How to Use Intermittent Fasting and Keto for Bodybuilding?
Do you know the difference between intermittent fasting keto vs. intermittent fasting keto bodybuilding? Keto diet and intermittent fasting are two things and both have plenty of attractions in weight loss. It offers several health benefits if it is done in the right way including reversal of type 2 diabetes, weight loss, and many more. It allows the body to utilize its stored energy by burning excess body fat.
The body needs the energy to work in routine life, so intermittent fasting keto is good for weight loss. If you do not eat much or fast, then your body will start consuming fats stored in the body. This method of intermittent fasting keto is important for the majority of the people.
Table of Contents
What Is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting is a pattern of diet in which a person has to eat food in a specific way. It is the cycle between fasting and eating. Both of the ways are different in different persons. The intermittent fasting keto and intermittent fasting keto bodybuilding are two different ways. Different methods of eating patterns work for a variety of goals. [1]
People use this procedure to build mass, weight loss, or overall fitness. The intermittent fasting keto and intermittent fasting keto bodybuilding are two different things. Keep in mind that fasting can put your body on starvation mode and decrease muscle mass. So, there are different ways from which you can choose your fasting pattern.
Does Intermittent Fasting Put You Into Ketosis?
Keto diet is a low-carb and high-fat way of eating. In this way of dieting, the patient reduces less than 50 grams per day. It forces the human body on fats instead of glucose for its prime source of energy. The intermittent fasting keto is an effective source to finish extra-pounds on your body. Similarly, it comes with many advantages. [2]
Yes, it increases ketosis because intermittent fasting keto bodybuilding is ideal to build muscle mass. This form of fasting allows improving the food amount that we can take one time in a day. Our body requires a certain amount of food for energy. But with the keto intermittent fasting, the body uses its stored fats. It is one of the greatest methods for people who overeat. In this way, they do not increase their muscle mass but they put weight on.
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Can You Build Muscle While Intermittent Fasting?
Most of the people think whether intermittent fasting keto bodybuilding is suitable for building muscles. It is one of the most famous diets these days. The intermittent fasting keto has different types to avoid overeating. It helps in losing fat but intermittent fasting leads to losing muscle mass. In order not to lose muscle, you should eat properly except for fasting periods. In addition to this, if you do not ignore your exercises, you can build muscle while doing intermittent fasting. [3]
Read Also: The Top 9 Muscle-Building Foods | Best Protein Sources
Things You Need to Know About Food Timing
Food timing is one of the intriguing issues about its importance in nutrition. The important thing here is where and how much we get the nutrients, rather than the time of food.
Intermittent Fasting (IF) can also be referred to as a food timing diet. However, no matter how high-quality this diet is, it should not be forgotten that the main point here is to take the daily calories required in the right way.
IF is good at appetite management, and thanks to this feature, it will also make sure that you take calories correctly. Taking all these into consideration, IF is not a miracle. However, it should be regarded as an effective instrument to help things work out.
Other factors you need to know about food timing and similar issues can be listed as follows:
- The number of meals in the diet is not as important as it is thought. Taking the nutrients the body needs in 6 meals or a single meal does not change the result. Metabolism is not accelerated by snacks.
- Allocating the daily amount of protein that athletes need to have to several meals instead of a single meal has a positive effect.
- It is important to renew glucose stores after training in athletes who exercise hard and have high energy needs. Diet is of great importance, especially for those who train more than once a day. Apart from these, meals before or after sports are not as important as it is thought. Even being hungry for hours before or after sports does not adversely affect performance.
- Time of meal is not so important for the body. Breakfast is not the most important meal of the day to build muscle, burn fat, be energetic or get stronger.
Proven Recommendations to Build Your Muscles Faster
There are different factors to consider for intermittent fasting and muscle gain. Thanks to these, it is possible to get the desired results faster. The proven and effective recommendations are generally as follows:[*]
Increase Your Weight As You Get Stronger
Lifting weight is of great importance in muscle development. However, the weights you are working with will start to feel light after a while depending on your strength. Therefore, the effect of the respective weights may not be the same as in the past. In such a case, you should increase the weights. You can make these increases at regular intervals if you work regularly. Thus your muscle growth will speed up.
Exercise with Heavy Weight
The muscles wear out with the exercises and then they recover and become stronger which makes up the basis of muscle development. The more the muscles are worn out, the better the result will be. Therefore, make sure to work with high weights as far as you can.
Work in the Right Way
Performing the exercises properly during the muscle development process has a positive effect. When you do not perform the exercises in the right way, the desired effects are not obtained and the risk of injury increases.
Have a Training Routine
Make sure you have a plan for how to do the exercises. Thus, it will be clear on which day, how much and which exercises you will do. Routine and planning have always been one of the milestones of the way to success.
Feel Which Muscles are working
One should know which muscles the exercises will work. Thus, muscle development will be more effective. The easiest way to understand this is to feel which muscles are working with the movements made during the exercise.
Support Your Diet with Supplements
The amount of protein required for muscle development may not be fully met by diet. For this, you need to take nutritional supplements. With these supplements, you make sure that you are giving your body exactly the nutrients it requires.
Have a Regular Diet
The acceleration of muscle development during the exercise process is closely related to the diet. You need to get the proteins that the muscles need with your diet. Besides, the amount of carbohydrates in your diet supports the development of muscles up to a certain level. However, when it exceeds a certain amount, it causes an increase in weight.
Push Your Limits
Lifting weight is tough. However, when you force yourself, tearing and wear occurs in the muscles. This increases the speed of muscle development. So push yourself while lifting weights and see your limits.
Don’t Forget to Exercise Your Legs
For muscles to develop, the amount of testosterone hormone needs to increase. Exercising your legs has a positive effect on increasing the level of this hormone.
How Soon Will I See Results from Intermittent Fasting?
It takes a short period to get results and you do not need to wait for months for the results. Most of the people always focused on low-calorie food and intermittent fasting keto bodybuilding. It is the property of low-calorie food that it is good to maintain the fat level in the body very easily. It helps to maintain the cholesterol level in the blood. [4]
This is a perfect food for bodybuilders because it is equally beneficial for every weightlifter. In this way, he will be able to maintain your health as well as reduce fat very easily.
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Basic Nutrition for Intermittent Fasting and Keto Bodybuilding
The journey with intermittent fasting keto bodybuilding to attain a muscular body is not very simple and easy. It needs consistency and regularity. Some of the easy steps are here. You need this diet. [5]
Step 1:
Take a start with vegetables in the first step. Green beans, salads, and Asparagus are the right choice.
Step 2:
Now, you need fats like almond, flax seeds, and others but include some apples, bananas, and oranges too.
Step 3:
You need carbs in intermittent fasting keto like rice, bread, oats, wraps, and brown rice with protein.
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Insulin and Fat Burning with Intermittent Fasting
During the IF diet, blood sugar will go down. Accordingly, a similar decrease will be experienced in the level of insulin hormone. Since the storage of fats increases with the increase of the insulin hormone, the decrease in the level of this hormone also supports fat burning.
A similar situation occurs with low-carb diets such as the ketogenic diet. Insulin levels are lowered and fat burning is accelerated by fasting for a while besides low carbohydrates.
Other Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
The Intermittent Fasting diet meets expectations to a great extent such as weight loss and muscle building. However, it has other benefits as well. These can be listed as follows:
It is Brain-Friendly
The brain is one of the organs that consume the most calories in our body. Therefore, hunger can be seen as a disadvantage for the brain. However, this is not valid for fastings that last 8, 10, 20 hours. Being hungry for a certain period can make people more creative and focused.
Makes Life Easier
It is necessary to allocate time for meals during the day, to prepare a meal, or to go to a different place to eat. Thanks to this diet, you will get rid of these and save time.
May Extend Life
A long, low-calorie diet has a positive effect on cell regeneration. This can have similarly positive effects on lifespan.
Protects the Heart
According to studies, even when the IF diet is not done regularly, it positively affects heart health. Reducing bad cholesterol, increasing good cholesterol, and managing blood pressure are important results of the IF diet.
Intermittent Fasting for People Who Don’t Exercise
Those who do not exercise need to determine when to eat and when to be hungry according to their daily routines.
First, they should have a 10-hour eating interval and the process should be started by fasting for 14 hours, including sleep time. Then gradually reduce the eating interval (8 hours, 6 hours, 4 hours). The 4-hour eating interval following 20-hour fasting is expressed as extremely ideal for fat burning.
The eating interval can be in the morning, at noon, or in the evening. Experts generally recommend starting in the evening. Physiologically, it can be said that evening hour are more suitable for eating.[6]
During the fasting period, tea, coffee, mineral water, and similar calorie-free products can be consumed. At first, hunger will annoy you. When you face such a situation, consuming things such as raw carrots and cucumbers will help you improve your situation.
In the eating interval, one can consume whatever is desired until he or she is full. However, it would be better to start with salad and vegetables first, then turn to protein and fatty foods, and finally to deserts and carbohydrates.
If you follow the rules, the IF will become your most enjoyable way of eating. But if things go wrong, you need to focus on which of the rules you violate.
Eating until one is full means being full for that moment. If you continue to eat after you are full by saying that everything is free, you cannot lose weight. The intermittent fasting keto diet is an instrument that makes eating healthy and less. It certainly shouldn’t be seen as magic. If you don’t like heavy exercises while on the keto diet, you can click the link below for lighter workouts.
Read Also: Do I Need to Exercise on Keto?
Intermittent Fasting and Keto Diet for Bodybuilders
Keto and IF diets are very effective at burning fat for bodybuilders. But burning fat is not their only goal, bodybuilders also aim at developing muscles. Therefore, it is necessary to include exercises in the IF diet. Thus, even higher exercise performance can be achieved depending on the good management of diet. The points that athletes should pay attention to are as follows:
- The eating interval may need to be expanded a little more for putting on weight with minimal fat deposition and intermittent fasting muscle gain. So instead of 20-4, 16-8 would be more logical and accurate.
- Calorie and macro tracking are of great importance in IF. It is possible to proceed well without counting, but from time to time there are situations of undereating in IF. This can lead to weight loss and decreased performance.
- It is important that the training is done during the fasting period and that the biggest meal comes after the training. Your tanks are not empty because you had eaten the previous day. Besides, your energy will be higher due to the catabolic mode, which will increase the speed of fat burning. But if you can’t focus, you can also do the workout during the eating interval or at a different time. If you feel bad during training, you should pay attention to what you eat and review the training program.
- You do not need to worry about protein. Because the body accepting a limited amount of protein in a meal does not reflect reality. Evenly dividing the protein you need into the meals in your eating interval can increase productivity but is not mandatory.
SUMMARY
IF, also known as intermittent fasting can be expressed as a food timing diet in which there is prolonged fasting followed by an eating interval. One fasts in one part of the day, while eats in the other part. Control of appetite is important here, and thanks to this control, muscle gain can be increased by reducing the fat ratio.
Food timing does not have a significant impact on results. What food is eaten and how much is much more important. The intermittent fasting keto diet is important for bodybuilding as it provides appetite control.
There is no such thing that exercising while intermittent fasting harms performance. On the contrary, the desired results for fat burning can be obtained effectively.
