I recently lost weight through intermittent fasting and skipping, now I want to build muscle.
I was wondering how to integrate intermittent fasting, weight training and running, in order to achieve increased muscle and also able to run the distance I am currently capable of.
I have been running 5-10 Kms three times a week for the past month and want to continue this habit, even if on a reduced scale.
My main query is: what is the best combination to exercise, fast and run; and achieve the best results.
I’m female eat one meal a day. I ran 4-5 times a week, lifted 3-4 times a week, all workouts fasted, and maintained decent muscle mass and strength.
However, when I STOPPED working out but maintained the same eating habits, I lost a lot of muscle mass.
If I fast,I HAVE to do some weight training to maintain muscle mass and strength.
Edit: You have to know your body. If I even stop running which is endurance and typically won’t build muscle, I lose muscle. I also gain if I start running again (jogging, nothing “fast” haha). For most people it’s the other way around. I just thought I’d post to show that it’s not always A or B, it could be somewhere in between or the complete opposite.
The most important thing is” design a schedule that you can stick to. “sustainable” is 100x more important than “optimal.”
That being said, here are some things to keep in mind:
Ideally, you should be having a large protein meal within 24 hours after a heavy lifting session. Importantly, there’s no evidence that it matters when in that 24 hours you have a protein meal. So If you want to do a 48hr fast and workout 36 hours in to that fast, that’s fine. But if you lift 12 hours in to a 48 hour fast the ‘growth priming’ effect of the work out will start to wear off before the end of the fast.
A 5K is a pretty short run. If it were a longer run, I might recommend running fasted so that you can stress your lipid metabolism. But at only 5-10K, I don’t think it will matter much if you run fasted v fed.
To put on and keep muscle while fasting make sure you eat when you eat and fast when you fast. Maintaining a caloric deficit over time = starvation and muscle loss; correct IF is muscle-sparing. But honestly, it’s not like it’s hard to run and lift weights. Just do whatever you want and maintain your IF schedule. If you do like a 72+hr fast regularly then you may not lift or run on day 2 or whatever but if you’re eating every day, your body will hardly notice.