Gaining on IF Diet

[John Wood]

I hear that muscular gains can be made on this type of eating pattern.But I have never seen any programme outlines on how to structure eating and lifting.Can anyone shed some light on it.
I guess there needs to be an excess of calories around lifting days

[Allen Yeh]

MOD has a blog about IF and here is his particular post on muscle building:
http://www.theiflife.com/2008/03/10/...er-the-basics/

Another blog to check out would be Lean Gains:
http://www.leangains.com/

[Mike ODonnell]

Gaining is about 2 things....lifting heavy...eating enough. It can happen but you have to eat, eat, eat. Easiest way is meat and fat on non training days.....meat and carbs on training days.

These also may help:

Mistakes people make trying to gain weight and how to fix it

Joe's Stpry about IF

Martin from Leangains post

[John Wood]

Thanks.My last question.
Is it lean muscle gain or would I have to gain some fat to gain muscle whilst eating like that

[Dan Heaney]

Originally Posted by John Wood

Thanks.My last question.
Is it lean muscle gain or would I have to gain some fat to gain muscle whilst eating like that

I don't think it possible to gain muscle without some fat uless you are looking to do it at a very slow rate but I think this approach keeps the fat gain to a minimum

[Frank Needham]

What is your body comp at this time? If you are already lean then you'll have to really eat big and therefore can't avoid gaining some fat. But, you can keep it to a minimum. If you are already carrying higher bf then eating IF style can shift your body's comp, you'll gain muscle while losing fat. In this case your overall weight isn't likely to change. The last case has been my experience since playing around with IF. I started IF at 193, 20% bf & 36" waist while lifting 4x per week. Weight is now 187, bf is about 16% & waist < 34" and still lifting 4x per week. I believe some of the bf is shifting to muscle as I'm still seeing increases in my lift numbers regularly. So, like a lot of things, it depends on your circumstances.

[Mike ODonnell]

Originally Posted by John Wood

Thanks.My last question.
Is it lean muscle gain or would I have to gain some fat to gain muscle whilst eating like that

Unless you have it dialed it perfectly...which never happens...you can expect some fat gain, but not so much you will be all bloated like the mass gain plans of the 90s left you.

Your best strategy is to lean out first, and then start gaining some muscle.

[John Wood]

Thanks Mike

Originally Posted by Frank Needham

What is your body comp at this time? If you are already lean then you'll have to really eat big and therefore can't avoid gaining some fat. But, you can keep it to a minimum. If you are already carrying higher bf then eating IF style can shift your body's comp, you'll gain muscle while losing fat. In this case your overall weight isn't likely to change. The last case has been my experience since playing around with IF. I started IF at 193, 20% bf & 36" waist while lifting 4x per week. Weight is now 187, bf is about 16% & waist < 34" and still lifting 4x per week. I believe some of the bf is shifting to muscle as I'm still seeing increases in my lift numbers regularly. So, like a lot of things, it depends on your circumstances.

No not really lean but I have come down from about 20% to about 16% bf.