[brassybadger]

Interesting to see how mainstream intermittent fasting has become. It's worth noting where it started.

A few years ago a few hardcore fitness fanatics started playing with the idea of using controlled fasting for weight loss and/or body recomposition. Two people that should be mentioned are Lyle McDonald[1] and Martin Berkhan[2]. Martin especially made IF popular via his blog, laying out the principles he used as a fitness consultant with his clients.

Most research (and especially the commercial IF knockoffs) only take some part of these principles, but the "diet" part is only part of the picture when it comes to body recomposition. It's almost worthless without the rest (high intensity, low volume weight training, basic compound movements, progressive overload, no focus on cardio).

Quite a few people/company are trying to rip off customers via their IF programs knockoffs and supplements. If you want give IF a shot, read through Martin's blog, and try the original Leangains protocol.

[1] http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/ [2] http://www.leangains.com/

[jaiball]

Another recommendation for Leangains.com - been following it for over a year and have seen good results. Although I haven't followed the protocol to the letter - I eat a good amount of junk food during the week, but also good food as well. The point is to narrow your window of time that you eat during the day. I believe I could be doing even better if I concentrated on eating better and cutting out the crap, but now I have a pretty good balance of being in shape and being able to eat what I want.

Dr Mercola also has some really good articles on IF - www.mercola.com

[DrPhish]

I also have a couple of years of leangains under my belt. Doing the fasted early morning training (modified stronglifts) with a feeding windows 10am-6pm. It gives me energy, I don't ever really feel hungry and my muscle gains have been good. Only thing is you really have to watch your macros. You can still gain fat on IF. I made it down to 9% BF by watching caloric intake and when I decided to just try eating as much of whatever I wanted to get some bulk I gained weight and BF (now 16%). Recomp (losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time) is hard and slow

Best part is that it has been a cinch to stick to. I simply don't get hungry during that 16h window

[brassybadger]

The whole "clean eating" thing is mostly a fad. Nobody has managed to define what food is "clean" and what is not (see e.g. what the typical bodybuilder thinks is clean, and what someone doing paleo, what the average dietitian recommends, etc). The only important things are 1) the number of calories you eat, and 2) what nutrients your diet provides.

When I'm cutting, I don't make a fuss about "junk food", as long as I'm below my calorie intake limit and I'm not missing any important nutrient. Usually hovering around 20% junk food.

[dudurocha]

Do you mean: 1000 kcalories of fries and soda == 1000 kcalories of vegetables, fruits and grains?

[brassybadger]

If you're only looking into weight loss/gain, then yes. Both are terrible choices as a diet, though. The latter will provide more nutrients, so we can call it 'healthier', but you will lack important ones still, and significantly undereat if you are an adult male of average weight and height.