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Last summer I tried intermittent fasting as an experiment attempting to lose some body weight to become a more efficient runner. I figured it would work for me because generally I would not get hungry in the morning until I actually ate something. I regularly work out twice a day, so to accomodate I took some protein / BCAA's around the workout that fell outside the eating window. Within the window my diet was high in healthy fats, plants and protein - basically all the stuff recommended for this kind of diet.

It worked great for about a month or so, and I lost a couple of kg. Then the cravings started, mostly for sugar. Could no longer focus at work, was irritable, exercise performance declined. I ended up gaining all the weight back + about 1kg or so before I decided to cut it off. Right now I'm on a predominantly plant-based diet for about half a year now, feeling great, faster and lighter than ever.

My point: if you're a (semi-)serious athlete with the same goals I had, by all means try it out, but don't expect a silver bullet. The overwhelming majority of athletes follow a normal diet schedule and eat significant amounts of carbohydrates. I encourage everyone to experiment with their body to see what works for them - it's the one thing that's all yours, after all. Just don't assume you're the exception.


Just wanted to add my experience with intermittent fasting. I'm 38 yrs old now. I started in May 2016. My rules are:

1) from 8pm until noon next day - eat nothing, drink lots of water and 1 cup of coffee when I get up. On training days BCAA during the training and whey shake afterwards.

2) from noon until 4pm - eat 2 meals of proteins, fresh veggies and fats. Important here is no carbs!

3) from 4pm until 8pm - eat everything, and lots of it :)

Results are great! I am close to max strength now, my concentration is better than ever, sugar cravings are next to none. I lost 5kg of mostly fats. Subjectively I look better than ever.

To conclude, the best is to try - maybe it'll fit you, maybe it won't. You have nothing to lose :)

EDIT: formatting

Haha I'd like to add one disclaimer: don't try during race season ;).
I think one (kind of specific) use case for that kind of diet as part of athletics is marathon prep. You really want to be prepared to burn fat during running a marathon.

In a normal (say up to half-marathon) running plan, getting faster and stronger by pre-feeding carbs feels good, but for the long distance it's a lot different.

Yes and no. Fat burning is an important part of distance running, but you can get many of the adaptations without running in a fasted state too often, whereas running fasted (/low glycogen) can severely hamper recovery and performance. I feel like the intense focus on fat burning is a bit of a fad (pun fully intended). You should also realise that boosting fat burning capabilities comes at the expense of glucose burning, which ultimately means you lose the ability to go into higher intensity zones. At the very least carb up before your speed workouts...

If you want to set yourself up for a successful marathon, I'd say being skilled in fueling yourself during the run is probably more important than optimizing fat burning.

From my limited marathon experience (two so far), the fuelling up doesn't really work 100%, even at large marathons with good supply stations, so you'll have to be prepared for fat burning (the little bags of carbs don't really suffice I found).

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