I want to start by saying I am not a muslim, and have never participated in ramadan, as I believe working in the gym as a personal trainer all day without water would not be safe. I do however intend to try ramadan at some point in the future so I can fully understand just what it feels like.
Having coached muslim personal training clients through the ramadan period and having personally tested a lot of fasting approaches over the last 5 years on myself has allowed me to come across ways to approach periods of fasting that can allow the maintenance of muscle mass, while gaining strength and at the same allowing body fat to be lost.
In the past I have spoken with individuals who have lost their hard earned muscle mass during the ramadan period and I have also spoken to Individuals who every year gain weight during the period.
From my experience I have seen that their are big eaters who eat less often and small eaters who graze throughout the day and this most likely has something to do with stomach size (the important organ of the digestive system) not your belly.
The individuals who generally are big eaters tend to gain weight and the small eaters tend to lose weight.
When the end of the daily fast is finished, the small eaters still eat a usual sized meal as this fills their stomach up and makes them feel satisfied but lose the ability to eat on the other maybe 3, 4, 5 etc occasions they would normally snack at, this drastically decreases their daily calorie intake and as a result lose weight, (body-fat and muscle mass.)
The individuals with bigger stomachs really build up an appetite during the day and tend to follow a feast / fast / feast approach. As these individuals usually eat too fast and they consume a huge number of calories in a very small amount of time.
I am one of those individuals who can eat a lot, people are often surprised by just how much I can pack away. But I easily gain body fat and lose muscle mass if i’m not careful with how I eat.
A few years ago I fasted every friday for 24 hours for a full year and tried different ways of eating after each fast.
I quickly found out that if I just went and had a massive feast, usually a huge burrito and half of my girlfriends as well I gained body fat.
I noticed that if I ate what would be classed as a clean meal after my fast, a protein source usually 4 chicken breasts, a little starchy carbs usually a few bananas and some vegetables, I lost weight.
So one approach most likely contained too many calories and the other not enough. The first approach would most likely also cause a large spike in blood sugar this could be beneficial if your muscles were depleted of glycogen but most likely if this is a recurring pattern and your not training like an athlete / already super lean then it will most likely increase fat storage, increase cravings, irritability, have negative effects on sleep quality and general energy making the fasting period harder.
So lets look at the problems generally faced and then I will explain potential solutions.
Number one – You can only drink water during your non fasting period, so precautions around training and being outside in hot weather are a must, excessive sweating would be idiotic. You also cant just down water in an attempt to hydrate yourself during the non fasted period, anyone who has done this before can tell you this is actually a great way to flush water out of your body increasing the dehydrated state.
Number two – If you usually eat small meals, you will not be able to eat large enough quantities of food during the small window of opportunity to meet your usual daily calorie intake.
Number three – If like me, when you have not eaten for a while you decide to eat what you have missed out on but also quite a bit extra to make up for the discomfort then you will overeat and gain bodyweight (fat).
So we need to eat in a way that allows us to eat the amount of calories we would usually eat, no more and no less so we maintain muscle mass but don’t gain body fat. We need to still be able to train our muscles, the use it or lose it principle, and we need to be careful with our hydration status.
So here is what I personally would do, based on the presumption that you are a healthy individual without any medical conditions that could be worsened by fasting.
I would eat a nutrient dense diet low in sugar, ensuring you get all your essential proteins and fats needed for optimal health. This will allow you to feel more easily satiated stopping overconsumption for those who usually gain weight. If you easily overeat this should reduce the possibility of that and you will be more likely to lose some body fat this year or at least you won’t gain it and if you usually under eat during this period, these foods tend to be denser in calories and make it harder to under consume energy so preserving muscle mass should be easier.
So what kind of foods would I recommend eating, well who ever you are, I would always advise eating some green vegetables. a couple of cupfuls a day. I would advise eating good fats (butter / avocado / nuts / seeds / coconut oil, animal fat) as these are the most satiating foods but also the densest in calories and moderate amounts of good quality protein sources aim for 1g per every lb of bodyweight (meat / fish/ eggs / poultry / dairy and whey). If you suspect you may be underrating still I would try to increase protein intake to 1.5g per lb of bodyweight to help preserve muscle mass, whey protein and essential amino acids would be easy implementations to your diet to help bring this number up.
I would advise finding out your usual daily calorie intake and then dividing it by 2. Eat two dense meals one at 9.45pm and one at 1am that allow you to eat the amount of calories you normally consume.
Hydration, first tip is don’t drink anything other than water, it wont hydrate you as well. second is include foods in your diet that have a high water intake like cucumbers and spinach, watermelon would seem like an obvious option but seems to have a diuretic effect and could increase cravings so I would not advise that. Third Keep sipping water don’t down it, and eat a few dates every so often as this can help get the water into your cells, as can a little Sea salt added to your water. Last tip don’t sweat very much if at all when training.
Exercise, When you sweat a lot you lose water, when you breath a lot you also lose water, so exercise done during ramadan needs to be done at a pace that does not allow sweating to occur and also that does not raise your heart rate / breathing rate too much. The solution in my opinion is low volume strength training at the end of the day stopping a rep or two short of failure, keep your sessions short no more than 30 minutes, train in a cool place and train no more than 3 times a week.
I really hope this helps you during your month of ramadan
To Your Success
Harry