52 yo male. Not trying to lose weight, trying to gain muscle.

I would like opinions and suggestions. I am a 52 year old male, and my goals are a little different than a lot of you. I don’t really need to lose weight- although what man wouldn’t like to be lower in body fat. I am trying to grow muscle, so I’m lifting and doing what I need to do that. I am also trying to eat a few more calories in general, and increase protein. I am using fasting more for the spike in HGH, as well as the autophagy benefits- I would love to have better skin, etc.

I almost naturally do an IF program, because I am not a breakfast eater. I am thinking I will do a 36-40 hour fast once a week. Do you think this will help with my goals? This seems to be about the right amount of time to preserve muscle, but am I getting the other benefits I’m looking for? I’ve read a lot on this, but most seems to be geared toward weight loss.

Thanks for your opinions and help!

Answer

Yes! This is the way.

I’ve been doing something similar for several months now, and have a pretty rock solid protocol that works for me.

I do a 5 day on/1 day off workout split (Push/Legs/Pull/Cardio/Total Body/Rest)
- The order of workouts is significant in that because of fasting on rest days, the body part you work out on the day prior to fasting will usually be lagging (which makes sense because you’re not eating during the recovery window). This is why I do a Total Body workout on that day.
- Alternatively, you could just rotate the workout you do on the day prior to fasting so no single body part lags
- Another option is to do cardio on the day prior to fasting to help fully deplete glycogen
On the rest days I do a full day fast (\~36 hours)
On the day prior to fasting I eat strict keto (<20g carbs)
- This extends the effective insulin depletion the body experiences to \~60hrs
On the 5 workout days, I eat in enough of a surplus to make up for the fasting day and give me an extra 500 cal per day
- e.g. if you need 3000 Cal/day to bulk, eat 3000 Cal * 6 days / 5 days = 3600 Cal (i.e. eating 6 days of calories in 5 days)
Eat at least 1g protein/lbs body weight and keep fat to less than 0.4g/lbs body weight
- Don’t set fat as a % macro. Since you’re eating in a huge surplus, you’ll potentially end up getting way too much fat even at modest fat % like 20%.

You will gain some fat using this method (\~25% of my weight gain was fat). So eventually you’ll want to cut. Just decrease the calories you eat daily to maintenance and fast 2d/week (\~60hr) instead of 1d/week (\~36 hr).

Early in a cut, you’ll want to lose \~1+lbs/week while you have more body fat so fast for 2 days. Later in a cut, as your body fat decreases, you’ll want to lose \~0.5+lbs/week so decrease to 1 day of fasting.
during the cut I also incorporate 16:8 IF

Answer

Weight loss or muscle gain is 100% determined by calories in vs calories out. Guys need roughly 2000 calories per day to lose weight, 2500 to maintain and 3000 calories to bulk. Girls need 1500 calories to lose weight. This is a general guideline. Fasting has nothing to do with weight loss or muscle gain your total calories for the day does. Building muscle is determined by eating in a caloric surplus and progressively overload on your exercises.

52 yo male. Not trying to lose weight, trying to gain muscle.

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