Food/Diet and training hobbies
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The other thing to think about too is that other than growing (which we have all finished quite some years back) exercise and food digestion are the most energy intensive things the body does. So imagine you are spending 12 or more hours a day dripping food in constantly. Your digestive system never gets a break.
Also by never giving it a break you are not allowing your body to make repairs on your digestive system as it wont really do this at all whilst trying to digest food. Giving it that 16 hour break from food will allow it to make any repairs it needs.
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@keith-anderson Biggest bang for your buck in the beginning is restricting the timing of your food intake.
By this I mean give yourself an 8hr window during the day (try to make it consistent day to day if poss) and only consume food during that window. Outside of this window have drinks such as water, tea and coffee if you like but avoid big calorie drinks as it would constitute food consumption.
Within the window try as much as possible to stick to 2 or 3 meals. Dont snack in between them if you can avoid it.
This will feel odd and probably rough until you get used to it. What it is trying to do is level out your insulin spikes. In my experience this is the number one issue people have.
Trying to move insulin levels from pic 1 towards pic 2. This will help with energy levels and hunger. When most people say they are hungry they may not actually be hungry but their body wants an insulin spike.
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@keith-anderson I’m in the same boat
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I actually need help with my diet
My diet is really poor and I've noticed my energy levels have dropped significantly. Also my mood too.
Actually don't know where to start!
le jeu avant tout
Am Yisrael Chai
When you got skin in the game, you stay in the game
But you don’t get a win unless you play in the game... -
@mark-maguire Bad sleep is really crappy! I suffer from this too, opposite way around to you though, I'm usually asleep by 9pm but then a noise, the toilet or pain usually wakes me up around the 1-2am area and thats about it for me.
If you wanted to learn some more about it I can highly recommend the following book:
The Circadian Code
by Dr. Satchin PandaHe is probably one of the worlds foremost experts on the circadian rhythm and the research done into this area.
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@Adam interesting this - I've been dabbling with Keto and occasional fasting to find more energy - based on some of Matts stuff here. Struggling with sleep at present (never get to sleep before 3am) and agree that its time wasted but better sleep quality for a few hours would be bloody brilliant.
I guess I should seek out a more formal keto regime and follow it properly for a bit
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@dan-mackinnon said in Food/Diet and training hobbies:
@matt-wood going to sleep is fine. It’s just that I wake up earlier and have a lot of energy. I never feel like my sleep has suffered. I just wondered if you had similar experiences
Same as me. When doing strict keto and/or fasting, I find I need less sleep, but the sleep I get is much better quality.
I see it as a massive win tbh, as I hate the fact that we normally "waste" 1/3 of every day sleeping, especially when only 1/3 of that sleep is restorative.
It felt like a huge cheat code when I first started.
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@dan-mackinnon That's like Adam!!
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@dan-mackinnon Yea very similar but sometimes difficult for me to tell as I sleep badly anyway.
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@matt-wood going to sleep is fine. It’s just that I wake up earlier and have a lot of energy. I never feel like my sleep has suffered. I just wondered if you had similar experiences
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@dan-mackinnon Morning Dan,
I generally have poor sleep as a standard, so its a little difficult to tell changes.
Having said that I do think that on balance I sleep a bit less when I am fasting. If you are drinking a lot of water during your fast, maybe try getting some quality electrolytes (various options in powdered form) and just include a tiny amount.
Over hydration is a thing and it can mess with your electrolyte balance.
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@matt-wood how do you find your sleep when you’re fasting? I’m on day 2 of a 3 day fast and woke up at 3.30am. I noticed the same thing last time. I’m not tired but just suddenly wide awake a couple of hours earlier than I wanted
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Ok so the second 3 day fast is finished now and a few sensible meals eaten. Bodyweight down to 167lbs and a waist of a sliver over 30 inches.
Scales say body fat % is 14.8%. Now I think I said previously that I dont find them to be accurate, just a consistent measure of direction. I know myself pretty well and would say the scales over estimate by something like 3-4%.Have not lost too much strength in the gym either which is good. Incline dumbell press is always my measure of strength as for me it is the exercise that varies most. Managed 2 working sets, 16 and 12, with 40kg dumbells yesterday. So pretty happy that my strength is still ok.
Its always good to know yourself and have a measuring exercise that you can assess your strength levels as you lose weight. Also important to track strength gains as you increase weight. If you weight goes up but your performance in the gym does not increase then it probably is a strong indicator that you are gaining the wrong kind of weight.Bit of a sensible eating period now as in laws visiting for a celebration of their ruby anniversary in a couple of weeks. Sure to be some crap food and alcohol consumed.
Following this a dedicated bulking routine now until I am 45. Fairly sure I am going to get fed up with eating
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I use Melio for the blood tests. All I had to do was go to the local Superdrug and they posted it off for me and I think I had the results in about 2 days!
The main reason I went with them was because I wanted to upload the data to Inside Tracker and they were the only company that did close to the full set of 42 biomarkers Inside Tracker wanted.
I also got my DNA done by SelfDecode, which was super interesting.
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@ryan said in Food/Diet and training hobbies:
@matt-wood yaive found you can go with one then switch to another if needed as like you say always sales.
Yep and although I have no real idea about it, I bet they all go to the same flippin lab and have the same people perform the same tests anyway
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@matt-wood yaive found you can go with one then switch to another if needed as like you say always sales.
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There are lots of these companies popping up now as it is getting more popular.
Medichecks is an older one with some decent reputation behind it. As always though pick your time. Sales abound on these companies now as they are all fighting for market share.
