Intermittent Fasting and Life Extension

[Steven Barnes]

Mike--

You HAVE to listen to your body, Dude. There is no such thing as a universal diet, exercise, or meditation system. Anyone who says there is is either a Master of Sinanju, or deluded. There are many fine eating plans, and the secret is to intelligently sample, putting your health and general energy FIRST, until you find one that works for you. Please keep us posted!

Steve

[mikeralls]

Thanks Steve, I do try to listen to my body, which is why I've gone off IF for a bit but plan to get back on. I liked it when I first started IF and saw some really positive results, but recently I was on a bunch of anti-biotics and steroids that required me to take them multiple times a day and to take it with food (or risk vomiting). This presented me with obvious problems with IF.

As it is now, I'm waiting to here news from my cat scan to see if I can get surgery in early October which I am _so_ excited about as it has the potential to fix some health problems that have plagued me for a long time , and once that's done I'll be in a better position to go back on IF. I also think my general energy level will go up after the surgery as I won't be fighting off illness as often.

The short version is my sinus cavities are filled with polyps which restrict my nasal breathing and also result in me getting constant sinus infections (one of which I've had for the last seven months and has laughed off every stomach destroying anti-biotic they have thrown at it) and inflammations.

I understand how important breathing is, but imagine how your breathing would be effected if you had a bad cold on practically every day of your life. Then imagine if you found there was a surgery that could make all that go away. That's my hope anyways. We'll see how it goes.

But even before the recent rounds of meds, I too noticed that I was finding it easier and easier to talk myself into some food at the end of a Fast day, and that little food would turn into a meal because I was so hungry, etc etc with the results that I wasn't getting my body to where I wanted it to be.

See, I've lost quite a bit of weight this last two years, and now all I have got left is a final 10lbs of fat (as opposed to 10 lbs period) that once it's gone I'll be at my ideal body fat. Just 10 lbs to go, but it wasn't coming off under IF. So in addition to the medicine problem I've stopped IF because I've decided to really dedicate myself to a diet to try and lose that final 10 by Halloween. It's been going good so far, although I'm afraid I'm losing some muscles with the fat so I'm going to try and slow down the rate of weight loss.

I know you really don't believe in diets but in lifestyle changes, and I believe that too, but I've never actually tried a real diet before, so why not experiment with one once and see how it goes? I think IF might be a good maintenance lifestyle for me, but not a good weight loss one.

I figure if I lose the fat by Halloween my body will adjust and get used to its new look by late December, which is when I'm getting married and wedding pictures last FOREVER! I've seen photos' of my Grandparents wedding so I want my Grandkids in 2057 to say, "d**n Grandpa, you looked good!"

[Steven Barnes]

Diets don't work...and then again, they do. What I mean is that yo-yo dieting doesn't handle the underlying emotional issues. On the other hand, experimentation is part of life. And that last ten pounds is a pregnant dog. I'd suggest a healthy, lean diet combined with resistance exercise and wind sprints--the KB will handle both of those quite well. The "30 seconds of intense work followed by 90 seconds of light work (like rope jumping, light jogging, etc.)" protocol is the "Fat Ripper" and works like thunder, dude. Keep us posted!

[mikeralls]

I get that going on, and going off a diet doesn't address the emotional aspects, but I really think I've already overcame those when I lost the first 30 or 40 lbs, and that I don't have much to work out for the last ten but to just get it done.

I came across this formula for how many calories one should eat per day.

BMR + Activity Factor

Here's how I figured out mine;

157 - Weight
1570 - Basic Metabolic Rate = Weight * 10.
785 - Activity Factor = BMR * .5 (there is room for fudging here. The Formula says * it by .3 for an average activity factor, but anywhere from.4 - .6 if you engage in physically activity more than three times per week, I have a desk job, but I do exercise strenuously for around three times a week and sometimes more so I'm going with the middle route of .5).
That gives me;
2355 Calories to eat per day

And since I want to lose 2lbs per week, that means I need a 1000 calorie deficit a day (1lb of fat = 3500 calories). That gives me around 1,350 to eat per day. That's doable, and pretty much what I've been doing for the last two weeks where I have been watching what I eat religiously. If I can do it for a mere 5 weeks more (max) then I should be at my ideal body weight, and just be _done_ with this losing fat business as I will have no desire to lose any more. I'll still have other health goals to work on (maintenance, strength and energy building, etc) but losing fat won't be one of them.

Currently I'm at

Weight / Fat % / Lean Body weight / Fat weight
157 17.5% 130 27



so if I lose 5 of fat while keeping my lean body weight the same I'll be

152 14.8% 130 22

If I lose ten then I'll be

147 11.9% 130 17

11.9% body fat is pretty much as low as I'd want to go. Much lower than that and a man is pushing the envelope, IMO.

And if I'm good then I'm only five weeks away from being there. Five weeks? That's not that long. Not if I really want it. We'll see how I do. And then I'll look at going back on IF for maintenance.

Cheers,
Mike

[Steven Barnes]

Pushing the envelope? Sure. Plenty of guys do it, but I get the impression that for many of them, it's not very pleasant...

[Argent'horn]

This is an update. I did not begin IF during the academic year last spring, as I was unsure how my mind would operate. I started it June 14, so I have been on it for about three months. I have been fasting Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and eating Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.

I have not lost much weight, maybe dropping from 201 to 197 or so. But, the only real exercise I have been getting is walking up the stairways in my office building instead of using the elevator most of the time.

I have noticed that, not having eaten all day, I am sometimes not at my best mentally for my 7:00 pm geometry class on Mondays and Wednesdays this fall. My lectures have suffered. I am contemplating eating a high protein dinner before my class on those days, after fasting during the day. I still have not decided how to work this out. Mondays and Wednesdays, I have a meeting at 8:30 am and teach at 10:10 am, and then again from 7-9 pm. The morning class is not affected, but my fatigue in the evening may require a bit of food as well as a brief rest. Perhaps I can skip dinners on Sundays and Tuesdays to keep on track??

[temporus]

Argent'horn,

If this method does not work for you, might I recommend the Fast 5 method? I've been doing it for ~18 weeks. (Though last week I was on vacation, and decided that vacation meant time to relax all restraints.) While I've had moderate weight loss (around 28 lbs) I generally don't find I have abnormal physical or mental fatigue. Some days (such as yesterday) I end up not even getting home until 7PM for my meal, and it doesn't seem to bother me.

Just another option in the IF spectrum.

Good luck with whichever method you choose.

Ed

[Steven Barnes]

If you want to lose weight, you need to do something that "peaks" exertion, so as to re-set your metabolic clock. Windsprints, etc. And there is no problem with having some protein in the evenings. Everyone is different, and you MUST listen to your body.

[mikeralls]

For what it's worth I had a rather bad Sunday and Monday on my diet, so I just fasted from 10:00 PM Monday to 8:30 AM Wednesday and did a long workout on Tuesday as well. I was surprised at how easy it was to get back on the fasting program and now I feel like I'm back on track.