Whatever you do, don't link to the recipe; that would be terrible.

I actually have it memorized now...

You can vary amounts depending on how chunky you like it (use less corn/potatoes/bacon).

Toast 8 ears of corn. I don't own a grill and make this soup a ton during the winter when it's hard to get fresh sweet corn, so I use an old skillet and dump 3-4 cans of corn into it until all the water cooks off and it starts to crisp. When at least half of it has been browned you're done (don't want to risk burning it). Set this aside.

Peel and cube 4 medium sized red potatoes. Cook until soft in 3 cups of vegetable stock. Set aside. These will remain whole in the finished product so bear that in mind while cubing (if you prefer big chunks or small cubes).

In a stock pot, melt 4 TBLS (half a stick) of butter. Once melted, add to this one Anaheim pepper (diced), one poblano pepper (diced), a medium sized white onion (diced), and half the corn over medium heat. This is going to get pureed down so size of your dice isn't terribly important. Cook until veggies soften and onion start to turn translucent, about 6-7 minutes. Add one piece fresh minced garlic. Cook one additional minute. Add 3 cups vegetable stock, salt and pepper (I don't measure, I just dump some in, but I cook a decent amount so I'm used to eyeballing it). Simmer on medium for half an hour. Take this mixture off the stove, allow to cool about 5 minutes, then puree. Wipe stock pot clean.

Take four slices of bacon, diced small, and dump into stock pot on medium heat. Cook bacon until preferred doneness. Remove bacon bits, reserve grease. Add remaining corn to bacon grease and heat through, adding salt and pepper to taste. To this, dump remaining ingredients (puree, potatoes/stock). Add half a pint of heavy cream. More salt and pepper if you missed it somewhere. Allow entire mixture to heat through come together, about 15 additional minutes.

Eat copious amounts, preferably with breads. Nomnomnomnomnomnomnom.

Pork shoulder is a staple of the Wookie household, and your calorie count seems high unless you're pre-computing BBQ sauce into the calories there or put a lot of extra stuff into your crock pot. I use 76 calories/oz, per this:

https://www.google.com/search?client...utf-8&oe=utf-8

Speaking of BBQ sauces for pork shoulder, Stubb's makes good sauce that weighs in at just 25 calories for 2 tbsp

Chicken breast plus microwaved green bean/red potato in rosemary sauce concoction.

440/40.

Will have a frozen fruit bar later for 70, bringing dinner up to 510/40 and the day up to 1324/73.

RJ,

Thanks a bunch, looks delicious. I will try it (or guilt the wifeacore into making it) and report back.

Lunch/dinner packed for tomorrow already. Includes roast beef sandwich, baby carrots, a fruit salad made with strawberries, peach, kiwi, banana, and grapes, yogurt (with blueberries/crunch), and beef jerky.

Came out to just under 1200, 87g protein. Leave me 400 to use for breakfast in the morning, which will probably either be oatmeal or smoothie.

What is the forum opinion on intermittent fasting?

I ask because I'm pretty sure my maintenance calories are going to be pretty low - I'm a small person (well not at the moment). Removing a meal a day or something similar may make maintaining easier down the road.

Just curious if it's viable or broscience or what.

Like everyone I was always taught breakfast is critical, skipping meals will kick you onto starvation mode, etc.

Broscience in bold.

It's just about what works for you, IF isn't inherently good or inherently bad. I'm a big fan personally, I like eating a big meal a few hours after I wake up and a big meal ~6 hours later. For others that would be torture I'm sure.

Agreed, IF has worked really well for me. I work out fasted at lunchtime (just 10 g BCAAs) and then have a big lunch and big dinner. Works great for me and makes compliance much easier.

Same, I skip breakfast, it's just way easier for me to feel happy with low daily calories if I get to eat 2 good sized meals instead of having breakfast and a tiny lunch or dinner.

Thanks.

There may be some benefits to meal timing, but the most important thing is compliance which depends on how comfortable and satiated you are. I get uncomfortably hungry if I don't eat before 11:30, so generally I eat a reasonably healthy breakfast (400 calories, 25g protein), drink a protein shake (240 calories/48g protein) after workout as a "lunch", and am not too hungry until dinner time where I have a lot of wiggle room left in my macros to eat a wide variety of suboptimal foods with the non-dieter in my life.

Lunch/dinner packed for tomorrow - roast beef sandwich (460) with nectarine (70) and chicken breast (330) + salad (200). 1160 total. Will have greek yogurt with fruit/crunch for breakfast before work.

This log, working out, and pretty much everything other than work is going to have to take a back seat for several days while I do my final dissertation edits. I'll get the rough numbers in and try to log them here at least once a day.

Whether IF "works" is a question of what you are expecting IF to do. If you think that taking that the 1600 calories that you eat over three meals and distributing it over only two meals instead will make you lose weight faster, then I think you will find that it doesn't "work".

If you are looking for IF to help you with compliance and make you stick to the 1600 calories, then it may well work.

Of course there are other purported benefits of IF as well. So the question is what do you hope to accomplish with IF? Once you answer that, your question can be answered.

It was mostly whether or not it is a sustainable long term thing, or if there are any detriments that websites that tout IF would not discuss/downplay.

I'm well aware of the basic calorie principle - burn more than you eat, lose. Eat more than you burn, gain. So no, I don't expect any meal planning to have any effect on that.

Assuming my maintenance is fairly low, it just seems easier and give me more options to eat 2 600 calorie meals than 3 400 calorie ones.

I just wanted to check in with the experts here and make sure it's not out right terrible for you.

I think the consensus around these parts is your body can hold on to all the necessary nutrients for at least 24 hours so there's no need to eat more often than that.

Nothing wrong with IF if that's what you choose, but assuming a maintenance of 1200 calories is way too low.

The BMR calculator I use calculates maintenance of about 1850 calories for a lightly active 5'2" 140 pound female at age 40.

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/


Multiple the result you get from your calculation by the following:

Sedentary: 1.2
Lightly active: 1.375
Moderately active: 1.55
Very active: 1.725

Man last time I was tracking MFP had me under 1300 calories when I still had like 40 lbs to lose.

Meh I'll worry about it later, I'm nowhere near maintenance right now.

Breakfast was yogurt/strawberries/grape nuts, 330. With what I've packed it'll be 1440 on the day.

Also forgot to note, yesterday I had an ice cream treat when I got home which brought my total yesterday to 1510.

My stress is through the roof right now. My dissertation is due to the university on Monday in order to do the oral defense on July 23rd, and I only got the edits on Wednesday night.

So when I got home last night, I wanted all the candies. I know it's not physical but damn it's tempting, especially with all the junk Ian keeps in the house. I contained it to a frozen fruit bar (70) and a slice of cheese (60), so total for yesterday was 1570.

Lunch before work was three pizza buns (405). Packed is jerky (180), cheese (70), nectarine (70), sandwich (265), carrots (70), and mixed fruit (200). Total for everything is 1275.

Good luck with your dissertation!

1585 total for the day (ice cream cone at home).

Thanks, Monte.

ROFL, that's what one of my cats was doing with my ice cream. I mean I put a bit of it on my finger and let him go to town.

Sweet.

Tomorrow's food packed, includes huge fruit salad, 16oz of yogurt with fruit/crunch to mix in, carrots, colby jack cheese, and roast beef (the later two not in a sandwich but separate - I'll use the cheese to roll up the meat and eat it that way). Total is 1263, will probably have oatmeal before work to put it at 1583.

Yes, tomorrow is a **** ton of fruit. It's either that or some of the fruit starts to turn and we can't have that happening. We've gone through 10+ lbs of peaches and nectarines between the two of us in like two weeks. I really do love summer fruit.