Brief summary of the differences that exist between the various forms of intermittent fasting.

If you're unclear about what intermittent fasting is, read this.

* ADF (alternate day fasting, 36/12 hrs fast/feed). See also The Alternate-Day Diet, which is a milder form of ADF. While I don't think The Alternate-Day Diet is an optimal approach for the fitness enthusiast, Johnson's book is surprisingly good and scientifically accurate. Everything about the title ("turn on your skinny gene") screams faddishness, but I was pleasantly surprised after finishing it. Having read all the quoted studies on ADF myself, I could not find any major misrepresentation of the findings apart from a few too optimistic blurbs about fasting and life extension. I can easily recommend this book for it's summary of the ADF findings. And while the nutritional advice might not be cutting edge, it's certainly not bad or misleading either.

* The Warrior Diet (20/4 hrs fast/feed). WD is actually not intermittent fasting in the strictest sense of the word, since the author allows small meals during the fast (vegetables, fruits). The WD book is somewhat of a cult classic, but the book prefers to quote stories and myth instead of scientifical evidence to supports it's (sometimes ridiculous) claims.

* Eat Stop Eat (24 hrs fasting, 1-2x/week). You can read my review of Eat Stop Eat here. This is a book I highly recommend for those interested in fat loss and the physiology of fasting. Eat Stop Eat has a strong following with many success stories.

* The Fast-5 Diet. (19/5 hrs fast/feed). Fast-5 should be available for free on the Fast-5 website. I shouldn't critique a book that is given a away freely. But let's just say I don't consider reading it the greatest investment of time you can make if you have the most basic understanding of how weight loss works.

* Leangains (16/8 hrs fast/feed)

Within each of these systems, there are more or less specific guidelines regarding nutrition, ranging from the very vague (ADF) to the strict (Leangains).

Leangains is specifically tailored to fitness and strength training, and for those wanting to get as lean and strong as possible. In comparison to other intermittent fasting based diets much more emphasis is put on proper pre- and post-workout nutrition. There are also specific guidelines with regards to calorie cycling, macrocomposition and meal timing.

In celebration of the 1 year anniversary of this blog and my online consultation services, I am hereby announcing a summer competition as a fun experiment.

Rules are simple.

* Maximum of 10 clients. Starting at any time between the 16-30th June, you'll be working with me for 2 months.

* The client that makes the greatest body transformation wins.

* Before/after pics are mandatory and all participants must agree to have their pics shown on the site (faces obscured).

* Winner gets all fees returned. Basically, you'll get in shape for free and learn a whole lot of things in the process.

Contact details: martinberkhan@gmail.com (put "summer" as e-mail topic).

My regular consultation service is running as usual.

Added client pics in the May 21th post below. Check it out.

Book reviews (coming soon)

The Protein Book, by Lyle McDonald

The Stubborn Body Fat Solution, by Lyle McDonald

Eat Stop Eat, by Brad Pilon

When I'm constantly thinking, working with and writing about training and nutrition, I prefer to spend my free time doing completely different and unrelated stuff. Socializing, reading, watching movies or laying on the couch and playing Nintendo DS are all activities that helps me keep my sanity and order of balance in my life. This is pretty much what I have been doing since the last update, which is why the blog has suffered a bit. Either way, I'll try to make it up by making this a fairly large and informational post that I will add stuff to in the coming days.

Client results update

Niclas
One of the greatest surprises of recent months was the impressive transformation seen in a client named Niclas, which in two months went from a fat 196 lbs, to a soon-to-be-lean 178 lbs. However, as the the diet went on, a fantastic V-taper unfolded itself under the fat; I was quite surprised to see such a pronounced change to his appearance, which basically changed from having no aestethical appeal what so ever, to revealing a physique with an upper body that is basically bodybuilding comp material in my eyes (with less fat, and more muscle of course - what I'm saying is that the frame is there).

Niclas, feb 2008@196 lbs

Niclas, april 2008@178 lbs







Niclas, may 2008 @ 170 lbs

Marcus, may 2008@180 lbs

Ben-Ami
No pics available for this client yet, but having gone from 305 lbs to 269 lbs in 10 weeks (almost 4 lbs/week) his achievement certainly is notable - especially since Ben-Ami suffers from a condition called narcolepsy, which causes him to suddenly fall asleep at irregular times during the day. Obviously, this throws a wrench into some issues related to training and activity levels, but we had to make due with what was available and he showed great compliance to the plan. Also, of great interest to me personally, is that the intermittent fasting regime seems to have had a very positive effect on his condition, markedly reducing the frequency of which the 'sleep attacks' occurred.

Another note related to the last point:

Ever since I started this blog, I've received quite a few e-mails from people all across the world claiming to have relieved various illnesses since embarking on an intermittent fasting regime. The illnesses are not only metabolically related (diabetes, insulin resistance etc), but also the kind that may be a function of neurotransmittors, cell regeneration and genetic heritage; the kinds you usually medicate and can't affect with dietary changes (or so says doctors and conventional wisdom).

I'll provide you with a personal example. With the risk of sounding like a quack, my eye sight have improved ever since I embarked on the IF regime two years ago. I first noticed this one evening a few months ago after having taken out my contact lenses and gone to bed. I couldn't sleep, so I turned on the TV and reached for my glasses, which I found to have left in the bathroom. Curiously, I then discovered that I didn't need them.

I decided to test my eye sight to confirm the notion that it had indeed improved and found that I now tested at -3.50 (right) and -3.75 (left), which was an improvement of 0.25 from past values. A small improvement, but taking my rather drastic increase in time spent in front of the computer during that time, it makes me wonder if an even greater improvement could have been experienced without such an aggravating factor.

I've received similar accounts about eye sight improving on IF, but none with actual test values to compare. Interesting nonetheless.

About the book

I get a lot of e-mails regarding this topic and I think it's about time that I address this properly.

Martin,

I heard that you are writing a book on IF. When is it going to be released? Thanks for your time.

Darren

Yes, Darren, I am indeed writing a book about my experiences with intermittent fasting for muscle gaining, fat loss and improved body composition. The working title will probably be 'Leangains' + some descriptive undertitle.

The book will include an objective look (well, as objective as it can get considering it's pretty hard to avoid inherent bias) at the research and how it can be applied to the weight training crowd, as well as the lay person primarily interested in health. This will be followed by a speculative chapter, where I outline my reasons and thinking behind the various recommendations for the different protocols, which in turn will be followed by three chapters outlining the three protocols in detail. Sections for individual modifications based on general stats, gender, starting body fat percentage and glucose tolerance will be included in each chapter, with enough detail for anyone to set up a diet and training routine themselves.

I'll probably have one or two chapters with sample training routines, meal plans, and one dedicated to dispelling some nutritional myths ('you gotta eat every third hour to stoke the metabolic fire', 'you'll get catabolic if you don't eat protein every so often blablabla' and that kind of nonsense).

Lyle McDonald will make an appearance in the book as well, but he won't play a big part in the writing process since he doesn't have that much to bring to the table on this particular topic. He has already started on another project, about women and fat loss, to follow his recently released Stubborn Body Fat Solution (reviewed further down the page).

As for the material produced so far, much was lost in a computer crash that occurred last week. I sent a draft of a chapter to a trusted source to receive his opinions a few months ago, and that is basically what is left of what I've written. This took a large toll on my motivation, but I try to look at each negative event as an opportunity to learn something; the lesson of this particular happening being to make regular back ups of my goddamn files on a regular basis. However, I will restart the writing process during the summer months and plan on having the book written and ready to be published some time in 2009.

I have not decided on format yet - there are pros and cons of both hardcover and e-books, and these have to weighted against each other when the time comes. If anyone reading this has any suggestions, feel free to e-mail me and tell me what you think; professional opinions only, preferably from people involved in publishing.

Johan B

Since I started working with Johan back in October, he's dropped an amazing 40 lbs (18 kg), making a complete body transformation, using my intermittent fasting approach. Perhaps even more impressive is his radical improvement in strength/body weight ratio; even while dropping 20% of his initial body weight, he managed to increase his strength in several key lifts (deadlifts, front squats), with only bench press suffering slightly with a 5 lbs (2.5 kg) loss (which is minimal, considering his massive weight loss). Though several weeks were lost due to sickness, he remained vigilant throughout the diet, and his progress is a testament to consistency, smart dieting and proper training.


Johan, front shot @ 230 lbs (103 kg)




Johan, double biceps @ 190 lbs (85 kg)




Johan, back @ 230 lbs (103 kg)




Johan, back @ 190 lbs (85 kg)





Per

I worked with Per, primarily a martial artist, a couple of months ago with great success in terms of body fat loss and strength, getting him from a bulked up 205 lbs (92 kg) down to a lean 192 lbs (87 kg). Since then, he has been applying the principles I taught him all the way down to a shredded 182 lbs (83 kg).


Per, double biceps @ 204 lbs (92 kg)




Per, double biceps @ 182 lbs (83 kg)





Shahzad

Having tried various other approaches to dieting, Shaz was starting to tire of the endless dieting cycles.

"It was such a nice change of pace to be able to feel full while dieting,
and the meals after my workouts were always thought of as treats, making adhering to the diet very, very easy. I stalled at 170 lbs and it took a bit of tinkering with the calories to get my fat loss up and running again."

Shaz dropped from a lean 176 lbs to a shredded 166, while maintaining and even increasing his strength in some lifts, which is fairly uncommon at such low body fat levels.

Shaz, double biceps @ 170 lbs (78 kg)



Shaz, double biceps @ 166 lbs (76 kg)




Christian

Despite a rather big calorie deficit, lean body mass was well preserved and the weight lost almost 100% fat. Note that this client only did one full body workout every five days.


4th jan 08 - 10th feb 08

weight 110,5 kg 102,1 kg(-8,4 kg)

lean mass 82,3 kg 82,1 kg (-0.2 kg)

fat mass 28,2 kg 20,0 kg (-8,2 kg)

fat% 25,5% 19,6% (-5,9%)

Below follows a brief, and a bit informal, e-mail exchange with Matt Metzgar on intermittent fasting and how it can be used for muscle growth and fat loss.

It may answer some questions the new reader may have about my methods, so I thought I'd put it up here.

New readers may also wan't to read the interview I did with Leigh Peele, where I delve a bit deeper into the Leangains methodology and explain how it evolved from the beginning. You'll find it here.



Martin, I came across your website and think it is terrific. I mentioned it on my blog the other day as well (www.mattmetzgar.com). I had a question for you, since you seem to have done a lot of experimentation with intermittent fasting (IF). First off, I am a big fan of IF and use it occassionally. I think it's a great tool for getting leaner without losing muscle mass. My question is, can intermittent fasting impede muscle growth?


If you're referring to gene expression that might get activated by the fasted phase, there is one study showing gene expression for proteolysis after 40 hours of fasting. To my knowledge, none of the popular IF regimes out there (Leangains, Fast-5, Eat Stop Eat, Warrior Diet) uses more than 24 hours max. In that context, my answer to your question would be no.

My hunch is that it might actually be other way around - since IF improves insulin sensitivity, it might equal more favourable nutrient partitioning when you feed. Simply put, more calories might get used for muscle growth and recovery processes (amino acids to muscle, carbs to glycogen stores) in trained individuals vs the amount that would get stored in fat cells, had you been eating with regular intervalls. That is, of course, speculation from my part as there is no hard data on trained individuals to suggest such a thing.

There are of course other ways, aside from the hormonal/physiological side of things, that IF may impede muscle growth, or cause muscle catabolism; an insufficient protein intake and poorly matching calorie intake to energy expendiure (resulting in a large calorie deficit) for example, but this goes for every dietary approach out there.



I wonder if IF can lead to less resources being available when the body is trying to build muscle?


Well, it's a question of properly matching intake to expenditure. A large protein intake in your last meal will result in the body having amino acids available during the sleep and the fasted phase. For reference sake, 30-40 g casein or animal protein takes 7-8 hrs to fully digest, during which time amino acids are trickled into the blood stream for growth and muscle cell repair. For my last meal, I eat much more than that. I probably still have amino acids from the foods I ate in my last meal the night before, floating around in my blood when I break the fast 16 hours later.



Also, could IF indirectly limit muscle growth by decreasing overall calorie intake? By this I mean, even if a person isn't restricting calories, they may find it hard to eat enough in the compressed window to get enough food in.


This would only be a problem for a very small majority of people, and I'm sure even they could amend the problem by eating more calorie dense foods.



One last related question: putting aside the issue of IF, what have you noticed as far as building muscle in a calorie deficit, sufficient calories, or a calorie surplus?


IF aside, building muscle during a constant calorie deficit is generally only possible for beginners or people taking up weight training again after a layoff (muscle memory). Using a cyclic diet approach, such as the way I generally structure IF diets, is another thing and may allow muscle growth (though you're technically not in a calorie deficit all days of the week, the weekly calorie balance average is negative and enables fat loss as well).

By sufficient calories I assume maintenance intake/matching calories to demand in order to maintain status quo on a constant, day to day, basis. This is a tough question to answer, but since muscle growth requires a certain amount of calories above baseline, it will be obviously be limited. Again the issue of training status; I don't doubt that beginners maintaining calorie balance will grow muscle regardless, but for an experienced trainee, not much will happen, or at least not much will happen unless measured in the very long term (and even that is speculative). With a cyclic diet approach, equaling out to a weekly average of maintenance level calorie intake, I believe things are different and this mirrors my practical experience as well.

A constant caloric suplus is a sure fire way to grow muscle, but also to gain fat (the last part is one more reason I usually cycle calorie intake whether I'm dieting, maintaining or bulking).



This cycling of caloric intake is exactly what I've been thinking about! I'm thinking/hoping there has to be a way to gain muscle without fat. You see children grow and get bigger without getting fat (when eating healthy foods); you see an animal getting bigger and stronger without getting fat. My best guess now is that there could be "mini-cycles" of calorie surplus and deficit, and that can lead to a net gain of muscle without fat. For example, after a workout, you might have two days of "feasting" and most of the food is getting partioned to muscle, along with some to fat. Then you might have a day or two of deficit to lower the fat stores, while retaining muscle (perhaps through fasting and the associated GH). So there is a net surplus over this cycle, but it all ended up in muscle.

What do you think?


While your analogy to the growth processes in children and animals might be a bit faulty, gaining lean body mass in the form of muscle and not fat, is the premise behind the Leangains concept.

The way to achieve this is done by placing calories strategically, in a time period (post workout) where they are more likely to get used for muscle synthesis rather than fat gain. Seeing that protein synthesis is elevated 24 hrs post workout, it makes sense to consume a large amount of calories shortly after working out; a substantial load is consumed, then assimilated during the sleep and several hours into the fast phase upon waking, during which muscle repair/synthesis occurs. As protein synthesis declines, calorie intake is lower, allowing for fat loss.

The net result, measured over several such minicycles of workout days (higher calorie) and non-workout (lower calorie) days, will be an increase in lean body mass and a decrease in fat mass.

I guess the main question is which approach will produce the fastest results; for example, is the fast/feed system superior to a more traditional bulk and cut cycle? I have my own opinion of course, but I make no unsubstantiated claims to know the true answer. For someone like myself, putting aestethics and quality gains before a sledgehammer approach to weight gaining, it surely has it's advantages though.


End. Thanks to Matt for giving me an ok on posting the discussion here.

Do we need BCAA supplementation? The debate rages on.

The following is an excerpt from Jamie Hale’s new book Knowledge and Nonsense: the science of nutrition and exercise.

I recently gave my opinion on BCAA (Branched-Chain Amino Acids) in a roundtable discussion with HST founder Bryan Haycock, Alan Aragon and natural bodybuilder Layne Norton, among others.

Click here to check it out

I'm not very wordy here, but this pretty much sums up my opinion on most dietary supplements on the market.

Note: This discussion revolves around the need for supplementing BCAA in the fed state. For fasted training you need BCAAs pre-workout to optimize your progress. I've explained why in the Leangains Guide.