Day 9, Sick, Super Pudding and Super Wraps

So I've been half assing the last few posts as well as half assing my overall original plan. I've unfortunately been sick and so I searched the internet for a possible diagnosis. I have discovered my affliction, and it pains me to say I have been infected with fuckarounditis (see yest. post). In light of this discovery, I decided to try the suggested treatment.

To not fuck around whatsoever.

So yesterday I designed a completely new workout, and a new eating strategy (which actually i've done for three days now and its going great).


Workout

Workout everyday in fasted state, where I do a dumbbell compound circuit 3x 8 and weighted chins 3 days and the other 4 involve a run and High Octane Cardio, which is working out while doing cardio. My goal is to now lose as much fat as possible and minimize muscle loss to the best of my ability. Thats it, simple as that, workout everyday and strategically place high carb, high protein meal after each workout

Example day one
Lift day
45 lb db's
-military press
-squats
-incline chest
-standing bent over rows
-good mornings
3x8
followed by
3x5 weighted chins
Where my goal is to at least stay around relative strength
Cardio day
15 minute run
15 minutes HOC
-elliptical, every 1 minute get off and do 3 reps standing military each arm
total 45 reps each arm

My hope is that there will be an adaptation to fat oxidation due to working in fasted state, as well as achieve more human growth hormone output due to lactic acid buildup from circuit as discussed in this article

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/human-growth-hormone-2/

Lactic acid buildup produces a human growth response which has an anabolic (muscle promoting) AND catabolic (fat oxidation) effect (HGH does these things that is). HGH tends to be released more when insulin is low as well so potential synergistic effect from fasted state and exercised induced. However to my knowledge there is no research whatsoever supporting what I am doing, and my hypothesis (or hope-othesis in my case) that heavy cardio and weight lifting will help for quick weightloss (hopefully mostly fat).

Nutrition

My eating strategy will go as follows.
1)Immediate post workout shake
(1/2 scoop whey, 1/2 serving chocolate syrup and water ~125 cals)
to capitalize on post workout ~60 minute window(window because ideal hormones are high from exercise (HGH, testosterone, IGF-1, glucagon, low insulin etc.). This will switch my body over from catabolic state (breaking down muscles into amino acids which are then converted to glucose due to depleted glycogen stores a process called gluconeogenesis) to an anabolic state (glycogen stores quickly being synthesized -between the liver stores and muscles there is approximately 1000 calories so a high amount of carbs in this window is ideal).
2) SUPER PUDDING
For the past three days I have been making whey pudding each morning with added chobani greek yogurt and milk. This is a decent tasting meal that is easily digested.
-small box pudding - ~ 360 cals /~90 carbs
-3 scoops whey- 420 cals/ 10 carbs/ 80 grams protein
-cup milk- 110 cals/ 10 carbs/8 g protein
-chobani 100 cals/20 carbs/10 g protein
Very filling meal at this timing will potentially allocate nutrients well (glycogen stores, muscles, limited fat)
3) Super Wrap
Found these tortillas that have 32 carbs with 26 g fiber which is a damn good ratio. With added cheese, topping - small amount blue cheese, deli ham/turkey, chicken nuggets(ideally chicken breasts, white meat)
I make two of them totaling at about 1500 calories. I eat one after whey meal.

-So first shake AT gym, immediately (sometimes during, towards end) following workout
-Super Pudding (all)
-1 Super wrap
-last wrap, with some type of fruit/ veg on the side right before bed.
             The logic behind this is Human Growth Hormone is produced within the first three hours of sleep so potential amino acids from super wrap will be allocated in the proper areas due to this and other hormones.

So there. No more effin around, and this mornings weigh in
165.5
Bringing me back to a net of (-2) since the start. Hopefully will reach my goal of 150 while maintaining strength.

Fuckarounditis

ok so Martin Berkhan of leangains came out with a new blog post after a three month hiatus. Its so good that I have nothing to say except read it.

http://www.leangains.com/2011/09/fuckarounditis.html

First of all hilarious, but also insanely motivating, so much so that I biked 4-5 miles to the gym, did a compound dumbbell giant set and weighted chin-ups as a bonus ( fasted state of course ;), to which I had my PWO super pudding after ) and then biked back.
yea, read it

Day 6, calorie increase

Weigh in: 168
(NET +1.5)
-No fast
-Rest
-calories 3300
-protein- ~200

I was unable to exercise yesterday, but I felt really good the entire day. I should see the weight come off fairly quickly this week. I've decided to up my calories for lifting days to 2400. One day at maintenance on Saturday, and sunday maintenance +20%. ~3300.

Day5, quick post

weigh in -164.5
(Net -3)
Fasting period-16hours
calories ~2700
bike ride +run ~ 60 minutes
180 grams protein

I decided to keep both weekend days at maintenance to ensure refeed and stimulate leptin production. (I'll go into this more next post.)

Day 4 and beers

Weigh in: 164.5
Net: -3
-1500 cals
-165g protein
-Rest
-Fasted 130am-330pm (14 hours)
-2 beers (blue moon)

Figured I would comment a little on the Psychological aspects of low calorie days. I basically had a very low carb day yesterday so I could get all of my protein in. The fasts aren't that bad, and am getting used to them. I wanna comment though on a hidden aspect of the fasts that make it a really good way to lose weight. The daily restrictive nature of fasting gives you motivation to not only continue but to also not break your calorie budget. My overall happiness certainly distracted me from being hungry and my absorption was better due to a mostly empty stomach, making my beers more enjoyable. The overall motivation of being on a program is exhilarating. I read a comment from someone that did IF'ing and got in amazing shape who described it as being a mental firewall to defend against self doubt and cravings. I can see where he's coming from. Today I am going to take one more low calorie day, definitely looking forward to my first "cheat" day.

Day3, Lifting stats, Double Progression, Edits.

Weigh in: 166.5
Net (-1)
Lift: Circuit,Double prog preacher, Planks (more info below) ~(60mins), 15 min bike ride
Fasting period (10pm previous night-2pm next day) (16 hours)

Calorie intake: 2500
Protein: 180 g

I have done the last two days workouts in the fasted state. The information of the link below from leangains cites a study where there is potential favorable anabolic response from fasted state resistance training (assuming adequate nutrition of course). So in light of this I am going to try and do all my workouts in the fasted state. It most likely isn't realistic that I will be able to do all workouts in the fasted state but I will try and note in my logs which days weren't.

http://www.leangains.com/2009/12/fasted-training-boosts-muscle-growth.html

A quote:
""Our results indicate that prior fasting may stimulate the intramyocellular anabolic response to ingestion of a carbohydrate/protein/leucine mixture following a heavy resistance training session. "

Among other things, increased levels of p70s6k may lead to a faster transport of amino acids into the muscle cell membranes, which should lead to a more rapid and potent anabolic response to post-workout nutrient ingestion. The effects seen on the other myogenic signaling mechanisms could also affect muscle growth through other pathways."
 Liffting routine






Machine circuit
8reps/3sets/no rest b/w exercises/~3 -5 minute rest b/w sets

Ab pulldown                          170
sit down tricep                         50
preacher curl style machine      40
Lat pulldown                          120
chest press                             120
sit down rows                         120
shoulder press                        150
leg press                                 220

Relatively light, wanted to make sure that I could get through everything with no rest and start again quickly. I'll be rotating the order in the reverse every other lift. Then after each full rotation I will add one rep. After 10 reps can be done for a a specific weight,I will add weight to each exercise and lower the reps back down to 8. I am doing it this way so I can hopefully see progress along the way, and focus on good form and no rest.

next time for example
-leg press 1st- ab pulldown last
and next lift after that
-Add one rep= 9 reps, ab pulldown 1st
etc.

Double Progression preacher curls, EZ Bar 


This part of the lift is for possibly gaining strength in the biceps. I have basically allowed my assisting muscles to grow through doing compound lifts, so switching it up to actually hitting the biceps doing an isolated low rep high weight protocol may give me some gains. Double progression is taking two variables in a given workout and trying to make progress.

My EZ Bar preacher curl protocol.

3/4/5 rep scheme, where the 1st set is the heaviest and reps are increased and weight is decreased.
EZ bar weighs ~15 lbs

1st set - 3 reps, 30lbs on each side= 75lbs
2ndset- 4reps, 27.5lbs on each side=70lbs    (-7%)
3rd set-5reps, 25lbs  on each side= 65 lbs ~ (-7%)

So my variables here are number of reps and weight.I can adjust any two of these variables for each set. So next lift since it was fairly easy will be to try and add one rep to my top set (heaviest set) and add 5 lbs to my low set.

Planks
I mentioned in a previous post that I was going to add 5 seconds to each plank after each lift but I was definitely a little overzealous. So instead I'm gonna try and add 1 second.

60seconds-45seconds-30seconds. (My starting planks. )


So these are my lifts and where I hope to progress. I was also a little high on the calories today, but with the xtra bike ride (~100 cals and TEF 180g protein= -180= ~300) 2200 adjusted, still slightly high.
So being approximately 100 calories too much yesterday, I'll do 100 cals lower today)=1500

Day 2, creatine, whey protein

Yesterday:
~2200 cals (TEF protein brings it to aprx 2100)
-170g proteins
-workout: moving furniture (40-60 minutes)
-Fasting period-18hours (FROM: 1AM previous night- 7PM following night)
Weigh in (this morning)
166.5
Net of (-1)






Only the second day, but feel pretty good. I picked up a small tub of body fortress which is really going to help me keep my protein high. It's generally suggested to try and consume whole foods, which I am entirely behind. However with my current wallet situation (some bullshit below 1$ gift cards, library card), its a necessity.

Here is the product I bought:

http://www.drugstore.com/body-fortress-super-advanced-whey-protein-powder-chocolate/qxp160947

Except I got mine for 15$, pretty good deal.
Another plus is that it contains creatine, which if you do your research, is generally harmless and helps with recovery and intensity (not too much per serving regardless). I remember a study that I learned about in a nutrition class I took years ago, here I believe is a quote to the same study.


"In perhaps one of the more intriguing studies, creatine was given to kids with traumatic brain injury or TBI.  The effect of creatine was determined on 39 children and adolescents, aged between 1 to 18 years old, with TBI. The creatine was administered for 6 months, at a dose of 0.4 g/kg in an oral suspension form every day.  That’s a huge dose which is equal to 27 grams for a 150 lb person. "


http://fitness.vpxsports.com/blog/bid/54903/Creatine-Monohydrate-Supplementation-and-Kids

And there wasn't any adverse health effect. As you know by the weigh in at the top I don't weight 150lbs, about 16 lbs heavier and the dose is about 2g per scoop, about 4 scoops/day so 8g. less than 33% of the studies amount.

Back to the whey protein another interesting benefit is the effect on satiety due to CCK pathway activation. 


A quote to explain:

"What makes whey more filling? Certain forms of whey protein contain high levels of a peptide called glycomacropeptide (GMP), which is known to be a powerful satiety (or hunger-quenching) nutrient. It works by stimulating the release of cholecystokinin (CCK), a hormone that's responsible for controlling hunger. In one study, GMP from whey increased CCK release by 415 percent. In another study, a supplement containing GMP reduced the number of calories consumed in a meal by 20 percent compared to a placebo when consumed before the meal."


http://www.energyfirst.com/whey-protein-weight-loss

To be more specific on the TEF of protein, it's been suggested that instead of 4cal/g it is closer to about 3cal/g.(which translates to about 25%-30% of the energy being used to actually break it down into amino acids). So the act of breaking it down is an energetic process making it slightly easier to have a calorie deficit

EXAMPLE 30 days of protein consumption. 
 -170g/day of protein(4CALS/G)                                                 X4= 680X30 = 20400

 -170 (TEF ADJUSTED  (3CALS/G)                                        X3 =510X30= 15300

A difference of 5100 cals/month just from breaking it down! which is ~ 1.5 lbs, and if a high amount is whey you will have a higher satiety response due to cck and if you are on a weight lifting program it will be more likely allocated to muscles and perhaps the biochemical environment in a fasting state will accentuate these processes.
Also a note on my fasting period. I want to try and hit an average of 16 hours/day so 18 hours yesterday (got caught up doing stuff) means that anyday for the remainder I can do 14 to balance, which I am going to do today.

Exercise history, preferences, and diet plan.

It's been a few days since I've posted but I've been reflecting on how I want to go about doing a controlled diet using the leangains methodology. But before I outline my plan I want to go into a little background history on my exercise and eating habits. I am now 22, and have been exercising for body composition since about 11th grade with average progress. I didn't lift weights in high school but I was a year round runner (track,xc,summer training, winter training). I did it because a couple friends of mine were into it (even though I hated running at the time due to being about 20-30 lbs overweight (170 lbs at about 5' 7", low muscle) ) I fell in love with the chemical rush, the competition, the idea of self improvement, the antidepressant effects and much more than I can list here,of exercise. However I was of course a noob at the time and had no concept of eating right. In fact I made the classic mistake of trying to lower calories while running a ton, everyday(at least 5 miles). It continuously gave me mediocre progress, and I continued to push harder in that direction. It was at least making mistakes in the right direction, I learned how to push myself very hard when the pain was high. Then I went to college, fell off the running kick a bit and picked up the iron (free gym). I was so amazed by the amount of muscle I was putting on so quickly, and I loved the post workout pump. I had found a new hobby, but I still was making the mistake of not eating right, or inconsistently eating right. I bought the protein, even creatine, and figured I was kickin ass enough in the weight room that unlike all other mortals I wouldn't be affected by plateaus, you can imagine how wrong I was. I once again had the right ideas and was moving in the right direction by focusing on form, switching up routines,and  being consistent. Again I was not eating entirely right, and I was still doing cardio too much. I was also a gym rat, so I was certainly being affected by over-training. My majors in school were Human Biology and Psychology. Both of which involved understanding the scientific method to a high degree. This gave me enough background information to understand nutritional and workout books to a higher level. My two most influential books that I read were Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle by bodybuilder Tom Venuto and Eat Stop Eat by the former research analyst Brad Pilon. They both spoke to different sides of me, for Eat Stop Eat it was the scientific and rebellious side because it was a research based look at the controversial topic of fasting and how to implement it into a lifestyle, and Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle was my tenacious and hardworking side that really inspired me because of the real world results of his ideas and methods. This lead me to be more intelligent about my lifts and to be more open to new ideas about how to go about progress. Then I found leangains this summer which is basically 16 hour fasting period followed by an 8 hour eating window each day with high protein and resistance training and it was a game changer, mostly because of the success that i've seen with the originator of the program, Martin Berkhan and his many clients.
And to Tom, Brad and Martin if you ever get the chance to read this
Thank you.

My Plan
With all of the above in mind I have composed a diet plan that I believe will push my results to the next level (under 10%, easy)


Starting weight = 167.5, fairly lean 12-15% bf


So My plan is pretty much the same as the approach in leangains but with some tweaks (probably not as good but it works for me)


FASTING ROUTINE
-16/8 hour rotations everyday(stop eating around 8-10pm every day, break fast @ 10am-2pm following day.)

Lifting frequency, type, style, and cardio
-3 lift days, Machine- circuit style, 1 wildcard cardio day (sunday)
   Note: The reason for machine (yes I know they are inferior to barbell or dumbbell, kettlebell etc) for functional strength but the reason I am doing it is because of the fact I never use them. This is going to be a 12 week diet, after I will switch back to db's and barbell. Another reason is because the gym that I go to has a compound circuit area, making it a convenient place to lift heavy, quickly (abs,biceps,triceps,lats,chest,seated rows,shoulder press,leg press). For tracking progress I am going to start with 8 reps/machine and try to increase 1 rep/week until 10 reps, then add weight). As for the cardio day I am going to do a random 60 minute cardio workout every sunday, because I like cardio and feel as though it would be a good switch and end to the week.
Calories on lift days, rest, cheat
Calculated Maintenance (conservative calculation = 2700)

-Calories 2100/lift days, 1600 rest days and 3000 "cheat day" (sunday, cardio day)
-High protein- 1g/lb body weight (160-200g(safe))
-1 cheat day, combined with cardio= sanity day, anything goes but protein has to be high)
So a successful week following the above guidelines
2100x3=6300
1600x3=4800      So: 14000 /7 = 2000 cals/day so with a calorie deficit of 700/day=4900/week                        
        x1=3000         =58800/3500(aprx pound)= ~17 lbs
           
              14000

Therefore goal weight is going to be about 150lbs. -12 weeks. 


Also a side note.
-I am going to be doing leangains style strength training (double prog, top set) for biceps (preacher curls) for purely aesthetic purposes. Again, I usually don't do isolated body parts (such a huge fan of the compound lift) but due to never really doing them I should see some decent gains (hopefully)
-I also never do abs in isolation but I am going to 3 sets of planks after each exercise day, and add 5 seconds each day. Start- 60, 45,30. 




I will most likely be keeping my own personal records for nutrition and exercise, but I will post a daily weigh in.
Excited to get busy, long road ahead of me 84 days and counting.

Starvation Mode

For this post I thought I would go into detail a little further on starvation mode and why I feel its an important concept to explore. This is a term that as I stated last post is thrown around a lot in the fitness world and it I think stems from a psychological fear of not eating that has its origins in the constant bombardment of food advertisements, and misinformation in the fitness industry on how much we need to eat and how often. 


Here's some research 




I found this research on the blog website leangains.com

http://ajpregu.physiology.or
g/content/258/1/R87.reprint

The findings suggest in an increase in metabolic rate as a result of short term fasting, and that this is due to the increased effectiveness of adrenaline. Last blog I discussed an overall increase in metabolism during prolonged calorie restriction combined with a weight lifting program. I really liked Martin's evolutionary perspective on this finding so to quote:

"This makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. Epinephrine and norepinephrine (adrenaline/noradrenaline) sharpens the mind and makes us want to move around. Desirable traits that encouraged us to seek for food, or for the hunter to kill his prey, increasing survival. At some point, after several days of no eating, this benefit would confer no benefit to survival and probably would have done more harm than good; instead, an adaptation that favored conservation of energy turned out to be advantageous. Thus metabolic rate is increased in short-term fasting (up to 60 hours).Again, I have choosen extreme examples to show how absurd the myth of "starvation mode" is - especially when you consider that the exact opposite is true in the context of how the term is thrown around."



Another interesting study:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pubmed/21051570
This study involved a group of fasted and non fasted that participated in endurance training.

"In conclusion, F(fasting) is more effective than CHO (carb fed) to increase muscular oxidative capacity and at the same time enhances exercise-induced net IMCL (Intramyocellular lipid) degradation. In addition, F but not CHO prevented drop of blood glucose concentration during fasting exercise." 

F=fasted
CHO=carb fed group
IMCL= exercise-induced intramyocellular lipid

Training in a fasted state appears to cause a greater response to exercise in terms of blood glucose regulation, muscular adaptation and fat release. With the effects of metabolic slowdown occurring at some point past 48 hours of no food, and superior response to exercise in a fasted state, it would appear reasonable to have short fasts ending with exercise so as to receive these benefits without worrying about losing the wrong kind of weight. 


Soon I will post my lifting routine, diet plan, and fasting strategies

First post

So basically I've created this blog for a number of reasons. Mainly to get my ideas out there, but also to become more organized with my thoughts about various things that I find interesting. I've named it SelfEx because I love to experiment on myself, and would like to motivate myself to do it more. My most recent interest has been inspired by a fantastic blogger by the name of Martin Berkhan (www.leangains.com). Highly recommend checking it out, he is basically a nutritional consultant/ personal trainer/ writer who has very successfully implemented fasting into a weight lifting/fat loss program. So here goes, gonna just start discussing

His model is based on short periods of fasting (16 hours/day) with low rep weight lifting.

First a little background info

Meal Frequency

Basically the modern nutritional guidelines that is mostly perpetuated for losing weight, or building muscle, is small meals spread out throughout the day, the logic being that it "keeps metabolism up" but

-controlled studies
- looking at varied number of meals ( 1 vs 3 vs 6 etc)

show that the net metabolism increase is the same assuming constant calories, for each respective meal frequency.

For a really in depth look at meal frequency discussed from multiple perspectives check out :

http://www.leangains.com/search/label/Meal%20Frequency

and the concept of "starvation mode" was (as discussed in leangains) based on observational studies that showed people skipping breakfast weighed more. However

Correlation does not mean causation
Studies that actually control for overall caloric intake (each day throughout study same # calories) suggest it doesn't matter and in fact there might be better nutrient partitioning if foods are timed later in the day, especially after a workout.

Just to note: starvation mode IS a real phenomenon, but realize that it means just that, literally starving- many days without food (~ >72 hours)

Not 1-2 meals or even 1-2 days.

So how many meals Not really important

What is important is what is eaten, rather than when ,which leads to

Thermal Effect of Food


This is basically the amount of energy it takes the body to actually break down  food ingested. Researchers have found evidence supporting the highest TEF for protein. This helps with satiety which is very important for adherence to any eating regimen. A high intake of protein is also crucial for muscle building/ recovery. A good rule of thumb is to eat 2.0 g of protein / kg body weight/ day.

Example: 165lb= ~75 kg
~150/day grams of protein.


Pretty simple : Eat high amounts of protein. 


Fasting


This ties in with the discussion of meal frequency. Fasting, or rather the concept in general of not eating has received a bad reputation. However (taken from the book Eat Stop Eat by Brad Pilon- READ IT) here are some findings in the research of fasting.

Shorts fasts 16-72 hours increases and causes:


-Human Growth hormone(muscle retention, fat burning)
-Uncoupling protein-3 (protein found in muscle, increases 5 fold during fast correlated with fat burning)
-higher Glucagon
-low insulin (thus increases insulin sensitivity, reducing insulin resistance)
-increased norepinephrine and epinephrine (aka adrenaline,noradrenaline- increased energy)
-decreased blood glucose
-reduction in body weight(not muscle if on muscle resistance program) 


These findings are interesting because they clash with the common ideology to basically "eat to lose weight" 
Or the emphasis on a certain 
meal frequency
super food
supplement (remember, a lot of the research backing these claims is funded by supplement, food companies)
etc. 


The leangains approach is basically taking 14-20 (he does 16) hours of fasting/day to receive the benefits above and to perhaps have better nutrient allocation (into muscle cells rather than fat) due to increases in markers of health such as insulin sensitivity. 


Take away message: Short fasting with controlled calorie intake is beneficial for fat loss. 


Weight lifting


This is a very important aspect of the fasting lifestyle, here are links to actual research. The best way to conceptualize these findings below when reading them is to think of resistance training as a means to tell your body to hold onto muscle. 

STUDY 1


http://www.jacn.org/content/
18/2/115.full

This study consisted of 20 subjects (mean age 38), on a very low calorie diet (800!) for 12 weeks and it was a liquid diet. They were separated into two groups, one was on a resistance program the other aerobic.

A direct quote:

"what is known is that resistance training three times per week while consuming a VLCD was associated with a significant large loss of clinically relevant body weight and that this loss was almost entirely fat weight."

I recommend reading it in its entirety but basically people that were on a very low calorie diet and lifting weights only 3 times per week lost almost exclusively fat mass. Its interesting to note that they were only eating 80g protein per day and increased in strength according to 1 rep max at end of 12 weeks.

This is the group that was in the weight lifting, body mass change: (IN KG) 

PRE POST

97.7 ±15.2 83.3 ±12.6* (OVERALL WEIGHT (-14)

44.9 ±19.9 30.4 ±5.3 (Fat in KG) (-14)

51.6 ±7.9 50.8 ±9.0 (Lean Body Weight) (NON SIGNIFICANT)****

1737.1 1800.4 RMR (kcal/day) (INCREASED METABOLIC RATE!)


This is the group that was in the aerobic group: 




93.8 ±15.1 75.7 ±10.6* (OVERALL WEIGHT (-18)

40.8 ±9.1 28.0 ±6.47 (Fat in KG) (-12)

51.4 ±10.6 47.3 ±7.0* (Lean Body Weight, kg) (-4) *****


1569.2 ±202.4 1358.5 ±297.1* RMR (kcal/day) (significant decrease)


This study shows that people on an insanely low (compared to the standard) calorie diet with 80g per day of protein was a fantastic way to lose fat mass. Limitations include high fat to start in subjects as well as the low amount of subjects (20) but still interesting, especially the resting metabolic rate increase.

Study 2

http://care.diabetesjournals
.org/content/22/5/684.full
.pdf+html


"1,000 Calories less per day than they normally ate for 16 weeks. They took part in a weight
training program 3 days a week and were able to maintain all their muscle mass while losing over 20 pounds of body fat!"

Study 3
"In yet another study, women undertaking a reduced calorie diet for 16 weeks were also able to maintain their muscle mass by training with weights three times per week"


My point to providing these studies is to show that fat loss can be achieved on very low calorie diets while not impacting lean muscle composition AS LONG AS ON A RESISTANCE PROGRAM. Also in the first study there is reference to severe restriction ( less than 600) yielding the same results. The second study discussed the improvements on markers of health (insulin resistance) of losing visceral (abdominal) fat to which the subjects that lost 20lbs of weight lost a high amount of this type of fat. So not only could you make the argument that calorie restriction is good for the right kind of weight loss, but also improves markers of health (to which the two are undoubtedly related).
 
In conclusion

So, many weeks worth of long term calorie restriction (intense calorie restriction) yields very good results. I think this just points to the advantages of calorie restriction in general. Therefore intermittent, short term, controlled, sensible fasting should give similar results and if anything this should provide insight into the level which we are conditioned to believe that we need to eat the amount that we do, or the way we do. 


Definitely a lot of info and ,kinda all over the place, but I am going to attempt to use this blog as a means to track my progress using my own version of leangains, as well as try to keep up to date on ways to improve it. In the next post I'll put up a more concise plan and my modifications to the program.