Is Intermittent Fasting The Fastest Way To Lose Bellyfat?

[DreDay187]

Let's listen to all the "bro scientists" who just repeat what they have heard or believe without any scientific evidence.

IF works because there is science behind it. The number of myths regarding nutrition is astonishing. I have spoken to personal trainers who are also "registered dietitians" who do not know my own credentials and are quick to spout things off that are COMPLETELY FALSE. This string of misinformation continues endlessly. I have read articles online and even in Men's health with ignorant comments like "Registered dietician or even (God forbid), MD so-and-so says eat frequent small meals to keep your metabolic furnace hot." Someone said it and I have heard it before so it must be true right!?

Do you guys really believe humans would have evolved if when we didn't eat every few hours our body would eat up our muscle and ignore our fat stores? Why do we write IF off when tons of studies price it's effectiveness and you'd be hard pressed to find a bunch of people complaining about their simultaneous fat loss and strength gains after switching to IF.

It is not a "diet" it is a lifestyle.

I agree with you, a lot of myths regarding proper nutrition everywhere. IMO it was originated by supplement companies, BB magazines, and endorsements by the Pro's but it keeps getting perpetuated daily by people from all walks of life. The difference between a properly constructed typical 6-7meal/day diet and a properly constructed IF diet will be negligible in the long run, until getting to super low body fat ranges. The thermic effect of food is related to food volume and total energy intake not meal frequency so 6 meals a day won't "burn more calories" than 1, provided they're isocaloric diets.

I'm personally not doing IF now (have tried a few variations in the past) but one huge aspect of IF that often gets overlooked is satiety. Believe it or not, clinical studies have shown correlation between increased hunger levels and increased meal frequency. If you're having trouble sticking to a 6-7 meal/day diet because you feel hungry all the time, an IF diet can help increase satiety and therefor adherence to the diet.

If you want to get technical, any diet is an IF diet since even when eating 6-7 meals/day, you are still fasting intermittently between those meals. You're fast just happens to be for a shorted length of time than say a 8hr eating window in an average IF diet. There are many IF zealots out there as well, proclaiming its the perfect diet/only was to do it etc, and they're just as mistaken. Any approach will work and the efficacy of both a typical BB's diet and an IF diet will be equal (no clinical or statistical significance) and determined by adherence to the factors I listed above and adherence to the diet itself. I argue for convenience and adherence, which type of diet is most convenient for you and which one you can stick to without falling off the tracks!

 

[DrHouse]

Conservation of Energy.. Its a law.. Energy is neither created nor destroyed so what you don't burn through exercise or normal metabolic is stored (fat and other variations).

I like how complicated people make this subject or people seeking an "easy" way to lose fat.

I personally carb cycle and don't eat 3+ hours before I go to sleep but that's just me.

 

[DreDay187]

Conservation of Energy.. Its a law.. Energy is neither created nor destroyed so what you don't burn through exercise or normal metabolic is stored (fat and other variations).

I like how complicated people make this subject or people seeking an "easy" way to lose fat.

I personally carb cycle and don't eat 3+ hours before I go to sleep but that's just me.

Conservation of energy and mass and the 1st law of thermodynamics are changed by meal frequency...I completely agree

 

[mrricco2012]

Just my own experience. But I was doing IF for half a year or longer, then switched to doing 6-8 meals. I've seen more progression in the gym then I ever did when doing IF. Which when I did IF I only ate from 3pm-8pm, now I eat from 10am-11pm (First meal at 10, last meal at 11pm)

 

[Trenasaurus]

I want to lose bellyfat as soon as possible in the terms of %6 bodyfat loss. I've read about intermittent fasting and wondering if I can do that in one month doing intermittent fasting before starting my next bulk cycle.

At the eating time What I would do is eat a pre meal of eggs and protein shake before gym then two shakes and one meal of chicken breasts and veggies after gym. I'd also take clen.

Is this right?

I did this while cutting recently. I would train in the morning on an empty stomach, would start eating when I finished training around 12 noon. I would stop eating at 8pm everyday like clockwork. I was running 500mg of test e and 100mcg of clen (2 wks on 2 wks off). I had great results with it, going from 235 lbs at 18% body fat to 203 at 9%. Even though your using IF, all your macros should be the same as well as making sure you are in a calorie deficit.

 

[DreDay187]

I did this while cutting recently. I would train in the morning on an empty stomach, would start eating when I finished training around 12 noon. I would stop eating at 8pm everyday like clockwork. I was running 500mg of test e and 100mcg of clen (2 wks on 2 wks off). I had great results with it, going from 235 lbs at 18% body fat to 203 at 9%. Even though your using IF, all your macros should be the same as well as making sure you are in a calorie deficit.

I really don't have anything to add since what you did worked for you and is based off thermodynamic laws and conservation of energy/mass laws (proper caloric and macro intake) but I just wanted to say your screen name had me laughing my ass off over here hahaha. I love it!

 

[DreDay187]

Just my own experience. But I was doing IF for half a year or longer, then switched to doing 6-8 meals. I've seen more progression in the gym then I ever did when doing IF. Which when I did IF I only ate from 3pm-8pm, now I eat from 10am-11pm (First meal at 10, last meal at 11pm)

The timing of your food does not make a difference in weight gain/loss until you get to extremely low set points (think contest prep and sub 8% bf and even then its not a huge difference but you need every trick in the book to fight your body to keep fat loss while preserving lbm). The timing of your food MAY affect your performance in the gym though which would account for your "more progression". Just like some ppl can't train on an empty stomach and others wouldn't dream of doing anything but, the way you arrange your diet MAY affect overall performance. This is where trial and error comes into play. You tried IF and 6-8meals/day. The latter helped your performance more than the former. That's individualistic to you and not the population as a whole. What I mean is just bc YOU experienced "more progression" does not mean you can make a general blanket statement that EVERYONE would have "more progression" on the 6-8meal/day diet. That's all that's being said here that If CAN work just as well as 6-8meals/day but that depends in the individual, not blanket statements. Also you seem to track your diet and macros pretty meticulously so this probably won't apply to you but there's always that chance: you'd have to compare ISOCALORIC diets. If macros or total calories changed it wouldn't be an equal comparison and there would be compounding factors.

 

[mikeross1981]

sharing some great knowledge infection... thanks

 

[ImageX]

IF to me makes a difference cause i dont have the time to eat 6 meals a day.. as long as the macros and calorie intake is the same... it should be no different.. the only thing different is that you have a longer calorie and carb deficit period.. cardio and working out during those periods will hit fat quicker.. it's the same reason morning cardio vs evening cardio is more efficient... to me IF works.. cant know it til you try it.. i'm on 18:6.. and it's very bearable.. both methods work... it's what is more practical for you..

 

[DreDay187]

IF to me makes a difference cause i dont have the time to eat 6 meals a day.. as long as the macros and calorie intake is the same... it should be no different.. the only thing different is that you have a longer calorie and carb deficit period.. cardio and working out during those periods will hit fat quicker.. it's the same reason morning cardio vs evening cardio is more efficient... to me IF works.. cant know it til you try it.. i'm on 18:6.. and it's very bearable.. both methods work... it's what is more practical for you..

When you think about it we ALL do a form of IF. We all fast in between meals, kind of an obvious fact, but often overlooked. The only difference as you said is a 8hr feeding window vs a 24hr feeding window. But 6-8meals a day is still a form of fasting in between when you get technical. The only benefits of faster cardio are seen in already lean individuals, around 15% BF, due to differences in mobilization, transport, and oxidation. If you're over 15% or so there is no tangible benefits to fasted cardio. But if you're under it CAN help

 

[Sadasius]

I tried the fasting thing before. Heck I still have a profile at a fasting website. My results were pretty good if I was not working out. If I was working out I would get stronger and after a certain amount of time i would get weaker. Now what the problem was with fasting and working out was that it lowers your metabolism every time you do it. This is not good because if means you either have to fast longer after awhile or get fatter then you were before. Fasting is great for health, but not for bodybuilding. Learning to eat right is the key and when you do need to lose weight it is not much to lose. It is much better to hover near that line than to keep flip flopping over it putting a great amount of pressure on your system.

Not a big fan of carb back loading either. That initial shock from lack of carbs in the beginning really cuts into my mass and makes me feel small and tired. It simply was not worth it for me as it was just to eat right almost 95% of the time.

 

[CptFKNplanet]

Didn't read through the whole thread, just the title. So to the OP the short answer is... no. There is no "best" diet. A diet is a diet, a deficit is a deficit. Simple as that. IF is based around being a "healthier" way of eating due to hormone regulation. I'm guessing you haven't read the info provided by Martin on his site.
That being said, I used IF during my last cut (dropped 24lbs in just over 3 months). I think the main benefit was having a structured eat window which helped keep my mind off of eating throughout the day. I also was using Halo, 1-andro, a fat burner, two-a-day gym sessions, fasted morning cardio, and most importantly... in a caloric deficit. You could try to credit the weight loss to any one of those specific things, but the bottom line is that is was a combination of all of them, the consistency of sticking to them, and knowing when to add each additional tool into the regimen. Don't go all out right away doing 30 mins of cardio every day and starving yourself. Taper down your calories first slowly, and add in the tools as you plateau.
OP, sounds like you may need to learn some more about diet and nutrition instead of looking to "fad diets" to do the job for you.

 

[slobberknocker]

I lost a lot of body fat and retained muscle/strength while doing IF. I would train fasted and eat my first meal immediately after training.

 

[Prowl]

I'm week 2 with the IF diet, I'm keeping my muscle mass and noticed I'm loosing weight around my gut. I'm cutting with a calorie deficit and liking the results so far. Not saying this is the best diet out there but it's working for me. I'm also running a test e cycle 600mg pw.

 

[DapperSapper]

The science behind intermittent fasting is PROVEN. You will burn MORE fat and have higher test/HGH levels than that 6 small meals crap.

Anyone who writes it off without reading the research/science behind it is an idiot.

 

[DreDay187]

The science behind intermittent fasting is PROVEN. You will burn MORE fat and have higher test/HGH levels than that 6 small meals crap.

Anyone who writes it off without reading the research/science behind it is an idiot.

I'm a fan of IF if its convenient for you and your schedule but to say you'll burn more fat and have higher hormone levels is not true. Not unless you plan on fasting for 24hours - 5days

However, caution should be exercised, as acute changes may produce different efects on GH secretion when compared with chronic changes. In addition, interactions between metabolites may be vital.In summary, the present study demonstrates that the nutritional state is a major determinant of spontaneous rhythmic GH secretion in man. Although 5d of fasting might be considered unphysiological, fasting for 12-24h is common for most animal species and primitive man. Accordingly, the choice of well-fed industrialized man as a model to study the pulsatile properties of GH release may therefore be inappropriate, and may explain why an ultradian pattern of secretion had not been demonstrated previously.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC329619/pdf/jcinvest00482-0014.pdf

^^^a 16/8 fasting/feeding window is not the same as a 24-120hr fast. Its more than a stretch to reach the conclusions youve made and to call anyone an idiot for it.

 

[CptFKNplanet]

The science behind intermittent fasting is PROVEN. You will burn MORE fat and have higher test/HGH levels than that 6 small meals crap.

Anyone who writes it off without reading the research/science behind it is an idiot.

Care to provide this "proof"??

 

[CptFKNplanet]

I'm a fan of IF if its convenient for you and your schedule but to say you'll burn more fat and have higher hormone levels is not true. Not unless you plan on fasting for 24hours - 5days



ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC329619/pdf/jcinvest00482-0014.pdf

^^^a 16/8 fasting/feeding window is not the same as a 24-120hr fast. Its more than a stretch to reach the conclusions youve made and to call anyone an idiot for it.

 

[DreDay187]

Care if I join you lmao??

By the way, your s/n is awesome haha

 

[CptFKNplanet]

Hahaha we can get down all day!!


Lol thanks bud