Andreaz Engström wasn’t the only one at the Nordic Championships using intermittent fasting to take first place in his category.
Norwegian beauty and body fitness gold winner Kristine Weber is a big fan of the approach as well.
Me: Tell us a little about yourself – anything at all you’d like to share with someone that doesn’t know you.
Kristine: I am a goal-oriented girl who works very hard to achieve what I set my mind to. I never give up and I prefer to do things my own way – this means that I proudly can thank my own determination and knowledge if it goes well, and if it doesn’t I only have myself to blame and can and will learn from my mistakes. My training is my passion, and my main motivation is good health and just enjoying life with a fit and lean body. I work as a controller in finance and I love cats.
Me: Sounds like you have a solid mindset. I like it. How did you come across intermittent fasting and for how long have you been using it – you’ve mentioned that this eating pattern came naturally to you, and that you’ve never been a breakfast eater?
Kristine: Breakfast is something I eat occasionally on sundays or whenever I’m staying at a hotel, because I do enjoy a good breakfast – just not in my everyday life. Since I went to junior high I have prefered to skip breakfast, I’ve never felt a big hunger sensation early in the morning. Finally I got so fed up with eating just for the sake of it, so I began to eat my first meal at lunchtime – sometimes even later. I started to have this as a routine when I began to work after my studies, mainly because I get up at 5 am in the morning and the last thing on my mind at that time is food. I enjoy eating later in the day, especially after I come home from work and training. I first started reading about fasting/IF and all the benefits concerning this for over 2 years ago when my better half, David* started posting articles and research done on this subject. I was very glad to find out that I could continue my diet the way I had been doing for almost 10 years without any concerns about “your metabolism will slow down if you don’t eat every third hour” and all these myths, in addition this way of eating has a lot of benefits for me.
I helped David Höök get started with intermittent fasting a few years ago. He later went on and took first place in classic bodybuilding (Loaded Cup -07, Denmark). You can find him in the testimonials section (second from the top).
Me: Needless to say, I’m not much of a breakfast eater either. Could you describe a typical day in terms of diet and training?
Kristine: A typical day goes like this
- 5:00 – get up and get ready for work
- 6:15 – at work
- 9:00 – have had 4-5 cups of green tea by now
- 12:00 – a big tuna salad for lunch if I’m hungry, otherwise I’ll have a fruit (before a competiton I almost always skip lunch).
- 15:15 – at the gym; weight training (2-split) and cardio (I always do my cardio workout in the afternoon, besides the weekends)
- 17:00 – at home, a post-workout meal is usually cottage cheese with protein powder + some cereal, protein pancakes or an omelet
- 19:00 – dinner is usually fish, ground beef, pork and always with lots of vegetables.
- 21:00 – a small meal which is often similar to the one at 17:00, f.ex cottage cheese and some nuts
- 22:00 – good night, sleep tight
Me: Cool. So that’s a nine hour feeding window, which is fairly close to the ten hour feeding window I usually recommend for women. You’ve only been training since 2007. What resources did you first turn to?
Kristine: I have danced ballet since I was a little girl, so just over 20 years now. I joined a gym for 4 years ago because of a heart diagnosis, and that is one of the best decisions I have made. I started doing cardio and I went to many of the group lessons: aerobic, easy weight training, bodypump and so on. I did this for about 1.5 years and I transformed my body in a way I didn’t think was possible. I realized by now that I had to lift heavier weights on my own in order to continue my good progress, so I did – in Aug 2007. I started eating more vegetables and more proteins, and 7 months later I was ready for my first figure competition.
This concludes part one of the interview. Stay tuned for part two where we’ll talk some more about training among other things. Kristine will also share some valuable advice for female readers out there. In the meanwhile, feel free to check out Kristine’s blog.
