There is a lot of hype on the web, as well as in the books and articles about the intermittent fasting. A vast array of benefits is usually quoted – improved blood results, increased fat burning rate, reduced muscle loss, etc.

For uninitiated – intermittent fasting requires you to fast for longer than usual periods of time (we all fast for set periods of time daily during the sleep – it is the breakfast meal that literally breaks the fast). There are several options available – fast on alternate days, fast for several days in a row, fast for most of the day and eat one meal only, and also the 16:8 diet, which requires you to fast for 16 hours and eat for 8.

It was the last the seemed most attractive to me and I decided to give it a go. It has been popularized on mass scale by David Zinczenko’s “8 hour diet” book, but as far as I can tell has been developed by Martin Berkhan who uses it to gain muscles without increasing his body fat. It is also popularised by James Stettler in his book “The Extreme Cuts Experiment – Intermittent Fasting Secrets to Build Muscle & Shred Fat – at the Same time”. The abbreviated version looks something like this: fast for 16 hours, eat for 8 (obvious), make your first meal after your workout the largest, if you train in the fasted period take 10g of BCAA prior to the workout, and further 10g every 2 hours until your feeding period begins.

My biggest concern was with training in the fasted period. I do my workouts around 4:30 in the morning and wasn’t planning on eating until noon. Thats a lot of time between the workout and meal time. No pre- and post-workout food… Martin’s website encouraged me to give it a try regardless – BCAA supposedly reverses the effect of the cortisol which is released during the workout and breaks down the muscles. When I first started the experiment I intended to try fasting only on my rest days, but the result of the first day was so encouraging that I decided to jump into deep water straight away.

During the 2 weeks of the experiment I managed to loose 3 pounds. mostly fat, only a fraction of muscles – if the scale can be trusted on that. It is a good result but not really different to what I would expect normally during my diet. There were some benefits – I’m not a great fan of eating first thing in the morning anyway and I felt really well in the morning. It wasn’t just the feeling of en empty stomach, but also clarity of mind, focus and concentration. I felt a mild hunger only on the first day, my body adapted to not eating in the morning quite naturally – like I mentioned, I’m not a great fan of eating first thing in the morning and it took me a long time to get used to eating early.

You will hear some people complaining about their emotional state on IF, especially during first 2 weeks. Personally, I didn’t observe any mood swings. If anything, I was probably a bit distant emotionally, and my dry sense of humour got even dryer – so much that even people who know me, an don’t take seriously my morbidly inappropriate comments were giving me blank stares occasionally…

But it wasn’t all great. There were a few issues that made me stop IF completely, and I probably won’t consider it again, at least not in the same form. The problems were as follows:

• Force feeding – the guys on IF sing praises about the fact that they can eat BIG meals, which suits them fine. Well, I’m glad for you folks, but it doesn’t work for me. Even 40 pounds ago, when I was clearly eating much more than needed, my stomach couldn’t manage a huge meal at one go. You know, I discovered long time ago how easily you can blow your calorie budget if you eat crap. Well now I discovered how difficult it is to eat 1800-1900 kCal in 8 hours if you don’t eat crap, especially when you try to reach your 200g protein intake. Result: after a week constant stomach pain and eventually a constipation. That’s with loads of fibre and water in the diet. I was waking up in the morning with the feeling of having swallowed a stone for dinner a day before. Gone was that great feeling of empty stomach I had for the first week…
• Family life – Saturday and Sunday morning is one of those rare occasions I get to spend time with my family and enjoy eat. Not being able to have a breakfast with them just ruined the moment.
• BCAA on empty stomach. Honestly. Swallowing 10 large pills on empty stomach. At 4:30am. And then every 2 hours until noon. Especially with that stomach pain in the second week. No sir,  I think I’ll pass, thank you very much.
• Most importantly – massive regression in my strength workout. Each consecutive workout I was getting weaker and weaker. In my final workout on IF I could only do 2 sets rather than 3, and even that’s with less reps than normally. Even if I could force myself to leave with the other 3 issues, this was a deal breaker.

Now I know there are a lot of people having great workouts and benefiting greatly from IF. Well you don’t know until you give it a try – i was attracted by the promise of minimizing muscle loss but it’s clearly not for me. One final thought – when I came off IF, my hunger spiked tremendously, and worse of all – I crave for high carb junk food. Not cool – I’ll have to get my body used again to eating sensible. I don’t regret giving it a go though – at least I know what is and what isn’t working for me.