Michael, I’ve seen the Horizon program twice and while I have no doubts that your research has been well tested, as someone who spends about 90 minutes 5 to 6 times a week on aerobic exercise there’s a part of my brain that just can’t accept that I can replace that with 3 minutes of HIT a week! Does it work for losing weight or only to improve fitness?

At almost 64 YO, I’ve been doing hard intervals for about 5 years in one form or another, along with strength training, which I think is critical as you age. it provides excellent benefits in terms of general fitness and function for me, and it is time efficient. I spend less than 90 minutes a week on formal exercise. doing more has never benefited me and tends to turn me into a slouch the rest of the time. I am not overweight and have no serious medical problems, and I only speak from my experience. Doing this much exercise has helped me stay fit to do what I enjoy. Instead of going to the gym for hours each week, I spend that time doing fun things. Of course, if you like going to the gym or working out, that’s another thing. I just don’t think most of us need to.

Dear group, try integrating the hit exercise into your other exercise routines. I am 68 with some medical problems so I limit the hit portion of the exercises, but definitely see the benefit of it. I take some time to unlearn all of the trash the medical profession, especially in the US, has taught us for years. Eat, fast, supplement and exercise and live a long time!

Thanks for clearing that up Michael, I will definitely read the book. As hardjudge says you can incorporate it into your existing exercise program and reap the benefits- sounds good to me!

@Sassafrass,
Great that you will try intervals, just be aware that high intensity exercise takes a little getting used to, and it does take a toll on recovery. You might find yourself doing less endurance training, but I think you will like the effect over time of doing less volume at higher intensity.
Good luck!

Is HIT like interval training then?

Another question .. In the original programme The Truth About Exercise wasn’t HIT specific to a specific genetic profile… ie it benefited some better than others… my memory may be wrong here..

Incidentally I have lost 2 stone on the Fast Diet since July 2013 and now within sight of being 12st… so many many thanks… had a brill Christmas .. being piggy and guilt free and fasting… and feeling really good on it.

HIIT is the same as Interval training as HIIT is High Intensity Interval Training, that’s what it stands for.

For the first 6 months of last year I was doing a combination of HIIT and regular exercise for 45-60 minute sessions (mainly weight training) and also did the Fast Diet for a few months.

I had good results, reduced my weight and body fat but not sure about other stats but then I had a fall and had to stop exercising and the diet went out the window so now I’m back to square one.

Still have some back problems so can’t do anything too intensive at the moment but re-starting the diet today and will mainly walk for 60 minutes 2-3 times a week and do some HIIT when my back is feeling good.

JAT
Good for you to start the diet again. I’ve lost 36lbs in 10 months but it hasn’t all been plain sailing as I’ve had to change my thyroxine dose twice as my TSH levels got too low which of course slowed my weight loss for a while….
But I feel so good for the fasting and now I,ve lost this much people are starting to notice and comment!!!!But I really did the diet for me to get healthier.The weight loss has slowed and I,d like to lose another few kilos so I thought I’d try the Fast Exercise.

Hi,

Had a work colleague say he was going to do the 5:2 diet back in November. I had already seen the horizon program a few months earlier but didn’t connect the two.
I reluctantly decided to give it a go, reluctant because the title uses the two words I dislike the most, FAST and DIET !Anyway I started back in mid November and have been doing it ever since. I started at a weight of 99.2Kg’s and as of today I am 92.9Kg’s(Hmm synergy with the numbers !). I’m only a 167cm so i still have a fair way to go, although i seem to hold my weight in a stocky stature. I got the recipe book first, then I got the Fast Diet book as a requested family Christmas present. I bought the Exercise book last week .

I find I feel the most healthiness after a fast day, I’m not particularly hungry the following morning, but i do have a few questions.
1. I generally play golf early in the morning(7.00am) and there are times where it will be after a Fast day,I generally continue the Fast till after golf as I feel fantastic and light on the golf course but feel equally guilty when I break the Fast with a cold beer after the game. I only have 2-3 cans , is this detrimental to the Fast ?

2.I bought the Fast Exercise book and I have a cross trainer at home.I was thinking i would get the most out of a Fat burning session by doing it the very next morning after a Fast..the exercise book seems to suggest that the afternoon is better but the Fast Diet book suggests the morning? Which is better?

3. I generally do Monday’s and Thursday’s but will switch to fit in the work function, Xmas party etc. Last week i did Monday and Wednesday and had events and parties Thursday through to Saturday , If you do consecutive days as a fast is 5 days between fasts ineffective if the social life is filling all those 5 days?

I guess I’m asking because I have just taken off 5-6kgs over the Xmas/New year period and haven’t had to miss or sacrifice any events at all, seem to be doing very well, just want to fine tune it to get the most out of my efforts.I don’t fear or dread fasting days any longer(At the beginning I did), I actually quite enjoy the feeling of hunger these days as I know my body is going to work in repairing itself.
Cheers from Australia

Married man in my 50’s. I have gradually gained weight over the years, despite or because of yoyo dieting. Now 1.5 stone over weight and ready to something about it! This IF diet sounds like something I could keep doing in the long term. Let’s see

Thanks for that Beavergong and Stef,
Beer-nuts !!great suggestion ! I actually did have peanut butter on toast in the morning, but given it was the one slice and I wasn’t going to eat again for 5 hours I considered the fast still on. I have noticed that there is a thread for southern hemispherites so i might nick on over there , apologies for placing this in the exercise thread.

When I was a teenager, I was engaged in “serious” sport. I was swimming up to 7 km per day. At some point I’d reached a plateau were I wasn’t improving. I wasn’t getting any faster.

So my trainer changed my workout plan, and fitted in the following training exercise:

4 x 200 metres as follows:
1 length (50 m) freestyle, breathing every 3 strokes
1 length, breathing every 5 strokes
1 length, breathing every 7 stokes
1 length, with max. two breaths for the entire length

This put my body under the same type of stress you mentioned in your film, and about two weeks later I had qualified within the Junior Olympic time range, and my workouts were able to be reduced to swimming about 3 km per day for maintenance levels.

I’m not sure that the Fast Exercise Plan will do much for long-distance endurance, but I do believe it will bring about marked improvement for overall performance.

@yoyo
“I will try this exersice and see how much I can improve things, but I think I will need to go every slowly.”

This is courageous of you to consider this and only you would know what’s best for you.

Having someone at your side to monitor you may also be appropriate.

➰

Hi
I’ve watched both documentaries and read both books and like the idea of HIT mixed with an alternate day fasting diet ADF. I have a simple questions about research concerning IGF1.

One of the main benefits of IF is reducing your IGF1 (linked to many cancers).
One of the effects of HIT is to boost IGF1 and testosterone.

So don’t these cancel out?
(I’m aware there are other benefits besides this and have adopted both protocols for the numerous other benefits. I’m just wondering if anyone (Michael?) has research on whether the reduction in IGF1 through fasting, is somewhat counteracted by HIT, and to what extent?

Anyone read any actual science on this issue?

@beavergong
“Can anyone tell me the benefit of one over the other?”

Maybe you could tell us the benefit for you?

I’m sticking with the science based Tabata of 20:10 (20 secs full speed, 10 secs rest) for 8 repetitions. 4 Minutes & it’s a complete cardio workout.

I’m drained after that.

It may just be an individual preference.

Ultimately, just do something.

➰

I live in the U.S. and will have to wait until the end of the March for the book to be published here! Oh well. It’s on pre-order for sure!

I decided to see what exercising on a fast day was like. I managed in a 5 mile run and felt fantastic.

I use a Garmin GPS and a a heart rate monitor but made the assumption that I can’t “claim back” the calories that i burnt off during exercise.

More than two years on, and with the greatest respect to yoyo, I too would like a considered response to snelly’s question regarding the apparently contradictory effects of HIIT and IF respectively on IGF-1.

For the record, I am 56 years of age and have had great results so far from 5:2 IF, losing a stone after 20 fast days. I now weigh significantly less than my rugby-playing 18 year-old self and would have stopped here but for my perception that I need to lose more belly fat to reach and go beyond that 1:2 waist/height ratio, (I have ‘only’ 1-2 cm to go).

I had built up to 25km a week running (2x10km and 1x5km alternate day) until I bruised(?) my heel and have switched to HIIT on the exercise bike*. Hence, my interest in a response to snelly’s enquiry.

If I reach maintenance mode and continue with HIIT my interest in this science will remain relevant.

Having bought the books (well, family members have) and testified happily to the benefits of combining IF and HIIT, and having spent more time than I would have liked trying to make sense of what little I have found on line (well nothing, actually, it seems to me) with a direct bearing on this question, I would be most grateful if the web-meister or someone could give Michael a nudge and ask him for his opinion. In the book ‘fast exercise’ there is not a single mention of IGF-1, which frankly, I find a little strange.

Of course, I would be most grateful if anyone else would like to weigh in with an informed opinion.

*I feel that even my modest tri-weekly 4×15 second sprints against moderate resistance with 1 minute 45 second recoveries are doing me a power of good.

Thank you yoyo, there’s a lot to unpack isn’t there. The Tim Ferriss thing reminded me that I don’t want to become obsessed with data. The question in the forum hasn’t been answered but maybe it doesn’t matter or there is no reliable theory on it right now. In the end we play the cards we have been dealt as well as we can. On the other hand the boundaries of our knowledge are being pushed back…