Hey guys, Sean Nalewanyj here of SeanNal.com and BodyTransformationTruth.com, and I’ve
been getting a lot of requests for this video because it is the start of Ramadan which for
those of you who don’t know, is a period in the Islamic calendar where Muslims basically
fast throughout the day, with no food and also no water between dawn and sunset.
Now, I do have a lot of subscribers and readers out there who are Muslim and so I always get
a lot of questions about this before and during Ramadan, where I’m basically asked if it’s
possible to continue gaining muscle or losing fat during this period, or if the focus should
just be on maintaining, and what the best way to go about it is.
So the short answer is that if you structure things properly and you stick to it, then
there’s really no reason at all why you can’t, not only maintain the results you’ve
achieved so far but also continue making muscle building and fat burning progress even with
that fasting period in place throughout the day.
It might not be 100% optimal for some people, but there’s no question at all that you
can continue to make progress during Ramadan.
All it really comes down to is knowing what your calorie and your macronutrient needs
are for your specific goal, so whether you’re trying to bulk or cut, and then just laying
out your food intake so that you’re able to hit those needs within the time frames
that you are able to eat.
We already know from research that eating frequent meals throughout the day is not necessary
in order to maximize muscle growth or fat loss, overall 24 hour intake is by far the
most important factor, and when it comes to the issue of bodybuilding Ramadan can basically
just be looked at as a form of intermittent fasting.
And that’s a dieting approach that a lot of people use successfully all year round
as a way of losing fat and gaining muscle.
So there’s really not much to it, just allot your food intake to the hours before dawn
and after sunset, if that means that you might have to alter your schedule slightly then
that’s something to take into account, and since you can’t consume any water during
the regular day, I would recommend that you move your workout into one of the “feeding
periods” so that you can stay hydrated and because in terms of maximizing training performance
as well as preserving muscle tissue I don’t think that intense fasted training followed
by no post workout nutrition at all, I don't think that's going to be ideal for most people.
So I would say wake up, eat something, train, and then follow that up with a meal or two
as well as plenty of water to carry you through the day, or, do the same thing but just later
at night.
The only possible challenge here might be that if you’re bulking and you do have higher
calorie needs and you find it difficult to consume all of your food in those smaller
feeding windows.
If that’s the case then there are a few strategies that you can use in order to get
as many calories in as possible in a smaller volume of food while still meeting your nutritional
needs, and I’ll post a link in the description box below to a post that I did where I cover
that topic in more detail.
If you’re cutting then this really shouldn’t be an issue because your overall calories
are going to be lower and you're not going to be consuming a high volume of food anyway.
So, there’s really not much more to say, it’s ultimately pretty straightforward,
just move your food intake into the two feeding periods, move your workout into whichever
of those two periods is more convenient for you, and if you’re serious about your goals
and you do need to alter your schedule slightly by possibly waking up a bit earlier or staying
up later, then that’s just something that you’ll have to do your best with during
this period.
And in the end, remember that Ramadan is only 30 days long, which is not a big deal in the
overall picture, it’s basically 4 weeks that you're dealing with here, so even if
for some reason you can’t stick to your plan 100%, it’s still not going to have
much of a noticeable negative effect if any at all, in the grand scheme.
So thanks for watching, I hope you found this Q&A useful.
If you want to get my complete step-by-step roadmap for building muscle and losing fat
in the most efficient way possible then you can download my complete Body Transformation
Blueprint system by heading over to BodyTransformationTruth.com, you can just click the icon at the top of
the video or use the link in the description box below.
If you did enjoy the video make sure to hit the like button, leave a comment and subscribe
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And make sure to check out my official blog over at SeanNal.com for all of my latest articles,
tips and other updates.
Talk to you again soon.