Important Note #1:  I am not Muslim, so am not qualified to discuss the spiritual aspects of Ramadan.  If I get something wrong, please forgive my ignorance.

Important Note #2:  I’m commenting here about body composition goals:  muscle building and/or fat loss.  I am not commenting on athletic performance or competition.  (A short summary of Ramadan fasting and sports performance is here and here but there are many studies on soccer/football performance impacts of Ramadan fasting if you search PubMed.)

What Is Ramadan Fasting?

From Wikipedia, on Ramadan:

The most prominent event of this month is fasting. Every day during the month of Ramadan, Muslims around the world get up before dawn to eat Sahur or Sehri or Sahari (meaning “something we eat at Sahar”), then they perform the fajr (or Sobh) prayer. They have to stop eating and drinking before the call for prayer starts until the fourth prayer of the day, Maghrib. Muslims break their fast at Maghrib (at sunset) prayer time with a meal called Iftar. Muslims may continue to eat and drink after the sun has set until the next morning’s fajr prayer call. Then the process starts all over.

For those of you non-Muslims, this sounds an awful lot like intermittent fasting, or semi-fasting.  Except for one important thing:  the timing is reversed.

When I’ve written about semi-fasted cardio and lifting, I’ve assumed

I hear every day the question “What kinds of supplements should I be taking?” or “What supplements are best for this situation?”  And most of the time my answer is “none.”

There is a difference between nutritional supplements and performance supplements.  Given the typical American diet, nutritional supplements are important for just about everyone to consider, and athletes/exercisers need more than the normal amounts of daily nutrients.

But performance supplements are a different matter.  Don’t get me wrong, there are advantages of performance supplements, but not for beginners.  To top it off most of these same people who are seeking a magic pill for performance completely ignore either nutritional supplements or even their nutrition entirely.  So in order to save the loss of breath here are the basics for what a beginner needs.

Usually, when people say they are eating broccoli, they mean the florets – the bumpy, green, brain-looking top of the plant.  So you cut those off of the stem (the stalk) and discard the stalks.  Even though by weight, you paid more for the stalks than you did for the florets.

Don’t you hate wasting the broccoli stalks?

Good news for you.  Here is what to do with them.

But are we right?

Two counter-approaches contradict the above recommendations:

a)      Intermittent Fasting (complete fasting for at least 24 hrs once a week or so)

b)      Semi-Fasted Cardio (first thing in the morning after about 12 hours of not eating)

Today we’ll cover the pros and cons of intermittent fasting.  Then next week we’ll cover “semi-fasted cardio”.

Here’s today’s outline:

• Pros and Cons of Fasting
• Roots of Fasting
• Fasting for Fat Loss
• Fasting for Muscle Gain
• Making Fasting Easier – 10 Tips

Let’s start with a summary, then follow with the details:

Pros And Cons Of Fasting For Fat Loss And Muscle Gain

Pros For Fasting

• Possibly very effective for fat loss, as studies show increase fat burn compared to carb burn, during fasting (much more detail on this in the rest of the article!)
• Easier, for some people, than being in slight caloric deficit each day
• Most people get a natural “high” on those days; better attention; surprising increase of energy
• More time for life; less time cooking, eating, and doing dishes
• Increased natural growth hormone:  potentially good for muscle gains (much more detail on this in the rest of the article!)
• Disrupts the body’s expectations about food, thus preventing diet plateaus (hypothetical)
• Confidence – any time you try something difficult, and then turn that into a habit, you will feel more confident in yourself; this will lead to you accomplishing more over the course of your life
• Bragging rights – most people are impressed with someone who has the discipline to fast one day a week
• Potentially clears the body of toxins and waste
• Anecdotal benefits to a whole range of health issues, from reducing arthritis and migraines to improved skin and hair

Cons For Fasting

The Two Keys For Eating To Gain Muscle While Simultaneously Shedding Fat

I’ve found two specific eating habits that are essential if you want to gain muscle and shed fat at the same time.

This is the 3^rd and final installment on this mini-series of how to eat to maximize muscle gain.  Click here for part 1 and here for part 2.  Plus, today I’m including some sample menus!

Before I share them, and conclude this series, let’s get some assumptions on the table:

• You are not fat now, but still want to get leaner
• You want to gain muscle AND lose fat at the same time
• You are willing to have each of those goals progress more slowly in combination than if you focused on only one at a time; but you still want good progress on both
• I assume you are using a decent lifting routine
• I assume you are eating healthy food, in a good mix of proteins, carbs, and fats; if you don’t know the basics, then refer to Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle or 3 Months To A New You.

Ok , so rather than tease you, I’ll state the two keys upfront:

a)       Gradually increase your overall calories to a point far above what you think you should be eating

b)       Use the zig-zag calorie method

Last week I shared a 5-step strategy about how to gradually increase your caloric intake.

Now let’s talk about that “zig-zag method”…

pic: Skinny guys can get muscular by eating right and training

[Don't forget - I give away a free lifting routine ebook to the top contributor each month to our free discussion forum!]

Why Skinny Guys Stay Skinny

This is Part 2 of a series on how to eat right to gain muscle.  Click here for part 1. This article (part 2) has three sections

- one about why skinny guys stay skinny,

- another about how to get yourself to eat more, and

- the real secret to gaining muscle fastest from your diet.

Then next week I’ll share the advanced eating technique to actually gain muscle and lose fat at the same time, plus I’ll include a few sample menus!

The biggest mistake skinny guys make, when starting to lift, is not eating enough.  Oh, they think they are eating enough.  But they aren’t.  They think they are in Case 5 above but really they are in Case 4.

Look at a skinny guy who isn’t lifting. He’s currently skinny, right, so that means he’s not eating excess calories.

Now start him lifting on a decent muscle building program.  Lifting heavy weights burns calories during the activity and also burns more after the activity.  If he’s still eating the same amount as he was before, then he’ll actually lose mass!

This is compounded by the fact that the skinny guy isn’t happy about his muscle size, but he likes being able to see his abs.  (Yeah, but you can see his ribs too!)  So he absolutely doesn’t want to get fat.  He just wants more muscle.  As we’ll see, this constraint comes back to haunt him.

Of course he’ll have heard from his buddies that he needs to eat more.  Plus, he’ll naturally be more hungry.   So chances are he would increase how much he eats, right?

But most skinny guys only end up eating a little bit more.  They eat enough to prevent muscle loss, but not enough to really grow muscles.

An Example Might Help

Let’s take an example of a skinny guy:  6 feet tall, 150 pounds, 10% bodyfat. So he’s not too skinny, he’s got a thin layer of muscle because he’s an active guy, but he’s now going to start lifting.  His target is to get to 180 pounds and stay 10% bodyfat.  (6 feet tall, 180 pounds, and 10% bodyfat looks really good at the beach.)

And let’s say he wants to get there within 1 year.  That’s 30 pounds (27 pounds of muscle and 3 pounds of fat) in 12 months.  Breaking this down, we get to an average of 0.5 pounds of muscle a week.  That’s tough to do but not impossible for the skinny guy who’s never really lifted before.  [And it won’t be linear – in the beginning, if he does things right, he’ll gain faster than he will towards the end.]

It’s pretty universally accepted that

I’m starting a series today on how you should eat in order to gain more muscle mass.  This will be a 3-parter that I’ll finish throughout the month.  Here’s the outline:

1. Why your eating habits are more important than your lifting habits if you want to get bigger (naturally)
2. Why skinny guys stay skinny – plus, the fastest way to gain muscle from your diet
3. How to eat more to gain more muscle and actually lose fat at the same time – plus, I’ll also include some sample menus ( keep in mind that entire books are written on menus so I’m only offering some examples!)

Today let’s tackle the importance of eating habits compared to lifting habits.  Next week we’ll dive into #2 and the week after that we’ll conclude with the third topic.

Why Eating Is More Important Than Lifting

You want to get bigger, huh?  Join the crowd.

You might just be thinking “a little” bigger.  Or maybe you are thinking “a lot bigger”.  And maybe you just want bigger shoulders, or pecs, or glutes, or whatever.

The point is, we’re talking physique here and we all have different ideal images of what our target physique should be.  If you are reading this, then chances are high that part of your desired physique means bigger muscles.

So weightlifting is the most important part of getting bigger muscles, right?

Wrong.

Now before you start writing me hate mail, I’m saying “most important”.  That’s a relative term.  Meaning, that of course lifting matters!  If you want to get bigger muscles, instead of just a bigger gut, then you’ve gotta lift.

But I’m saying that a great eating plan with a mediocre lifting routine will do more for your physique than a great lifting routine and a mediocre eating plan.

(I’d like to write that previous sentence in all caps, but that would just annoy you, right?)

A Simple Example

Let’s walk through a very simplified analysis of 5 cases…

Muscles need stimulation, nutrients, and rest.  That combination triggers growth.  How much growth depends on the quality and quantity of the stimulation, nutrients, and rest.

No stimulation, no growth.  Ditto for rest.  And of course, no nutrients (food), no growth.

Since this article series is about how eating impacts muscle growth, let’s assume for now that you are on a pretty good lifting routine.  It’s not the best, but it’s not the worst.  (So, you can extrapolate from this and assume that results will be better/worse in relation to your lifting routine.)

Case 1: Let’s say you are doing your “adequate” lifting routine, but not eating at all.  What would happen?  Your body would go into starvation mode, burning muscle first, then fat, and then you’d die.  Obviously, no muscle growth in this scenario.

Case 2: Now, instead of eating nothing, imagine you eat a small quantity of junk food.  Let’s assume total calories are just enough to prevent starvation.  But your muscles need protein (in the form of amino acids) to heal after you’ve stimulated them with your adequate workout.  And so just junk food doesn’t give the muscles what they need to grow.  Result:  no muscle growth.

Case 3:

You need to.  It’s hysterical.

Oh, and actually practical too.  Tips for getting things done.  He gets extra points for the clever show name.

But really the reason to listen is to laugh.

Stever (no, that’s not a typo) is both insightful and funny.

Last week he had a great podcast you can listen to here: