Timing of Fasting, Working Out, & Eating

[Carla Tremblay]

I’m considering intermittent fasting but I’m concerned about getting tired and feeling hungry. I was wondering who does IF and how you time this around your workouts.

I workout everyday except Mondays and Fridays… I do CrossFit workouts on Saturday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I’m training for a marathon so I’m going to be doing long runs (1 to 3.5 hours) on Sunday. I will also plan on running a couple days a week in the evenings for about an hour (Tuesday or Thursday). I always get so hungry after a workout so I don’t know if this is right for me. Plus, I like to eat!

Thoughts?

[Joe Waguespack]

Carla,

Im into my third week of IF and love it so far. I am doing 19 hour fasts with 5 hour feeding window. I am training fasted ( I train 5-6 days a week) mostly strength and power work, with a little Metcon thrown in. My strength hasn't really suffered , but the intensity is definitely down. I will give it a few more weeks to see if I adjust better and will probably start adding in a meal pre WO. Yesterday I had planned a "recovery" day with a 45 minute row. Well, after the row my truck was dead in the parking lot so I decided to run home. So after about an hour and a half of pretty straight endurance work I still felt great and I never run. So IF may be better in that slower endurance capacity where fat is your primary fuel source. The one thing I noticed is that this is one style of eating that you have to play with. Check out Mike OD's IF life blog and also Performance Menu has a ton of great IF info. Good luck. I'm new at it myself so I can't help to much but I think it is great, so far.

[Robert Wolf]

Carla-
Get a solid paleo/zone diet dialed in. THEN add a day or two of IF/week. Start with 12 hrs and work up a bit. You should not feel hungry, your energy should be good. If your sleep is dicey, if your daily stress is high don't mess with it...stick w/paleo/zone.

[Carla Tremblay]

Originally Posted by Joe Waguespack

Carla,

Im into my third week of IF and love it so far. I am doing 19 hour fasts with 5 hour feeding window. I am training fasted ( I train 5-6 days a week) mostly strength and power work, with a little Metcon thrown in. My strength hasn't really suffered , but the intensity is definitely down. I will give it a few more weeks to see if I adjust better and will probably start adding in a meal pre WO. Yesterday I had planned a "recovery" day with a 45 minute row. Well, after the row my truck was dead in the parking lot so I decided to run home. So after about an hour and a half of pretty straight endurance work I still felt great and I never run. So IF may be better in that slower endurance capacity where fat is your primary fuel source. The one thing I noticed is that this is one style of eating that you have to play with. Check out Mike OD's IF life blog and also Performance Menu has a ton of great IF info. Good luck. I'm new at it myself so I can't help to much but I think it is great, so far.

Thanks for your feedback! I agree that I will have to play around with what works for me and my schedule. I'm not planning on doing anything drastic. I'll make changes slowly.

[Carla Tremblay]

Originally Posted by Robert Wolf

Carla-
Get a solid paleo/zone diet dialed in. THEN add a day or two of IF/week. Start with 12 hrs and work up a bit. You should not feel hungry, your energy should be good. If your sleep is dicey, if your daily stress is high don't mess with it...stick w/paleo/zone.

Sleep is good (8-9 hours consistently every night), stress levels are not high, I zone but am not strict with the portions, I'm pretty good with getting lots of veggies and such but occasionally have some bad carbs. Since I'm fairly new to the Zone (about a month into it) I'll try to clean it up even more and slowly work into IF as you recommended. Thanks for the feedback Robb!

[Patrick Poblocki]

I've been tooling around with IF for a couple months now. What I've found is that an 18 hr window, which is what I started with was too much (or too little depending on which way you look at it.) I dropped weight, but I felt hungry and and weak in the gym--bad combo. I was doing an eating window from 12pm to 6pm. What I SWITCHED to is a 12 pm to 10pm window. I just add one high protein, high fat meal right before bed (e.g., veggie omelette and one scoop of almond butter for desert). I found that I sleep well, and my strength is coming back. I also don't feel the least bit hungry when fasting in the am. Basically, what everyone says, is that it's completely an individual endeavor; there's no panacea. In terms of working out, I find that as long as I eat right before bed my am workouts, while fasted, are awesome--no losses, even more energy. However, I'm awfully weak if I decide to workout at the end of my fast. I also find that working out in the middle of the fast helps because it eliminates my hunger pains for a period of time. So, start with a smaller window (i.e., 12 hours) and do it 1 or 2 times per week. Play around with your workout times to see what works best. I've been varying it. One day I won't eat for a few hours after a gym session, other times I eat right after. Hope that helps...

POBS

[George Mounce]

I'm kind of a weird one with IF - I plan my eating window basing on my flying schedule, not on my workout schedule. I workout in the eating or the fasting timeframe. If it ends up being in the eating timeframe, I just don't eat 1 1/2 hours before the workout to ensure me and Pukie don't meat up.

If I'm flying late in the morning (i.e. 10am), I start fasting earlier the day before so I can eat by 9 am, and usually workout at 6am on those days. Otherwise if its an early flying day, I'll do my normal 15-17 hour fast and eat by noon. Then I eat and end up working out later in the day during the feed window.

Either way I go about it based on what life has me doing, not when I'll workout.

[Jason Galvan]

this sounds a lot like The Warrior Diet... if you want some in-depth info specifically on this subject of, IF you call it?, then I suggest you read The Warrior Diet by Ori Hofmekler. Awesome read, great meal recipes also. Find it at dragondoor.com or any B&N/Borders. HAPPY READING!!

[Carla Tremblay]

Originally Posted by Patrick Poblocki

I've been tooling around with IF for a couple months now. What I've found is that an 18 hr window, which is what I started with was too much (or too little depending on which way you look at it.) I dropped weight, but I felt hungry and and weak in the gym--bad combo. I was doing an eating window from 12pm to 6pm. What I SWITCHED to is a 12 pm to 10pm window. I just add one high protein, high fat meal right before bed (e.g., veggie omelette and one scoop of almond butter for desert). I found that I sleep well, and my strength is coming back. I also don't feel the least bit hungry when fasting in the am. Basically, what everyone says, is that it's completely an individual endeavor; there's no panacea. In terms of working out, I find that as long as I eat right before bed my am workouts, while fasted, are awesome--no losses, even more energy. However, I'm awfully weak if I decide to workout at the end of my fast. I also find that working out in the middle of the fast helps because it eliminates my hunger pains for a period of time. So, start with a smaller window (i.e., 12 hours) and do it 1 or 2 times per week. Play around with your workout times to see what works best. I've been varying it. One day I won't eat for a few hours after a gym session, other times I eat right after. Hope that helps...

POBS

Patrick - This sounds like something that may work for me. I'm perfectly fine not eating in the morning. I'll have to play around with my schedule. Thanks for the feedback!

Originally Posted by George Mounce

I'm kind of a weird one with IF - I plan my eating window basing on my flying schedule, not on my workout schedule. I workout in the eating or the fasting timeframe. If it ends up being in the eating timeframe, I just don't eat 1 1/2 hours before the workout to ensure me and Pukie don't meat up.

If I'm flying late in the morning (i.e. 10am), I start fasting earlier the day before so I can eat by 9 am, and usually workout at 6am on those days. Otherwise if its an early flying day, I'll do my normal 15-17 hour fast and eat by noon. Then I eat and end up working out later in the day during the feed window.

Either way I go about it based on what life has me doing, not when I'll workout.

Thanks for your input George! I like your new avatar!

Originally Posted by Jason Galvan

this sounds a lot like The Warrior Diet... if you want some in-depth info specifically on this subject of, IF you call it?, then I suggest you read The Warrior Diet by Ori Hofmekler. Awesome read, great meal recipes also. Find it at dragondoor.com or any B&N/Borders. HAPPY READING!!

I'll check it out. I still need to read up more on paleo as well... Thanks!

[George Mounce]

The Warrior Diet is a definitely a good read!