IF, Lifting + Cardio.

[Giovanni Rosanni]

My goals are to maintain and/or build muscle in the process.

A couple of questions, please.

1) Fasted cardio has been beaten to death by people for and against it. Now, I want the opinions of experienced IF'ers on fasted cardio and when to do it.

2) I'm doing the fast 5 and am wondering when to train and if I should break my fast before training?

Thanks all!

[William Hunter]

my .02

1) depends on the type of cardio. low intensity stuff could be put anywhere within the fast, even several hours before you begin to eat. if you're doing balls to the wall high intensity stuff, i'd eat soon after, especially if you're looking to maintain or build.

2) training with low-rep strength stuff can be done immediately prior to or within an hour of your eating window. occasionally i've eaten a little at 5pm, trained 30-45 min later, then eaten heartily afterwards. i've also just gone ahead and trained immediately prior to eating.

personally i'm not a big fan of delaying eating for several hours after any type of "good" workout, but I often take long walks with the dog before work, work all day, then eat at 5.

i'm sure others will chime in.

[Eva Claire Synkowski]

i think you'll find maintaining mass and IF is pretty easy. ive been doing 15+ hr fasts 5-7 days a week since april. body comp has improved ... but i think ive actually gained about 5 lbs in the last 2-3 months (without trying to gain mass!) on this schedule.


steve summed up IF and food timing well in another thread:
http://www.performancemenu.com/forum...ht=IF+fat+loss

in my experience - fasted cardio is pretty easy. easier for me than fasted strength or oly sessions. usually, i do fasted cardio in the AM - and don't find that i need any caffiene to get through it. i guess its important to point out my "cardio" is crossfit style metcon's - and rarely over 20 minutes. fasted, intense cardio 30+ minutes has been tough/not possible for me.

[Mike ODonnell]

Some have speculated that lower intensity longer cardio during fasted states leads to MORE muscle catabolism than other mid-intensity intervals. I wouldn't suggest HIGH intensity unless you plan to eat right after or have some BCAAs pre-workout. Play with your workouts and meal timing...you will see what works best.