Nutrition

Getting Lean and Staying Muscular

Tired of seeing your muscles deflate and dilapidate when you’re trying to lose fat?

Withering into nothingness as the weeks wane on traditional cuts isn’t uncommon.

Luckily, there are some things you can do to combat the carnage of cutting.

Getting lean and staying muscular is possible, and it’s not as difficult as you think.

OLD ADVICE THAT HOLDS TRUE

Get lean first.

That was my advice in 3 Reminders for the Skinny-Fat Ectomorph, as well as many other articles and e-mails, because muscle is difficult to maintain when dieting down. Yet I still get e-mail after e-mail saying: “Every time I try to lean down I lose my muscle.”

Yeah, I kind of told you that would happen. But I guess I never explained why it would happen. So here’s the deal: If you plan on losing weight in a short amount of time (ie: a “cut”), you’re going to take some muscle with you unless (and this is a big unless) your nutrition and training are 100% spot on.

Usually, the faster you try losing fat, the more muscle will go with it.

The changes you have to make to lose fifteen pounds in eight weeks will be more drastic than the changes you have to make to lose fifteen pounds in twelve weeks.

These are the same changes that sabotage muscle mass.

(Hypothesis: This, I think, is why distance running is seen as a pacman of muscle tissue. When “cutting,” most people do some running while dropping their calories. Muscle goes bye bye and “cardio” gets the blame. But is it the aerobic training? Or is it that you’re going into short-term starvation?)

WHY YOU LOSE MUSCLE

Your muscles grow in response to training and nutrient intake: eat enough of the right food (see my Diet to End All Diets), train intensively and consistently with the right lifts (see a sample program in Skinny-F at to Superhuman), and get enough rest.

To ensure weight gain, most people overshoot their nutrient intake on “bulks.” They gain both muscle and fat, knowing that they will “cut” the fat after. Most “cuts,” however, alter both the training and nutrient intake.

Let’s think about this.

Two things that went into building muscle (nutrient intake and training) are changed. So what was responsible for all of your progress is suddenly non-existent or altered. How couldn’t your muscles also be affected?

WHAT NUTRIENT DEPRIVATION DOES

People usually say it takes 500 calories above your maintenance level to build muscle. (I’m not sure this is true, nor do I care to find out as I’m not a fan of exact numbers when it comes to nutrition.) To lose fat, however, the opposite is recommended: 500 calories below maintenance.

So if you come off of a 500+ calorie bulk and go on a -500 calorie cut, you’re swinging your intake 1000 calories and expecting muscle tissue to maintain the same level of homeostasis.

Even without adjusting your training routine (even though most people do), this change in calories in enough to effect levels of muscularity.

LOSING FAT AND GAINING MUSCLE

Most times, short-term fat loss programs also affect muscle tissue. To test this myself, I dropped 1000 calories from my diet for five consecutive days. The amount of food I ate wasn’t that far under what I would normally eat on an “off” day. The main difference was that I ate like it was an “off” day even on training days.

Over the course of the week, I noticed my muscles wither into apparent nothingness. This only took five days. Imagine what would happen over the span of eight weeks.

This consistent nutrient deficient mindset of most cuts is what propels my recommendation: get lean now. Be done with it. For the natural trainee, being lean and muscular simultaneously is much easier if you build slowly from a solid base.

WHAT IS THIS “SOLID” BASE?

Right, I keep talking about a “solid” base and not really quantifying it. First and foremost, don’t confuse “solid base” with “disgustingly lean six-pack.”

If I attempt to maintain a sickening level of leanness, a few things happen:

Strength (even slow cooking it the way I do) stagnates.
I lose motivation to train.
I get injured (likely trying to train at my previous level and pushing through days I have no motivation or mental clarity).

I would never be able to maintain a decent lifestyle or training regimen if I tried to stay as lean as possible every day.

Note that I said day.

My nutrition philosophy is based off of something I like to call nutrient autoregulation. While I touched on this in a previous skinny-fat article, it’s basically cycling calories (carbohydrates and fats for the most part) on a daily basis depending on both mood and feel.

Some days I just know that I need more calories or carbohydrates. (This comes from experience.) Or if I’m feeling especially lean, I’ll eat more. (I’m privy to eat a lot if I feel like I need to.)

So some days my body lives in a state of nutrient overload. Other days it lives in a state of nutrient deprivation. But I never go outside of my comfort zone and I always appear relatively “lean.”

In any given week, I rotate through having a no-pack to a two-pack to a six-pack. This fluctuation helps me maintain focus and have daily-to-weekly mini bulk-and-cut cycles. And I can only do this because I started out lean enough to afford the caloric fluctuations.

I live by the philosophy of never being one-to-two week away. So I allow fluctuations in body composition. Just nothing that can’t be undone within one week. This allows me to litter this website in half naked pictures of myself with a sick-pack and gain muscle at the same time.

When it comes to physique and “bulking,” part of me thinks that we should never be more than two weeks away from what we feel are “perfect” bodyfat levels. Perfect will of course be subjective.

But once we move beyond the two week feel, things get scary. You’re digging deeper. And it’s a lot harder to crawl from deeper holes.

So you can dig one hole, 50 feet deep, or you can dig 10 holes 5 feet deep.

Both work.

But finding a way out of the 50 foot hole is much more difficult.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR BULKING AND CUTTING

The one week philosophy is just what I prefer and can be summed up with:

Get to your ideal body fat level
Use nutrient autoregulation: overshooting nutrient intake some days, undershooting nutrient intake some days
Never wander out of your body fat comfort zone to the point of being able to undo the damage within one-two weeks (this takes some practice)

If the one week philosophy doesn’t sit well, you can still do traditional bulks and cuts. They essentially transform the one week rule into the eight week rule, meaning most people that bulk set themselves up to hit their ideal body composition after eight weeks of cutting.

But trying to lose fat in eight weeks requires the drastic and constant caloric swing. Therefore, most people simply aren’t big enough at the conclusion of their bulk to hit their ideal physique at the end of their cut.

This is why the cycle of bulking and cutting repeats yearly for most people. One winter of bulking and one summer of cutting simply doesn’t add the amount of quality of lean mass people want, so they repeat it over and over, year after year.

Say a twelve week bulk leads to twelve total pounds gained. Traditional bulks (read: natural, non-steroid) usually end in a 50-50 body fat to muscle split, so six of the twelve pounds is muscle, the other six is fat.

By nature of the caloric swing, a cut will take one to three pounds of muscle with it. (There’s a good chance that this isn’t lean tissue anyway, just increased glycogen and fluid storage that usually accompanies bulking. So even though it appears as solid muscle, it isn’t.) This results in three to five pounds of muscle gained over the entire body. Seems like a lot, but it isn’t readily noticeable spread across the entire frame.

So in order to be happy after a bulk and a cut, you will likely have to bulk beyond your ideal weight and escape the illusion of glycogen and fluid retention being “solid” lean tissue. This means gaining more fat—something most people aren’t comfortable with. (And let’s not forget the theory that fat sacks, once created, are there forever. They shrink, but don’t disappear.) Most people aren’t comfortable getting overly fat, which is why the cycle of bulking and cutting reoccurs yearly.

So it’s safe to generalize and say that your bulk—all bulks—aren’t as successful as initially thought, especially when considering the issue of glycogen and fluid storage.

GAINING MUSCLE AND LOSING FAT WITH FASTING

Fitness fads come and go, hence the word fad. But this intermittent fasting bit is different. The infamous clean bulk was infamous because it used to be damn near impossible.

Until intermittent fasting.

Now a day, a lot of people are able to get lean and gain muscle simultaneously. Or, at least, get lean and maintain muscle.

While scientific theories can be used to explain just why this is, I have a different “theory”. One that doesn’t involve hormones or any special scientific principles.

Just pluses and minuses.

Traditional cuts involve repeated days of eating below maintenance calories. These days are designated with a (-) symbol, representing coming in under your calorie goal. (-)’s doesn’t bode well for muscle. Muscle is metabolically expensive. The body won’t hold onto all of it if basic energy needs aren’t being met.

Traditional cuts log a (-) every day, so muscle isn’t prone to stick around.

But with something like intermittent fasting or nutrient autoregulation, there are (+) and even (o) days thrown into the mix.

(+) represents coming in above your calorie goal
(o) represents coming in at your calorie goal
(-) represents coming in below your calorie goal

Take Brad Pilon’s 24 hour, twice per week, Eat Stop Eat fasting for example. Two to four days per week log a (-) because of the fasts. But the other three to four days can log either a (o) or (+). These (+)’s and (o)’s, representing adequate or beyond adequate nutrient intake, go a long way in maintaining muscle. Starting from a solid base is advantageous because it allows for more (+) days as opposed to (o) days, making muscle gain more likely.

HOW TO DECIDE WHETHER TO CUT

With something like fasting or nutrient autoregulation, managing (+)’s, (o)’s, and (-)’s can be done to the point of losing fat, maintaining muscle, and even gaining muscle. But starting out with too much fat makes managing much more difficult. The solid base, however, affords more freedom. So it’s better to have a solid base, but it’s not absolutely necessary.

Although logging consecutive (-)’s can sacrifice muscle, it gets the fat loss job done faster. So ask yourself just how much muscle you really have and whether or not it’s going to be worth tip toeing around.

Using myself as an example, I wasn’t carrying around much muscle at the beginning of my journey. Although I didn’t know how to at the time, I technically could have used the (+), (-), and (o) system to try to lose fat and gain muscle. But going on a straight cut is beneficial for some because it gets you to a comfortable body fat level faster, reducing psychological baggage. It also allows you to monitor changes in body composition better. When you’re puffy, you’re always puffy. But when you’re lean, you can compare everything to your lean level — “bloat” is much easier to detect.

If you’re not immediately worried about body fat or don’t want to sacrifice muscle, however, spend some more time on the process and opt for nutrient autoregulation or some kind of intermittent fasting scheme that fluctuates between (+)’s, (-)’s, and (o)’s.

Here are some things to take home:

In order for muscle to grow, it needs “enough” nutrients at times. This “enough” will never happen on a constant caloric deprivation (ie: traditional cuts).
If you’re doing traditional bulks and cuts, recognize the swing you’re putting your body through.
Most bulks aren’t as successful as initially perceived because of fluid retention and loss from the subsequent cutting.
To get lean and maintain your muscle, it’s best to rotate between days of more nutrients and day of less nutrients.
Intermittent fasting allows adequate nutrient intake on most days, meaning muscle is prone to stick around.
Logging too many consecutive (-)’s increases potential for muscle loss.
Operating from a solid base makes muscle gain more likely, and makes it easier to run nutrient autoregulation from.

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How do YOU normally gain and cut weight? Do you follow the traditional bulk and cut? Or do you do something different? See you in the comments.

The Cheat Day Survival Guide

For many dieters and health conscientious folk, “cheating” is an integral slice of mental sanity. After a week of eating so-called “clean” foods and adhering to a strict “diet,” fitness enthusiasts around the globe take reprieve in being able to acknowledge and indulge in their wildest cravings.

Because of the mainstream popularity of The 4-Hour Body, cheat days are more prevalent than ever. Ferriss deems them a necessity to rebound hormone levels after days of dieting.

But, sadly, most cheat day fiascos end up hindering progress rather than enhancing it. So here are so ways to make sure that doesn’t happen.

WHY ALL CHEATS AREN’T CREATED EQUAL

Without getting fancy, under-eating triggers adaptations associated with minimal nutrient intake. So the body starts operating assuming a deprivation. Some processes, like muscle building, slow as the body “senses” the lack of consistent nutrients. “Cheating” resets things and stops the body from going too far into the “deprived” state.

As mentioned, The 4-Hour Body brought “cheating” to the mainstream world. But in the underground athletic fitness community, it’s been around for a while. Ferriss science-ified his recommended one cheat day per week by advocating “regular” breakfast, timed grapefruit juice intake, timed caffeine intake, special supplement use, and specifically timed intermittent workouts. If you’re interested in the details of his method, just check out The 4-Hour Body.

When it comes to food intake, there are no barriers on the Ferriss cheat day. As most dieters are starved for junk food, cheat days turn into an indulgence extravaganza. And therefore most people associate the concept of a “cheat day” with stuffing your gizzards with junk food. But this isn’t fully representative of “cheating.”

Let’s clarify some things.

Cheating: Breaking your normal dietary rules or plan out of personal desire. In this sense, eating a boatload of “healthy” food can also be “cheating.” Hunkering down 10000 kcals worth of oats would likely be a “cheat” simply because of the quantity, regardless of how “clean” oats are thought to be.
Cheat Meals: One meal in which cheating occurs. For instance, “My cheat meal is Sunday dinner, so I’ll have the cake then.”
Cheat Days: Entire days in which cheating occurs. For instance, “Sunday is my cheat day, so I’ll eat donuts for breakfast, pie for lunch, and pizza for dinner.”

Now, there are different levels of cheating. For some, eating a small hunk of chocolate is a cheat meal. For others, it’s opening their mouth underneath a chocolate fountain. So let’s clarify cheat volume.

Normal Cheat: Eating to satisfaction. Not stuffed. Not hungry.
Stuffed Cheat: Belt loosening. Shouldn’t eat anymore. Not really discomforting though. Almost euphoric feeling. No regrets.
Binging Cheat: Eating even though you are full. Mild discomfort. Regrettable. “I shouldn’t have ate that last slice of pizza.”
Gorging Cheat: When binging goes wild. Being sick to the stomach. Self loathing to follow. “I want to throw up to relieve the pressure in my stomach.”

THE DOWNFALLS OF CHEATING – THE DARK DAYS

No one is perfect. Cheating, in some capacity, is essential for everyone. Essential. But whether the cheat is a twelve egg omelette or twelve buffalo wings depends on discipline, goals, and philosophy.

Some can handle the cheat day mentality with moderation. For others, however, it becomes an uncontrollable spiral of regrettable habits very similar to binge drinking.

Small pieces of chocolate bars after meals become full blown desserts. Full blown desserts become sketchy meals. Sketchy meals become cheat meals. Cheat meals become cheat days. Cheat days become binges. Binges become gorges.

Not long ago, I fell into a pattern of gorging weekly. Every week, it got worse. Every week, I was filled with regret. I nicknamed this time period, “The Dark Days.” Below are some common symptoms.

1. Your entire week is spent plotting your cheat day. This wouldn’t be so bad except you eventually lose sight of what you live for. If the aim is to live a healthy life, what good is finding refuge in the single most “unhealthy” moment of the week?

And if this “unhealthy” moment makes you feel whole, you’re ultimately limiting what gives you the most joy in life in your attempts to be healthy. It’s backwards.

2. Every weekend becomes a gorge. Ferriss admits to limiting gorges to once per month. But in The Dark Days, it’s non-stop.

3. The day following your cheat day, you wake up dry mouthed, bloated, sick with regret, and full of self loathing. This is the cheat day hangover. It’s not fun.

4. You get stuck in a cycle of cheating, feeling guilty, and then under eating to compensate for the cheating. Then, just when you start feeling good again, another cheat pushes the reset button on the cycle.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ME

In 3 Reminders for the Skinny-Fat Ectomorph, I said that cheat meals = game over. But to this day, I cheat. The extent and magnitude of the cheat, however, isn’t quite like it was during The Dark Days.

You can say this entire post is an accumulation of six months of experimentation, psychological toil, and some emotional anguish. It’s been a long road to get where I am, so learn from my past failures. The process wasn’t easy. Not everyone will face the same issues and have the same problems. For those that do, however, this information is invaluable.

At first, straying from the path of food cleanliness was difficult. I’m naturally one of those guys that thinks eating one malted milk ball instantly creates a third love handle. Being a former skinny-fat ectomorph, I don’t take this issue lightly. Gaining fat scares me. Like, “I just watched the movie Teeth,” kind of scared. So I just didn’t really cheat. And that lasted for a long time. Chips, chocolates, and most processed foods didn’t appeal to me. At all. I had no problem throwing away food that didn’t fit my normal intake. My emotional attachment was 100% cut.

Cheats started slow. Maybe a bit more of my normal food here and there. Maybe a slight indulgence after one meal, once per week. But then I found out about feasting and fasting. This method worked great for me for a long time, and I still think—for some people—it’s a kickass idea. But Monday’s, my fast day, became draining.

The feast – fast method is basically eating whatever you want one day, and then fasting the following day. So the fasts last 36+ hours. (An entire night, an entire day, and then another entire night.) This led me to overeat to the point of feeling like I had to fast. So as my feast day dwindled, I would intentionally put myself over the edge to ensure I was “full” enough for the fast that awaited.

This was likely what destroyed me. Every cheat day I told myself, “I’m not eating tomorrow, so I have to eat beyond my capacity todayto avoid miserable hunger pangs tomorrow.”

This grew. And grew. And grew.

Every week, I wanted to stop eating before discomfort. But it never happened. It only got worse.

Leftovers that normally were thrown away were forced down the hatch. I don’t know why either. Nothing changed about the confines of my cheat day, but I felt like I had to consume. At parties, I would flock to the cookie table. Months prior, however, cookies were an afterthought. So I took a long look at what I had become and where I wanted to go. Was the cheat meal to blame for this gap?

A NOTE ON FEASTING-FASTING

In the name of transparency, I have to mention that the feast – fast method, although taking me down an unwanted path, worked 100% for its intention.

I gained muscle. Hell, I even think I lost fat. I didn’t care to track it at the time, but I made some outrageous gains. This in itself was one of the reasons why abandoning it was difficult.

But the psychological baggage became too heavy, and it interfered with my summer life. (Tricking bloated and disgusted doesn’t end well.) If you’re interested in learning more, however, I suggest checking out John Romaniello’s Fat Loss Forever, in which his feast – fast method is included in a comprehensive plan. (In the interest of disclosure, this is an affiliate link, meaning if you click through and purchase, I get some schwag. Thanks for the support.)

HOW TO MINIMIZE CHEAT DAY DISASTER

Every Sunday, I battle the cheat day urges. Some days, my food challenge-esque portions and mindset get the best of me. (I’ve been known to tackle local restaurant food challenges.) But having since stopped the feast – fast method, I’ve learned to mitigate the damage, even if I do an outrageous food challenge here and there. Here are some of the strategies I use.

1. Stopping at stuffed

This is the most difficult of them all, but simply stop eating when you feel full. For those used to gorging regularly, this won’t work well. For instance, my feelings of satiety don’t kick in until 20-30 minutes after a meal. This means I eat. And eat. And eat. And by the time I sense fullness, it’s too late.

2. Make it a cheat meal

Ditch the cheat day. Adopt a cheat meal. Make it one and done. So take one sitting and acknowledge your cravings. But once you leave the table, end it. No “I’ll eat dessert later.” No “I’ll save these leftovers for later.” One sitting. One meal. That’s all.

3. Over hydrate

Waking up with dry mouth and a cheat day hangover sucks. Combat it by downing water by the bucketful the day of your cheat, especially during and after the meal. Drinking a bunch directly after the meal also kicks in satiety faster, which can prevent you from eating when you probably shouldn’t.

4. (W)hat (W)ould (J)ujimufu (D)o

It’s no surprise: I look up to Jujimufu of Tricks Tutorials. He has been the sole purpose for who and where I am. He seems to do everything “right.” So I abide by this motto: What Would Jujimufu Do?

Now, I’m not truly sure what he do. He could very well be by the cookie table, stuffing himself with sweet treats. But something tells me that most times he isn’t. So get some standards, have a role model, or make some kind of goal that prevents you from going overboard.

5. Cheat healthy by re-conceptualizing junk food

Get eighteen scoops of ice cream? Or create your own super awesome sautéed apple protein pudding concoction with a side of oatmeal crust bread? Perhaps a sexually satisfying serving of banana, whey, cottage cheese, and walnut “parfait?”

Find “healthy” alternatives to the junk foods you love the most. You would be surprised what you can whip up with oatmeal, peanut butter, fruit, protein pudding, whipped cream, cottage cheese, and dark chocolate.

5a. Cheat healthy by overeating good foods

People cheat to rebound hormone levels when dieting. But hormone rebounding is less about junk food and more about the total quantity of food. Overeating doesn’t necessarily mean pigging out on junk food. Just up the quantity of your normally eaten foods once or twice per week. Twelve egg pork omelette with a side of oatmeal crust bread, anyone?

6. Fill up on protein and green veggies

Eat a ton of lean protein and vegetables before your “cheat meals.” Cottage cheese, chicken, turkey, whey, and green veggies carry little caloric load and make you full quick. But beware. If you’re prone to gorging, you will find a way to pile food down the pipe regardless of how “stuffed” you are, so this can potentially backfire.

7. Train the day of

If you’re going to be eating a lot, why not train and hope that something comes of it? After all, maybe the calories will help with recovery? Or kick start some muscle growth?

8. Don’t try curbing every craving in one week

Pick one craving. Then satisfy it. You can always hit the next one the next week. If it’s something seasonal that won’t be around for long, get it while you can and save the other cravings for future weeks.

9. Learn How to Throw Away Food

This may sound stupid, but it truly deserves an entire post let alone one small section. Throwing away food is difficult. It’s a mind game. It’s a waste. And I have trouble doing it myself.

But think about the emotional impact and the end result.

If you throw it away, it’s in the garbage. Gone. You can’t see it. End of story.

If you eat it, it’s in your stomach. It makes you feel bad. But the end result is still the same: You can’t see it. It’s still gone. You just end up hating yourself.

Don’t obsess over it. Just toss it.

10. Eat Out

Go out for your cheat meal and don’t get a to-go box. Finish what you can in this one sitting and be done with it. While I’d much rather cook for myself, it’s easy to overcook and be stuck with mounds of leftovers. Not good.

11. Cheat less frequently

Think about cheating every other week instead of every week.

12. Cheat, but only during social affairs

This comes from a reader of the website, Rajat Desikan. He shared a unique idea: only cheat at social functions. Don’t go out of your way to plan something. But if an event comes up, enjoy yourself. The upside of this is that you won’t kill your social life. (And you won’t be perceived as that wierdo health freak. Although, that’s kind of a cool persona to play so bask in the role if you want to.) The downside of this is that if you have an active social life, you will be tempted to cheat often.

13. No buffets.

Another reader, Daniel Wallen, said he prefers buffets for cheat meals. But in my opinion, only those with the stones to stop at stuffed will do well at an all you can eat extravaganza. Although you can curb many cravings at once, I recommend steering away from buffets. They’re like proximity mines.

14. No trans-fats.

Even though cheats allow for indulgence, keep some standards. My cheat days were optimized when I voluntarily turned things away that didn’t fit my code of good health. This extended beyond cravings and was more about living a good life. One of these codes was avoiding fried and trans-fat foods. To this day, I rarely eat them. Cheat day or no cheat day.

15. Consider a fast.

This is a hark back to my feast – fast days, but full day fasting after a cheat day does work. It attacks the bloat head on, allowing you to mentally get back on track instead of depriving yourself for a week.

The feast – fast method requires a unique mentality in itself. (This is better served as a separate article.) But just know that it’s easy to get carried away once you adopt the “I need to jam two days of eating into one” mentality. Keep your wits about yourself with the above tips.

Alternately, you can do Brad Pilon, Eat Stop Eat style, twenty-four hour fasts two or three times per week instead of the one day fast crush. (Once again, affiliate link. Schwag. Thanks.)

GENERAL CHEAT RULES YOU MUST KNOW

What does it all mean?

Most people are better served with cheats that are simply “more” of normal food intake. In other words, take one or two meals per week and double or triple the portions.

For those of you that want to go the junk food route, here are some thoughts.

Cheating works better for those dieting to lose weight because the subsequent starvation mentality that follows a cheat plays right into the calorie cutting mentality. But this only works if you’re actually following a diet that does restrict calories.
For those looking to gain weight, that aren’t looking to gain a lot of fat, over-cheating is dangerous ground. People under eat the days following a hardcore cheat day to combat the bloat and hangover. This leads to a cycle of cheating – under eating – starting to feel normal – cheating again – etc. More often than not, this leads to sub-optimal nutrition throughout the training week. End result being that most people fail to gain any muscle because they’re too concerned with mitigating the cheat day damage.
Save the hardcore binges for once per month. Like I said, I love food. I eat food. A lot of it. I’ll always be into food challenges. The key is to reduce the frequency of binging. By doing this, you can also employ more drastic techniques—like fasting—to combat the hangover without the immense psychological hit.
For the most part use moderation on your cheat day. Stop at stuffed.
Have standards. Cheat meals and cheat days where “anything goes” is usually a bit too loose of a mentality. Have some stones and set some standards. Save fried or trans-fatty foods to your once per month binge. You are in this for health after all.

CONCLUSION

Cheating helps some dieters keep their sanity. Avoiding sweets for life in favor for raw vegetables isn’t exactly an appealing trade to most.

But there’s a darkside to cheating. A side that leads people down a path of living for junk and sweets. Is it a good way to live?

I’m not so sure.

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What do you think?

To cheat or not to cheat? I’d love to get your opinion in the comments section below. You know I always reply, so I’ll be waiting for your answer.

Intermittent Fasting for Athletes

The evidence for intermittent fasting being useful, or at the very least effective, for physique competitors is compelling.

But what if you aren’t a physique competitor?

After all, physique is different than performance.

And the reality is that most everyone high on fasting is a fitness professional, most of which are only concerned about looking good.

But what about those of us that are…a little more?

What about someone like myself, that lifts, tricks, and plays recreational sports? What about the days when I lift early and play late?

In other words, what if your life isn’t optimized solely for weight-training workouts? And what about life beyond the barbell?

Fasting for weight-training is all well and good, but we’re talking about performance here. Can fasters still perform at a high level?

A QUICK NOTE ON THE SCHEMES

Before diving into any research or practical experience, know that the word “fast” is being generalized here. There are many fasting schemes, like Martin Berkhan’s, Brad Pilon’s, and Ori Hofmekler’s.

To do my best at generalizing, I focused on the extremes. For instance, seeing no performance impairment after a 3.5 day fast makes it easier to predict shorter duration fast effects.

RAMADAN TO THE RESCUE

When it comes to performance and intermittent fasting, we lucked out. There’s a host of athlete specific fasting research thanks to the religious observance of Ramadan.

During Ramadan, participants fast from both food and drink from sun-up to sun-down. So it’s tremendously hellish compared to most of our comfy fasting experiments that have us sipping on coffee and chugging water.

Keep that mind: these athletes are going without food and drink. It’s safe to say that they would undoubtedly perform better with some kind of hydration.

YOUR INITIAL PREDICTIONS ARE WRONG

No food or drink for hours upon hours? Performance has to drop. Right?

I would think so too.

But this just isn’t the case.

Many studies (see end of post) and stories show athletes of all shapes and sizes doing just fine without both food and drink. But there are also some downsides.

Here’s a quick rundown:

Performance, for the most part, is maintained.
Performance never increased as a result of fasting.
During Ramadan, few athletes eat enough to match caloric demands.
But when body weight is lost, it’s mostly fat, not muscle mass.
Huge feasts before bedtime can negatively affect sleep.
Experienced Ramadan athletes handle the fast better and have performances to show for it.
Anticipatory feelings towards a meal can disturb performance.

OVERALL FEELINGS

It’s safe to say that performance—for the most part—can be maintained on an empty stomach.

Overall, it seems athletes with stable mindsets do the best. So craving food and obsessing over hunger is foregone failure.

Anyone that ventures into intermittent fasting knows that it takes time to get used to new eating patterns. And yet these athletes are suddenly thrown into a situation without both food and drink for 12-or-so hours. So their maintenance of performance markers is impressive. The big take home here is that hunger is apparently what you make of it.

HANG UPS WITH FASTING FOR PERFORMANCE

More so than specific nutritional demands, the main consideration for an athlete and fasting is living at the extremes.

What I mean by this is that you’re either hungry, or you’re full. A hungry athlete isn’t going to perform well unless they are mentally conditioned to accept hunger as an arbitrary feeling. Most people, however, associate hunger with depletion.

But the other side might even be worse—performing on a full stomach. Big meals increase parasympathetic nervous system activation. Think of the Thanksgiving sleepy effect. Not good.

WALKING THE LINE

The ironic part about intermittent fasting and performance is that if you’re considering it (or even experimenting with it), you likely have a better diet than most professional athletes. (Who usually eat garbage. To the left is Michael Phelps’s “diet.”)

To decide whether or not fasting is for you, and to see how to arrange it around your activities, first ask yourself if you thrive or dive on hunger?

If you can manage hunger fine, the Ramadan studies show that most performance markers can be maintained.

Here are some suggestions:

Have your biggest meal later in the day, after any strenuous activity. Don’t worry about eating late, it might even benefit you. But don’t overly jam calories down your throat before hitting the pillow, as it can funk up sleep.
Don’t eat any big meals 6-8 hours before activity.
Follow a general template of scheduled meal times, but don’t be overly anal about it. Late games might mean eating a larger meal at 10-11PM. That’s OK, even if your last meal should be at 8ish.
If you’re doing anything strenuous for over an hour, think about getting something small in your stomach beforehand. Not so close to the activity, but not so far either. Just make sure it’s small enough to feel “neutral.” Don’t be starved. Don’t be stuffed.
This is more of a personal anecdote, but a heavy dose of carbohydrates prior to activity never ends well. On almost every experimental trial, carbohydrates (outside of something small like fruit), resulted in a crash and burn. So if you lift early and play late, save the big carbohydrate meal for later (not post-workout).
If you’re having trouble fitting in the calories, be sure to optimize your “off days” when nothing is planned. So maybe a few hectic days can’t be as “structured” as you prefer, and you can’t eat enough and adhere to fasting principles. Just take the hit. But fill up on the days that allow for more structure.
If you want to carb cycle, be mindful of what kind of athlete you are and what your macro demands are.

BIG CONCLUSIONS

The big takeaway here is that hunger isn’t going to kill your performance. Every day, collegiate and professional athlete’s train at 6AM. The vast majority don’t eat anything before their training. Most of them are still half asleep, actually.

When your feeding period starts, eat or or two smaller meals. Don’t get full. Don’t be starved. (Unless you can mentally tame hunger because, really, performance won’t take much of a hit.) Save your big meal for after any practice, games, or activity.

Do you have any experience with fasting and activity outside of weight-training? I’d love to hear your opinion, so post it in the comments. I’ll see you there.

LITERATURE REVIEW

1. The effect of time-of-day and Ramadan fasting on anaerobic performances.

Findings: Before Ramadan, athlete’s had better night performances. During Ramadan, peak power dropped at night, but still matched morning performances. Perceived feeling of fatigue increased at night.

2. Subjective Perception of Sports Performance, Training, Sleep and Dietary Patterns of Malaysian Junior Muslim Athletes during Ramadan Intermittent Fasting.

Findings: Opinions all over the place. Half of participants said Ramadan had no effect. Over half said they were tired during the day. Only 40% were able to maintain caloric intake.

Thoughts: Maybe ones that reported fatigue couldn’t maintain intake?

3. Effect of ramadan fasting on body composition and physical performance in female athletes.

Findings: Most athlete’s couldn’t consume enough calories, bodyweight dropped. But there minimal to no drop in performance. Average deficit around 500 calories.

4. Effects of fasting during ramadan month on cognitive function in muslim athletes.

Findings: Performances requiring sustained rapid responses decreased in evening. Performances not dependant on speed stayed the same.

5. Ramadan and Its Effect on Fuel Selection during Exercise and Following Exercise Training.

Findings: “Separately, a single bout of endurance exercise places similar metabolic stress on the body as fasting since the exercising muscle must reduce its use of carbohydrate and utilize lipid more readily as exercise progresses. Not surprisingly therefore, adaptations in muscle to repeated bouts of endurance exercise (endurance training) are similar to those seen with repeated fasting/refeeding.”

6. Temporal Patterns of Subjective Experiences and Self-Regulation during Ramadan Fasting among Elite Archers: A Qualitative Analysis.

Findings: “Overall patterns revealed that experiences associated with physical, emotional, behavioral, and spiritual dimensions dominated in the first phase of fasting, while the mental dimension surfaced increasingly in the latter phase of fasting.”

7. Investigating Two Different Training Time Frames during Ramadan Fasting.

Findings: No difference in performance. But bodyweight dropped.

8. Effect of Ramadan intermittent fasting on aerobic and anaerobic performance and perception of fatigue in male elite judo athletes.

Findings: Fasting didn’t affect aerobic and alactic anaerobic performance. Anaerobic lactic suffered a bit.

9. Effects of Ramadan fasting on 60 min of endurance running performance in moderately trained men.

Findings: Didn’t affect performance.

10. Effects of Ramadan intermittent fasting on sports performance and training: a review.

Findings: “Whereas subjective feelings of fatigue and other mood indicators are often cited as implying additional stress on the athlete throughout Ramadan, most studies show these measures may not be reflected in decreases in performance. The development and early implementation of sensible eating and sleeping strategies can greatly alleviate the disruptions to training and competitiveness, thus allowing the athlete to perform at a high level while undertaking the religious intermittent fast.”

11. Intermittent fasting improves functional recovery after rat thoracic contusion spinal cord injury.

Findings: Perhaps intermittent fasting can enhance recovery?

12. Effects of Ramadan intermittent fasting on middle-distance running performance in well-trained runners.

Findings: “At the end of Ramadan fasting, a decrease in MVC was observed (-3.2%; P < 0.00001; η, 0.80), associated with an increase in the time constant of oxygen kinetics (+51%; P < 0.00007; η, 0.72) and a decrease in performance (-5%; P < 0.0007; η, 0.51). No effect was observed on running efficiency or maximal aerobic power.”

13. Effects of Ramadan fasting on physical performance and metabolic, hormonal, and inflammatory parameters in middle-distance runners.

Findings: Hormones mostly stayed the same through Ramadan, but there were some sleep disturbances and increased adrenaline overall.

14. The influence of Ramadan on physical performance measures in young Muslim footballers.

Findings: Zero performance effects.

15. Precompetition taper and nutritional strategies: special reference to training during Ramadan intermittent fast.

Findings: Experienced athletes are able to maintain performance.

16. Effect of Ramadan fasting on some biochemical and haematological parameters in Tunisian youth soccer players undertaking their usual training and competition schedule.

Findings: Zero effects.

17. Effect of Ramadan fasting on fuel oxidation during exercise in trained male rugby players.

Findings: Caloric intake reduced. There was more fat used as a fuel substrate and lower body fat levels found after Ramadan.

18. Impact of Ramadan on physical performance in professional soccer players.

Findings: Decreased performance. But what’s interesting is that players thought there would be.

19. Lipid Profiles of Judo Athletes during Ramadan.

Findings: Reduced body fat levels and able to maintain training load.

Oatmeal Volcano and Protein Pudding 101

After the How to Start Intermittent Fasting post and The Diet to End all Diets post, there was a lot of interest in my oatmeal volcanoes and protein pudding. So I ventured into video land and played Emeril Lagasse for a few days. Enjoy!

No, seriously. Make both and enjoy them.

Just don’t fall in love too quickly and eat too many volcanoes in one day. (Like I did on Tuesday.)

Share to all oatmeal lovers, please. You owe it to them.

Oh, and if you can’t spare the twenty minutes to watch both of the videos then you really don’t want to make and or eat either anyway. Your choice. But if you’re ADD here is the shorts:

Volcano:

Oats – water – soak – paste consistency – 70% heat – solid – 85% heat – crust – fin

Pudding:

3 tbsp water – (3) 70cc scoop unflavored protein – nutmeg – cinnamon – cocoa – mix

Feeling daring?

Add:

cottage cheese OR sour cream - banana - nuts

Precision Nutrition, No Degree Required

I want to introduce you to Precision Nutrition, the leading online nutrition and certification company. According to John Berardi, cofounder, they doubled their staff in 2011. What’s even more surprising is that he expects it to double again next year.

Hello Precision Nutrition, my name is Anthony Mychal and I’d be a great mentor in either the Scrawny to Brawny coaching program or the Aesthetic to Athletic program (this is a new coaching program—spawned by me—that will be rolled out once I’m hired there.)

Jokes aside (it wasn’t a joke), Berardi doesn’t care much about formal credentials when considering employees. And that’s saying something considering Precision Nutrition employees are heavily involved with their clientele. In fact, Berardi says that, “Mentorship is truly the key, both to learning in general and to body transformation in particular. Everything else is secondary.”

So Berardi is saying that formal credentials tell him nothing about someone’s ability to work with a client and get results. Not surprising. This philosophy doesn’t diminish Precision Nutrition’s quality of work either.

Be it employee or client, I’ve yet to hear a complaint about Precision Nutrition. And their list of employees and clients is growing rapidly, as if working with the likes of Nike and professional sports teams wasn’t enough.

“Don’t tell JB, but if he didn’t pay me, I’d still do this job. At Precision Nutrition, I’m surrounded by rock stars.”

-Roland Fisher

And, of course, I couldn’t have ended this conversation without mentioning Nate Green—Precision Nutrition Storyteller and Scrawny to Brawny Coaching Director—and his lack of University education. He instead travelled across the country on a loan to meet the higher minds of the fitness industry. Think that worked out for him?

Just one more reason I love working with Precision Nutrition: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/lean-eating-jan-2011-winners

-Nate Green

Another Scrawny to Brawny coach, Paul Valiulis, has a degree in a field other than fitness. He told me that Berardi and Precision Nutrition are looking for those that have “been there, done that, and have proven it.”

This is backed up by Precision Nutrition’s Scrawny to Brawny mentor criteria:

There are 3 criteria that any mentor must meet:

Must have gone through the process themselves.

Must have taught others to go through the very same process.

Must thoroughly understand the process itself: how it happens, what it works, what the underlying principles are, etc.

-John Berardi

In the fitness industry, this is called “living in the trenches.” So if you’re skipping training sessions on account of final exams, perhaps you should rethink your strategy. I don’t doubt that Berardi was aware of the research behind fasting, but that wasn’t enough. He spent six months experimenting with six different fasting protocols so that he could experience it firsthand. (These adventures can be read in Experiments with Intermittent Fasting. It’s insightful, so check it out. Even better, it’s free.) You don’t ask someone that’s never been in a fight how it feels to be punched in the eye.

Anyway, one of our Lean Eating assignments is to go a full 24 hours without eating. It’s
scary, and it makes people uncomfortable… which is exactly why we do it.

-Experiments with Intermittent Fasting

You can learn the stuff, and you absolutely should. (Which isn’t the same as sitting in a classroom.) But learning it isn’t going to do much for you unless you live it. So start living. That’s eventually how you will be judged whether it’s with Precision Nutrition or the next like company.

For more information on the services, products, and programs of Precision Nutrition, visit their main website.

Photo Credit: Precision Nutrition, Kate Kline