Hey I'm relatively new to fasting. I'm doing the warrior fasting because I already had some good experience with the 16/8 fasting in the past although I wasn't really doing that consecutively for a longer time but I always felt pretty good when not eating for longer periods of time so I thought I might give the 20/4 fasting a chance.
I've been doing it for a week now and everythings being going great so far. I feel way more efficient and productive. Because of some work stuff I took a break from the gym though for about a week and a half. So today I went back again for the first time since starting intermittentfasting and I felt like absolute shit. I was going right before the end of my fasting cycle and I couldn't finish the training because I got extremely nauseous and my muscles hurt like never before. Granted I was doing a workout that was already pretty demanding before fasting but I couldn't have imagined that it would be that bad now.
I kinda feel like I need to eat at least something before going in the gym but I can't finish my training and eat my required calories in only 4 hours. But I also don't want to switch to the 16/8 fasting again because I don't want to miss out on the benefits of fasting longer. Would it be a good idea to fast 16/8 on gym days and for the rest of the week do a 20/4 cycle. What do you think?
Answer
The varying the fast to fit your workout days is exactly what my brother does and it seems be working well for him. He just fasts until right after he trains then refeeds from there.
I, on the other hand, am training very consistently when fasted and doing fine most of the time. I have noticed that on my days when I’d normally feel de motivated or lacking in strength, the negative feelings are exaggerated. I’m thinking of combating that with a 0 cal preworkout. I do 20-4//OMAD and I make sure I’m hitting my protein macros almost religiously, especially on days when I train.
In conclusion, do what works best for you. If you think that training more effectively has better benefits than a longer fast, I’d opt for that.
I hope that helps.