Intermittent fasting while trying to grow muscles

latiefziada
latiefziada Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi All,

All thoughts welcomed.

So, for a few months now I have been doing intermittent fasting IF, and I've been seeing some great results. Since April, I have come down from 99kg to 87kg and I've been enjoying food, and finding some really great recipes. Weight loss was the initial goal, especially since I'm recovering from back surgery.

More recently, I've been reading about building muscles, losing weight first then building or building so that as the weight drops the muscles are revealed. I still have unanswered questions, but the one for this thread is, if I can fast 14 to 16 hours and still grow muscles (consuming about 2,300 cal, and hitting the protein requirements) and resistance training? Or do the two not work well together?
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Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    In general you aren't going to put on much muscle in a calorie deficit regardless of IF or not. There are some noob gains to be had, but those are generally short lived. Building muscle is an anabolic process and when dieting your are in a catabolic state. The primary benefit to resistance training when dieting is preservation of muscle mass as it is a use it or lose it kind of thing...you will lose both fat and muscle in a catabolic state...resistance training along with adequate protein and a reasonable calorie deficit substantially mitigate muscle loss. It is much easier to maintain and preserve current muscle mass than to lose it and have to build back up later.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,072 Member
    Depends on what your maintenance level is. If 2300 is below maintenance, especially if it's more 200 or 300 calories below maintenance, you're unlikely to add much muscle. If 2300 is above maintenance, you'll find it easier to add muscle (with a progressive resistance training regiment and sufficient protein, of course). As cwolfman said, resistance training is still a good idea when eating below maintenance because it helps retain existing muscle.
  • latiefziada
    latiefziada Posts: 3 Member
    That is great, thanks. So, I have near 30 BMI, so there is lots of fat to work with. What is best? Continue with what I am doing to lost fat and maintain the muscle I have, or increase the calories with quality food and continue the training?
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    latiefziada wrote: »
    That is great, thanks. So, I have near 30 BMI, so there is lots of fat to work with. What is best? Continue with what I am doing to lost fat and maintain the muscle I have, or increase the calories with quality food and continue the training?

    You need to lose weight and continue training. How much of a deficit is 2300 calories...you could increase if it is a large deficit but if it's 500 calories or less deficit I would just stick to that and train. You don't want to go into any kind of a surplus and train at your current BMI as you will put on muscle, but you will put on more fat than muscle. If you get to a point where you actually want to bulk muscle with a surplus you should be around 10% BF before starting that process, though I don't think bulking is necessary for the vast majority of people.

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