Sorry I was MIA yesterday, but by the time I got home and jumped on, the website was under construction.
For the last 2 days, I have been doing 5 packets on workout days. I have been having 2 at breakfast, 6-8 oz. protein at lunch, 1 packet pre-work out, 1 packet post workout and 1 packet at dinner.
Doubling up at breakfast has been immensily satisfying! I was never really satisfied at breakfast was would be hungry for lunch by 11. Now I am feeling quite full all morning, and am loving that.
My workouts consist of Crossfit. It is part weights part cardio. I would liken it to a bootcamp or circuit training. It is an extremely intense workout. My doc actually does xfit as well, which is how I met him in the first place. From warm up to cool down, I am working out for roughly 1 hour. I would think that in order to go upwards of 4 packets, you should be doing something of at least medium intensity. If you are going to go for a 30 minute walk, I would THINK that you don't need to have any more than the 3 packets. If you are running, lifting weights, spinning etc... then you can follow the athletic protocol more closely. I am by no means an official on this, but just sharing based off of conversations with my doc.
I have heard (from the boards) that someone's coach mentioned about not spacing too evenly the packets. Something about if you keep feeding your body, it won't neccessarily burn the fat for energy because you keep giving it something to burn instead. I don't know if this is true or not, but that is why I doubled up at bfast so that I wasn't eating every 2 hours.
Waterbaby- is today for 4th day back OP or your 4th day on Athletic or are they one in the same? The reason I ask is because if it is your 4th day total back OP, the 5 pounds would be skewed b/c of the big drop in the first week. Just curious. I am starting day 3 of the Athletic Protocol but I am challenging myself to stay off of the scale, so I won't really know until Wed. how it worked