When it comes transforming your body and losing the maximum amount of fat, DIET is the single most important factor in accomplishing your goals.
Most people think the opposite. They think that they can start exercising hardcore and the diet will take care of itself. This is a mistake that too many people make as they can easily out-eat the amount of calories they had burned in the gym.
There's a saying that I read on Vince Andrich's blog "You can never outrun your mouth" which is the perfect way to describe how exercise can't overcome a bad diet.
This is why finding a diet that you can follow with ease and stick to is a crucial factor to success.
I know I don't do well with carbohydrates and there's lots of research showing a low carbohydrate diet has metabolic advantages over other diets. So the diet I decided to follow was a high protein, high fat, low carb diet.
Daily Schedule
This was what what a typical day was for me in terms of nutrition/supplementation:
7:15 AM - Wake up (Take 1 gram of Vitamin C
, 1 OxyElite Pro
, 4 Free Test
)2:00 PM - Take another OxyElite Pro
4:00 PM - Preworkout Myofusion
shake (25 grams of protein)4:30 PM - Workout (sip on my BCAA
/Creatine
mix during the workout)5:45 PM - Post Workout Myofusion
shake (50 grams of protein)6:00 PM - Eat dinner (Take 6 grams of fishoil
, 4,000 IU of Vitamin D
, multivitamin
)8:00 PM - Myofusion
shake with milk (33 grams of protein)My dinner usually consisted of 3 chicken thighs, 4 eggs, 1 oz of cheese, some leafy green vegetables, and either a whole or half a grapefruit depending on how I felt.
Now you may be wondering where the food and protein shakes are from the time I wake up until my preworkout protein shake.
The answer is that I didn't eat anything or drink any protein shakes from the time of my protein shake the previous night to my next preworkout protein shake! Crazy huh? :P
Intermittent Fasting
This may sound crazy but this is the basis behind Intermittent Fasting.
This was the eating pattern I followed during my transformation which is essentially short periods of fasting otherwise known as intermittent fasting. This is the exact opposite of what is generally recommended these days which is to eat every 2-3 hours to keep the metabolism revved up.
In my previous dieting experiences, eating every 2-3 hours was a real chore. Having to constantly think about where your next protein source was going to come from was a big hassle.
With intermittent fasting, I am not thinking about nutrition all day long. The only I think about nutrition is during the 5 hours between my preworkout protein shake and my nighttime protein shake.
What I also found with eating every few hours is that every time I ate, it would make me hungrier and want more food! Of course since I was dieting, this was not a good thing.
With intermittent fasting, I am almost never hungry now! I was hungry at first, but that was because my body was used to getting food every few hours. After a couple of days of intermittent fasting, your body adapts and then the hunger goes away.
Eating this way has made dieting sooo easy for me that EATING is actually the hardest part of it (sometimes its difficult to eat that much protein which is why I also rely on protein shakes).
If you want to learn more about intermittent fasting, check out Martin Berkhan's Leangains blog. His site is full of information and research debunking a lot of the myths on dieting.
Martin Berkhan knows what he's doing
The best thing about Intermittent Fasting is that it's just so easy to follow and adhere to. I wake up, go on with my day, and don't think about food until my work day is over!
Note that I didn't follow Martin's guidelines exactly, but I modified it to work best for me and still got great results! If you decide to try intermittent fasting, I would recommend following his guidelines exactly at first, and then make adjustments if needed.
Give it a try!
For those who don't like eating every few hours or even eating breakfast, I would recommend you give intermittent fasting a try. It might change your life...I know it has mine :)
58 comments:
Would you say you were eating about 1200 calories a day? While this may seem kinda low, you looked like you definitely kept your muscle!
Yes, I was eating anywhere from 1200-1600 calories a day.
I know it seems low but I also did seem to keep all my muscle...maybe the intermittent fasting and supplements had something to do with it? :)
I also had cheat days/refeeds so that made up for some of the large deficit as well.
I'm currently doing the warrior diet (pretty much IF, but smaller eating window) and seem to be getting pretty good results with about 1200 calories per day. However, I'm afraid to lose muscle...I'm hoping to get your results!
So I'm taking your tips and liftin heavy with a refeed every 2 weeks -- you're an inspiration bro!
No problem Charles! I'm happy to be an inspiration.
IF was a great way for me to diet. I'm not sure what supplementation you plan on following but I felt the BCAA's/Creatine also did a lot to help preserving muscle.
Hey Duong did you cycle of the OEP?
Hey Mike, I did not cycle the OEP during the 12 weeks.
However, there short periods of vacations where I did not use the OEP.
I also did not take them on my cheat/refeed days.
Wow so in the two weeks, you only had carbs (or a significant amount of carbs) on your cheat days and rest of the days were <100 g of carbs?
Yup, except it was something more like <30 grams of carbs :)
Duong,
May I ask what your starting BF% was along with starting total bodyweight and lean body mass?
Hi Daron,
I actually have no idea what my body fat was when I started. I was never one to measure bodyfat. I only know that I was 189 lbs and I would guess > 15%?
Great Job! I'm just curious what your height is.
Cheat days were definitely a good idea with such a low cal intake!
Thanks Zewski! I am only 5'6"...I guess the good thing about being short it makes me look bigger in pictures? :P
thank you so much for sharing your exp, you are my inspiration! =)
Hello Duong. I was wondering with your pre and post shake, do you just use water?
Yup, just plain water with my pre and post workout shakes :)
Duong,
Did you have any carbs in your pre- and post-workout shakes to maintain a high performance level in your workouts?
Hi Daron, I did not include any carbs in my preworkout or postworkout shakes. I would thought my performance would have suffered but I didn't notice any decrease in performance and actually gained strength :)
Does anything change on non-workout days? The IF should continue, but what about the amount of protein per day? If you had a couple days between workouts, would you taper down the protein each day or keep it high, thinking that it takes a few days for the new muscle to build?
Hi Doug, my protein intake did not change on off days either. I still kept my macros the same as on workout days.
On the refeed days you mentioned, I assume you still ate during you 5-hour window, correct? Did you limit anything during the refeed or did you eat anything you wanted? Any more specifics you could provide would be awesome!
Hey Chad, yup I still did the intermittent fast on my cheat days as well. This helped me not go overboard on the cheats and it worked well for me. I didn't really limit what I ate but I did try get in a good amount of protein first before I splurge on the carbs and sweets.
From your above outline, it looks like you only had one whole food meal during your eating window and everything else was shakes. Is this correct?
Chad, that is correct.
how would you redo the diet for someone that works out at 8pm at night?
Hi JeanDiesel,
I don't have any experience with that but if it were me, I would probably just extend the fast period. Or perhaps have a protein shake around 6 PM. I didn't have issues fasting longer than the recommended 16 hours so it wouldn't be an issue for me to do this. Though I have seen other users may not be able to last that long. You just need to experiment and see what works best for your body.
Hey Duong, did you cycle the Free test during the 12 weeks ie on/off period? or just took it straight throughout? did you continue using it after the 12 week without a break? How about the Oxyelite? thanks
Richard
Hey Richard,
I used the Free Test for 8 weeks (two bottles) for the last part of my 12 weeks. I used the OxyElite all of the 12 weeks and continued to use after the 12 weeks as well.
Hey Duong, did u also include some cardio on your rest days? If so, what is your sample cardio plan? Also, do u take any BCAAs before doing cardio?
Hi Joel, yes I did do cardio on my off days from lifting. I started with 30 minutes of incline treadmill walking gradually increasing the amount over time to 1 hour. I would also split the cardio time with the elliptical too...for example 30 minutes on the treadmill and 30 minutes on the elliptical. I would mix a scoop of BCAA's(5 grams) and creatine to drink during my cardio. Let me know if you have any other questions :)
hey duong thanks for much for your input on cardio. I also wanted to ask what was your lifting plan like during the 12 weeks? Did u follow something like LeanGains and did all compound exercises? or did you also do some isolation exercises? thks in advanced!
Hey Joel,
I actually wrote a blog post on my training which can be found here:
http://musclesymmetry.blogspot.com/2011/05/12-week-body-transformation-continued.html
Great blog - thank you for sharing. If Im working out at 6PM and dont get to a meal until 9PM, how would you recommend I distribute the protein shakes /meal intake (keeping to same single meal a day)?
Jae
Hey Jae,
Thanks for reading! If you're working out at 6 PM, I would probably have a protein shake preworkout, with BCAA's intraworkout, and a post workout protein shake (with some sort of carbs depending on your goals). Then you can eat your meal at 9 PM.
Hi Duong
Just a question about your calorie intake - did you still eat just 1200 and do cardio so if you burned say 400 on the treadmill you did not take additional calories. likewise on weight days was 1200 enough? you seem to have gained muscle despite a below maintenance calorie intake. I thought you could only gain muscle if you had a calorie intake above maintenance?
Keep being an inspiration bro, Sam
Hey Sam,
Sorry for the late reply. Your comment was in my spam comments for some reason.
The answer is was I still did eat consistent calories no matter how much I burned on the treadmill. I ate between 1200-1600 calories with the average intake being a little higher due to the cheat days.
I didn't think I could gain muscle on a deficit either but perhaps the IF'ing had a calorie partitioning effect and that combined with my creatine/BCAA shake and Free Test created a perfect storm for muscle gain and fat loss.
Thanks again bro. I have a question about Oxyelite pro with DMAA - are you not concerned about this? i have a history of heart disease in my family so will not take any risk with DMAA. Have you tried other thermogenics without DMAA and if so what worked best?
After great progress following your routine and IF (lost 20lbs and gained great strength and muscle) I have hit a plateau. I am currently 166lbs at 12% bf. I have increased my cardio but only use bcaa/creatine (no OEP or free test). Any tips bro? Be good to yourself, Sam.
Hey Sam, I'm not concerned about the DMAA as I have no heart issues and neither does my family.
I have used the classic ECA stack (ephedrine, caffeine, aspirin) and have also used other non-DMAA fatburners but didn't feel they worked that well. Although new ones that have come out that contain alpha yohimbine are pretty good. One is called Alphaburn and the other that looks good is called Genomyx Decimate. Those would be ones I would try out next if I was still cutting.
If you've it a plateau, either try increasing cardio or lowering calories further if you can. If you've done those already, then you may want to take a diet break and go back to eating maintenance for a while before going back to cutting.
Great information! How would I follow this same type of 'IF' schedule with a wake up time of 0530 AM and workout from 0630AM - 0800AM? Thanks for the help!
-JAY
Thanks Jay! I don't experience with a morning workout schedule but my friend Mykey did. You can read my interview with him here:
http://musclesymmetry.blogspot.com/2012/09/lose-fat-and-build-muscle-amazing.html
He followed the Lean Gains Early Morning Fasted Protocol here:
http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html
Thanks man! I think the confusion for me with the Lean Gains Early Morning Fasted Protocol is when to actually take the fat burners, and supplements with that schedule.
-JAY
Hey Jay, I'm not too sure about that. Let me check with my friend on how he did it and I'll get back to you!
Hey Jay, I asked my friend about when he took his supplements using the Lean Gains Early Morning Fasted Protocol. Here's what he said:
"I took a fat burner with a vitamin c first thing in the morning, prob around 5am.
Then i'd take a diluted serving of bcaa on the way to the gym and during the workout. So probably from 530 to 7.
Then i'd take another 2 servings of bcaa from the time I got into work until lunch.
At lunch i'd take my fish oil, vitamin d, and multivitamin with my food.
Between then and dinner i'd try to get at least two scoops of protein in with another fish oil pill and I would finish my dinner anywhere from 6-8pm."
Duong, you had some amazing results, and its a huge inspiration for me! I'm just starting the Leangains approach this week and had a couple questions. From what I've gathered when doing Leangains on workout days you're supposed to eat High protein, Low fat, and High carb, and on rest days its High protein, High fat, and Low carb. But you stated your typical diet consisted of chicken thighs, etc, which looked like High protein, High fat, and relatively Low carb. Did you only worry about getting carbs in on the refeeds once every 14 days? If so that makes meals way easier, just eat the same everyday and sweet potato the heck out of it every 14th day.
Awesome! Thank you for the response and information. I'm going to try that out ASAP!
-JAY
Hey Como, yes the lean gains approach to IF'ing does recommend that. However, I've found that the low carb/cheat approach works better for me. So I did mainly just eating chicken thighs, eggs, and protein shakes everyday. You can try it my way and then maybe switch to the lean gains approach if you're not liking the low carbs.
You are an inspiration. I started IF for 5 days now. No change in weight. Less bloated in the am despite heavy protein meal from 7 m till 1 am. I take my time to eat all my food. This is after a work out.
I will do Cairo 30 minutes walking briskly on incline of 10 for 30 minutes
I make basmati fried rice with ground chicken and paprika for my workout day. Like 500 gm ground chicken, add 2 whole eggs, add 15 peeled medium sized prawns, str fry in olive oil,
Sounds good 6pack! Good luck with the IF'ing!
Day6 , stomach ached with hunger pain after 15 hours, so had chicken schnitzels , protein drinks 2 hors before work out. Was nauseated but better after protein meal.after work out had baca, protein dink and ground chicken meat with corn and capsicum. Blackberries with goat ,ilk as dessert.
Then more BCAA drink before sleep.
Stomach is tightening up quite noticeably. Love handles are toning up. Getting used to no meals from 1.30 am till 5.30 pm tomorrow, I hope. This is an easy diet to follow. BTW, I decided not to eat rice!!!! But loves goat's whole milk.
I have a few questions? I am just getting started on IF.Did you start out on a 1200 to 1600 calorie diet or did you start out higher and work your way down? also did you only do cardio on non weight lifting days? or did you also do them after weights? what was your How many hours were you fasting a day and what was your feeding window?
Thanks in advance,
I also had one more question. Looking at your before and after pics we seem to have the same body type and size. How many pounds did you lose a week on average during the 12 weeks?
Hey Peter, I actually did start out that low but I would have done it differently looking back. I would have started the decrease in calories more slowly working my way down. I also did do cardio on lifting days...again I would have done this differently as well and not have done cardio until it was necessary. I never did cardio after weights. My feeding window was typically from 4 pm to 9-10 pm.
Hey Duong!
Why would you not do cardio looking back? What would you suggest?
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