I'm in a cut phase right now. For those of you who haven't hit 12% or less body fat yet (I'm on my way), I've noticed substantial improvement in the last 2 months on a plan I've tailored to my own psychology.

Most diets, like Keto, Whole30, Atkins, Daniel Diet, etc. are difficult to follow for most people because the temptation to "cheat" is way too high. In essence, where RP uses the word "Rambo" for someone who goes in too far, too fast, that's what most diets expect - that you cold-turkey start eating a brand new way one day.

Intermittent fasting was very intriguing to me for a variety of reasons, but what made it sustainable long-term was that I had a short-term goal to look forward to: I just had to make it to dinner, which was easy when occupied by work. Unfortunately, my body adapted to my new caloric intake levels and eating pattern to a point where I just stopped losing weight or feeling the fat-burn (i.e. intense hunger), no matter how much I worked out or pounded the road. I employed intermittent fasting for the last year and found that after the first few weeks I had normalized and didn't see much improvement from ongoing application after that. I had to supplement with other more hard-core periodic diets (which last year I had done the Whole30 twice).

Rather than doing a more hard-core long-term diet, I decided to compromise and started doing what I'm calling "random interval fasting." I'm sure this is actually a thing that has a real name, but I haven't seen it in my brief researching.

What is it?

Basically, I have "off" and "on" days with regard to food.

  • OFF: I consume only 500 or less calories + as many vegetables as I want. If possible, my total net calories for the day, after going to the gym is 0 or less, but this isn't necessary. Most days I don't actually end up eating my 500 calories ... I might eat 200 on average, being motivated for better and quicker results.

  • ON: I eat whatever I normally would have if I wasn't dieting, which is usually around 2,300 calories or 3,000 if I'm hitting the gym hard (i.e. 2+ hours).

I rotate with two off days followed by an on day - but if a life circumstance comes up that would make it inconvenient for a particular day to be an "off" day (ex. a work luncheon, family in town, etc.), then I just switch days or have two "on" days in a row at the expense of an off day. The goal is simply never to have more than two "on" days in a row and to maintain at least a 50/50 ration of on/off days, preferably a 1/3::2/3 ratio.

Why does it work for me?

It gives me incredible flexibility in the dieting process, whereas more long-term diets often lend themselves to people having to "cheat" every now and then, which ultimately causes them to give up the diet.

It also gives short-term goals. I don't have to tell myself I'll never be able to eat pizza or nachos again - I just have to wait 2 or so days. Having this goal in near-sight make it seem immediately achievable.

Compared with intermittent fasting, my overall caloric intake over a week is substantially lower. On weeks with only 2 "on" days (which with my usual rotation is 2/3 of the weeks), if I'm at the gym 4-5 times that week, I can easily have a net-0 or even negative caloric intake for the week, while still feeling fully satisfied from the two days that I'm eating normally, which usually tides me over for the day after as well. Accordingly, the second "on" day is the only day when I really feel hungry, but by then I have the motivation that "tomorrow I can eat whatever I want."

My body is not adapting to the reduced caloric intake (at least not after 2 months). I am seeing steady improvements every week.

On a psychological level, I believe that this is something that is sustainable. As I approach my target body fat %, I simply have to adjust my ratio of on/off days and keep going, making the diet even easier.

Most useful concept for me when trying to lose weight: When you feel an intense hunger, that's your body's way of saying it's burning fat. Those are the times that it should be easiest to avoid eating, not most tempting: because you can literally feel the results working, so why placate and stifle the very thing you're trying to accomplish? Let your hunger be your motivator.

Of course, my traditional struggle with food in the past has been eating out of boredom (which is where intermittent fasting helped a lot), so the hunger itself never became a motivator in the same way.