Hello!
I’m making my way back into an active lifestyle after a couple of years off from a previous life of training 10 to 15 hours a week.
Has anybody attempted endurance training whileintermittent fasting?
Tks!
The RD of my triathlon team is not a fan of it during training, and only encourages it under strict supervision during offseason activity.
Tks for the input 
.
I attempted it a couple months ago when I was ramping up to a 70.3 and then a half marathon. It…did not go well. For me, I felt like I could not take in the calories I needed for training. I ended up feeling really full really quickly, and with no desire to eat - so I didn’t, and ended up constantly underfueled.
I’m in my offseason now, and putting in about 7-8 hours of training a week. I’ve gone back to IF, and I really like it now. It’s much easier this time around.
I time-restrict my eating and have been completely delighted by it in terms of enhancing how my body composition has responded to both endurance training and to weight training. All of this is so individual. I mostly wait until 10 or 10:30a to eat, or after whatever workout happens in the AM. If the workout is an hour or under, I’ll do it fasted- or 45 minutes or under if it contains above moderate intensity. I like to be done eating by 6:30p latest. My happiest nights are when I get to be all dinner we up before 6. I eat 3-4 x in that window.
Might be helpful- I’m 42.5 y o, have an 8 year old and a 5 year old, no C section in my medical history, am hypothyroid and medicated since 2007, weigh anywhere between 155 and 165 most of the year, and am about 5’8.5â€
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We are similar age (i’ll be 44 in 14 days) and also hypothyroid (hashimotos). I have no kids. I have had the exact opposite experience with IF than you have. When I tried a 16/8 or 20/6, I gained a ton of belly fat and my workouts were terrible (unable to hit power/paces, not recovering, feeling flat and heavy). Likely because my antibodies went sky high and my thyroid hormones (T3, T4, and RT) all feel out of optimal. I was optimal with a similar training load for over a year per IF experience. My functional medicine doctor says she see similar trends on lots of her thyroid patients. I got quite the lecture as I tried this without really running it by her. I now tend to follow the general guidelines of Stacey Sims and all markers (workouts, weight, hormones) are moving in the right directions. Sims is also not a fan of IF for women.
As you said it so individual. What works for one will not work for all. I just wanted to share my experiences to give another perspective.
I wish it did work for me. My gut was the only part of my body that reacted well to IF (and its the one that gives me the most trouble most days).
This is so important and I’m glad you posted. Interestingly I did briefly aim for 16/8 and it was too much but the cortisol excess manifested as a jittery feeling and worse sleep. I generally am more in the neighborhood of 14/10- as much as I love having a big dinner at 5p it’s almost always later.
I just started doing 16/8 about a week ago and so far I feel great. I’m not doing long distance training right now but for the training I am doing, no issues.
Hello!
I’m making my way back into an active lifestyle after a couple of years off from a previous life of training 10 to 15 hours a week.
Has anybody attempted endurance training whileintermittent fasting?
Tks!
Re endurance training and IF - ask Monty.
Been on it for over a year and a half now, and it has been great. Now I will preface I’m not training for an ironman, usually do 30 to 90 minutes of training a day. And I do it all fasted in the morning or noon time. Often wait a couple hours after, then eat. Not hungry at any time during all of this, and I dropped a good amount of weight in the first 5 months of this. Tabled off, so now have to work more on diet, but all my blood markers got better in the process, so this is the new way of eating for me… Usually go 17 to 21 hours, but am going to try, eating earlier in the day, and stop earlier in the evening. I think going to bed on an empty stomach will help my sleep, another problem area. Just have to get my mind right, skipping dinner is way harder than breakfast…