Simply put, yes! People do seem to take IF too far. They read that a little IF is good for you, so they extrapolate and say a lot must be better. I don't know how many questions I've seen in the form of: "I fast 3-4 days a week while doing 5 days a week of crossfit and I'm not leaning out and my performance is terrible! Help!"

I totally buy into the IF arguments, but it's only something you should do as a microtweak once everything else is dialed in and you're not killing yourself with insane intensity in your activities. I'll IF, but it's truly "intermittent" not "scheduled". If I get busy at work, or am traveling or something like that and I miss a meal here or there, I don't worry about it. That's IF.

This is a good question. I think that lean gains (i.e. 16/8) should not be considered intermittent fasting, as it is by many. It is not intermittent if it is implemented in the same manner on a daily basis. Intermittent means "occurring at irregular intervals," so if you're eating in a certain window everyday, that would be a regular eating interval. People are very lax and imprecise with language, either out of laziness or ignorance, and I don't know which one is worse.

I recently got ragged on because I said I ate a small breakfast (between 50 and 250 calories) after I get back from my morning run. I also workout 2-3x a day, am active, and do things that require significant amounts of mental energy and concentration. Some people seem to think that if it's anything like conventional wisdom, it must be inherently wrong, so the extreme opposite must be better. But honestly, there are only a handful of people who I pay attention to on this website, and every one of them (save 1) has a gravitar. I'd also be very surprised if there were many "ripped" people eating just one meal a day. I can think of a couple who eat 2 meals a day and could be considered ripped (speaking of males here), but that's two , and I haven't even met them in real life.

I've been involved in some from of sport practically my entire life. I can tell you that I would not be able to compete in swimming, soccer, or lightweight crew if I were eating one meal a day.

I also don't see the problem. I eat sometime between 6 and 10pm daily, and follow a pretty steady schedule of :

• 6am wake up
• 30 oz of icewater
• body weight workout (bridges, squats, elevated decline pushups)
• 2 mile interval run
• 9 am coffee (sometimes with 2tbsp of coconut oil)
• 12 pm body weight workout (Hindu squats and pushups)
• 3 pm green tea
• 5pm 2 mile interval run
• daily groceries
• every other day weightlifting (Stronglifts 5by5) style.
• if workout day wait 60 minutes, otherwise eat.
• asleep by 12-1.

All in a fasted state. I've only seen gains, the few fail days I've had on the workout have been tied directly to getting less than 4 hrs sleep. So far I haven't seen any adverse effects.

I'm never hungry, and I'm only getting stronger and more fit... Anecdotal to be sure, but 'fasting' or limited eating window works for me!!

Pre and post workout nutrition has its importance but the most important thing overall is calories and proper macronutrient consumption.

I don't see how fasting has "gone mad" though. I 16/8 fast everyday, still get my calories in and fast maybe 24 hours once a week depending on a cheat meal. I get all the exact same calories, plus the added benefits from fasting.

Any real athletes? What do you mean by that? IF can and is followed by some paleo athletes.

Doing one meal a day has great benefits. It's not about weight for me. I'm no longer an athlete though. I do it for health and because it does not negatively effect my HIT workouts that I do about 2x/week.

Oh, and I use to be a collegiate wrestler. This included extended fasting and working out in a fasted state. The old school would tell you it makes you mentally and physically tougher. The new school can confirm the train low compete high sort of physiological benefits.

I compete (Muay Thai kickboxing) & have been doing IF for about 2 months now. I typically break my fast 2hrs before training. I haven't experimented training thai boxing in a fasted state yet.

I've been reading a lot about training low competing high. But it seems like the majority of message boards I visit are 50/50 about it & from the research it doesn't seem to have any carry over for competition. I think it might have some carry over when it comes to mental toughness. So I'm going to experiment with the concept.

Does anyone have any bad experiences from IF? Do you eventually crash and burn like some do on a keto diet? Because it's been going good for me the last few months so I'm kind of expecting a crash. I usually do the 16 hour fast from 10pm til 2pm the next day.

I think we may have gone mad, but not because IFing is actually stopping us from getting better performance and better health. I think we've gone mad because we have developed a lot of protocols for IFing, something that should be much simpler than this. Who knows what is the optimal duration of a feeding window for each one of us, or how many times we should eat during that window?

It's been a while since I started eating only when I'm really hungry (if the hunger doesn't go away after I drink some water or coffee) or after my workouts. Since I spend most of the day studying nowadays, I'll only eat if my hunger is really getting in the way of my studies.

Have you actually heard people suggesting 1 meal a day or a "feeding window"? I haven't seen anybody suggest 1 meal a day, personally.

And I have been following the 16/8 Leangains program for a few weeks now. I'd say it's pretty awesome. I lose weight if I eat good/maintain weight if I eat crap in the evenings, I save money by not eating out during the day, I don't stress over what I will eat at breakfast or lunch... I get a lot more water than before.

Then I break my fast when I get home in preparation for either muay thai or weightlifting. I eat right before leaving for it, and then I eat again when I get home from working out.

It works out perfectly all around. I don't see any 'madness' about it.