Every other day diet aka Alternate day fasting

This seems like a good approach in that you get long fasts and also don't have big "feast" blowout every day. I am currently trying something like the "Every other day diet" aka JUDDD diet except I don't eat "whatever you want" on the "up" or high calorie day but do eat carbs. Seems to be working. The idea is to switch on the SIRT1 gene also known as the "skinny gene." I have tried the Warrior Diet for several years on and off with a 20 hour fast and 4 hour eating window but it did not really work--and I was kind of baffled given the reasoning behind the diet. But the reason it did not work, as I am reading elsewhere, was the opposite of what I might have guessed: likley the problem was not that I fasted too long, for 20 hours, but that I did not fast long enough. The "every other day" diet has longer fasts, more along the lines of 36 hours with one small, solid meal thrown in.

Currently I am doing one day of full-on eating, then fasting all night and the next complete day except for a solid but small dinner. As the diet mentions, while you are definitely hungry, you don't want to just chow down on the eating day despite what you might think. And maybe best of all you feel like you are off the roller-coaster of constant eating and frequent meals, however "healthy" the food in those meals may be. You get off the up-down blood sugar loop, hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia, caused by excessive insulin output by too-frequent eating.

Overall the idea is that while you can't just starve yourself all week, some people may really need to stretching out fasting times longer than 20 hours to give their body the "signal" for the SIRT1 gene to kick in. In a "hard loser" like myself, that may be what it takes!

Every other day diet
http://www.eoddiet.com/
Alternate day fasting
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/06/08/alternate-day-fasting.aspx

Here's a good FAQ
http://juddd.livejournal.com/44295.html

Good summary of different fasting strategies

Good summary of different fasting strategies

by Mark Sisson author of the Primal Blueprint

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-fast-part-six-choosing-a-method/#axzz37ZHxd8FZ

ALEs - key indicator of heart disease, maybe a key to reversing it

ALEs are basically degraded fats. They are lipids that have degraded due to oxidation, hence the term Advanced Lipid Peroxidation End Products. They cause damage in the body, much like their cousins AGEs (Advanced Glycation End Products).

MDA (Malondialdehyde)-modified LDL is a key ALE.

Upshot: catechins (found in certain teas) and rosemary extract have been found to reduce ALEs.

Ingestion of a tea rich in catechins leads to a reduction in body fat and malondialdehyde-modified LDL in men

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/81/1/122.abstract

Circulating malondialdehyde modified LDL is a biochemical risk marker for coronary artery disease

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1768480/


The Effects of Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) Leaves Powder on Glucose Level, Lipid Profile and Lipid Perodoxation
http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=44285#.U8Pl2haWdFQ

Get into seeds

Simple way to vastly improve your diet: get into seeds.

Get hold of these three seeds and have them in your kitchen to sprinkle on just about anything:

-Chia (Omega 3)
-Pumpkin (Omega 6 & 3)
-Poppy (Omega 9)

It's better to keep chia and pumpkin seeds in the fridge because Omega 3s tend to go rancid fast unless refrigerated.

All seeds are very dense in phytonutrients, the plant nutrients that don't show up on "vitamins and minerals" lists and are most missing from the modern diet. Seeds help make you feel full so don't feel the need to eat as much, and give that crunchy feel to food. They also have hard-to-find vitamins like B17 which has been linked to curing cancer. You don't need a lot, even a sprinkle or half teaspoon makes a big difference.

In all cases, drink a lot of water with seeds because the insoluble fiber needs to soak up a lot of water to stay fluid.
Other seeds
-Sesame seeds are high in lignans and antioxidants
-Sunflower seeds are not my favorite because they are sky-high in Omega 6s which we usually get too much of anyway.

-Flax seed has special benefits for women, but otherwise for Omega 3s I would go with Chia seeds which taste way better

-Hemp seeds have many benefits including Omega 6 and 3 but for me they cause an allergic reaction, I have tried them several times

Special note: Apricot seeds/kernels are sky-high in B17 which is considered by some a cure for cancer.

Benefits
-Seeds are like little insoluble fiber bombs. Insoluble fiber can be hard to come by usually found in the skins of fruits and vegetables and in nuts. Seeds make it simple to get insoluble fiber.

-Chia seeds in particular are the best source of ALA Omega 3s (different from the Omega 3s in fish oil; ALA is the precursor to EPA and DHA in fish oil and some of the ALA from Chia will convert to EPA and DHA. You need both.)

Egg coffee

Here's a new one: throw three or four egg yolks in your coffee. Gives you around 12-15 g protein, good clean fats, and great clean cholesterol (clean cholesterol is good for you see my older post).

Primal egg coffee: the best part of waking up
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-egg-coffee/

lighter weights may = longer gap post-workout before muscle building starts

This Poliquin article toward the end makes an important hypothesis, that a lighter weight load workout may result in the onset of muscle building around 4 hours post-workout as opposed to a heavy weight load workout which triggers muscle building in just one hour.

This makes total sense with my experience. I have noticed that more endurance-oriented lifting tends not to cause the strong craving for protein right after the workout but rather down the stretch so to speak hours later.

However, my exprience is also that the "carb window" doesn't change the same way i.e. the GLUT-4 window seems to be the same time frame regardless of the load of the workout. I personally have a GLUT-4 window roughly 30-90 minutes post-workout. During those times you can eat lots of carbs. I use waxy maize, milk, cookies etc.

In any case, this article also strongly advises that *volume* is the key to muscle building, whether lifting a lighter or heavier load.

Tip 357: Train With A High Volume To Build Muscle and Get Lean For Summer

http://www.poliquingroup.com/Tips/tabid/130/EntryId/1237/Tip-357-Train-With-A-High-Volume-To-Build-Muscle-and-Get-Lean-For-Summer.aspx

No internet week

Light and screens increase dopamine.

http://www.nointernetweek.co