Neaz Noor asked: “So the Islamic month of Ramadhan is coming up in about a month, which means practicing Muslims like me will be fasting every day from sunrise to sundown for a month.

Now, the fasting has several goals including gaining awareness, discipline, empathy for the poor, etc… The funny thing is, a lot of people actually tend to gain weight (fat) by the end of the month because they gorge themselves on food after sundown- totally defeats the point.

Anyway, I am thankfully not one of those people. However, I have the opposite problem: I drop a lot of weight every year during this month.

Do you have advice for a skinny guy who’s trying to gain weight, and at least for one month, maintain what little he has while fasting?

I’ve decided I’ll give up weight training during Ramadhan because I simply won’t be eating the calories I’ll need to recover properly and such. Still, I want to keep up my conditioning so I’m planning to continue with BW exercises.

Given the small window I’ll have for eating (sundown to sunrise):

1. Should I continue with BWE? If so, how/what should I eat?

2. I have very little body fat; I’ve been thinking it might be helpful to pack some on beforehand so my muscles don’t waste away (sort of like a bear before hibernation). Is this a good idea? If so, how do you increase your body fat? (Weird question, I know)

I’d really appreciate your input..”

Here is my response:

I’m not a Muslim and have personally never experienced such a fast and it’s impact to my workouts, however I do participate in something known as intermittent Fasting. With this type of fasting, my window of eating is 8-9 hours, double the time allotted in a typical Ramadan fast.

Many participants eat before sunrise, and after sunset. In addition, it is very common practice to cut back totally on your workout and resume only after Eid-ul-Fitr, or the last day of Ramadan.

The problem with eating before sunrise is that when you wake up, digestion is fully completed. A primal survival mechanism known as the SNS (sympathetic nervous system) is triggered, maximizing your body’s capacity to generate energy, be alert, resist fatigue and resist stress.

At this state, the body is in its most energetic state. I know this from experience as I eat only after my 12pm intense workout. There are times when my meal will begin at around 3-4 pm, simply because I’m having a busy day. On average, I do not eat when I am required to perform the most amount of work, whether that be training, taking my grandparents to the market, or writing an article for ShahTraining.com.

A heavy morning meal will trigger an antagonistic part of the automatic nervous system known as the PSNS (Para sympathetic nervous system). This system is what makes you sleepy, slow and less resilient to fatigue and stress. This is when most people feel they are lacking “energy.”

Biologically, when you eat, you are telling your body that you have finished the “hunt,” cooked your food, and have eaten it. After some entertainment, you will fall asleep until the next morning. This is why we often crave sweets and coffee to “pick us up.” Our body is trying fall asleep and store energy as fat, while we are trying to finish our work during the day. This is probably why people gain fat during the months of Ramadan. You’re telling the body to store fat with a heavy morning meal.

The human body is not much different then it was a few thousand years ago. Evolution takes time, and we are still programmed to survive. This is why we rotate between the two autonomic nervous system parts: the daily SNS and the nightly PSNS. In short, the SNS regulates alertness and action during the day, while PSNS regulates relaxation, digestion and sleep during the nightly hours.

Organizing your Meals and Exercise

If you do wish to eat a morning meal, make sure the caloric value of the meal is less than half of what you normally eat. Stick to high protein meals, with some carbohydrates coming in the form of fruits. The best meal would be a protein shake and an apple.

In terms of training during Ramadan, I would refrain against cutting down too much. If you are an advanced/intermediate athlete, then you have trained your body to function and recover with limited nutrients (for a short amount of time, of course). For beginners, training during Ramadan becomes more difficult, but certainly possible.

The best time to train is one to two hours before breaking your fast. As mentioned earlier, I usually have an intense workout at 12 pm, then eat a large meal afterwards. I have grown accustomed to this style of eating, and am able to eat more food without experiencing sluggishness for the rest of the day. I eat an even heavier meal for dinner, when I absolutely know that I am going to go retire for the night.

If your goal is to maintain or gain weight, then an insulin spike is absolutely necessary. As mentioned in my Three Simple Principles for Easy Mass Gain article, I talked about how one can increase insulin levels to help them gain muscle mass. I will simply copy and past the excerpt below:

The majority of your carbohydrates should come from fruits and vegetables, but you still need those starchy carbs right after you train to give you that insulin spike. Here is another difference between fat loss and muscle gain: Insulin spikes are a no no for fat loss, but a yes yes for muscle gain.

An insulin spike means that the hormone insulin is released to help control blood sugar levels. When you eat starchy carbs or sugar, your blood sugar levels rise. Insulin sends glucose to muscle tissue and fat cells, helping to lower blood sugar levels.

Insulin is an important hormone for gaining mass because it helps increase the body’s ability to transport amino acids to muscles. A great post workout meal for mass gain would be a protein shake mixed with honey. You’ll get your protein, and your insulin spike all at once.

But be careful with insulin. Insulin replenishes glycogen stores, and helps in rebuilding damaged muscle, but if your muscles don’t need the glycogen, then it’ll get stored as fat. The majority of trainees that believe they’re getting more muscular are actually just putting on fat. They only realize this when they’ve got a spare tire they can no longer get rid of.

The only way to combat this problem is to really push yourself in your workouts. Make sure that you are actually working hard as opposed to just pretending to work hard. Many trainees think that they are working hard by spending two hours in the gym. This is never the case. You can either work hard, or you can work long. You can’t do both.

Your evening meal should be packed with meat and complex carbohydrates such as rice and bread. These are the two food groups where the majority of your calories should come from. You will not gain that much fat, even if you do overeat considerably in the evening. The key to this is your morning meal.

Training during Ramadan

When it comes to training, the main lesson here is to listen to your body. If your body tells you that you need more rest, or if you need to lighten the load, then listen to it. Understand that you may not be able to lift as heavy as you were able to when you were not fasting, but you can certainly maintain a good percentage of your strength and mass by following eating guidelines mentioned above.

With bodyweight conditioning, training becomes even easier, as bodyweight conditioning can be as intense as you make it. The best way to explain my point is to give you a bodyweight workout and show you how I’d modify it during a Ramadan fast.

Pre-Ramandan Workout:

3 rounds for time:
Run around the block
50 Bodyweight Squats
25 Hindu Pushups

I think the biggest thing that will suffer during such a prolonged fast would be my overall strength. If my goal is to actually maintain my strength and mass, then I should automatically get rid of the running. I can perhaps do the same number of repetitions within more rounds, and potentially with more rest between each round. And so, the workout would no longer be timed.

Ramadan Workout:

Bodyweight Squats 5×30, 1 minute rest
Hindu Pushups 5×15, 1 minute rest

What you can potentially do is perform a set of bodyweight squats, rest for one minute, then perform a set of hindu pushups, rest for one minute, then repeat.

I would suggest an overall tapering of your diet and training before the month of Ramadan. Develop this program with a greater emphasis on diet than training. For example, you can start off by skipping your breakfast, then steadily increasing the amount of time that you fast. Perhaps week one you can eat at 10 am, then at at week two you can eat at 12:00 pm. Develop a plan based on how much time you have until Ramadan. Aim to get upto a point where you are mimicking a typical day of Ramadan fasting two or three days before the actual month begins. Then you may go back to regular eating for the next two days before your real fast begins. This process will to teach yourself how listen to you body and also train your body to live on less food for a limited period of time.

There is so much more to learn beyond the scope of this article. I have tried to cover as many bases here as I possibly could. Please take a look at the links below for further information, and as always any further questions can be posted to comments.

Sources and Further Reading:

• Exercise during Ramadan
  
• Diet during Ramadan
• The Fasting Month of Ramadan - Keeping your Fitness levels in Check
• Eid-ul-Fitr
• Top Ten Diet Fallacies

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