Looking to start IF page

[reedol]

I'm wanting to start if and am trying to figure out how to accomplish my goals doing it. I want to build muscle and lose fat. I'm currently totally primal and have the nutrition figured out. All I really need to figure out is when to eat, how Many meals, what type of food, and when to workout. I have the option to workout in the morning or afternoon, I would prefer the morning, but if that is not the best, let me know.

Any help?

[AndreaReina]

I'm wanting to start if and am trying to figure out how to accomplish my goals doing it. I want to build muscle and lose fat. I'm currently totally primal and have the nutrition figured out. All I really need to figure out is when to eat, how Many meals, what type of food, and when to workout. I have the option to workout in the morning or afternoon, I would prefer the morning, but if that is not the best, let me know.

Any help?

How tall are you? How much do you weigh? What's your body fat %? Generally speaking, losing fat while building muscle is easiest for someone who is untrained and/or starting off with a significant amount of fat to be lost.

Why do you want to IF? Are you envisioning it as a tool for calorie restriction? Interested in the benefits of autophagy? My reading of your post (and I could be very wrong) is that you're trying to slot IF into a set of goals, and haven't figured out if it's entirely appropriate.

While we're speaking of goals, what *is* your target weight, bf%, and fitness benchmarks, if any? How much of what things are you eating?

[Laconophile]

Generally the eating period is in the latter half of the day. Say you go to bed at 11pm and get up at 7am, if you do a 16 hour daily fast your eating period would typically be from 1pm to 9pm or from 2pm to 10pm. It's not necessary to do it that way, but it's easier to eat in the evening for most people.

Leangains lays out a really good plan for incorporating IFing into bodybuilding. The gist of it is to fast 16 hours each day, eat a large, high carb, high protein meal after each workout, and eat low(er) carb on non-training days. The exact macros are determined by your carb tolerance and your goals. (to lose fat eat lower calories/carbs, to gain weight eat higher calories/carbs, for recomp eat somewhere in between.)

EDIT: And Andrea is right that recomposition( losing fat while building muscle) is very hard unless you're a complete noob, and even then you can only do it easily for a few weeks. You should choose which you want to first. I recommend losing the fat first, this will improve your testosterone levels and help you build muscle later.

[Rocco Hill]

All I really need to figure out is when to eat

When you're hungry

how Many meals

As many or as few as you want.

what type of food

Y'know......real food.

and when to workout. I have the option to workout in the morning or afternoon, I would prefer the morning, but if that is not the best, let me know.
Any help?

Look at the text i bolded, and therein lies your answer.

Forgive my facetiousness, but guys, you are over-thinking this whole shebang. Look at Matt Lalonde- here is a guy who eats once or twice a day(usually twice it seems, but perhaps three times occasionally?). Sometimes he eats at mid-day and then not till the following morning. Sometimes he eats at 8AM/then 8PM. Have you seen the guy? He's a beast, in other words. Big lifts too.

IMO, forget structure, forget how many meals do i eat in a day, forget when do i eat, when do i workout. That is for the neurotic, overtrained, overfed bodybuilders. Of course, you are going to have to increase the quantity of the content of your meal in order to gain muscle. Lalonde eats like a pig, even though it doesn't look like it. Quality is more important than quantity however.

The only other advice i have is post workout. If gaining muscle is your priority, then a couple of boiled eggs and mashed yam/sweet potato is something to look at. But if leaning out, then just protein. The former is more conducive to recovery though. Just do, experiment, refine, do ad infinitum.

[Heidi]

Rocco, I like your advice. It's so primal. Nutrition is less stressful when you listen to your body and feed it whole foods.

[RezH]

Go low carb every day until you hit 10% BF, then do a recomp or clean bulk (carb cycling). Do reverse pyramid training 2-3 days a week. Big lifts.

Plenty of threads here explaining how to do it, as well on the leangains site.

[sarahmasteller]

Another vote for Leangains