One of the first things I noticed at the start of my fasting journey was that exercise performance felt very poor at the beginning of it.

My lifts were pretty poor in the first week or so, and then I eventually got used to it.

So to help you guide yourself through the first few weeks of the process, I created a short post for you on what to expect with exercise performance.

Let's dive in!

Performance When Starting Intermittent Fasting

According to one study, Muslim athletes found themselves not performing well at the beginning of their fasting schedule (during Ramadan). Based on the study, if you're just getting started with Intermittent Fasting, you might notice that exercise performance may be impacted at first.

Depending on the level of intensity you train at, Intermittent Fasting may take some time to adapt to. For example, people will find it easier to adapt to Intermittent Fasting if they do low-intensity exercises like a brisk walk or light cardio.

Considerations When Fasting

The feeding schedule may be very important when it comes to exercise performance. For example, someone who follows an 16:8 protocol will definitely perform better with intense exercise compared to someone who follows a 20:4 (Warrior Diet) or OMAD schedule.

Personally, I find that a 14:10 or 16:8 eating schedule is easy to couple with weight training or intense exercise.

Another thing to consider is what time you train. While you may train fasted and be ok with it, you might perform better if you train in the feeding phase of your day.

I prefer training in the afternoon or evening, as I feel I perform my best around those times.

Ultimately, you should experiment to see what works best for you regardless. Some people are outliers, and sometimes training fasted or having a more intense fasting protocol may benefit them and their lifestyle.

Recommendations

When implementing Intermittent Fasting, I have a few recommendations I give to people I train with that want to implement the method or give it a shot.

Here's what I recommend:

• Train in the evenings until you get used to it. Once you get used to it, go for the morning fasted workouts if you prefer.
• If you train fasted, make sure you get food after. Alternatively, you can supplement with 10g of EAA/BCAAs every 2 hours until your feeding phase.
• Keep it Flexible. Some people prefer methods like alternate day fasting or a weekly 24 hour fast. If you calculated your daily calorie goal, multiply that by 7 and get your Weekly Calorie goal. That weekly calorie goal allows you to create your own unique fasting schedule.
• It's ok to go off schedule. If you take a day off from fasting, it won't ruin you. Intermittent Fasting is just a method you can utilize.

If you've been following my posts, you might recall why I utilize Intermittent Fasting over other methods: I enjoy it from a physical, mental, and spiritual perspective.

Here's what I mean by that:

• I feel more focused while fasting.
• Cultural Background (Balkan people usually ate a lunch and a huge dinner).
• Food is surrounded by social interaction, and I like to impress people by eating gigantic meals in one sitting.
• I use it for a spiritual purpose (similar to how the Stoics utilized it).
• And other reasons.

Ultimately, it just works for me.

Thank you for reading, everyone!

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email us at support@reforgedperformance.com or direct message us on Instagram.

Until next time!