Intermittent Fasting and Staying Fit

Even though I have not talked about it on here in quite some time, I am continuing to work out and eat as healthy as I can - most of the time.  I have been pretty good with the eating part until this past month. Sitting around the house and not having a set schedule every day really messes with my appetite and food cravings. I'm an intermittent faster and I recently switched to the Alternate Day Fast, where I eat a small meal (25% of my calories) on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and then three larger meals (125% of my calories) on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and I keep Sunday a normal eating day.  It's also called the Up Down Diet, and you can read more about it here. So far I have seen some good results with this lifestyle, however it's definitely a lot easier to do when I am busy at work and not sitting around the house! I have been playing around with fasting for about a year now.  I started with the 16/8 – fast for 16 hours, eat during 8 hours, then moved to a 20/4 method, which I really like and will probably go back to once school starts, but I decided on the ADF type of fasting after reading this article from BuiltLean.com, and after Dr. Sara Solomon tried it and raved about her results.  The article basically summarizes different fasting methods and looks at which one is better for losing fat while maintaining muscle mass, and it seems the ADF method is the better method. So far I like this method because it is kinda nice not having to worry about what to cook three days out of the week, it’s very flexible and I am really seeing results.  

March 2014:

These are from August of 2013:

 Last year in January I weighed 118 pounds, and today I weigh109.  I went from somewhere in the neighborhood of 24% body fat, down to just under 18% and I can now fit into my "skinny" jeans that I haven't been able to fit in for three years.  This isn’t a typical fad diet where you lose 10 pounds in two weeks, keep it off for a month or at least long enough to look good in that little black dress, then go back to your regular eating pattern to only gain back 15 pounds.  It is a slow and steady, flexible lifestyle change.  I try to eat as healthy as I can, but there are definitely times where I have a few pieces of pizza, or a burger or a candy bar.  The things is, I don’t eat these things all the time and I when I do, I just get back into my fasting schedule.        

On my "fasting" days, I like to eat a small pre-workout meal a couple of hours before my workout  Research has shown that working out after eating a small meal helps burn more calories up to 24 hours AFTER the workout, versus working out on an empty stomach.  Keep in mind, however, that working out fasted will help you burn more calories DURING the workout.  I want to burn more calories afterwards, so I usually eat my small meal before. 

My workouts are a combination of full body HIIT with and upper and lower body split for weight training.  I rotate between Hot Body Method, Bender Fitness  and ZWOW routines depending on the day.  On Monday and Thursday I do the Hot Body Method workouts.  These are pretty intense HIIT style full body workouts that vary between using bodyweight and weighted routines. They are pretty similar to the ZWOW’s, but I feel they are slightly more challenging. Wednesday I reserve for stretching or Yoga. Tuesday’s and Friday’s I do the Bender Fitness strength training workouts . She has a variety of workouts including HIIT and yoga, which I've done in the past, but right now I am using her weight training workouts for strength and endurance - Tuesday’s are leg days, and Friday’s are arm days. Saturday’s I do a ZWOW for more full body HIIT training, and Sunday is my rest day.

After the workouts I either do a finisher – a short intense combo for extra burn, or a mile run depending on my mood.  I'll do a finisher if I don’t feel like running as they are a little more fun, challenging and sometimes shorter!

Here is a weekly breakdown:

 

SUNDAY	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY
Rest	Hot Body Method w/Finisher or run	Bender Fitness Legs w/run	Yoga Or Stretching	Hot Body Method w/Finisher or run	Bender Fitness Arms w/run	ZWOW w/Finisher or run

This was pretty much my schedule for the past month.  I really like the combination of full body HIIT with the weight training.  I feel like I am getting in the fat blasting resistance cardio I need, as well as the muscle building I want at the same time.  It also makes for a bigger variety of workouts and I definitely won't get bored. My goal is to lose the rest of the unwanted fat around my midsection and gain a little more muscle in my legs and arms by June.  Then, once I’m in school I can cut back my workouts to maybe three times a week and stay in maintain mode. The workouts I do are pretty short, so I feel that three times a week is doable… it’s just a matter of not feeling guilty that I’m working out and not study for that 20 min!