Intermittent Fasting & IIFYM Are Fads
The first time I tried intermittent fasting was after reading from Martin Berkhan of LeanGains.
Martin Berkhan of LeanGains The Original Intermittent Fasting Guru
That was back when I was going to university and I was natural, having never used any bodybuilding drugs yet.
I saw Berkhan’s physique and it was fucking incredible. It was obvious that he was doing something different than all the guys at the gym I was going to, and he was adamently attributing it to his intermittent fasting approach to diet. I figured that if Matt Ogus‘ “Macros” approach wasn’t the answer, then this “I.F.” stuff must be the secret to these amazing, shredded, big but not steroid big physiques I kept seeing online. Little did I know the secret was Steroids & HGH lol.
From Berkhan I learned about how I could access what would be my first performance enhancing drug. He explained how “Bronkaid” asthma medicine could be obtained at the CVS/Walgreens pharmacy, and that the principle ingredient was ephedrine. I could combine ephedrine with caffeine to create the infamous EC stack.
I used EC stack and started intermittent fasting with some nice success at the beginning. After a couple days of initial intense hunger from skipping breakfast, my body started to adapt to this new eating schedule squeezing all of my meals in between 12pm-8pm.
Matt *Bogus* “IIFYM is how I achieved this body that none of my followers can achieve without steroids guys, really!”
After a couple weeks I started to notice a pattern of binging tendencies for the first time in my life. My meal portions were much larger, and I would find myself day dreaming about food during my fasts. Soon I started to lose control after some of the more intense fasts and would end up binging on 3k-5k calories of food to break my fasts after intense suffering as a results of low blood sugar.
You know that feeling where you start getting dizzy and weak and you feel like just laying on a bed?
Soon i decided to stop intermittent fasting but the mental effects from this lingered with me for years. I had adopted a mindset of starving myself and “extreme dieting”. Many other aspiring bodybuilders adopt this mindset as well. You can see this tendency by reading forum posts of guys frantically asking “What is the fastest way to burn fat?” and “I will be embarking on an extreme PSMF type fat loss diet for the next 4 weeks to lose all of my fat FAST”.
This is not how dieting works guys. It doesn’t work fast. Dieting is a slow and steady wins the race endeavor. If you try to push it, you will crash and burn. The people who succeed with their diets are the people who stick to the basics. They do the simple tried and true bodybuilder method of eating frequent small meals day after day without fail.
“Eat Junk Food and Get Ripped!” (If You Follow My Methods & Buy My Shit hehe)
The successful dieters are eating small meals of chicken and rice with some vegetable 5-6 times per day. (Replace chicken with lean beef, turkey, fish etc. as you prefer)
Fads like IIFYM, The dieting & fitness approach based on SCIENCE!, or Intermittent fasting are not the approaches that work for the majority of people.
Look at what the pro bodybuilders were doing back in Arnold’s time. 5-6 small meals of clean food.
Look what the pro bodybuilders of today are doing. 7-8 small meals of clean food. (Bodybuilders today are bigger and require more meals).
Look to the people at the top and copy their methods if you want success.
Martin Berkhan, Jeff Seid, Matt Ogus, and Kinobody, don’t know some dieting secret to get ripped and shredded that the pros don’t know. They’re scamming you with their “Latest Diet Fad to Get Shredded!”
Follow the tried and true and the results you want will come to you.
-the bodybuilder in thailand
Check out the Joe Rogan podcast #901 with Rhonda Patrick at 2hr: 29min (it’s only for 10 min) where they talk about Intermittent fasting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxM_CLsvieE&t=9162s
She states that if you eat in 12 windows or less, you’ll naturally gain more muscle and less fat as well as keeping your body’s hormones in check. This was backed up by studies.
What is your thoughts mr Bro-science?
haha hello afarangabroad. my thoughts on this are, if these studies are true, then why is there not a single pro bodybuilder doing intermittent fasting? the most muscular men in the world all do small protein meals every few hours throughout the day.
Because they are also taken Mexican supplements that increase their hormone levels, whereas your everyday Joe is not.
Also intermit fasting might not be ideal if you want to become a bodybuilder, but are bodybuilders really that healthy? During competition, they are at their weakest points.
I guess it comes down to what your goal is, if you want to get swole AF then intermittent fasting may not be ideal, if you want to be healthy and have good hormone, ldl levels etc, then intermittent fasting is better but you may sacrifice gains in the process.
i completely agree with that. thanks for the good post man.
I wouldn’t say either IF or IIFYM or even Keto are “fads.” Now South Beach or Atkins were “fads” that were hot for a time, but on their own don’t have lasting qualities.
Saying IF or IIFYM is a “fad” is like saying “cramming for tests is a fad.” It is simply a method that has its use. Or saying “studying for a test when you can find the time is just a fad.” It has practical application.
If you skip breakfast, if you skip lunch, you are “fasting.” So these are natural things that can happen, in which case “you are fasting,” thus it’s not a fad, it is a natural occurrence just like the student that crams for a test.
IF offers many advantages as a dieting strategy. If you get hungry late at night and have trouble staying under calorie budget at that time, IF helps. If you are trying to keep calories low, IF helps. If you are trying to up your calories, IF can make this difficult. But if you IF while bulking, your meals and eating times will be packed with food and make you feel like you are getting a treat.
Other advantages to IF are practical; you don’t have to spend time prepping or carrying or purchasing breakfast and or lunch. Forget about your diet, this is a practical benefit; it saves you time and effort and simplifies your day. Also, let’s say you’re invited to go out to eat, drinking, or to a party. If you have skipped lunch and breakfast, you have a large calorie budget left for the day; so these events won’t blow your budget.
So as a basic strategy (not as a magic pill solution) IF makes practical sense and is something that is natural to do.
great posts in this and the last few articles bro, really appreciate you sharing your experiences and your detailed input on these topics.