Quote (Honestly @ Jun 27 2011 02:58am)
how do you feel about all this "IF" intermittent fasting BS?
It is TOTAL BS.
I am sick of hearing people preach about it. They genuinely have absolutely no biological/anatomical/nutritional background whatsoever.
They see someone use it to great "success" and they consider that it must be the be-all-end-all best diet on the planet. This is a common fallacy. When you see something work for ONE person, many people automatically believe it will work for them. This can be said about literally thousands of diets and general quackery. However that also doesn't mean the "intermittent fasting" approach is bad for EVERYONE....it just means it's not universally good and acceptable for everyone.
The core ideas are here:
1. If you are a hardgainer and have a tendency to be lean, Intermittent fasting will indeed keep you lean, there is NO doubt about it. If you have a tendency to gain fat, intermittent fasting may or may not allow you to lose fat, however it also will slow your metabolism even further and potentially cause muscle loss during the fasting periods.
2. Intermittent fasting is more of a fat loss solution vs a muscle building/maintaining while fat burning solution (like keto). Essentially intermittent fasting follows the age old approach of fat loss - starvation. The body can not utilize maximum macros and calories in such a short period of time and then be expected to survive off of stored fat alone. The body will catabolize everything...muscle/fat and also start slowing down natural processes of the body as part of conservation attached with being in a period of starvation.
3. If Intermittent Fasting really was the be-all-end-all....then all the BB greats like jay cutler, markus ruhl, ronnie coleman, and so forth would all be IF'ing. They are NOT. They also openly talk about keeping calories lower on non-workout days vs workout-days...this is absolutely true and also obvious and not even close to intermittent fasting. Even all natural BB'ers in the pro-circuit (few and far between) will refute all claims about intermittent fasting being the best choice out there. The body needs nutrition...but the body also needs exercise.
4. On days when you simply are not going to exercise, the caloric intake must be 500 less than your BMR in order to guarantee continued fat loss. Also all macros need to be in check, 1g/lb bodyweight protein or more, less carbs at night, slow protein before bed, and so forth. On workout days, calories need to be 500 less than TOTAL burned (bmr+ exercise) for that day for fat loss. They can also be up to 500 over your BMR+exercise and still see no fat gain if macros are manipulated properly.
5. Intermittent fasting is basically the lazy-man's way out to having to diet properly from using keto and/or true caloric and macro manipulation. I look at these supposed "bodybuilders" who believe in IF...and quite frankly I am not impressed. They can claim to be natural...they aren't. They also are extremely lean, but also not even close to the muscularity of the pro-circuit of today...let alone the pro-circuit of the 1960s lol.
6. Lastly, there is the issue of longterm health. The human body is not meant to constantly be thrown into starvation mode and then back into "fed" mode. People argue that our ancient ancestors had that mode....well this is possible, but our ancient cave-dwelling ancestors also barely survived past 30 for a plethora of reasons. The human body has evolved to be fed at semi-regular intervals throughout the day. To strip it of that basic fundemental is a recipe for all sorts of unwanted and potential medical problems not limited to: Hypothyroidism, various diseases, various cancers, Alzheimer's disease/dementia, and so forth. All of these are POSSIBILITIES of constantly manipulating the body to go back and forth from starvation mode to "fed" mode.
many people will question my research and sources...I will tell you this - spend some time on google scholar and come to your own conclusions. Fortunately for me, this is my field and what I study and what I know. I have been there, done that, and tried virtually every popular diet/routine imaginable. I just hope that everyone on here has enough sense to do some research on their diets/routine before they set it in stone and begin a long journey of something potentially dangerous just because they see another people doing it to [some] success.