I had someone ask me today what a condensed eating window is. I imagine a few people wonder about it, so I decided to do a quick and hopefully simple explanation of it here.

Depending on the intermittent fasting diet  protocol you follow, the condensed eating window , is simply to the time you take in food.

Let’s take a couple of examples that use this process.

The Fast 5 Diet

The fast 5  intermittent fasting plan, works on a 19 – 5 protocol. So you fast for 19 hours, and have 5 hours in which to eat. So your condensed eating window  on this plan is simply 5 hours.

Leangains

The leangains plan  works on a 16 – 8  plan, so in this case the condensed eating window is 8 hours and you fast for  16 hours.

There is no fixed rule for this eating window, again, you can either follow a plan the like ones I mention here, or simply adjust it to something you feel comfortable with.  I have played around in the past with a condensed eating window as small as 3 hours, again, usually between 5 and 8pm on Mondays and Tuesdays. There are no hard of fast rules here.

Not all intermittent fasting plans have a condensed eating window, for example eat stop eat  works on a 24hr fasting period, so no food is consumed during that time.  So there you go, a condensed eating window is just  a period of time you eat between fasts.

No matter if you are fasting to lose weight or  just looking to use intermittent fasting to help control your weight, the important thing  is to use it in a way that best  fits with your personal lifestyle.

I have used I.F now for two and a half years, and I would say the main reason I have continued to use fasting  to manage my weight is because I don’t have any set rules for when I should be fasting. I find the traditional  one day on and one day off  way of fasting far too restrictive for me.  Today for example I am going to a Barbecue, I know I can fast tomorrow, and enjoy today, but with alternate day fasting, what would I have done if this was my fasting day ?.  To use a form of calorie restriction ( in this case I.F.) and make it part of your permanent lifestyle  you need flexibility to make it work.

Over time I have played around with how I fast, though I would say even now, my base plan is still  eat stop eat , however I would still say I have created my own personal way of doing  I.F.

One of the big changes in how I eat is , that even on a non fasting day, I will often still miss out a meal. Other than dinner with my family on an evening, I don’t really have a set meal time. I may eat something  late morning, and then not eat again before dinner, or at other times, I may not eat  before early afternoon.

The difference fasting has made in my life is a greater understanding of  when I am actually hungry, and not just eating because it’s lunchtime.

We are all different, but creating your own flexible fasting routine for what best suits your lifestyle will bring you the results you want.

For almost 2 years now I have had no problems to keep my weight under control. For many people, losing weight is the easy part, keeping that weight off is what they find difficult. In my view one reason for the weight coming back is that there was no lasting changes made. You often will see it said that  abc weight loss plan is ” a lifestyle not a diet ” however in the majority of cases, this ” lifestyle ” usually means some food groups should be avoided, this was why diets like the Atkins diet, or the zone  or the South Beach Diet, never worked for me long term.

When I became a retired dieter on January 1st 2009, even though I was not going to go on any more diets, I did make lifestyle changes, I realised I needed to eat less, and after reading eat stop eat, I made intermittent fasting part of weekly lifestyle, and it remains something I do on weekly basis. Intermittent fasting is my main tool for restricting calories, and now 2 and half years later,I know it is something that is a constant part of my normal lifestyle, and a highly effective method of weight control for me.
The other main change I made was to move more. Initially I did this by walking every day, and doing bodyweight exercises 3 times per week. I still enjoy walking, but in the last year I have also started running, and I find it a great stress reliever. So this has become my normal lifestyle, my regular routine if you like, and it was working just fine, then last month I picked up a sinus infection that effected my middle ear and made my head ache constantly. Trying to do any bodyweight exercises was impossible. The effect on my middle ear meant my balance was effected, so I could not walk easily, and running was impossible. All of a sudden my normal routine was disrupted. The only thing I was still able to do was intermittent fasting. The Sinus infection and problems with my middle ear stopped me doing any workouts for 3 weeks,not only that, but then trying to get back after a 3 week lay off, was tough, and only now I am I starting to feel I am getting back to normal. The last 6 weeks my usual lifestyle has not been possible,and I would say it’s been the most frustrating time I have had in over 2 years.

Weight Loss, Intermittent Fasting  and Exercise.

There is regular debate about do you need to exercise to lose weight, well the simple answer is no. It is possible to lose weight without exercise, and certainly when you have a large amount of weight to lose, it is possible to lose it without doing any exercise at all. In my case since I started this weight loss blog in January 2009, exercise has always been something I have done, however I did the exercise for health and fitness benefits, not for weight loss, but certainly in my experience the exercise helps me with my weight. I do believe the focus has to be on diet to lose weight, but I do think exercise has played a major part in keeping my weight under control, and the recent lay off, has made that very clear.
For more than 12 months I have had my weight steady between 74 and 75 kilos., in the last 6 weeks, with little to no exercise, my end of month weigh in shows me at 77 kilos. This means in June for the first time in a number of months I will be fasting to lose weight, and as I am now over the Sinus infection will getting back to my normal exercise routine.  I am looking to get back to 75 kilos by the end of the month.

I wanted to write this post to highlight that certain events can sometimes disrupt our lives, and it is then about how we react to those problems. In my case I know I just need to get back to my usual routine and with a little extra care in what I am eating over the next month, I will be back at where I want to be. I gained a few lbs because I didn’t change how I was eating while I was unable to exercise, and I know I also had a few more treats as a boost for feeling so bad with sinus and middle ear issues. The middle ear problem also meant I spent most of my time sitting down as walking anywhere was a problem, so my activity level has been unusually low for me. One thing that is clear to me is that I now view 75 kilos as my normal weight, even though 77 kilos is still less than October 2009 target weight , I do not feel comfortable at 77 kilos. Hopefully now I can get back to full fitness, and get my weight back at the level I am happy with.

If you are considering an intermittent fasting diet to help you either lose weight or to assist you in keeping your weight under control, then there are a number of different ways you can do I.F.

Intermittent Fasting Diet

Using different condensed eating windows is what sets the various intermittent fasting diets apart. Popular I.F methods include

ADF – Alternate day fasting. This method has a  36/12 hrs fast/feed . Many people have had success with this method, but I personally find fasting every other day too restrictive to my lifestyle. You can eat what you like on your non fasting day, but then you are fasting for 36 hours.

Eat Stop Eat 24 hrs fasting once or twice per week. You can read my eat stop eat review here to learn more about why I prefer this I.F. plan.

Leangains 16/8 hrs fast/feed. Martin Berkhan, the creator of Leangains is the most detailed on fasting and nutrition. If  using I.F. for bodybuilding is your interest, then leangains is what you need.

No matter what intermittent fasting diet plan you choose, calorie control is still important if weight loss is your goal. After using intermittent fasting for weight loss I would say the most important thing is to plan your fasts around your life, not your life around your fasts.

The Leangains intermittent fasting plan was developed by nutritional consultant and personal trainer Martin Berkhan.

Leangains

Martin is incredibly knowledgeable on the subject of diet and nutrition in relation to Intermittent Fasting  for strength training and fat loss. He always goes into detail on the subject he writes about and provides links to the studies. I realise not everyone wants to know the details of studies, but for me, the leangains websites is one of the first places I look if I want an explanation on the latest intermittent fasting research.

Leangains Diet

The leangains diet is much more focused towards  fitness and strength training. As far as I understand it, Martin’s clients tend to be predominantly Male, with a goal for getting as lean and strong as possible. Unlike other intermittent fasting diets such as eat stop eat, Leangains places more emphasis on what Martin believes is the correct  pre- and post-workout nutrition. Leangains also provides specific guidelines on calorie cycling, meal timings and macrocomposition.

Leangains uses a condensed eating window of 16/8  so you are fasted for 16 hours, and then eat based around your personal plan during the 8 hour eating window. This tends to be a 3 meal plan during that time. The composition of those meals will depend on your day and workouts. As an example for workout days, carbs are prioritised before fat, while on rest days fat intake is higher, while Protein remains high every day. What should be remembered is that to follow the leangains diet correctly, Martin will create a personal plan, so the exact composition of the meals would vary depending on the goals of the individual.

Does The Leangains Diet Work ?

Yes the Leangains plan does work, but I would say it is better suited for certain individuals. Martin himself will tell you that his clients tend to be fitness enthusiasts, athletes and weight trainers, which is why his Leangains diet has a much greater focus on the correct workout nutrition. The bottom line though is that leangains works.Take a look at these LeanGains Results for further proof.

Is Leangains right for you?

That will depend on your own lifestyle and what you want to achieve.I personally have not used the leangains diet protocol, this is only because I feel it is not the best fit for me. My goals have changed in the last 2 years, but not to the extent that I want to be so focused on how I train and how I eat. Again this is a personal choice and is by no means a reflection on Martin Berkhan and the Leangains way of intermittent fasting and training. I want to get leaner for this summer, and I have no doubt Martin could get me there quicker, but I feel his plan is just a little too restrictive for me.

I will just point out one piece of advice I have taken from Martin that I follow and that is to do with alcohol and fat loss. The post I have linked to explains how you can drink without guilt …  leangains was always going to be a winner with me on that one

Be sure sure to read my eat top eat review for an alternative method of fasting to lose weight. You can contact Martin via the leangains blog

So my first weight loss blog post of 2011, but I now enter my 3rd year of blogging about my own weight loss journey and how intermittent fasting has been a major tool in my efforts to first lose weight, and now keep it off. When I started this blog back on New Years Day 2009 vowing to never go on another diet again, I decided that fasting to lose weight was the best way forward for me to finally break free of the good food, bad food mentality. Now 2 years on, I seem to be on the outside looking in as I watch people I know start their  ” New Year resolution diet “. Now as we come to the end of January, most have ” fallen off the wagon ” or ” broke the diet last weekend ”  I start to hear the ” I will get back on the diet on Monday , I have a party this weekend “.  The fact is, if you are on a diet that restricts what you like, at some point there is always going to be something that comes along and puts a spanner in the works. I wonder, why do we put ourselves through it ?

So here we are, as January draws to a close, I am quietly back to my usual routine. No diet to break, and free of the frustrations that I see so many others currently struggling with. The one thing I find different now at this time of year is, that it’s very easy for me to lose the weight I gained over the holidays. Why ? well for simple reason everyone else seems to be on a diet ! .

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I could not let the Holiday season pass without my usual holiday eating quote, so no matter if you use intermittent fasting to help keep your weight in check or not, just remember this.

It’s not what you do between Christmas and New Year that matters, but rather what you do between New Year and Christmas

Yes I said the same thing last year , but it’s true.  I have kept the weight off for 12 months , this next week or so is my down time, but  I will be sure to be back doing the right things between New Year and Christmas.

Life as a retired dieter is good .

Enjoy the Holidays everyone.

Remember Eat Stop Eat can keep the holiday lbs at bay.

Dave

It would be fair to say weight loss can be broken down into 2 parts.

The first is restricting calories to lose the weight.

The second part is keeping the weight off once you have lost it.

It is now just over one year since I reached my weight loss target. Not only have I kept the weight off, but my current weight is  164lbs, so I actually weigh 11lbs less than my original target.

In recent months my weight has remained around  165lbs. I have lost 1lb in the last month, but these days, while I find maintaining my weight quite easy, losing weight with my current lifestyle is harder.

My main goal for 2010 was to prove to myself I can get my abs showing even though I am over 40. Some days they show, others not so much, but if I am honest, I have not focussed on it that much.  I think part of the problem is I did not think I would need to be below 164lbs in order to have them really show up, but the fact is, I certainly need to drop  a few  more lbs if I want to achieve it.

I set the abs as a goal, so I guess it’s time to deliver. So for next year I am going to tweak a few things in order to prove to myself I can do it. The days where I can lose 4lbs of fat in a couple of weeks are gone, but I still should be able to get close to it over 4 weeks if I can eat a little less.

In terms of the bigger picture though I am happy with my weight . To have finally found a way keep weight off and still enjoy my lifestyle is what I desired most. The abs is just the extra target, and it’s clear I have not had the same desire for the 6 pack as I had to lose the initial weight.

October 31st weight  164 lbs  approx 74.5 kilos 11 stone 10 lbs

Easter has come and gone and my weight remains at 170lbs ( 77 kilos ) or 12 stone 2lbs, so a little short in terms of reaching the  six pack abs target by Easter Sunday. I think I am still a month or so away from it,  I just have underestimated what I need to lose to get to my target. Even if I had lost another 2lbs to make a 7lb loss, which was my original target, I would still not have made it, I think I will need to be around 166lbs but it is hard to know exactly, so I will just keep going until I can see  my abs properly. I am going in the right direction, and I will get there, but the time frame I set in relation to my current lifestyle  was just was too short.  I can see my abs if I tense up, but that is cheating ! .

My BMI is currently 24.37 , so at the top end of the normal range.

So in the first 3 months of 2010 I have lost another 5lbs of fat , certainly nothing to be upset about, I had set what I thought was a  realistic goal of 7lbs in 12 weeks, and managed 5lbs so I am happy with that. As always this was done  without changing or giving up anything that I eat and drink , but just focusing on consuming  a little less and  trying to keep my calories at my BMR level.  I will look to get the comparison pictures online in the next few days.

Thanks for all the emails with questions about weight loss. I have noticed a couple of common themes running through them, so my next few posts are going to be talking about those, rather than just my own situation. One main theme I want to talk about is our expectations of weight loss, my own belief is we expect too much and then get discouraged when things are slow, but how do you determine what is fast or slow ?  take my current case here, is 5lbs of fat lost over 12 weeks slow or not ?  So more on that subject in the next few posts.

In the meantime as always, if you want to email me you can reach me via retireddieter[at]gmail.com or just leave a question in the comments.

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What a difference a normal week makes. With last weeks weight gain I was expecting this to even out this week and that is exactly what happened.  The scales show a 3lb drop, so last weeks 1lb gain is no more. While I do not believe for one moment I have lost 3lbs of fat ( no way was my calorie deficit that low ) I am of course pleased that I am back on track.

So today I weigh 170lbs  a little over 77 kilos, or 12 stone 2lbs.  I should point out here that although the scales dropped 3lbs this week, if you look over the last 11 weeks of my six pack quest journey , I have  dropped 5lbs over 11 weeks.  With one week to go on my original abs target I think I may come up a little short. The problem may not be that I don’t hit the 7lbs I set to lose, but more the fact I think I  have slightly underestimated how much I need to lose to get the abs showing properly. My guess today is I probably need to go lower by another 2lbs than my original target of 7lbs. So more likely I need to end up at 166lbs and not 168 as I initially thought. I am learning there is no exact science to it, but I do at least know I am going in the right direction, it just may take slightly longer than I thought to get there. More on the abs goal next week though.

I do want to be honest here, cutting down my weight from 175lbs to 170lb has been much tougher. There is no easy way to say it, to lose body fat now, I have to watch the amount of calories I eat far more than I did last year.  I had managed to keep my weight controlled for over 2 months, but after about 10 weeks of maintenance , I found I was not cutting back enough on what I was eating in the first few weeks of my new abs quest. I did lose a little body fat, but the fact was, in order to  lose the amount of body fat I had targeted, then I was going to have to restrict the amount I was eating, not easy when I am trying to stick to the retired dieter principles of weight loss of not giving up the foods or drink I love.

It would be easy for me to say I am not going to drink beer for 2 weeks, but that is not what my way of losing weight is about. I want to still drink beer and lose weight while I am doing it, I have to do it this way to prove what it is possible. Could I have stopped drinking beer and got the abs quicker ? … Yes absolutely, but I would be as miserable as hell, and in my world, that just isn’t worth it.

My point is, I will be able to show that you can get and keep yourself in shape, and still enjoy the food and drinks you love. The skill is fitting them into your weekly calorie allowance. For me it is beer, for others it is chocolate, for some it is ice cream, we all have our favourites, and if you are wanting to lose weight, the last thing you should do is give them up.

It Really Is About Calories In V Calories Out

So what does my weight loss which is now over 60lbs show ?

Weight loss is not so much about what you eat, it is more to do with how much you eat. We all ( me included) tend to underestimate how many calories we eat, and we also tend to overestimate how many calories we need, or how many we burn through exercise. Focus first on just eating less, the problems caused by overeating are far greater than consuming too much of one macro nutrient.  The problem is consuming too much in general, not just too much sugar or fat etc. If you are overweight, then you are overeating. No matter how the fancy diet goo r00s dress it up, the solution is  undereating , the trick is to find how best to undereat for you and your lifestyle.

Have a question , want some help ? send me an email retireddieter[at]gmail.com, or leave comment.

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