- Intermittent fasting has benefits for endurance athletes including reduced oxidative stress, increased insulin sensitivity, and an increased capacity to resist disease and aging. It can also help with body composition, endurance, and fat burning. - Different intermittent fasting approaches can include 24 hour fasts once a week, 18 hour fasts daily, or one meal per day. Fasting windows should be rotated and calorie/carb intake adjusted based on training volume. - Proper fueling around workouts is important, including potentially consuming fast-acting protein and carbs before and after long or intense sessions. Overall, intermittent fasting focuses on adjusting eating windows and meal timing rather than long-term calorie restriction.

1. © PURSUIT ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE© PURSUIT ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE
“We cannot solve problems by using the same kind
of thinking that we used when we created them.”
- Albert Einstein
Practical Intermittent Fasting for the
endurance athlete in the off-season
Coach Al Lyman, CSCS, FMS, HKC

2. Some Background First:
•Paradigm Shift: a new way to think
•Two P’s: Patience and Persistence
The Benefits
•Oxidative stress, insulin sensitivity, capacity to resist stress-disease-aging,
endurance and fat burning, body composition
Intermittent Fasting IS About
Intermittent Fasting Is NOT About
Quick Overview:
• Circadian Rhythms, ANS/SNS/PNS, and Other Stuff
Different Approaches
• 24 hour, 18 hour, 14 hour, 1 meal per day, every other day, every other week,
and on and on…
Rotating
How Do We Handle Training?
• Pre and post workout fueling, recovery, regeneration
A Reliable Way to Estimate Daily Caloric Needs
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Our Goals For This Evening:

3. • The Two Ps: Patient and persistent. Be both of these through this
process. Change is hard.
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Background - paradigm shift - other stuff
• 80% of your body composition is
determined by what you put in your
mouth.
• Junk in = junk out.
• No amount of exercise will make up for
crappy eating habits.
• So…..there are a LOT of reasons why we eat the way we do…

4. • Reduced oxidative stress:
Decreases the accumulation of oxidative radicals in the cell, and thereby prevents oxidative
damage to cellular proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids associated with aging and
disease.
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What Are The Benefits?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4283517/
• Increased insulin sensitivity:
Slows the rate of aging and reduces disease risk typically associated with a loss of insulin
sensitivity and declining mitochondrial efficiency.
• Increased capacity to resist disease, effects of aging:
Induces a cellular stress response (much as exercise does) in which our cells up-regulate
the expression of genes that increase the capacity to resist disease and extend a quality
lifespan.
• Reduced body-fat, improved endurance and fat burning:
Become a leaner, faster, better endurance athlete!

5. • A “diet”
• Starving yourself or creating a catabolic environment in
the body
• Calorie restriction or “deprivation”
• Restricting (chronically) the foods you enjoy eating or
what is normal, social eating
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Intermittent fasting is NOT about…

6. • Convenience
• Learning to distinguish the difference between
“cravings” and “hunger”
• Simply adjusting the timing of meals
• Learning about YOUR body’s response to a lack of
constant feeding
• Normalizing hormonal status (insulin predominantly)
• Enhancing fat burning vs sugar burning
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Intermittent Fasting IS About…

7. • When is our ideal feeding time?
• During the day, your sympathetic nervous system (SNS) puts your
body in an energy spending active mode, whereas…
• During the evening your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS)
puts your body in an energy replenishing relaxed and sleepy mode.
• SNS: stimulated by fasting and exercise
• PNS: stimulated by evening feeding, increases sleepiness and
relaxation
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Circadian Rhythms: Warrior Diet “Stuff”
Our natural clock and ANS – SNS – PNS

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• Alternate day, once or twice per week, every other
week?
• 24 Hour?
• 18 Hour?
• 14 Hour?
• 1 meal per day?
Different Approaches:
What is the ideal approach for you?

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Different Approaches: What will work best for you?
24 Hour - 6pm one day to 6pm the next day
• Is usually done once per week, hard to repeat frequently
• Above the ideal “18 hour” window (net fasting).
• Risk of catabolism, lower energy, reduced regeneration from (training).
• Can be hard to handle
• Can often disrupt sleep due to enhanced SNS activity.
One meal per day
• Allows for a true “18 hour” net fasting window.
• 4 hour eating window could be ideal: 4 to 8pm, 5 to 9pm, 6 to 10pm.
• Also easier to handle that a 24 hour fast.
• Fits nicely with our normal circadian rhythms
• Can be repeated daily
18 Hour - 6pm one day to 12noon the next day
• Simply “delay” breakfast until around the noon hour
• Can be done every day or on certain days per week (1st, 3rd, or 5th day).
• Much easier to handle than a 24 hour fast.

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Source: http://www.sportsscientists.com/2010/01/exercise-and-weight-loss-part-3-fat.html
• Glycogen (muscles and liver), stored fat, ketones
(for the brain), protein (BCAs), lactate (for the heart)
Review: multiple sources of energy and fuel

11. Do not eat or fuel prior to morning training sessions
Progress this “skill” (your ability to access fat as a primary
fuel) progressively over time…
• Begin by not fueling for any session lasting up to 90minutes
• Progress up to 3 hours
• Beyond 3 hours, fueling is an option
• Always CARRY fuel with you, in case you need it for any
reason (bonking!)
• Make your routine choices “clean” and whole food based
when possible
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How do we handle training: General guidelines
• This slide was borrowed from Training and Racing Nutrition Spreecast

12. Routine morning training:
• A post workout LOW glycemic high protein smoothie can work well.
• 20-30 grams protein from fast acting protein (whey, pea).
Higher intensity morning training:
• A pre-workout serving of super starch (Ucan) and /or a fast protein and a
post workout low glycemic, protein smoothie.
• You may add berries (low glycemic) and/or Ucan to this smoothie.
Longer (and/or higher intensity) training days:
• A pre-workout serving of super starch (UCan) and during training servings
every 45min to 1 hour. Treat post activity the same as above.
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How do we handle training: Specific guidelines

13. • Rotate fasting and non-fasting periods:
• Every 5 to 7, or 7 to 10 days, eat normally for a few days, or even over-
eat for a day or two.
• Rotate carbohydrate intake & amount of calories:
• When you do eat, eat in a way that reflects what you are doing in
training.
• During higher volume periods, increase calorie AND carb intake.
• During lower volume or no-training periods, reduce calorie and carb
intake.
• Eat well prior to your longest training days.
• When out on longer training days, CARRY fuel with you in case you
need it for any reason.
• Make your routine choices “clean” and whole food based when
possible.
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Rotate or Cycle In / Out

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• Be willing to make “mistakes” - it is just learning.
• The more reliant you are on a constant intake of sugar, e.g. the
“worse” your diet is right now, the harder these changes will be.
• The golden “rule” for training (and everything else):
Minimum effective dose
• Be patient with yourself. This is a process.
• Post workout is the ideal time for +carbs.
• The post workout fueling window is important.
• Per #5, if you train in the morning, have a smoothie afterward (20-
30gms fast protein - berries and greens are optional and may be
recommended.
Final Thoughts…

15. • Listen to your body.
• A craving is NOT hunger.
• Clean up your diet.
• Green tea, coffee (black).
• Reduce carbohydrate on LOW volume or NO volume training
days.
• Drink: a minimum of .5 oz of water per pound of body weight
per day.
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Other recommendations:

16. Your body requires you to take in a certain number of calories every day for energy. It seems
simple, but here's where most people mess up:
• Eat too little, and the weight you lose can start to come from your muscle.
• Eat too much, and you store energy as fat rather than building muscle.
Women:
BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age
in years)
Men:
BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age
in year)
Adjust for your usual activity level. Here are some modifiers to account for that:
• If you are sedentary (no exercise): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
• If you are lightly active (light exercise 1-3 days/week): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
• If you are moderately active (mod exercise 3-5 days/week): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
• If you are very active (hard exercise 6-7 days a week): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
• If you are extra active (hard exercise & physical job or 2x training): Calorie-Calc = BMR x 1.9
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A reliable way to estimate daily caloric needs