Intermittent fasting for weight loss and more The Leangains Diet in Action

Intermittent fasting for weight loss and more The Leangains Diet in Action

Bodybuilders have always had a passion for experimentation. Intermittent fasting, also called intermittent fasting or intermittent fasting, is their invention. However, if you are doing fitness to keep fit, you can try this diet too. Intermittent fasting is also suitable for weight loss.

Interval hunger systems were invented with the aim of making the two-phase classical scheme of building a relief body less harmful. First, to gain muscle mass, you are forced to eat much more than the body can absorb. And then, for "drying", you have to drastically reduce the calorie content of the daily diet, dividing it into tiny portions that must be eaten every couple of hours.

Cyclic hunger allows you to achieve approximately the same result in body recomposition, but following a different algorithm of eating behavior. True, this will take longer.

In the usual sense, most of the schemes of intermittent fasting presented below are not actually even a one-day therapeutic and health-improving complete refusal of food. They imply a daily restriction on the time of food intake - alternating the fasting time of the day with the "food window".

Leangains Intermittent Fasting

This is the most popular and popular method of intermittent fasting among bodybuilders. Its author is North American athlete, trainer and blogger Martin Berhan. Briefly about Leangains we can say the following. The days in it are divided into: 

• 8 hours in a row - time for 3 meals a day;
• 16 hours in a row - a window for hunger, in which you can drink clean drinking water without gas, tea and coffee without sugar and milk (cream), as well as take amino acids-BCAAs.

But if you follow only such a temporary eating schedule, without a special balance, as well as a certain sequence of eating and training, then nothing outstanding will happen to your body. The maximum you will lose a few extra pounds. Therefore, follow these recommendations.

First, make up your daily menu, observing the conditions:

• on the day of strength training - proteins should be at the level of 2.5 g per 1 kg of body weight, fats at a minimum, and carbohydrates in excess, total calories + 25% of the norm;
• on a rest day - proteins, as on a training day, fats in an average amount, reduce carbohydrates to a minimum, the total calorie content should be 25% below the norm. 

Secondly, adhere to the regimen, as in the table, on training days, and on rest days, eat in the food window 3 times, distributing the overall energy component of the menu approximately equally.

And thirdly, this protocol of intermittent fasting and strength training requires long-term use. The first shifts will be visible in at least 3-4 months of practice, and more or less tangible results - in 5-7 months. 

Some bodybuilders, on the advice of the author, begin to use his system, starting at 10 hours of the food window + 14 hours of fasting, and after 2-3 months they switch to the classic 8 + 16.

To summarize, we conclude that for people with serious intentions in bodybuilding, the Leangains protocol has no analogues. But for fitness professionals who keep fit and the contingent who want to lose weight, we recommend the acyclic intermittent fasting system.