Various fasting protocols have become popular over the last few years.
I guess the most popular being the 5:2 diet.
It is not revolutionary in its concept – it is essentially just a form of calorie restriction.
If your not familiar, it basically advocates eating a normal amount of calories for 5 days and 5-600 on fast days.
Could this work for you?
Possibly.
The only time I would suggest this is if you were training a limited number of times per week.
For example you trained 3-4 times at moderate intensity and duration.
That would mean that you could eat normally on the training days and then fast on two others.
If however like most of the 11,000 + triathletes reading this, you train 6-12 times a week this is definitely NOT for you.
If you a regular reader of these emails you will know why.
I believe in training for performance primarily, not for fat loss.
Fat loss is often a side effect of training, up to a point.
Beyond that it is of upmost importance that your nutrition is on point.
Whilst “fad” approaches like the 5:2 can work well for the general public, they are not designed for athletes like you and me.
However – that are very well marketed and as such we can all fall victim to thinking this is the way to go.
I’ll be honest with you here:
About 15 years ago I needed to shift a little fat and bought some fat burners – what a mistake.
They had a picture of a guy with a six pack on the front and I got sucked in.
I took them as instructed, only with half the dose.
Later that day I was shopping in the supermarket and felt very strange – almost nervous but for no reason.
I went home, went to bed and it went.
The next day I took the dose again and the same thing happened.
It was NOT nice.
Essentially they were full of stimulants, mainly caffeine and I was having some sort of anxiety attack – needless to say I binned them.
My advice to you then is to not look for the easy way out – there is none.
Also don’t think you are just a normal person looking tot lose weight.
You are not, you are an athlete, even if you don;t think so.
That means you need to eat differently.
Get my book – The Triathlete Nutrition Code:
http://www.nutri-tri.com/e-books/
It teaches you how to setup your own nutrition plan for you.
No fads or gimmicks.
It guides you through how to eat for your body type.
How to recover better.
How to set Protein, carbs and fat %.
Pete sent me this the other day:
“Great read Jamie, I’ve been making some very simple mistakes which have been letting me down. Following your diet, I’ve lost six pounds in six weeks. Only another 24 to go, lol!”
Get it here:
http://www.nutri-tri.com/e-books/
Jamie “Decaf” Leighton.