Over the last few months I’ve been focusing on health, fitness and nutrition.
I sit in front of the computer 8-14 hours a day and if I’m not working out and eating right I can get soft pretty fast.
One morning I looked in the mirror and it was clear that not going to the personal trainer and working my own, crappy routine in my apartment building’s mini-gym wasn’t working – and I needed to get back on track.
I started experimenting with multiple workout and nutrition programs testing to see what works best (for me) that I could stick with long term.
At first I went back to basics and followed standard bodybuilding / fitness protocol which meant:
- A 5-6 day gym split
- Meal-prepping 6-8 small meals per day
- Eating every 3-4 hours
- Intense cardio 3+ days a week
I joined a local gym. I ate clean 90% of the time and once a week I had a cheat day and ate whatever I wanted. I tracked all of my food using MyFitnessPal and good things started happening.
Note: If you want to lose weight and don’t know how – MyFitnessPal is going to change your life. You can thank me later.
The above system worked for me. It works for a lot of people… but it’s a lot of work. Lots of tupperware, cooking, cleanup and time at the gym are involved. I actually got pretty good at it and I love being in the gym but I knew this wasn’t something that I could keep up long term.
Intermittent Fasting + LeanGains
Then I came across Intermittent Fasting and LeanGains pioneered by Martin Berkhan, a Swedish nutritional consultant and personal trainer.
Intermittent Fasting is a system of eating all of your calories in an 8 hour window and fasting the remaining 16 hours of the day (including time asleep). LeanGains is a 3x per week, low rep, strength training gym routine with little to no cardio.
- So I eat from 12pm noon to 8pm
- I fast from 8pm to noon the next day
- Go to Gym Monday, Wednesday and Friday
- I eat more on workout days and less on rest days
- Light Cardio is optional
Getting Twice The Results with Half The Work?
Although the process seems counter productive in almost every regard (less workouts, less meals per day, less cardio) the results speak for themselves.
- I workout less and get in better shape
- I do less cardio and get leaner
- I lose body fat and my lifts go up at the gym
- I get to eat a mountain of carbs
That’s really all the evidence I need.
I’ll be posting on this topic from time to time as it has become one of the things I focus on the most. In fact, I f*cking love it.
Leangains and Intermittent Fasting Transformation
Click here to read an extensive post about my Leangains and Intermittent Fasting experience.