Exercise During Ramadan To Lose Weight
This post has been 3 years in the making. Every year I plan to write something but I just don’t get the time.
There are quite a few guides now about gaining muscle and losing weight in Ramadan. The only drawback to them I find is, they seem to be written by people who obviously don’t practise Ramadan so don't have real experience. They don’t really seem to understand the variety of challenges we face. Further, many seem outdated, and written for a time when Ramadan was much shorter.
Well this year, currently where I live the eating window is approximately 4 hours or less for some people. To squeeze in Maghrib, Isha, Taraweeh, Fajr, training, have all the recommended meals whilst getting enough sleep to function normally at work is near on impossible if you’re working a normal day job. Let’s not forget you should be seeking to increase your other voluntary spiritual acts in this month. Primarily reading and reflecting on the Qur’an. So yes, it’s going to be a lot tougher than it sounds on paper even with those
How To Work Out And Eat To Maintain Muscle And Fitness During Ramadan
In theory if you can get in the all the nutrients, proteins carbs and fats, or even just the right amount of calories from the right sources, get enough sleep and recover whilst providing the appropriate stimulus required through training you could even gain muscle and make normal progress.
Remember, people make progress on diets like the warrior diet 20 hour fast 4 hour eating window and other intermittent fasting protocols like 16/8 which I have been doing since the beginning of 2012.
For the purposes of this post I’m going to assume you already know what Ramadan is, so I won’t go into the details of the Muslim fasting of Ramadan.
Here's How To Lose Weight While Fasting Ramadan
There are a ton of spiritual and mental benefits to Ramadan. Since this is not a religious blog we won’t get into all of that. Although I regard spirituality a part of one's overall health and well being. The mental benefits of learning discipline should help you with your future fitness and life goals.
Historically in the fitness community Ramadan was generally seen as something detrimental although is this changing now. Yes, even yours truly used to live in fear of the Ramadan catabolism monster. We have since learnt especially due to the interest and popularity of intermittent fasting that extended periods of going without food can actually be beneficial to health in a number of ways. You improve insulin sensitivity (insulin reset), improve nutrition partitioning, fat burning hormones like glucagon increase. Growth hormone increases.
From the option of losing weight and gaining muscle. Losing weight is the easier of the two. Although theoretically it’s possible to build muscle, for trained individuals this is going to be extremely tough because of all the obstacles I’ve highlighted further down. Once again for newbies it won’t be nearly as difficult.
How You Can Lose Weight And Maintain Muscle Gains During Ramadan And Intermittent Fasting
I recommend either maintenance or weight loss, if you’ve been training all year use Ramadan as a cut and or deload. If you are just embarking on training, then Ramadan is an ideal opportunity to kick start your weight loss since you are almost forced in to a calorie deficit if you can maintain just a tiny amount of discipline. Additionally, I need to keep in line with the title of this post which is about losing weight.
You have all year for gains, instead view it as an extended deload and focus your energy on cleansing your soul and strengthening your spirit. The only people I would strongly encourage to take up exercise in Ramadan are people who are overweight or suffering from health conditions. For the regular gym rats, it’s fine to just chill and take a break. Any muscle you do lose can easily be regained very quickly, due to muscle memory. In fact, the break might even help you see new gains when you return to lifting. The other thing trained individuals could do, is use it as a slow cutting period. As it will be easy to achieve calorie deficit with such a small feeding window just throw in some slow cardio like power walking and burn the fat.
Alternatively if you’ve got ample muscle mass you can skip the power walking and all other types of cardio and only perform low volume heavy weight training. You don’t want to over stress your body too much or put yourself in a position of getting dehydrated.
Day Ramadan Weight Loss Meal Plan
At other times of the year, I always tell you to eat high volume, nutritionally dense, calorie sparse foods. Ramadan is an exception, in Ramadan you should aim to eat calorie dense and nutritionally dense foods because of the small feeding window the aim is to get in all the nutrients your body needs within this time.
However this advice comes with a caveat and that is providing you're only having one or two meals consisting of mainly good wholesome foods and avoiding fried foods and a ton of junk food.
Most people should have no problem getting in 1800 - 2000 calories. You can even go as low as 1500 - 1700 without it affecting you in anyway and possibly even see a greater weight loss dependent on activity level of course, if you’re more active consume more calories.
Myths About Fitness While Fasting During Ramadan
If however you find you’re struggling to get in the calories your body needs due to the small feeding window and trying to squeeze in all the other activities, then do the opposite of the other popular weight loss advice of not drinking your calories, in Ramadan drink your calories.
“Do the opposite of the other popular weight loss advice of not drinking your calories, in Ramadan drink some of your calories.”
Remember do not drop your calories so low that you struggle to function, especially if you’re thinking of training it’s better to eat more and burn it off than to eat less. If you get very hungry you’ll have less willpower to avoid junk foods. Furthermore, a severe calorie deficit will result in losing muscle mass, it’s this that leads to a metabolism slow down. It could also end up making the fast unnecessarily difficult especially if you're training too.
How To Maintain Muscle Mass During Ramadan
That’s why extreme dieting eventually leads to more fat and slower metabolism than you started with if you don't know how to transition to weight maintenance and don't build good behaviours and food habits.
Important note: This DOES NOT mean empty useless calories, you can eat some empty calories and some junk food but SERIOUSLY limit it.
The reason people gain weight in Ramadan is not because their metabolism slows down it’s simply because they eat too many fried foods and sugars.
Timing Of Required Nutrients During Ramadan With An Emphasis On...
Do that and you’ll end up fatter than you started Ramadan even though you’re going twenty hours without food. It’s easy to exceed your energy requirements with fried foods and empty calories.
Avoid too much caffeine, tea, green tea, coffee as these things are diuretics and will dehydrate you. Do drink plenty of water aim for at least 2 litres or more, this will also help you to avoid dehydration headaches. I used to suffer from them all the time until I started drinking more water.
In your suhoor meals try get and some fat, fibre and slow digesting protein in there such as cottage cheese. Casein protein is a slow digesting protein.
Tips To Safe Exercise During Ramadan
You can have some of these ingredients and leave others out if you decide to have them all in there track it, because it can become quite high in calories.
On the day’s you’re training have this shake before your workout, since it’s in a liquid form it’s easier to digest and is packed with good calories to fuel your workout whilst not being too heavy, so you don’t feel drowsy.
As I’ve mentioned earlier on the day’s you’re not training have this shake after a solid meal unless you have massive appetite and deliberately want to curb your appetite. If you have it before a solid meal it will blunt your hunger to some extent and you won’t be able to eat as much. Our aim is to squeeze in more calories within the tiny eating window and with a fewer number of meals. Otherwise you'll have to stay up all night to eat.
How To Exercise Safely During Intermittent Fasting
Normally I’m not a big fan of intra workout nutrition for normal people with a training duration of an hour or two intra workout nutrition is not necessary. With that said, in Ramadan when you’re trying to cram in all your calories (remember we’re trying to eat mostly whole foods) within the tiny feeding window, you might want to consider some form of intra workout food or snack. Bananas, energy balls, protein bars, meal replacement bars, make great choices.
Remember you’re not going to stay awake all night eating, with so many devotional activities to perform you’re lucky if you can get a workout in. And if you do manage to have some time, it’s Ramadan spiritual activities take priority. Read and reflect on the Qur’an
Although I’ve said eat good nutritious food don’t deprive yourself completely. If you feel like having a dessert, have
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