After much deliberation, I think I'm finally gonna give intermittent fasting a try. I've gotten almost all of my information from Leangains.com - much thanks to Soulman for leading me on this track. I think the fast will be doable, but I am very nervous about the eating, both hitting my numbers and because of my inconsistent schedule. If I am making any obvious mistakes, please let me know.

I will post my plan and follow up with updates. If I fail miserably, I will let you guys know and bow out in shame.

Right now 3x5 =
Squat - 265
Deadlift -285
Powerclean -165
Bench - 185
Press - 120

Staying at or above these numbers is important to me as I've lost almost all my strength when bro-cutting in the past.

Training plan:

Reverse Pyramid Training 3x/week.

Diet Plan:

Training Days: 3000 calories - 300 grams protein, 200 grams carbs, rest fat
Rest Days: 2000 calories - 250 grams protein, 100g fat, 40g carb

I will be eating from 2pm - 9pm and will adjust if this isn't practical. I will log my daily diets on fitday.com.

All comments appreciated!!

Height/weight? I thought IF was pretty easy to do. My buddy didn't really like it. IF is not like a super diet though. Just set cals, protein and lift heavy. If i were you, i would do SS or GSLP instead of Martins pyramiding. I have no proof that his doesn't work as well though.

I found after fasting, the first meal of the day tasted like 10x better than normal so I thought it was totally worth it. It also kept me on a schedule too so i was sure to get in my protein.

Also, why start IF, what are your goals?

6'0'' - 196 lbs.

I just did SS for a while and went from weakling to reasonable, just going to try something new with reverse pyramiding - don't see it mattering a lot. I am starting IF to accomplish a personal goal of getting a six-pack. More so for the accomplishment in this point of my life than vanity. I will probably restart SS if I reach my goal. I'm also sure I'll look too skinny when I get there, but I don't really care, just want to say I did it I guess. I'm miles away from a six pack now, the heaviest I've ever been in my life, but also the strongest.

Huge thumbs up to reverse pyramidding, I got a lot of progress out of it last year, adding 60 lbs to DL, 30 lbs to squat, and 20 lbs to overhead press over a 4.5 month period.

FWIW I also like RPT, but I've only done it for two months.

Your protein goals are higher than needed imo, I wouldn't sweat it getting that high. 250/200 should be plenty.

Glad to hear that! 300 grams of protein is super daunting.

Is there a specific reason you are going with a 17 hour fast and 7 hour feeding window instead of LG's recommended 16/8 split?

The fast was really easy, felt awesome all day, especially the morning - very glad I don't have to eat in the morning. I ate between 12:30 - 8:30. I didn't reach my calorie or protein goal. Thats a lot of eating in 8 hours. I guess I need to stretch my stomach out. I'm so glad I don't have to think about food for 16 hours.

Here is my food log for the day:

Here is the highlight meal - pork tenderloin w/ veggies and potatoes:


Training went okay -

Squats - 255 x 6 easy
- 230 x 7
- 215 x 8

Leg curls - 3x8 - not sure on the weight - I'll pay attention next time.


Kneeling ab crunches - didn't really know what I was doing with this - if you see something in GGO about some kid doing these like a chump than you know it was me. I kept getting slid back by the weight, I think it was too high up or something, so I had to brace myself against the base. Seemed to work the abs ok though.


Next two days are rest days - only 2k calories.

Lost 2-3 lbs so far. Everything has been going well. I love not eating breakfast and I broke my PB in bench at 190x6. Also, I think I'll break my squat PB today at 265, but we'll see. Also taking this supplement called Jacked recommended by Berkhan. It's incredible, super intense though - I feel like I'm on drugs for six hours. It's great if you are like me and don't like the gym cause you get "bored" because you mind is hyperactive and you need to do 10 things at once. It gets me super focused and I really really enjoy the gym. It smokes when you open the jar, so it probably causes cancer and definitely don't take more than the recommended dose.

This is yesterday's rest day food intake.

Friday training went ok. Didn't feel as strong as the other days.

I squated 265 x 5
leg curls
incline weighted abs


My night eating went like this:

3 beers,
3 vodka sodas,
2 sake bombs,

a lot of sushi,

1 jaegerbomb,
5 beers
1 jack and coke,
1 red stag and coke

Thats what I can remember.

Saturday I ate 1.5 large pizzas and a chipotle burrito double meat.

Sunday I got back on track but went way over on my carb limit.


I weighed in at 195 lbs today - still lower than the starting weight and I'm getting right back on the horse. I need to avoid disasters like that and two day hangovers. I think that drinking while still on that jacked formula messed me up plus I didn't really eat that much cause I caught in meetings. That Jacked stuff is intense. I can drink a lot without visibly getting drunk and my wife says I was drunker than she's seen a while.

I have ice fishing the next two weekend which is more like ice drinking so I really need to figure out a way not to get trainwrecked.

GL. I'm starting up with IF too. Well, a more focused effort. I've done it in the past sporadically but still ate like ****, didn't hit protein target, etc.

Be sure to check out Martin's "Cheat Day Strategies for a Hedonist" article. Obv getting hammered every other day will affect your progress though, no way around that.

Back on track this week. Weighed in at 192.8 today. So still losing weight event after stepping on the rake last weekend. Can't stress how much I love the diet. Fasting is the easy part for me. Eating is a little harder. I don't think I've ever even hit 250 grams of protein.


Today chest - still working out a good split

Bench

195 x 4. Personal best
175 x 6 easy
155 x 7 easy

Push press:

first time RPT - was a disaster
125 x 2 then
120 x 2
115 x 3. Need to start lower

Dips - +35 x 8
+35 x 4
boydweight x 8

1 set pushups to failure.

Ate well.

4 veal patties. 2 cans of tuna, one large chicken breast, cous cous, 1 potato veggies, fruit.


No log, probably not 3000 calories, but not bad either.

Went ice fishing last weekend. As you might imagine, if you are stone sober fishing in an igloo it's pretty miserable. Add some alcohol to the equation and its the best time ever. We caught 1 measly northern pike.
I tested my .bac around 6pm and it was .08. I would normally expect .28 at that time so I was proud. I ate too many carbs and missed all my food marks.


Weighed in at 194.8 today. Think it will be lower tomorrow, still retaining water. During the week, I"m a machine, need to control the weekends.

Skipped legs on monday cause I did a good leg workout dragging my ice shanty across the ice for 3/4 a mile.

Monday - weighted chins +25 - 5x
- weighted chins+25 - 3x

Pendlay row - 150 3x5.
New to this excercise, will post a form check soon.

Finished with some curls.

Wednesday - Bench - 195 x 4
175 x 5
165 x 8

Press - 115 x 5
105 x 6
95 x 7

weighted dip was +25 x 8
+25 x 6

2 sets of pushups to failure.

Definitely feel like I am gaining strength so thats good.

Martin wrote a good article about macro consumption on days when you know you are going to be drinking at night. It isn't always super practical depending on what you are doing during the day. But something along the lines of having a high % of your kcals during the day come from protein then having CHOs + alcohol get you the rest of the way to your kcal number for the day.

The other thing that makes it difficult is that liquid calories obv don't fill you up like real food. But if I know I'm going out and I don't have dinner plans, I will eat like ~3 chicken breasts (or w/e ~80-100g protein in chicken is) as my dinner before I start my night of boozing.

Maybe this is super obvious and unnecessary advice, but I am currently cutting on IF and go out 2-3 nights/week.

Good advice. I haven't been going this route and I will start.