Nah, I'm pretty sure there are a few success stories on the LG page that don't work out. For your old man I'd get him to try and do 2g per kg of protein, 50/50 split of carbs and fats to make up the rest of the cals with a 10-20% deficit most days of the week, then on special occasions eat what he likes.

Seeing as you wont be trying to gain much muscle on this you can probably go a more moderate approach as well, 20% deficit and maybe 5-10% surplus, moderate protein and carbs and fats however works best for you.

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Is it really as simple as eating ( well ) over an 8 hour period ( say 2 pm to 10 pm) and basing your calories on 'bulking' or 'cutting' ?

By that I mean, if I'm doing 531 BBB the next 6 months, 4 days a week, is IF something I would benefit from now ? My goal is muscle but not at the cost of GOMAD style eating.

At the end of 6 months, I will likely do only the 531 reps 2 days a week, combined with a more rounded routine. Should I consider waiting until I'm through BBB to begin IF ?

In general, the IF schedule is something I think I would agree with, once I unlearned the breakfast craving. Eating during the work day is not something I'd miss, and my workouts tend to start at 6:00 pm

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Just start TODAY. There's no good or bad time to start imho. I've always eaten roughly by IF protocol, but I've gone really strict these last few months on an 18/6 split and I'm dropping weight and my lifts are going on.

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Thanks for the reply David. It sounds pretty good.

Yeah pretty much, in your case, eat 20% over your maintenance calories on workout days, ideally 50% of that coming in your PWO meal. On your off days you eat anywhere from maintenance to 30% under depending on your goals. It all depends on your goals and priorities as to whether you should do it.



No problems, feel free to ask any other questions that come up.

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Per the leangains site I was thinking of trying this to see how I do on IF -

12-1 PM Meal one. 20-25% of daily total calorie intake.
4-5 PM: Pre-workout meal. 20-25 % again.
6-7:30 PM: 5/3/1 with conditioning (4 days)
8-9 PM: Post-workout meal roughly 50% daily total

Goals - gaining muscle while losing fat or minimal fat gain for the BBB phase

I should eat 20 % over maint on 531 days, and maint on non-work days, with the desired goal of muscle gain ? Can I consider less than maintenance on non-work days in this case ?

As far as macros, I'm pretty much 1g Protein per lb, .5g fat per lb, and the rest carbs, not really counting, just have a feel for it from previous counting.

Do I need to be concerned with macros a) on work vs non-work days and b) is that too much fat or is that not a great concern ?

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David, do you know if the fasting period has any measurable effect? ie the difference between having say, 8 hour, 6 hour, or 4 hour feeding windows? I was on 8 without really trying because it was "natural" to me, but I've noticed that dropping the window to 4-6 hours (often closer to 6) has made a large impact. It could just be that because I'm spending less time eating I have more time focused elsewhere, so a sort of placebo effect - but I couldn't really find anything online :/

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Yeah something to that effect, what is your bodyfat roughly? If you are leaner you'll need to be more around maintenance on off days, but if you have a bit of 'stored energy' then you can afford a little deficit on off days.



I'd say it is a 'semi placebo' effect, because the appetite suppression and higher energy levels would be quite real but the actual benefit is still just the reduced calories. I did something similar last year for a while and it worked well, on my off days I just ate at 3/4pm and 8/9pm and kept my carbs quite low. I was always full at night on those days and it did the job, however I prefer the approach I'm using now with more of a carb backload on my off days, which slows down the weight loss but I feel like I'm still gaining strength. I'm still in a deficit, but I can eat a cup of oats and a piece of fruit before bed, which helps significantly with sleep.

Also, doing the longer fasts regularly made me feel burnt out on it, seemed unnatural to do it so regularly, so I try not to do stuff like that with any regularity for a long period of time now.

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Definitely need to drop some BF.
So going down 20% or so below maintenance on 3 non-work days a week will still allow me
to put on muscle ?

I will be interested to see how this all works out.

How did you prepare yourself, did you start dropping breakfast a few days a week, or just jump in head first ?

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Yeah you can probably do that then, it will be a bit more of a recomp so your muscular gains will be slower, but it means you don't need to diet down at a later date. If you are really worried I'd just do a 10% deficit and maybe go 30% over on workout days. Its all about the individual.

I just jumped straight in, just need a little mental toughness to get through it the first week, then after that it should be smooth sailing.

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