I’ve had great success with IF to lose 45 pounds and get to my goal weight, next stage of my journey is to gain lean muscle mass. Is it beneficial to continue fasting for this or would it be better to start eating several small meals a day as I attempt to gain muscles? I love fasting and feel my best when I’m doing it I just want to make sure I’m not slowing my fitness goals by doing so.
I’ve had no trouble gaining a lot of muscle mass on an 18:6 schedule with the odd OMAD thrown in over the last year. I’ve dropped 33 pounds this year despite all the muscle gain and some occasional regressions. You do need to give your body time to adjust to training fasted, just take it easy for a few months. Short, intense circuit sessions are ideal but I’ve done multiple hour climbing epics on a bike fasted too - you just need to work up to it.
It’s probably sub optimal compared to carbohydrate fuelled training with post workout protein but if you’re consistent and your goal is looking lean and muscular rather than bodybuilding bulk it’s no issue.
Also, you’ll probably fall off the wagon on fasting for a few weeks or months here and there. That’s OK, consider it a great time to go extra hard on the weights.
Don’t give up and continue with IF! I was searching on YTB for such topic as fasting for muscle gain and found this, I think that covers the main answers, hopefully it will help! https://youtu.be/\_1haCKZraO0
There is zero need to eat constantly to gain muscle mass. You can continue on an IF schedule.
However it is going to be generally recommended, if you are running a hypertrophy program where you life several days a week, you do not regularly exceed 24 hours without food.
You still need to eat enough to be able to build mass, you will lose performance fasting over 24 hours which will impact your ability to build lean mass.
So as long as we are talking about16/8-OMAD you can feel free to continue fasting.