Intermittent Fasting Tips for Adventurous Bodybuilders and Athletes

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Despite its somewhat cult image, more and more trainers are now taking up Intermittent Fasting.

The reason for this is that the benefits of IF can actually be felt – people find their asthma/ allergy symptoms disappear, their hypoglycaemic symptoms vanish and they feel and look generally better.

As well as this, the adventurous trainers who are trying Intermittent Fasting are getting leaner and more muscular than ever before.

If your just starting out on IF, like any new thing, you may find some aspects difficult to manage:

For a start, you’re going to have to deal with periods of real hunger. This feeling may come as a shock to your system if you’ve just come off of a standard 6 to 8 meal a day plan - you will have to work out ways to best deal with it.

One tool available is to use caffeinated drinks such as coffee and tea which act as appetite suppressants. As well real hunger, your body isn’t going to be used to the feelings you get after eating a huge meal if you’re accustomed to eating little and often – be prepared to have to relax during the re-feeding period.

Don’t fall into the trap of avoiding high fat foods like meats, cheese and nuts or worry about starchy carbs like rice, potatoes and beans on IF thinking that these foods will make you fat. Your meals will have to be based around calorie dense foods for you to fulfil your daily energy needs in a 4 or 8 hour eating window. Also bear in mind that you will deal with carbs better on IF because your insulin sensitivity will be improved (1).

Even though you’re supposed to be avoiding food, it’s a good idea to make use of small recovery meals if you exercise vigorously during fasting. Well designed post-workout meals will help you to build muscle and to recover more quickly after exercise by optimising hormone levels and supplying crucial nutrients.

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There is a lot of research supporting the idea that daily drinking of caffeinated beverages is beneficial for most people; caffeinated drinks, however, can serve a special purpose during the fasting phase of an Intermittent Fasting day.

Delicious caffeinated drinks such as coffee, (oolong tea) and green tea all work well to suppress your appetite and can be used to make the long daily fast more comfortable.

When I’ve been following a ‘16 hours fasting 8 hours eating’ Intermittent Fasting plan, I became extremely, uncomfortably, hungry everyday for the last two hours of the fast and would find it difficult to concentrate on everyday tasks. This very nearly broke my resolve to keep going with IF – I was certainly not willing to endure two depressing hours every day when I felt fine on a 3 meal a day eating plan.

The solution to the problem was simple - have two mugs of coffee at 11am (2 hours til feast time) and another mug at 12. This meant that, not only could I get through until 1pm, but I actually started to look forward to 11 o clock (I love coffee) and these 2 hours became comfortable again.

Out of the caffeinated drinks that I’ve listed, coffee is likely to work the best for appetite suppression, but teas work well for many as well. As well as a diminished appetite, there are other benefits regular coffee and tea drinkers gain such as improved insulin sensitivity(2) and improved liver function(3).

Obviously abusing caffeine won’t help you – have as many drinks as you like but look out for signs of overstimulation such as rapid heart beat, sweating, nausea, headaches etc. You’ll quickly find how many cups suits you best.

2) Don’t be a Fat Phob!

Besides believing in all of the various unsubstantiated claims that fat, saturated fat in particular, will clog your arteries, make you diabetic etc., most bodybuilders worry about fat because it’s high in calories and can contribute to weight gain.

You don’t need to limit obsessively the fat in your diet while your doing Intermittent Fasting; in fact, eating a low fat diet will hurt your muscle building efforts. Below is a non exhaustive list of why you may not want to avoid fat:

1) Low fat diets, i.e. under 30 % of calories, lower testosterone levels.(4)

2) Low fat diets are low in cholesterol and cholesterol is the building block of testosterone – a high cholesterol diet raises T levels.

3) A low fat diet does not provide sufficient quantities of the essential animal fats arachidonic acid and D.H.A. to support optimal muscle gain.

4) Low fat diets are low in fat soluble vitamins that support healthy T levels.

5) Low fat diets hinder nutrient absorption generally.

6) Low fat diets deplete vitamin a stores and vitamin a is important for protein utilisation and optimal hormone balance (see 'Increase Testosterone Level Naturally With Vitamin A')

7) Low fat diets limit protein digestion and absorption thereby hurting your muscle gains.

Apart from the above, you will need to eat high fat foods to make up your calories each day. This means eating fattier cuts of meat and using high fat foods such as coconut milk, cream and cheese in your massive meals during the re-feeding period.

Whilst doing Intermittent Fasting you can enjoy these satisfying foods alongside high calorie starchy carb foods like pasta, roast potatoes, rice and beans etc. without immediately becoming obese – you’ve done the hard work during the fast, make sure you enjoy the feast!

Whilst many bodybuilders are still scared of fat, there are a whole lot of dieters who are afraid of eating carbs nowadays. You can enjoy starchy carbs and even the occasional dessert during the eating period of an Intermittent Fasting day. The fasting and the exercise you will be doing will protect you against insulin resistance leaving you free to enjoy your food when it finally arrives.

Whilst on a 6 or 8 meal a day eating plan you may have come to the conclusion that you don’t handle starchy carbs well and that you can only see your six pack when you limit your diet to meats, eggs, vegetables and some fruits.

This situation changes somewhat when you adopt Intermittent Fasting. Fasting burns stored glycogen, raises adiponectin levels and improves insulin sensitivity (see this article), so you will be able to eat more carbs during the re-feeding period without gaining fat.

Aside from gaining fat, many people limit dietary starch because they feel spacey and tired after eating them and may feel symptoms of hypoglycaemia a couple of hours after eating. For many people these feelings disappear on IF.

Whilst doing Intermittent Fasting you can enjoy insulin’s anabolic, muscle-building qualities without having to worry so much about fat gain. In fact, sufficient dietary carbohydrate is crucial to long-term weight loss and healthy body composition:

It is well known that severe restriction of dietary carbohydrate can lead to a sluggish metabolism because t3 (a thyroid hormone) requires insulin to be fully activated. Chronic carb restriction can also cause long term elevation of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). This leads to a desensitisation of thyroid receptors and results in a slower metabolism.

In addition to this, when you chronically restrict carbs in an attempt to keep insulin levels permanently low, igf-1’s and growth hormone’s anabolic actions are limited and this can stop you from reaching your muscle building potential.

4) Consider using small post-workout meals during the fast

Many people like to exercise whilst in a fasted state because they feel more alert and fresh etc. This is because they are not dealing with any digestive burden that would weigh them down during exercise. As well as this, fasting has put you into an aggressive sympathetic nervous system dominant state where you're ready for action.

Great sounding arguments are made for and against training in a fasted state:

- Some argue that you will burn more fat if you exercise during a fast because you will not have glucose in the bloodstream and will have less glycogen in the liver to burn off before you start using free fatty acids to fuel your exercise.

- Others argue that having low available glucose and low glycogen levels will hurt your training performance and will render you unable to carry out the volume of exercise needed to build muscle and to burn fat.

- Some argue that cortisol, a stress hormone, is high during a fast and this makes it likely that you will experience muscle catabolism from aerobic exercise and that muscle gains from weights training will be minimised.

- Others respond that the cortisol rise that occurs during fasting is beneficial to training performance and muscle building because it triggers the release of testosterone from the adrenal glands. As long as you don’t chronically under-eat, the stress from fasting will cause your body to grow stronger and to adopt to a higher exercise volume.

I would never discourage someone from exercising (unless you’re talking about endless jogging)… do what you enjoy and what works for you.

Personally, I don’t look to train aerobically before breakfast – I’ve tried it many times and find that my performance level is consistently much lower and training becomes a miserable experience. I do, however, aim to do my weight training around 4 hours after having eaten – I feel aggressive and powerful at this time, probably because of the rise in adrenaline and cortisol after not eating.

Post-workout meal ideas:

If you do choose to lift weights or train aerobically during the fasting phase of Intermittent Fasting, consider using a well designed post-workout shake. A cheap shake can be easily made - combine in a blender a scoop of high quality whey protein (approx. 30 grams), with a simple carb source like grape juice and maybe some easily digestible fat like coconut milk.

Alternatively you could eat a bowl of yogurt with a scoop of whey mixed in sweetened with a glucose based sweetener such as rice or malt syrup (some fructose is OK post workout though if you prefer honey). Eating a meal like these post-workout puts you in a great state to build muscle and to recover quickly.

The insulin spike from the carbs and amino acids opposes the cortisol rise that occurs after exercise and turns off muscle catabolism, allowing you to start building muscle.

In addition to this, the insulin spike increases the levels of the anabolic hormone igf-1 and finalises the actions of growth hormone and testosterone. The dairy products in your shake also raise igf-1 levels and will therefore benefit you at this time.

You’ve gone through the long fast, maybe 18 hours or so, and now it’s time to eat. You’re absolutely ravenous and happy to dive into steak, mashed potatoes, beans, eggs, mushrooms etc. followed by strawberries and cream.

You know that you can eat this highly calorific, delicious meal whilst following an Intermittent Fasting plan and not only will you remain lean and healthy but the meal will help you to gain muscle.

The problem comes when you finish… the sudden ingestion of so many calories and nutrients knocks you out. There are a few different reasons for this:

The insulin spike that occurs after this meal is larger than you normally experience. One reason for this is that adiponectin levels rise drastically after a fast and insulin works more effectively.(See 'IF Increases Insulin Sensitivity')

Secondly, if you eat a massive calorie meal, like the ones you will be enjoying on an Intermittent Fasting plan, the insulin spike will always be huge - insulin will spike even higher when the meal contains both large quantities of fat and carbs.

An insulin spike shuttles all amino acids, except for tryptophan, out of the blood stream leaving tryptophan free to cross the blood brain barrier where it forms the sedating neurotransmitter serotonin. (for more detail see 'Ten Bodybuilding Foods That Increase Serotonin).

Serotonin is responsible for keeping you relaxed, composed and able to easily rest. However, after a long fast, where adrenaline has been fuelling your metabolism, the sudden influx of serotonin to the brain after eating can leave you slightly disorientated and a little fatigued.

Added to this you have the fact that blood rushes to your stomach and away from your brain and muscles after you eat a big meal. With a huge meal this can leave you tired and possibly even slightly depressed.

If this happens to you, DON’T WORRY! My advice would be to leave yourself time to relax after your first meal in the re-feed period. Watch trashy TV for a couple of hours or have a nap – by the time you wake up it will be time to eat again. Enjoy being a glutton because you’ve earned it.

Don’t set up a meeting where you have to be at your best straight after this meal, and obviously don’t try to exercise at this time. The whole idea behind Iintermittent Fasting is to feast and fast, you don’t expect to be on top form after Thanksgiving dinner so don’t expect to be after you eat on IF.

Finally…

For all you newbies to Intermittent Fasting, I hope that these tips help to make it slightly easier for you. There are pluses and minuses to all eating patterns but, if you minimise the negatives on IF, you are left with an eating plan that has the potential to make you leaner and more muscular than ever before and to greatly improve your health.

Read part two of this article for more Intermittent fasting tips and check out my other Intermittent Fasting articles for more information on the science behind Intermittent Fasting.

* Ed Clements, creator of muscle-health-fitness.com, is an independent health and fitness writer who specialises in dietary, supplementation and weights training advice for improving body composition and hormone balance.

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