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The two month intermittent fasting challenge is now COMPLETE!

The two month intermittent fasting challenge is now COMPLETE!

Howdy people,
You may remember this article I wrote 2 months ago about following the leangains.com protocol for a couple of months to see what would happen.
It was really more to spur you all on rather than expect anything drastic myself.

Did I achieve anything?

YES I did.
Firstly, I managed to maintain muscle mass which is very fricken important.
Secondly, my fiance tells me that she’s noticed the final two abdominals peaking their way through bottom end of my waistline.

What did I give up?

I gave up NOTHING.
In fact, I’ve been eating a lot of naughty sh*t the past 2 months. This includes apple crumbles, tarts, pies and countless amounts of rocky road.
As leangains suggests, you really can eat what you want, when you want it
All you have to do is fast for 16 hours a day (12-14 for the ladies).

Sound difficult?

Just have your last meal at night before 9pm and don’t eat again until lunch time (12-1pm) the next day.
Do that at least 5 days a week and Bobs your uncle.

What about drastic results?

Ive found the lower in body fat you are, the slower the fat loss progress will be. Although others have said on the previous post, they are losing pounds and pounds of fat even after only a few weeks on the program.

Martin posts a lot of great results on his website, but you need to keep in mind, a lot of the results shown are after 3-6 months on the program.
This is a GOOD thing — anything that takes time to come off, will be more sustainable in the long run.

Now it’s your turn…

If you have any before and after photos, and you’d like to share them, please either email them to me at clint at crudefitness.com, or post a link to them in the comments section below.

Clint’s Note: Now it’s your turn. How did intermittent fasting lean gains style work for you? Comment below.

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About Clint

Clint is the creator of Reveal The Steel and runs crudefitness.com. Follow on: Twitter, Facebook and Google+

  • http://www.kriskris.com Kris @ Health Blog

    I’ve done the leangains protocol before, not eating anything specific but fasting 16 hours every day.

    It didn’t really work for me that well, but I was eating very badly at the time and that was probably the reason. I felt fine doing it, only problem was that I’d get very tired soon after eating my first meal.

    • Clint Nielsen

      You need to follow the protocol pretty closely in terms of diet Ive found, for maximum results.
      That means 80% of your daily calorie intake needs to be in that first meal after breaking the fast. It also needs to be largely made up of protein.
      Second to that, reducing carb intake on rest days is also important.

  • Cassie

    I’m finding it much easier these days to stick to. It was a little hard at first but not too bad now. The main thing i am missing is a morning coffee. So i’m breaking a few bad habits which is great.
    I think I’m very critical of myself and haven’t seen amazing results yet but i’m going to keep at it and see how we go. I have a VERY large appetite so need to curb that for even better results.
    The ladies will also find this pretty tough around a certain time of the month too but herbal tea will assist. Hope thats not TMI :)

    • Clint Nielsen

      I also miss the morning coffee but relish the one I have at around 3.30pm.
      Results will take time I reckon.

      • Aimee

        I’ve been intermittent fasting for 2 months and have lost 10 pounds. I have a black coffee…or two, every morning and it hasn’t affected my weight loss. Why do you recommend no coffee?

        • http://crudefitness.com Clint

          I posted this during a period of time when I had ‘milk’ in my coffee :).
          I now drink black coffee in the mornings, which of course won’t affect the ‘fast’.

  • http://www.lancetraining.com Lance – LanceTraining.com

    Good to hear your getting those lower abs coming in. Whenever I do intermittent fasting the hardest part I have is drinking water instead of the other crap that I usually drink!

    • Clint Nielsen

      I have a similar issue with diet sodas. Although i have them occasionally, I find i crave them during fasting periods specifically.

  • Matt

    Hi Clint. I have recently contacted Martin B and gave got a consultation with him! Am starting the regime in 2 weeks. Will be back in touch with my results. My question is: in a previous post, you indicated that you quite fond of a few beers ;-) did you stop drinking during the LG regime,just drink on weekends or…? Matt

    • Clint Nielsen

      Nice work! I’ll be looking forward to your results.
      As for my alcohol intake, it hasn’t really been curbed at all. I rarely drink during the week however and do most of my drinking at the weekends.
      Come weekend time, sometimes I had a wine or two and that was it, other times I found myself on a huge bender ;)

  • http://www.fitnessbreakout.com Alykhan – Fitness Breakout

    Clint,

    I’ve experimented with this protocol sporadically over the past couple of weeks and I’ve found it works well when you are eating out more than usual. In my case, I’ve been using it more as a tool for maintenance than aggressive fat loss, since I’ve been indulging in quite a few unexpected cheat meals during the weekdays. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to stick with it, but also clean up my weekday diet a bit so I expect to see more of the fat loss results come through.

    Alykhan

  • http://www.bloomtofit.com Srdjan – Bloom to Fit

    Very nice to see you stick through this program. What did you consider the hardest part of it all? Was it more of a mental or physical challenge? Was it a challenge at all?

    • Clint Nielsen

      It wasn’t really a tough challenge at all once you got used to it. It’s a case of de-programming your body to ‘expect’ meals at certain times. Once it knows it’s not getting any breakfast, you won’t crave it anymore.

  • http://www.startbeingfit.com Tyson

    As I have posted before, I have not had great success following the Leangains protocol. My diet has always been good since I follow the Primal way of eating. I do the alternate carbs and really lower my carbs on my rest days. Maybe I am not getting enough carbs on my workout days? Being primal, its hard to get a lot of carbs in but I usually get to about 150 on my workout days.

    I am taking it easy right now while I concentrate on a new addition to my family but when things start to settle down a bit I am going to try it again and see what happens.

    I am curious though, what does your typical day look like nutritionally? Protien,carbs,fat ration? Calories?

    • Clint Nielsen

      I tend to change it up in terms of macro-nutrient breakdown quite a bit. I don’t count calories these days and havent done so for around 6 years or more. I found it more of an annoyance than of any benefit.
      What I TRY to do each day I train is eat my largest meal at lunch time (post fast) which will be largely protein and carbs with fat in the mix.
      Think huge salads with meat, shish plates and thai food including plenty of rice and noodles.
      Mid afternoon ill have a 2 scoop protein shake with light milk blended with linseed, almond and sunflower seeds. Dinner will be ANY meat with heaps of vegetables and most like pasta or rice.
      At around 8.30-9pm I have my final meal of the day which is normally a protein fluff kind of mixture which ill blend up with my Magic Bullet – this will contain slow release (casein) protein mixed with an egg and some coconut meal.

      • http://www.startbeingfit.com Tyson

        Sounds almost dead on to how I eat daily except that I do count my calories. Interesting how what works for one doesn’t necessarily work for others. I guess I will just need to continue to experiment and find out what works best for me.

        • Clint Nielsen

          Absolutely. We are all so different in how we respond to different techniques. That being said, 80% of the same techniques WILL work for most people, its the fine-tuning at the end that may need some customisation.

  • ET

    Hey Clint,

    This might be a silly question – but I suppose you don’t count the sleeping hours in your fasting time, do you?

    That would make it too easy!

    Considering starting on this to budge those last couple of kg’s holding me back from my goal.
    Would you seriously recommend buying the Eat Stop Eat documentation?

    ET

    • Clint Nielsen

      Any hours that you arent ‘eating’ are counted towards the fast. So yes, sleeping is counted as part of the fast.
      Eat stop eat is great as it leads you gently into the world of intermittent fasting. It was the first document I read on the subject before making it a part of my life for good. Definitely worth a read especially if you have doubts on things such as metabolism and how it will affect your mood.

      • ET

        Great – thanks for the reply!

      • ASR

        Hey Clint, any before/after pictures?

        I also have a question:

        Why is it important to have low carbs on rest days?

        I thought the most important thing was Calories in vs Calories Out ( and the fast ofc) along with sufficient protein intake.

        • Clint Nielsen

          I was pretty lean before I started, so it’ll take a lot longer for me to show you something that you can go ‘Yup, massive difference’.
          To be honest though, im not sure I want to get much leaner. It’s all about maintenance once you get to your ‘ideal’ body fat level, and intermittent fasting makes that SO easy.
          To answer your low carb question, take a read of this article: http://www.leangains.com/2010/06/malcolm-gladwell-on-low-carb-diets.html

  • Lala

    Hi, I’ve just started I.F. and was wondering why the women’s fasting duration is shorter than men’s? Considering men tend to lose weight faster I would have assumed it would be the other way round if anything. Am I setting myself back by fasting 16-17 hours? Thanks in advance :)

    • http://crudefitness.com/ Clint Nielsen

      @b45f98f63e4b2ac9b58f56aa624cdc37:disqus It’s largely due to the hormonal makeup of women.
      If I can use my wife as an example (god bless): When she used to fast, if she went for as long as I did (circa 16 hours), she would become cranky, agitated and emotionally stressed. If the fast was broken for her a few hours prior, she was able to get away with it (it also became more obvious during menstrual cycles if I’m even allowed to say that!).
      It can be an individual thing, so I’d advise you to experiment and see how you go with various timings.

  • Dana

    I am a female, have been doing this with light weight training for 2 weeks, I have already noticed a difference in my face and lost an inch around my waist already. I stopped yesterday and had duck noodle soup for lunch and seafood soup for dinner. Starting again today.

    • http://crudefitness.com/ Clint Nielsen

      Nice work Dana!

x

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