Fasting with weight training page

[Caveman_chris]

Hi everyone, been 'primal' since new year and lost quite a bit of weight/fat in that time (21lbs) but I seem to have hit a platea. If was hoping to break this with a bi-weekly 18-24hr fast,but.......I'm also doing stronglifts and seeing quite an increase in strength (dead lifting BW) and I do not want fasting to cause a lack in strength/power on a lifting day or cause recovery to be less effective.

Any help/advice on when to fast would be great.

Oh, and I train mon,wed,fri

Thanks Chris.

[primalrob]

fasted weight training is great, but i would stick with 18 hours rather than 24. i used to do eat stop eat and stronglifts, and my numbers were horrible after my fasting day. switching to a leangains style fast, 18/6 for me, worked great. even working out in a fasted state i was still hitting good numbers with plenty of energy. check out leangains.com for more specific info...martin has tons of information.

[Wanderlust]

I'm not a "leangains" or big on IFing, so take it for what it's worth. I'm all about "accidental IF" meaning you go along grok dumb and happy, poof don't feel the need to eat so you don't, which ends up being an 18-24hr fast. I'm not a fan of trying to force yourself into a fast.

Last week I had an accidental IF until about 7pm, I work out around 6pm. I ended up squatting 15 lbs more than before. I usually only see 5-10lbs gains, so it was at least an extra 5 pounds. Also feel really good that day.

That being said, training while fasting is fine, but personally I wouldn't recommend doing it all the time or more importantly trying to force your body into it. YMMV

[StackingPlates]

Fasting is primarily just a tool for folks who have a tough time managing their energy intake with other methods, not a magical panacea. Focus on your energy intake to assist in breaking through your plateau rather than a change in lifestyle which you seem hesitant to do anyway. If you've lost 21 pounds, and are still maintaining the same energy intake, then it is highly probable that you need to adjust it down to reflect your new TDEE with the lower weight. Start with a minor change (- 5-10%) and see if that does the trick. It's also good to note that weight is not the ideal tool of measuring progress so you may not actually be stalling in your fat loss at all...

For what it is worth, if you do decide to train fasted, you likely won't have a drop in performance. It varies by individual but myself, and many that I've worked with, actually feel stronger training in a fasted state.

[Caveman_chris]

Thanks for the replies guys. I had a look and leangains and there are a few different methods on there based around training, which is great.

The one that stood out to me was the later training one. Sooo......

Wake up Around 6.15am for work
Lightish lunch (meaty salad) at 12.00
Train between 4pm-5pm
Nice big PWM ending no later than 6pm
Fast for 18hrs
Rinse and repeat.

Tried this yesterday and although training was hard I still got all my reps in.

[TorMag]

I having been doing a version of leangains now for 8 weeks and been having great results. Lost almost 5 % body fat in that time period. I have found it very easy to do and not with much thought. I workout out everyday around noon, wait an hour after working out to eat. So my eating window is really around 2 pm to 9 pm. Since being Primal and fat adapted, I find no problems working out fasted. Sometimes I just forget to eat after working out, and around 4 pm, find myself very hungry all of a sudden.