Wednesday, October 1, 2008 by Daniel

Intermittent Fasting: Week 4

What went in (avg. daily):
Calories: 2,340
Fat: 143g (53%)
Carbs: 86g + 23g fiber (17%)
Protein: 167g (29%)

Fasting days: 5/7 (avg. length: 17.6 hours)

Results:
Weight: 178 (-3 lbs, 10lbs total)
Waist: 32.5 (-0.25", 1.5" total)
Bodyfat: 12% (-0.5%, 3% total)
Percentage to goal: 75%

Thoughts:
Despite some changes in my routine this week, there's not a lot of change in the behavior of the numbers. I sprained my ankle early last week, which prevented me from doing my HIIT workouts on three days, and prevented me from doing ANY running. In an attempt to compensate, I added another fast day and tried to make my fasts a little longer. We got a fancy new scale to replace ol' unreliable, so although it says I lost three pounds in my results, I think I really only lost one, maybe two - the discrepancy is due to changing scales. All other measurements are within normal deviations - although it's notable that my arms appear to have grown a little.

We're now heading into stubborn fat territory - ie, trying to lose fat deposits I've had since...well, forever. The HIIT should become all the more critical for persuading these guys to let go, and I will probably not be able to maintain the 0.25"/week rate of waist-loss.

It was a difficult week for the diet. My interest in food has greatly diminished, and I get full fast (particularly with very large meals breaking my fast). Several times I've had to cram down food on a full stomach at the end of my eating window in order to meet my protein requirements. It is not comfortable, much less enjoyable. I'm torn about what, if anything, to do about this - part of me thinks that a couple days a week of steep caloric deficit (ie, <2k) might help with the last push for fat loss, the other part is worried about muscle and performance loss if my protein numbers go too low. I've ordered a pure, unflavored and unsweetened whey/casein mix from True Protein to hopefully give me an option to boost protein numbers without the sugar/sucralose of traditional protein powders. Hopefully that will help.

3 comments:

Ev said...

Oh, man. That sounds rough, the trying to eat part. As for the stubborn fat, I'll bet that your new eating and exercise regimens will pay off.
Maybe look at this before you eat:
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/12/14/i-love-you-food/

Melissa Urban said...

The cramming in of the calories on an IF day IS a challenge. Are all your food choices squeaky clean? Because that stubborn fat will require really, really clean eating. My only tip - don't adjust too many diet and training factors at the same time, or you won't be able to tell what's working (and what's not). Pick one thing - either additional caloric deficit, adding met-con, etc. - and give it a week. Or two. Have faith, and patience. ;)

Daniel said...

Well, I suppose the cleanliness of my food depends on who you ask. You see, I'm a vegetarian, which makes things really tricky. The vast majority of my protein comes from what I consider clean sources: milk, eggs, cottage cheese, organic non-GMO tofu. My fats are all good fats (mostly from nuts and eggs), and my carbs are basically just veggies or from milk (I very rarely eat grains these days).

I do have two "bad" sources. One is protein powder, which I use sometimes when I'm not going to make my quota. I've just purchased a pure, unflavored blend of whey and casein, though, so no more sucralose and other crap. The other is fake veggie-meats. I still try and stick with the cleanest options here and keep them to a minimum, but...yeah. They're not good.

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