Opinions On Fasting.

Im looking for everyones opinions on fasting. Not traditional fasting, so I guess it can't really be called fasting, but a caloric reductions to less than a thousand calories a day. The reason for the non-tradional fast is because if a person doesn't eat anything then when they workout there more likely to burn muscle not fat. I just want to kick start my matabolism. As many of you know I have been on a constant battle with my weight and to stay below the army tap test standard. I am smaller than I was when I first asked about diets earlier this year though I do weigh more I just want to cut a bit more get back down to were I need to be. Due to the move from Korea to the states, laziness on my part, and schedual changes I have back track a bit. I have a 2 month goal (and no its not a new year resolution, my profile ends 3 Jan so I wont be as limited) to get back below body fat percentage and a personal goal of getting back down to 16% body fat as I was when I left Korea just a short time ago. Im figuring on less than 700 calories a day. With Martial arts 2 to 3 times a week and about an hours worth of circuit train 6 days a week. Any Thoughts?

If you reduce your overall calories your body will go into starvation mode, and more of the calories you eat now will be converted into fat stores.

The work out plan sounds solid. For a diet, I would look to reduce caloric intake by ~200 calories / week until you reach a healthy amount. I believe a good amount is 1600-2000 calories/day. But the exercise will be critical.

Essentially you want to tell your body to keep working hard, and you will continue to supply the energy for it. If you tell it that you will keep it working hard, but not supply the energy for it, it will freak out.

Also, you will NEED calories to keep up an intensive workout. My Islamic friend fasted for a month for Ramadan and trust me...about all he could muster was some basic Qigong and Tai Chi. He couldn't do his weight training or intense external kung fu.

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Check out this thread, it kinda dealt with the same thing and may give you some useful tips

Sports Diet

I was planning a fairly simple meal structure:

First Meal of Day (Im going to night shift so I'll be getting up at around 3pm)
Brown Rice with either Fish/Shrimp/Boneless-Skinless Chicken (The chicken would be a treat) All grilled.

Lunch/Dinner
Frozen Mixed Veggies and Low-Fat Low Sodium Beef/Chicken Broth

Snack
Oranges (because I'm getting over a cold and want the natural Vitamin C)
And another form of fruit.

When I figured out the caloric intake this would diet would bring in was between 600 and 900 Calories. The circuits, eliptical and kungfu was basically allowing for more than my intake a day. The Idea was to go less than half my personal BMR which is only about 1800 to 2000 calories. Im a natural Endomorph so I know that makes it easier for me to gain weight and harder to lose it. So really its my fault for being back in this mess again.

Thanks for the thread Mei Hua. I was thinking about reintroducing Whey Protien from GNC into my Diet But the last time I started using it (November) I gained alot of wieght really quick with no tape measurements changing so Im nurveous about trying it again. I was using it exactly as the instructions said to.

WA: I was trying to avoid throwing my body into Starvation mode by doing the afformationed Intake plan. If I need to readjust it I will. Though I dont believe in true fasting plans I did want significantly reduce my caloric intake.

It all comes down to goals and timescales.

I've not heard any one recomending fasting or even significant calorie reduction combined with working out.

If you have time in which to get your weight down don't worry about the diet so much, just leave out junk (be careful about those broths - are they broth or powdered soup?) and keep your workouts up. You'll drop below 16% over time.

On a shorter timescale - if you drop your calorie intake significantly watch out for injury. Low blood sugar levels can make it very hard to maintain focus.

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The Injuries are what im worried about. Im try to use broths. Even thought about making homemade broths in which I can keep make 2 qts worth of broth and only use maybe 1/2 teaspoon of salt and keep everything low.

To be honest with you, I think fasting is kind of ridiculous for your given goal. There are plenty of non-fitness related reasons for religious people to fast, and that is fine. But I think thats NOT what you should be doing.

What I do think you should do is revamp your food intake: Start buying healthy, non-processed, whole food, stop eating junk and keep your self moving and exercising as much as you can without overtraining. Theres not much to it really, except some devotion.

Forget the fads; just put in the work to maintain a healthy lifestyle and the rest will work itself out on its own.

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PlumDragon Herbs: Dit Da Jow and Iron Palm Liniments

"When a handshake passes the elbow, it becomes Judo."

Plummy is on point.

Fat loss is about training and diet. The right training and a modest adjustment to the diet (like Plummy suggested) and you'll see amazing improvements.

One day I'm going to get on the stick and blog post about just this.. the amazing hazmat transformation.. 13% bf to 5% bf. 155lbs to 148lbs of pure muscle. All it took was solid training, modest diet adjustments, and 1 year.

-hz

On occasion I'll fast for one day. I do this if I've fallen off my previous diet. It helps center my mind and help me focus on what I'm working toward. The only reasons to fast are either religious or mental. Strictly speaking, it's bad for you're body.

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I was never planing to do a comletely no intake fast just reduce my calories drasticly. I completely agree slow and steady modest diet (which I actually have)and exercise is the best way. My problem is I ate out (bc I didnt have a home for 2 month and believe it or not the army dont always feed you) drank soda (ok that was my bad) and started eating right had a nice workoutout schedual I was lossing weight everything was nice then we got put on 12 hour+ scheduals. Now I have to fix what I've got in a very short amount of time.

“	Originally Posted By: Green_Horn I was never planing to do a comletely no intake fast just reduce my calories drasticly. I completely agree slow and steady modest diet (which I actually have)and exercise is the best way.	”

Nobody said anything about completely no intake. Just eat properly and stop worrying so much about calories; if youre exerting yourself a lot, you *need* a good deal of calories, just make sure its healthy food.

The change in daily diet habits doesnt have to be slow, just make the change! Stop drinking soda, stop visiting the vending machine, stop ordering appetizers and dessert, or sweet tea or coke, stop eating fast food, just make the change. Snack throughout the day on healthy whole foods, getting penty of natural protein and complex carbs. You will know that youre on the right track when your friends start looking like overzealous lushes.

The idea is simple, the only question is whether or not youre going to do it, and you already agreed above that its the best way. So make the change or not, its up to you.

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PlumDragon Herbs: Dit Da Jow and Iron Palm Liniments

"When a handshake passes the elbow, it becomes Judo."

I really do eat healthy. I just made a few bad choices when I was moving over to Georgia and and am now down to crunch time.

Can anyone actually explain what the body goes through when dieting of any kind?

BTW you all have talked the sense back into me. I started listening to NCO's and am down to crunch time. I am going to do about a 500 to 600 calorie cut but thats nothing compared to what I was planning. I actually had one NCO that wanted me to cut down to 500 cal. for 2 weeks. I couldnt even consider that but 700 to 1000 was looking tempting for a while. But please lets talk about what your body actually goes through when someone tries something like this. It may be of benfit to others in the future.

Just as a look from another angle. Some in the medical field condone fasting for health reasons. Water fasting is used to supposibly clean cells and rejuvinate organs. Maybe I'll give it a shot and just drink water and take two multi-vitamins on my day off, see if I am disciplined and if I feel "rejuvinated". Also from what I have read, you should at a minimum, take in 1200 calories a day when on a steady diet.

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