The human body is well adapted to short periods of fasting repeated over time. Most people refrain from consuming food for at least 10-12 hours during the day, it is the period between dinner and the next day breakfast. But is it possible to successfully combine longer periods of intermittent fasting and sport? Yes! Be sure that you have all the equipment you will need for your training, and just to be sure Walk Jog Run got you covered. And this article will tell you the rest.
Fasting and exercise: how they combine
When training and fasting, it is good to keep some things in mind. If the goal is to lose weight, it is important to reduce calories moderately to lose 0.5-1% of body fat. It would be ideal to include strength training sessions in your routine and take lots of proteins (25% more for the total caloric intake to preserve lean muscle mass). It would also be better to plan your workouts before the most abundant meal of the day. For those who want to combine intense training and fasting, it is best to consult a doctor.
Training plan
What you need to do is simply train yourself on an empty stomach. If you want to drink coffee or any energy drink (even a pre-workout) you can, as long as it doesn’t contain more than 50 calories. Regarding catabolism part of metabolism, you can take 10g of BCAA to limit the damages. Your recommended training should start by exercising 3 times a week in a set of squat, deadlift and bench press exercises.
For each exercise, the following applies – 3 series of which the first is a range of 4 to 6 repetitions, the second a range from 6 to 8 and the third range from 8 to 10. Starting from 4 repetitions, using an appropriate weight, the next time you practice that exercise you will have to do 5 of them with the same weight, and then the next time 6. Once you reach the highest value of the range (in the case of the first series are 6 repetitions), increase the weight slightly and start the round at 4 again. This is the principle of linear progression. Do it also for the series from 6/8 and 8/10.
Post-workout tips
You should be taking 50% of the calories from carbohydrates in the post-workout meal. Remember that count calories during the day (or throughout the week/month) and not how many you take in a single meal.
Exercising and Diet 16:8
Those who follow the 16/8 diet; generally do so using a limited time interval that goes from 12 to 20 hours. Fasting then extends from dinner to lunch the next day. The training is generally scheduled for late morning, before lunch. All in order to provide the body with the nutrients that are needed to recover and grow in the post-workout phase. During the rest of the period in which it is allowed to eat, all the food must be evaluated according to the athlete’s needs.
What are the advantages?
In recent years intermittent fasting diets have also been proposed in sports. The typical goal of those who have chosen this strategy is related to the improvement of body composition, especially the reduction of fat mass.
The most commonly reported advantages are a decrease in body weight, reduction in fat mass, minimal or no reduction in lean mass, increase in peripheral insulin sensitivity… There is a whole series of other benefits related to the efficiency of cellular and mitochondrial energy processes.