

Studies hint that IF may have life extension benefits on it's own, some of them are unique to IF and not seen with CR: disease prevention, protection against brain disorders (i.e Alzheimers), immune system support and improved pulmonary function, even on higher calorie intakes.

IF at energy balance > CR.

So perhaps we can get all the benefits of CR, and then some, without having to restrict intake as harshly. Here's an example of some of the exclusive benefits of IF vs CR;

"...Nevertheless, intermittent fasting resulted in beneficial effects that met or exceeded those of caloric restriction including reduced serum glucose and insulin levels and increased resistance of neurons in the brain to excitotoxic stress. Intermittent fasting therefore has beneficial effects on glucose regulation and neuronal resistance to injury in these mice that are independent of caloric intake. "

From "Intermittent fasting dissociates beneficial effects of dietary restriction on glucose metabolism and neuronal resistance to injury from calorie intake" by Anson et al.

Then again, it may be wishful thinking. Main support for the hypothesis comes from animal research, human research is still sparse. However, there are some recent studies that lends support for the hypothesis to be valid for humans as well, for example:

"...These findings demonstrate rapid and sustained beneficial effects of ADCR on the underlying disease process in subjects with asthma, suggesting a novel approach for therapeutic intervention in this disorder. " (the authors conclude that alternate day fasting > CR)

From "Alternate Day Calorie Restriction Improves Clinical Findings and Reduces Markers of Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Overweight Adults with Moderate Asthma" by Johnson et al.

The mechanism by which fasting protects the heart is not known, but may involve an enhanced ability of cells to cope with oxidative and metabolic stress. Wan et al speculated that...

"A recent study showed that alternate-day caloric restriction can reduce systemic markers of inflammation and oxidative stress and can reduce symptoms in subjects with asthma" (Here they are referring to the human trial by Johnson et al)

Because...

"Intermittent Fasting imposes a mild beneficial stress on cells."

And affects adiponectin:

"Adiponectin concentration was twofold greater in the plasma of rats that had been maintained for 3 months on the IF diet"

Conluding that Adiponectin may possibly explain some of the beneficial effects:

"Adiponectin has previously been shown to have cardioprotective and anti-inflammatory actions. "

Yet finishing with some reservations, as the research is still scarce on this topic:

"IF results in changes in levels of several circulating factors including decreased levels of insulin, leptin and cholesterol, and increased levels of testosterone [27]*. It will therefore be important to elucidate the roles for, and interactions, of these different factors in cardiovascular responses to IF. "

* The effects on testosterone seems unique to rodents so far (personal conslusion based on my review of the topic).

The above is from "Cardioprotective effect of intermittent fasting is associated with an elevation of adiponectin levels in rats" by Wan et al. A recent paper discussed the cardioprotective benefits with regards to humans:

"Short-term modified alternate-day fasting: a novel dietary strategy for weight loss and cardioprotection in obese adults" by Varady et al.

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I wrote the above almost two years ago (added some recent studies for the sake of context). Since then, there's been some additional findings, though nothing groundbreaking. There's a lot on this topic, but I'm gonna cut it short here. Have written plenty on this in the book. To summarize my response to the question: intermittent fasting may or may not have exclusive benefits which cannot be obtained with a traditional, calorie restricted diet. However, due to the scarcity of research on humans, and due to many confounders present in the available research (i.e some of the studies on IF/ADF does not use a CR control group), it's hard to say anything for certain yet.

Intermittent Fasting and PPOS

Q: The Life Extension Foundation is big on the idea that big meals = elevated post prandial oxidative stress (PPOS) which is obviously a negative. Any opinion on this seemingly negative effect of IF/Big Meals?

A: Studies* show oxidative stress is less on intermittent fasting compared to regular calorie restriction. Yes, even when comparing the same calorie intake with varying meal splits (i.e 3 big meals vs 6-9 small meals). The neuroprotective effects of the fast yields the net effect of PPOS being lesser on IF - despite larger meals.

* in ref to Anson et al.

Catabolism during the fast

Q: So, how long does it take for significant muscular catabolism to start? Over 24 hrs?

A: That's context dependent, but consider that blood glucose is maintained within range mostly by gluconeogenesis beyond the 16 hr mark*. That answer might not make a lot of sense, but eat sufficient amounts of slow releasing protein before going to bed and it shouldn't be an issue even if you go for longer than 16 hrs.**

They key factor in whether you'll lose muscle or not is the severity of calorie deficit, not meal time intervals within a non-retarded range.

* note that the studies looking at this contained nutrional regimens very different from what we are doing (i.e Cahill et all fed test subjects 100 g cho before bed time, no protein, and then had them fast for several days to gauge the rate by which liver glycogen vs gluconeogenesis contributes to maintain blood glucose).

** hell there's even a study out there suggesting proteolytic gene expression does not become turned on until the 40 hr mark or so.

A more recent question on the same topic -

Q: Hey guys, got a question about fasting length. I'm currently IF'ing by doing two 24 hour fasts per week (two days with complete fasting) My question is, could I do both fasts consecutively and do one large 48 hour fast? What is the longest amount of time that it is safe to fast before LBM loss/metabolic downregulation?

A: Safest? Well, consider that de novo gluconeogenesis escalates beyond 16 hrs. 16 hrs is the tipping point - your glucose demands after this point is met primarily (more than 50%) by conversion of stored amino acids into blood glucose. Liver will support the brunt of glucose needs before that point. Theoretically, proteolysis will occur to the greatest extent 24-48 hrs into the fast. Of course, there are numerous confounders here to take into account (i.e a casein heavy meal before the fast will delay proteolysis further).

Metabolic downregulation? Up to 72 hrs according to most studies.

Another Q&A. Click here to see all Q&A's.

Intermittent Fasting and Testosterone

First a question related to the effects of dieting on testosterone and libido/reproductive function in general -

Q: "My sex drive just winds down to nearly nothing when I'm running an intense caloric deficit. Is there some documented/anecdotal correlation on this, or is it random according to the individual?"

A: It's not random, it's a fact that weight loss/calorie restriction, even moderate in nature, causes a delayed response to gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). This neurohormone is secreted in a pulsatile manner from the hypothalamus, and upon binding to receptors in the pituitary gland, it activates synthesis of reproductive hormones, luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone(FSH). This axis is partially under control by "master" hormones involved in sensing the general energy status of the body; leptin and insulin, for example.

An energy deficit lowers leptin, which in turn impacts the reproductive axis negatively. This makes complete evolutionary sense, when you consider that reproduction is such an energy costly process. Conversely, high body fat percentage also affects the reproductive axis negatively, through other mechanisms -insulin resistance being one major cause discussed in this context.

Looking at studies on this topic, the effect is proportional to the energy deficit. In one paper, they noted that the delayed response in GnRH pulsatility was "intermediate in extent" when comparing moderate weight loss (-1% body weight/week or some such) to that of anorectics or VLCD (400-800 kcal/day).

My personal experience is that a moderate deficit (i.e net deficit/week is moderate, say -3500 kcal) has no noticeable impact, while a high deficit (i.e -7000 kcal/week) has a negative impact. The latter is augmented on very low carb or straight ketogenic diets. Cyclical diets are superior in this regard.

And related to intermittent fasting -

Q: "I also have a question for you, regarding IF and testosterone. I found a study(done in rats,yeah) , which states that the IF mice had a much higher Testosterone to Estrogen ratio; one of the comments of the study "makers" was that in response to absence of food, males increase their testosterone in order to reproduce quickly as possible. Ok , it's very nice , but does this apply on humans? I mean are there any studies which concluded that IF raises testosterone in human males?"

A: Humans and rodents are not alike when it comes to the effects of fasting on the reproductive axis. For example, you'll see similar responses in female rodents becoming "hypermasculinized" when put on a 40% calorie restricted diet, which is obviously not the case with humans.

There's not a whole lot of studies that can be rightfully applied to the intermittent fasting protocol I am advocating, with 16 hrs of fasting and 8 hrs of feeding. The ones that come closest would be the Ramadan studies, which show a shift of the peak and nadir, but no reduction of the mean. Bascially, testosterone reaches it's peaks and low points at different times compared to a regular feeding schedule, but there is no impact on the average levels. Testosterone in blood plasma divided by 24 (hours) on Ramadan equals baseline (pre-study) levels.

Most studies in this context are carried out using prolonged fasting (48-72 hrs) and show a significant decline at the 36-48 hr mark. For example, one study fasted men for 56 hours, compared blood tests of the last 24 hrs and found lower levels compared to baseline. Other studies using similar setups found the same results (of note is that age plays a factor, and men 50 yrs+ seemed immune to these effects). Additionally, leptin replacement during prolonged fasting restores LH pulsatility and testosterone levels, which goes to show that plummeting leptin levels during prolonged fasting is responsible for the negative effect.

In summary, there is no evidence that short term fasting, which is what I recommend, impacts negatively on testosterone. Prolonged fasting has a negative impact, and this is related to the acute energy deficit and concomitant drop in leptin.

Here I go off on a tangent or two -

Speculatively, I suspect that the intermittent fasting protocol a la Leangains might alter the rhythm of testosterone and LH pulsatility in a similar manner as Ramadan, meaning your peaks would be different from that of the habitual breakfast eater. Ghrelin, which is also a key player in the reproductive axis, adapts to your habitual eating pattern and is altered compared to a more regular feeding schedule. High levels (such as in anticipation of a meal) inhibit GnRH secretion while low levels (such as after meals) stimulate it. Simply put, you may get hornier later in the day, although I've heard many anecdotal reports suggesting the opposite. Needless to say, there are many other, environmental factors that come into play here.

Also, recall that I always put the overfeeding phase post-workout. This will put your body in an acute positive energy balance and increase leptin; downstream effects of leptin will impact positvely on GnRH and testosterone, and provide a favorable hormonal environment for protein synthesis and anabolism. These effects would be especially welcome during a diet and perhaps one reason why intermittent fasting, according to my experiences, have shown such a remarkable effect on muscle and strength preservation during dieting. Admittingly, there are too many confounders here for me to make any definitive statements on the matter (is it the training, the diet etc).


Will aspartame kill me?

Q: "I was just wondering what your thoughts were on the use of artificial sweeteners (aspartame in particular). I love using them but have heard mixed advice regarding their safety. Some "experts" say they're fine in moderation, others say they can cause brain tumors and should be avoided like the plague. As in my eyes, you seem to be the one true "expert" on diet/training, your opinion would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks"

A: Aspartame was found to cause brain cancer in rodents, but no human trial has ever shown a link to cancer, or any other serious disease, for that matter. This has been examined extensively; for example, see this study with almost half a million subjects -

http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/full/15/9/1654?ijkey=ac6c97b1ce31ada1c45888d3101fd0b9d5901fe7

And here's another one -

http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/18/1/40

I could go on, but the consenus is that aspartame is very safe for human consumption, and I have nothing against it.

Also, I should note that the rodent studies used such extreme dosages that it would be impossible for any human to ingest that amount save from walking around with an IV-drip of pure aspartame 24/7.

Transferring from dieting to maintenance

Q: This client had been dieting for several months and lost close to 25 lbs. It was time for transfering him to a maintenance protocol, which meant increased calorie intake. This is some of the advice I gave him.

A: As for your diet, I really recommend sticking to the same foods, or at least the same food types (lots of veggies, lean protein, no shakes etc) but in greater quantities for the first few weeks coming off the diet - trust me on this. Don't try adding in too much of anything funny like cheesecake or icecream or even cereal in your pwo meal. You WILL have a more lax attitude after this diet, and if you combine that with some really tempting foods, you'll risk a binge sooner or later. And that's a sure fire way to pack on the fat again after this long diet stint. You'll see I've changed the meal plans as well, simply added more of the old foods. Not that you need to use them either, but it's just to give you an idea.

He wrote back: "...make sense and I appreciate your advice to not deviate greatly from the food choices I made during the diet phase. It's good I enjoy those foods, so keeping them in my diet isn't an issue. With the added carbs, I'm going to take advantage and add more fruits and vegetables into my diet."

Furthering my point, I replied: Yes, that's perfect. More veggies and fruit. Changing food sources for novelty after a diet is one of the prime mistakes people make (but you don't hear people discussing this very much). It's a psych phenomenon, as deviating from their typical foods will put the majority in a more lax/liberal state of mind, esp after long bouts of dieting, which greatly increases the risk of going 'fuck this, this was so good that I'm gonna stop counting for today and just have a little bit more' and they then end up eating boxes of cereal and other high carb dense foods in the pwo meal.

Intermittent fasting and genotype

these questions comes up from time to time -

Q: "...would IF work for an endomorph?"

"Is there a particular genotype that seems especially suited to an IF eating pattern?"

A: The notion of people being born with a certain body type, somatotyping, has been around for ages. Though oversimplified, the idea holds some truth in that levels of hormones and neurochemistry are largely determined by genetics and gives a propensity for fatness, leanness and muscularity. The endomorph is basically a person that puts on body fat easily, also called the "thrifty" genotype, and the ectomorph, "spendthrift" genotype, is the person that seems to stay naturally thin and has a hard time gaining weight. Mesomorphs are muscular.

Part of the reason for endo/ectomorphism can be explained by the response to calorie intake. In short, ectomorphs match calorie expenditure to intake very well, and spontaneously; when overfed, they increase activity levels spontaneously (fidgeting, can't sit still etc) to burn off the excess calories, while this response is not seen in endomorphs. Overfeeding is also accompanied by an increase in resting energy expenditure in ectomorphs, while the effect is blunted in endomorphs. These are factors we cannot affect by dietary manipulation.

However, this is the interesting part.

Brain imaging reveals defects in the reward system of endomorphs, in that they have a poor concentration of dopamine (D2) receptors in an area of the brain that controls food intake. Dopamine is releases in response to pleasurable activities, such as eating, and is partly responsible for getting that satisifed feeling after a meal. If receptor density is low, more calories need to be ingested in order to reach that threshold - and endomorphs are screwed in this regard, in that they need larger meals than others to receive the same effect. The D2 dysfunction is one of the key genetical factors in causing obesity, and various D2 agonists are currently being proposed as possible drugs of choice to "cure" the obesity epidemic. Additionaly, D2 receptor dysfunction also predisposes individuals for various other addictive behaviors linked to the reward system (drugs, gambling, sex etc).

But let me get to the point. If there is a certain threshold of dopamine to be reached before feeling satisfied, and seeing that this response is blunted in endomorphs due to low receptor density, an intermittent feeding pattern would make a lot of sense for the endomorph trying to lose fat. Fewer and bigger meals would achieve the effect, while small meals throughout the day would just be half-assing it and never really deriving any pleasure from the food. The meals would be rewarding, and this brings me to the second argument for an IF meal pattern for endomorphs, which is the anticipation of reward.

Anticipation of reward has a very potent effect on dopamine levels. Think of how happy you were just hours before waiting to see an eagerly anticipated movie or going to an event you had planned for ages, only to find out that the movie/event itself was relatively disappointing (vs expectations). Parties, sex, food, gambling. Great excitement beforehand, yet often out of proportion to the feelings derived from the event itself.

Relating to the context discussed, the mere anticipation of the first meal after the fast, which is large and satisfying, may via increased dopamine have a suppressive effect on appetite. It may also improve other behaviors related to dopamine, such as sense of well being and motivation for work and achievement.

Therefore, endomorphs, and people with low basal dopamine levels (in psych referred to as "novely seeking" aka all-or-nothing personality types), may find themselves particularily suited to an intermittent fasting pattern. I should note that I am a legitimate novely seeker myself, as confirmed by rather extensive tests (long form Temperament and Character Inventory, for those in the know). Anecdotal reports from succesful clients also seem to suggest they may be of this temperament.

That being said, the above is a mere hypothesis at this point, and I am not really doing it justice by presenting it in a few lines in a Q&A post like this. More elaborate and referenced writings on this will likely appear in the book.

Extreme dieting, yet no fat loss?

Q: Recently, I got contacted by an old client of mine. He got very lean after his diet, but attending a few festivals during the summer got him out of his normal rut, and upon returning home he binged on junk foods for a few days. Eager to get back to his former leanness, he embarked on an extremely restrictive diet combined with copious amounts of cardio. Despite this rigorous regimen, appearance or scale weight didn't change much at all. He sought out my guidance again, and here are some excerpts from the conversation.

A: Yes, this is hardly surprising. You should have known better, but the correlation between prior dieting experience and rational behavior at times seem surprisingly weak. Even the best tend to do stupid shit from time to time.* As I've told you before, one of my friends is a coach himself, yet always hires another coach when he embarks on a pre-contest diet. Why? Most people tend to lose their objectivity and do stupid shit when left to their own devices. I used to do stuff I never would have advised anyone else to do, and it took several years before I finally learned.

It's the dumbbass diet you decided to put yourself on that causes the water retention. Extremely low calorie intake and HIIT cardio is a fantastic recipe for chronically elevated cortisol levels, which in turn causes water retention. If you've seen someone undergoing hydrocortisone treatment you'll know what I mean. The diet you're on now isn't much different, except the effects are more systemic rather than localized to certain tissues.

And then I told him my secret solution, which was basically to cut cardio substantially, along with a slight increase in calories, namely carbs pre- and post-workout.

The take away point here is this. Scenarios like the above, seems to happen a lot - people get lean, they binge, get some temporary bloatedness and they compensate by doing stupid shit against their better judgement. This will just aggravate the problem Fix your head and look at what the hell you are doing. A 1200 kcal/day no carb-no fat diet might sound like a good solution when your head is all messed up and you want to get rid of the bloat, but just wait it out and you'll see that it isn't as bad as you thought.

I should mention that cardio is the real killer here, not low calories per se. High frequency HIIT causes water retention due to cortisol. Long duration cardio, such as jogging for an hour or more daily, will cause it by an adaptive mechanism called hyperhydration. Competitive long distance runners and triathletes are keenly familiar with this, as they will sometimes lose weight after an event rather than when preparing for it.

Low calorie intake by itself is fine, but bad stuff happens when you add lots of cardio to the equation. And besides water retention, there's the more obvious drawbacks such as lethargy and general feelings of shittiness to cope with.

* In Fooled by Randomness, highly recommended, the author notes that researchers are overrepresented in failing to learn from past mistakes. In the same vein, I've noticed that theoretical knowledge about nutrition and training rarely show a strong correlation to good results among health and fitness minded people.

I haven't updated in a while, so here's another Q&A to let you know I'm still alive and kicking. This is compiled from recent e-mails and forum posts. Click here to see all Q&A's.


Salt

This client brought up the topic of salt and water retention -

Q: "..I'm guessing salt at this point isn't the end of the world, but will cause water retention as I proceed a few weeks down the road."

A: Don't do anything with salt. Don't try to reduce it, don't try to increase it. It's shifts in salt/sodium intake that cause water retention, not high intake per se.

For example, if you go higher relative to habitual intake, you can count on some water retention. Go lower, relative to habitual intake, you might find yourself dropping some water weight. This only works in the very short term however - your body will soon adapt to the new 'baseline' intake and adjust water balance accordingly. This has to do with aldosterone, vasopressin and other hormones involved in water regulation.

This is also part of why I think the typical two week bodybuilding pre-competition prep (gradully reducing sodium and ending up consuming trace sodium on the final days) is stupid, as the same effects can be had in just a few days.


HIIT for fat loss

Someone linked me a site and wanted to know if the claims made were legit. I only clicked to see the heading - How To Boost Your Metabolism Using Interval Training - before I closed it down and told him what I thought about HIIT.

Quick summary -

1. There is no doubt that HIIT is superior to steady state cardio when it comes to improving metabolic conditioning when looking at effect/time invested.

2. Extremely overrated for fat burning. EPOC is minimal and certainly not as significant andf radical as some gurus/nutjobs/pranksters make it out to be. Choosing HIIT before lower intensity, steady state cardio solely for caloric burn is dumb as hell. Here's an example for you:

Let's use a fairly typical 10 min HIIT session as an example, in this case 15 s all out sprints followed by brisk walking for 45 s. 185 lbs male.

Sprints 2.5 min total = counting 25 kcal/min = 62,5

EPOC = 62,5 x 0,15* = 9,5

EPOC is approx 15%

Total for sprints = 62,5 + 9,5 = 72 kcal

Brisk walking 7.5 min total = counting 5 kcal/min = 38 kcal

Total calorie expenditure for a 10 min HIIT session = 110 kcal

...or the equivalent to 22 min brisk walking.

3. That last poit is very important. Even though you burn more calories in less than half the amount of time compared to, for example, brisk walking, HIIT is very draining on the central nervous system. In stark contrast to lower intensity cardio, which you can do for a much longer time, with much greater frequency. For someone interested in fat loss and strength maintenance, and not metabolic conditioning primarily, including HIIT too frequently is playing with fire.

So in conclusion, HIIT is great if conditioning is high on your list. And no, you can't have fat loss, optimal strength maintenance and conditioning all high on your list. Something has to give. Since most people, at least the clients I deal with, are interested in fat loss, HIIT is vastly overrated and the frequency to which it has to be integrated in order to create a substantial caloric deficit will cause most people to crash, and their lifts to plummet. Which is why I rarely recommend HIIT for someone that just wants to get lean, while keeping their strength up in the gym. If you aren't concerned with getting your resting heart rate low, and just want to look good naked, think twice before jumping on the HIIT bandwagon.


The fasted state is not an on/off switch

I often encounter questions that goes a little something like this

"...can I use milk/cream in my coffee during the fast?"

"...will I break the fat if I have a 1/2 cucumber during the fast?"

"...I accidentally drank a mouthful of regular Pepsi during the fast, is this considered a fast breaker?"

A: The fasted state is not an on/off switch that immediately gets turned off once you have a tiny amount of calories, like a lot of people seem to believe. The research is not clear on exactly what it is with fasting that causes the positive effects seen in the clinical trials, but some of the hypotheses revolve around

a) letting insulin levels drop below a certain threshold, rather than a semi-elevated state (which would be the case with a higher meal frequency approach)

b) creating an acute energy deficit (which you enter during the fast)

Note that I'm really dumbing this down to get my point across.

So, it's a question of a dose-response effect. Can you have some milk in your coffee? Sure, I wouldn't worry about it and I have it myself. Life would just be too damn boring with only black coffee, especially if you're used to having some milk with it. How much milk/cream? I would put the limit at 50 kcal total used throughout the fast. That's about 1 deciliter or 1/2 cup 2% milk.

Can you eat half a cucumber during the fast? Sure, I wouldn't worry about it, though I don't see the reason as to why you would do so. A cucumber won't fill you up, and eating something, anything, may actually stimulate hunger during the fast in some people. Not to mention the fairly strong hunger suppressive effects of fasting, which makes the need for eating something quite pointless.

In conclusion, use common sense and understand that the fasted state and the positive effects that may result from it isn't an on/off switch, or an 'all-or-nothing' kind of deal.

It's the same thing with the pre-workout meal I recommend for fasted training. For clients doing AM sessions, I recommend something along these lines

pre-wo meal of 10 g BCAA 5-15 min prior to session

Training at 8-9 AM

Break fast with pwo meal at 10 AM or as soon as you're done training: the 8-10 hr feeding window starts now (and not with the pre-wo BCAA's).

Some might argue that "oh, well the BCAA's are insulinogenic/they provide calories and that will take you out of the fasted state" etc. Yeah sure, but then again exercise has the effect of dropping insulin levels. And coupled with what is known from research on pre-workout protein and the effects on protein synthesis, the pro's of the 'fasted' pre-wo meal certainly outweighs whatever miniscule effect it has on insulin or the tiny amount of calories they provide.


Social drinking

Q: "Social life in London basically revolves around drinking. I have no problem cutting back, but cutting out completely will render me a social leper quickly. I intend to cut back on calories on days I intend to drink in the evening, but I was wondering what should I cut back on? I assumed that I should try to restrict carbs on the days I know I'll be having beer in the evening, but I don't really know what the closest analogue for alcohol calories is. Any suggestions?"


A: I get these type of questions a lot, in the context of dieting, i.e how to do damage control on days where you know you'll be drinking alcohol and eating out.

My rule is simple; go high protein, low everything else on such days, up until the occasion. Think lean meat and veggies, or similar, and then go for the lowest calorie option when eating out. This way you can still be in a calorie deficit, despite liberal alcohol intake.

On an intermittent fasting setup, break the fast with a big meal a bit later in the day and you'll have an even greater calorie sink. Have a meal before going out for drinks/beers/food, and then another one before going to bed. Two high protein meals and one bout of drinks, and you'll still be in a calorie deficit even if you get blasted at the social event.

But stay away from the junk, this is key. It's never the alcohol in itself that cause people to take a step backwards in their fat loss efforts, it's all the shit that tends to go with it - the snacking, the late night hamburger and fries at BK after the club and so forth. As long as you make an effort to stay away from the junk, you'll be golden. In fact, calories from alcohol does not seem to inhibit fat loss, or contribute to weight gain, in a way that can be predicted from the added calories alone (and there are studies to support this). However, it does loosen up inhibitions and weakens willpower enough for some people to make a night out an excuse to go off their diet and mess upp their progress.


Creatine on a diet

Q: What are your thoughts on using creatine during dieting?

A: Creatine is one of the few supplements that actually works and provides a noticeable boost in performance (for most people - 10% are non-responders). However, some people will retain water on it - how much depends, but enough to mask fat loss during dieting if you're unlucky. This might be frustrating and mess with your head. For this reason, it might be unwise to start creatine supplementation during a dieting phase - or at least be aware of the fact that water retention may occur, and not freak out because of it.

I should note that for most people, water retention isn't a big deal, and usually results in an initial weight spike after which body weight starts dropping again if you're dieting.

If you’re already taking it, I would advise continuing usage and see how, and if, it affects weight loss on the scale and mirror. It will likely not have a great impact, but if it does, and you feel it is discouraging, consider discontinuing usage (and be aware that some strength loss usually occurs when you stop taking it).


Maltodexshit

Q: What are your thoughts on maltodextrin/protein shakes post-workout? I usually have 40g protein and 100 g of carbs (maltodextrin) in my post-workout shake. Can I still have this?

A: Like protein shakes, maltodextrin is unnecessary, and in the end counterproductive during dieting. Maltodextrin is far worse than protein shakes.

The only benefit maltodextrin has in comparison to a lower GI whole food carbohydrate (potatoes, pasta, rice etc) is in the form of faster glycogen replenishment, when muscle glycogen is measured at the 8-12th hour mark. And this is completely irrelevant unless you plan on training the same muscle group in the morning. Which you won’t. Doesn't enhance muscle growth or improve recovery, it just shuttles carbs for storage a little bit faster. Relevant for elite athletes doing multiple sessions a day, completely useless for someone working out 3-4x/week.

In the end maltodextrin is just a shitty high GI carb that tastes like shit and won't fill you up for shit. Stay the hell away from it if you wan’t to get lean and stay full and satisfied during the diet. Why would you want to gulf down such a perverse amount of calories when they can be eaten instead?

That being said, yes, you can have it. Just like it says in the plan, you may swap foods in whatever fashion you like, as long as you stick to the calorie and macrocomposition guidelines for the day (and stick fairly close to the ones given for the meals).


Moving the feeding window?

Q: I couldn’t eat my last meal until 11 pm yesterday, even though my feeding window is set to 1-9 pm. Does this mean I should fast until 3 pm tomorrow?

A: No, you stick to 1-9 pm as usual. Sometimes life happens and your feeding window will be longer, your fast shorter, or whatever. This is to be expected and you shouldn’t stress or think too much about it. Do not be rigid or neurotic about keeping an 8 hr feeding window and 16 hr fast every single day.

Key point is you stick to your calorie/macros for the day and break the fast at 1 pm as usual the next day. You do not move the feeding window just because you had a meal outside your feeding window.


Fake weight plateaus

Q: a) I haven’t lost any weight this week. Is it time to drop calories?

or

b) I have gained 1 lbs this week and I’m really freaking out! How can I gain weight when I’m dieting?


A: There are some cases where you might find yourself not losing weight linearily – or even gaining, in spite of dieting. I see this all the time, but just because the weight isn’t moving down on the scale, it doesn’t mean that you’re not losing fat.
This is more common the leaner you are, and the longer you’ve been dieting. For example, while having initially lost on average 1 lbs per week the first five weeks, you might lose zero lbs week 6, but 2 lbs week 7. Which is why I am not too quick to change things, and only revamp plans when body weight is unchanged across a 2-week span.

Basically, some weeks might look like this (let's assume the prognosis is set to 1 lbs/week)

Week 5: 185 lbs
Week 6: 185,2 lbs
Week 7: 183 lbs ("catch up" weight loss occurs, also referred to as the "whoosh"-effect).

With women, I have seen this effect extend to three weeks; for example, stalling at 135 lbs week 4-6, then dropping 3 lbs over night in week 7.

Lyle McDonald has written about this phenomenon, though no one knows for sure why it occurs.

“What’s going on? Back during my college days, one of my professors threw out the idea that after fat cells had been emptied of stored triglyceride, they would temporarily refill with water (glycerol attracts water, which might be part of the mechanism). So there would be no immediate change in size, body weight or appearance. Then, after some time frame, the water would get dropped, the fat cells would shrink. A weird way of looking at it might be that the fat loss suddenly becomes ‘apparent’. That is, the fat was emptied and burned off days or weeks ago but until the water is dropped, nothing appears to have happened.
For nearly 20 years I looked for research to support this, I was never sure if it was based on something from the 50’s or he just pulled it out of thin air as an explanation. Recently, one paper did suggest that visceral fat can fill up with water after massive weight loss but that’s about it.”

More here: The Whoosh Effect

Threw together some forum posts/replies to intermittent fasting related questions made in recent weeks, just to let you know that I'm still alive.

Had two clients competing this weekend, and they both placed very well, so keep your eyes peeled for the client update I'm going to put up later this week or next.


Questions & Answers

Breakfast

Question: "Do you think it is possible that breakfast is actually unhealthy for humans and we're not wired for it?

When I was in elementary and middle school I never had breakfast, I didn't have any instinct to eat at waking time. My siblings and parents ate their breakfast looking like zombies and after their breakfast they were even more lightheaded.

On the way to school I actually would begin to feel extremely good and concentrated. At school I never had problems following the lessons, taking notes, memorizing. I would skip recession eating as well. I have always noticed my classmates being less productive and more confused after their recession. I had high grades and school was easy for me.

Beginning high school I was pressured into having breakfast and eating something at recession. As I introduced breakfast in my nutrition I started to lose concentration in classroom, I was ravenously hungry at recession and my grades started to suffer. I was lightheaded the whole morning and couldn't memorize things well.

After almost one year I was feeling worse the whole day (failing to make a connection with the addition of breakfast) I was so sick at the idea of eating one day that I skipped breakfast, and that morning I felt again good and concentrated in classroom. I finally decided to remove breakfast realizing that my instinct knew better than my doctor. I found out a lot of students who skip breakfast (consciously) feel a lot better and are a lot more productive and concentrated.

I have talked with people who keep telling me that if they have breakfast, a ravenous hunger is triggered the whole day and they would never stop eating. Yet if they follow their body lack of hunger in the morning, they never develop that hunger. Except for people who adapted by making an habit out of it, I don't know anyone who naturally feel the need to eat at waking time. Most people, expecially middle school students, I talk to gets sick at the idea of eating in the morning."

...I have always been told that at waking time our blood sugar are low and we need to eat. " (original post shortened)

Answer: While I don't necessarily think eating breakfast is 'unhealthy', it is certainly not a meal pattern we would be wired for from an evolutionary perspective. But then again, humans are highly adaptable and I'm not arguing that we should be clinging to what our ancestors did.

I can relate to some of the other things you've written, namely less alertness from consuming breakfast (and getting hungrier during classes). Some of my clients report better grades and motivation upon omitting breakfast as well.

Blood sugar is maintained within a very narrow range even during fasting. It never falls low enough to cause problems with attributes related to mental alertness unless you have a metabolic disorder (i.e diabetes) or raise insulin through exogenous means.

This was recently demonstrated in a study* using a wide variety of tests during a 48 hr time period, showing no detrimental effect of fasting (vs maintenance level calorie intake).

The authors of that study closes with the following

"It should be noted that preservation of cognitive function during
periods of restricted availability of food is a highly adaptive
mechanism. If adult human brain function rapidly deteriorated as
a consequence of underfeeding, the ability to obtain food would
be significantly degraded, which from a survival or evolutionary
perspective would not be desirable."

So, there is certainly no need to consume food upon waking in order to function properly from a cognitive perspective. And for some, like me, breakfast consumption may even impair concentration and focus for the remainder of the day.

*Lieberman et al. A double-blind, placebo-controlled test of 2 d of calorie deprivation: effects on cognition, activity, sleep, and interstitial glucose concentrations. Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Sep;88(3):667-76

*More on this at the end of this post*

Feeding window

Question: "What are your thoughts about changing your window daily or weekly depending, Martin?

For example. I had my eating window from 13 to 22 yesterday, so I started my new window at 14 today. Now I'm thinking to eat my cals to 18:00 and then eat tomorrow @ 10:00 again. Seems logical?"

Answer: I would not recommend switching it up just for the sake of randomness. There are benefits in keeping the feeding window fairly constant, such as adaptations concerning the hunger hormone ghrelin (which tend to rise at times you're normally accustomed to eating). Vary it for practicality's sake, if anything.

Cortisol and fasting

Question: "Does fasting raise cortisol?"

Answer: No. Cortisol is regulated in a diurnal fashion and studies show that various meal frequencies and short term fasting has very little influence over it. Recent studies found no significant change in the rhythm of cortisol secretion, regardless of meal patterns, nor after 22 hrs of fasting.

Periods of environmental light are more important than meal times/frequency in regulating this hormone. Cortisol secretion is always highest in the early morning and lowest between 2000 and 2400 h.

Ramadan fasting alters diurnal rhytm, but leads to a decrease in mean cortisol.

Prolonged fasting and/or starvation is another deal.

Hunger and adaptation

Question: "13 hours in to my first day of IF and OMG I am hungry."

Answer: The hunger hormone ghrelin adapts to your habitual meal pattern, meaning you tend to get hungry on the times you normally eat.

A few days of adaptation may be required. And this varies between individuals, as some people find fasting easy from the get go, while others require a few days for the transition to the new meal pattern to be complete (meaning the fasting will become more or less effortless).

Fasted workouts

Question:"I have done workouts on an empty stomach for over a half a year now and I think it's better on empty than eating a regular meal a few hours before it. Biologically we humans are programmed very well to train this way."

Answer: Yes, training on an empty stomach is not a big deal, had some fantastic fasted workouts myself, but like I've said countless times before pre-workout nutrition is almost as important as post-workout nutrition. This is verified by research.

Now, pre-workout nutrition doesn't necessarily mean a full meal, but based on everything we know having some whey or BCAA shortly prior to, or during, the workout would be a much wiser choice than going through it completely fasted.

"Clean" eating

Question: "Ive been reading through the forums. I thought you have to get the clean foods like egg whites,chicken, fish, vegtables oats, sweet potatoe in order to get to 6 or 7% body fat. Some you you say you eat mcdonalds and cookies and still get the leanest you ever got. How is this possible when you see bodybuilders and most nutritionist on the websites saying you have to eat clean for you to get results? "

Answer: I've gotten ripped eating ice cream and cereal 3x/week. Clean foods are beneficial in terms of providing satiety and not providing as much temptation as 'unclean' foods or whatever you wanna call them.

I do agree that the majority of foods eaten on a diet should be clean*, but it's not an all-or-nothing deal (even though a lot of bodybuilders make it out to be). Regularily including some unclean stuff, may help with diet adherance and protect against unplanned binges - and may ultimately help with diet maintenance in the long term.

* not interested in semantic analysis, everyone knows what I mean.

Breakfast again

(in reply to another question pertaining to the need of eating breakfast and studies on the topic)

There's been heaps of studies "showing" that breakfast is good and healthy. How? Well, they're correlational.

Example

Breakfast eaters weigh less, as seen in a studiy looking at the eating habits and BMI of 10k+ US adults*

Conclusion

Breakfast must be good for you

* = eating breakfast implies fairly regulated eating habits.

That is, people who don't eat breakfast are more likely to show dysregulated eating patters; average joe skipping breakfast sure as shit isn't thinking "I'm doing IF now". He's the type to grab a donut on the way to work, eat junk food for lunch and finish the day off with a big dinner and snack in front of the TV.

Now, I'm not against children and teens eating breakfast, or anyone else for that matter, but given what I just demonstrated above, it might give you a hint on what the claim that breakfast = good for studying/tests is based on.

For example, breakfast skipping children probably usually come from different socioeconomic backgrounds/households vs breakfast eating children.

It may very well be that breakfast eaters ---> perform better than breakfast skippers ---> because they come from a familiy where breakfast eating is enforced ---> this implies a supportive or "stable" family---> children from supportive/stable families perform better on school tests etc.

Just an example. I'm not familiar with the particular study your teacher refers to.

In adults however, it has been demonstrated that fasting does not impact negatively on various cognitive tests (as recently evidenced by a study that had participants fasting for 48 hrs).

I've been knee deep in client work, which is why I haven't updated in a while. I'm also now managing my own column in the one and only swedish bodybuidling mag we got here www.body.se. Also been working on the book, or at least trying to fit it in when I can.

Jesus, can't believe it's been two months since last update. I'll get better.

I just threw together some questions people sent me these last few weeks, enjoy.

For those new to the site or intermittent fasting, my approach is described here:

Interview with Leigh Peele
- This interview covers a lot of issues about intermittent fasting and how I prefer to go about it.

Intermittent Fasting Roundtable
- General discussion, also featuring Brad Pilon and Mike O'Donnell.

Sure-Fire Fat Loss
- How to lose fat with intermittent fasting, the fast and smart way.

Excerpt from Knowledge and Nonsense
- A piece I wrote for Jamie Hale, about the basic principles of the approach.

You can also click the "Interview" tag for miscellanous discussions regarding intermittent fasting.

And finally, you can see how well my approach works in practice by viewing client results, my transformation and various testimonials.


Intermittent Fasting FAQ November

A few random questions people sent me the last few weeks.

Q: Can intermittent fasting be combined with PSMF?

PSMF, which stands for Protein Sparing Modified Fast (or Protein Strictly Mother Fucker), is the nefarious invention of Lyle McDonald. PSMF is decribed in the The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook. My Review is here.

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A: Yes – in fact, the earliest creation of my system were more or less days of post-workout overfeeding combined with PSMF type days (though not quite as extreme). For some people, including me, PSMF spread over 3 meals eaten within 8 hours feels a lot less restrictive vs the default high meal frequency approach.


Q: What’s the maximum amount of fructose allowed in the post-workout meal?

A: I’m probably going to have specific guidelines in the book, but you can’t go wrong on this one if you don’t do something completely retarded for your post-workout meal (too much processed junk).

Even so, fructose isn’t all that bad in moderation, according to a recent study*. In this particular study researchers gave a) 90 g carbs in the form of 30g fructose and 60 g glucose or b) same amount, all glucose, and found no difference in muscle glycogen synthesis after testing (post-workout).

Basically, fructose and glucose in a 1:2 ratio replenishes muscle glycogen just as well as pure glucose due to different metabolic pathways. Sucrose, which is part fructose and part glucose, should therefore not be completely shunned post-workout.

The KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach to Leangains rules in favour of a starch based meal followed by a sugary treat for those high carb feasts I always include post-workout.

* Wallis, et al. Postexercise muscle glycogen synthesis with combined glucose and fructose ingestion. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2008 Oct;40(10):1789-94.


Q: Why is protein kept so high on rest days?

A: Protein is kept high for three reasons.

1) Highest TEF* of all macronutrients; 20-25% of the energy gets wasted as heat, making the true metabolic impact closer to 3,25 kcal/g** (carbs and fat have a TEF around 2-4%, making the effect negligible).

* = Thermic Effect of Feeding.

** = Livesey. Metabolizable energy of macronutrients. Am J Clin Nutr. 1995 Nov;62(5 Suppl):1135S-1142S

2) Greatest effect on satiety.

3) Spares muscle protein stores. While, 1 g/lb may be adequate assuming energy balance, it is not so during dieting conditions. In a calorie deficit, de novo gluconeogenesis, which is the conversion of dietary protein or muscle protein to carbs, is greatly accelerated. Having an ample supply of protein available from the diet, ample in this case being much more than enough (>1 g/lb), prevents amino acids from muscle being used in the dnl process.

You'd want to maximize these three factors to lose fat while preserving muscle mass, but even so I generally recommend a higher than adequate protein intake for anyone wanting to maximize lean gains and avoid fat gains regardless of energy balance (more so for reasons 1 and 2 when in energy balance).


Q: Martin, am I allowed to drink any fluids during the fast?

A: Of course, this ain’t Ramadan. You're free to drink unlimited water, coffee, diet pop or other non-caloric beverages during the fast.


Q: Can I change the feeding window on a day to day basis or can I the 16-8 split on weekdays while eating normally on weekends?

A: Yes, but there are benefits to using a fairly regular eating pattern on all days - regular in this case meaning if you're used to feeding between 1-9 pm you'd be well served trying to stick to it when possible.

Ghrelin, a hunger hormone which is partly regulated by anticipatory feeding, is why people get hungry on times they're used to eating - regardless of actual need (one reason the 6-meal-a-day crowd get hungry again shortly after having eaten).

When you change meal pattern you're also "reprogramming" ghrelin to a certain extent and shitfting back and forth too much may mess with this adaptation to some degree. Not a big deal, worst thing that can happen is you get a bit hungry - and real world experience tells me that nothing bad happens if you resort to a regular eating pattern a few days (i.e 16-8 split on weekdays, regular on weekends). Problems, which in this context means a grumbling stomach, only seems to arise if you move the feeding phase back and forth on a daily basis (1-9 pm one day, 4 pm-12 am the other day etc).


Q: I want to try intermittent fasting, but I'm not sure it will work for me. Does intermittent fasting work for everyone? Have you identified a body type that does better or worse with intermittent fasting?

A: Probably not, but I'm surprised how well the 16-8 split works and the fact that almost everyone likes it. I've only dealt with a handful of people for whom the 16-8 split was challenging to maintain, and in those cases it was more a question of external factors (irregular shit work, extremely high energy expenditure that made it impractical to eat a few, very large meals etc). In the beginning, when I used to recommend 16 hours of fasting across the board, some women didn't do as great as men; this was solved by shortening the fast to 14 hrs for women.

If I were to pinpoint a certain body type, assuming we can put such a label on people, I would have to say endomorphs do exceptionally well on the approach. Exceptionally well meaning it works very well for fat loss in these cases and endomorphs meaning people that usually struggle to maintain a normal weight and always have problems getting lean and staying there.

General

Q: How should I train?

A: I'm biased towards lower volume, higher intensity, compound based workout routines and I think you can go a long way just pressing, squatting, deadlifting and chinning.

I believe the great majority will do better just trying to get as strong as possible; if aestethics is a high priority, maximizing relative strength will go a very long way towards a lean, muscular physique. This is a core principle of my training ideology. Adding 10 lbs to your bench is not impressive if you also added 10 lbs of body weight, but adding 10 lbs to your bench, or 15-20 lbs to your deadlift, while only adding 5 lbs of body weight will go a long way to ensure most of the weight gained is lean mass (exception being the rank beginner where strength gains will be rapid due to neural adaptation).

As for how to train more specifically, well that's probably another blog post in it's own, but if I were to recommend a few resources that has influenced my thinking on the subject, I should mention Mark Rippetoe and Stuart McRobert. The former for his sensible, tell-it-like-it-is approach to training and coaching, and the latter for opening up my eyes to the key princples beyond effective training. It wasn't until I read Beyond Brawn I actually started seeing consistent progress.

Starting Strength



"Starting Strength is a unique approach to coaching weight training, written by coaches and designed specifically for training beginners. Learn how to effectively and safely coach the basic core lifts and their programming in an easy to do, step-by-step process. Featuring the most heavily illustrated exercise chapters in print, Starting Strength shows the reader not only how to teach the lifts, but how to recognize and correct technique errors..."

- Starting Strength Wiki


Practical Programming



Practical Programming offers a different approach to exercise programming than that typically found in other exercise texts. Based on a combined 60+ years of academic expertise, elite-level coaching experience, and the observation of thousands of novice trainees, the authors present a chronological analysis of the response to exercise as it varies through the training history of the athlete, one that reflects the realities of human physiology, sports psychology, and common sense.

-Starting Strength Wiki


Brawn



Beyond Brawn

The sequel to Brawn. If I were to recommend only one book on the topic it would be this one.



A great book, very comprehensive and highly influential on my own training. I was surprised when I checked out the review section and found an old review from the highly criticial Lyle McDonald where he gave it 4 out of 5 stars:

"At just under 500 pages, BEYOND BRAWN is, bar none, THE most comprehensive book I've ever read on the topic of bodybuilding, and I¹ve read several hundred books.
BEYOND BRAWN is written in very non-technical language. With 22 total chapters, no aspect of productive weight-training has been overlooked.."

And I'll cosign on that.