Amnesia wrote:
Thanks Jim, I for one would be keen to hear how you have done your IF, what ratios etc. I am keen to drop about 15 pounds prior to my next "A" race in 14 weeks, have friends (non athletes) use IF with success but not sure how easy it is to do when training for long course. I get hungry just thinking about food!
My formula is pretty easy, but certainly not enough to sustain any kind of significant training load. What I'm doing is really closer to a full fast than IF as what I eat throughout the day is veggies and nuts that would, in total, fit into both my cupped hands. No matter what, I stop eating at 4-5pm, and won't eat again until 11am the next morning. I'm hungry only at night as long as I stay busy throughout the day. In fact, I wake up in the morning ready for a 90 minute workout, no problem. Over night, my body has burned fat to fill up my glucose stores (god knows I have enough to burn!) so I'm not hungry at all in the a.m.
What that doesn't allow for, however, is sufficient nutrients to recover from any workout. No way am I giving myself what I need to get stronger and, in fact, I'm likely weaker in my riding during this period. I'm okay with that... I'll build later if I can get rid of the fat now.
I do think a traditional 16/8 IF schedule can handle Ironman training as long as you're eating healthy and putting enough calories in during your 8 hour eating window. I find traditional IF quite easy to sustain, and could probably handle that as a lifestyle without difficulty. Give yourself a cheat day once a week or every other week, and it really just becomes routine. I would suspect you'll lose an initial chunk of weight right off the bat with IF, and then more over a longer period of time until your reach your body's desired weight.
I do drink a lot of water everyday. 120-150 Oz's at least not counting what I drink during a workout.
I'm no dietician. I would not recommend what I'm doing to anyone else, and I'd be remiss if I didn't warn folks that this is a rabbit hole you can go down real quick. Last week I caught myself wondering if I should eat one more piece of broccoli, or if that were perhaps too much. Silly. It becomes obsessive real quick as you find yourself weighing in 3-4 times per day. I think for some, there's a real danger of something like this becoming an eating disorder and getting out of hand. I see it in the world of elite cycling all the time. I'm doing this to get it done as quickly as possible, and to have fun with the aero aspect. In fact, for the next few days I will not be on the diet at all because I need to test again at my current weight, but won't have an opportunity until next week.
Jim Manton /
ERO Sports
