For those who are new to intermittent fasting, the OMAD diet is more of a hardcore way of fasting. It stands for one meal a day, basically eating one meal in a 1-hour window.
Strength training in an OMAD fasted state can burn more calories then snacking beforehand. In fact, as much as up to 20% more calories can be used. This is because of the effects of eating naturally will raise your insulin levels. Elevated insulin levels will slow down your metabolism.
Some people prefer to strictly stick to an OMAD diet 7 days a week, but I prefer to use it as another tool and do it 3-4 times a week. Will you become catabolic and lose all of your muscles if you do strength training while working out?
| Strength training is not affected negatively by doing OMAD fasting | Your HGH Human Growth Hormone levels are at it’s highest in a 48 fast |
| Increased weight loss while doing OMAD fasting | Fasting is protein sparring but you can lose a small amount of muscle |
Can you Lose Muscle while doing OMAD Fasting?
Short and sweet, no fasting does not burn muscle. Your body will use up all of its glucose stores and will shift to converting body fat before losing muscle.
You may lose a slight amount of muscle but not much and also depending on how long you are fasting. If you are fasting for 48 hours you are safe from muscle loss, but if you are doing 72 hours and beyond it looks like that’s where your muscle starts getting tapped into.
A book was written by Dr. Kevin Hall on where on the comparative physiology of fasting, starvation, and food limitation. He explains that at the beginning of a fast what sources of fuel are being used by the body.
At the start of a fast, there is a mixture of sources being used for energy such as protein, fats, and carbs. At the end of the first day of fasting, the body starts with using up all of the carbs which are essentially sugar.
As this happens the body will switch over to not being able to store sugar as it uses it for fuel. This in hand will cause your body to start burning start using your fat for energy after the first day.
If you are wondering what happens to protein? Since we just discussed the 3 other macronutrients. as we are fasting obviously protein consumption will naturally decrease.
This is where protein turnover happens since we are not consuming more protein we won’t lose muscle but start conserving it. In short, your body will start preserving muscle but you will lose small amounts. As I mentioned earlier how long you fast will determine that as well.
| While you can lose muscle while fasting it is very minimal. |
Can you Gain Muscle while Doing OMAD
You can gain muscle while eating in a smaller window. Is it harder to gain muscle while doing OMAD, absolutely. Typically fasting diets are more for cutting weight or getting an aesthetic look.
To gain muscle size you want to make sure you are eating at least .7-1 pound of body weight per day of protein. This is crucial for adding or building muscle.
You will also want to find your baseline calories. This is what it would take for you to maintain your weight and add 250-500 calories to that. You can figure this out by using this free tool at tdee.
One study was performed on time-restricted (intermittent fasting) feeding and resistance training in men.
This was done by a randomized controlled trial and was done for 8 weeks with resistance training with and without intermittent fasting. This was done to observe their nutrient intake as well as body composition changes.
Their muscular strength was also measured as well in younger active male adults. The study was performed by eating all of their calorie consumption within a 4-hour window for 4 days a week.
Interestingly enough they didn’t track calories consumed or what was eaten during the eating window. The strength training workout was done by working out for 3 days per week and this included rotating the lower and upper body.
Every exercise consisted of training to failure to 8-12 repetitions. Follow-ups were done for research purposes every 4-8 weeks after the study was finished.
In-depth body composition measurements were performed by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry and muscle cross-sectional by ultrasound was performed.
Also, they tracked their 4-day eating habits. The fasting window in which they ate, consumed 650 kcal each day during the time-restricted eating. This also had no effect on body composition during the study.
What they discovered was that the biceps brachii and rectus femoris increased in both groups. They found that the group did not use fasting and did strength training had a gain in lean soft tissue muscle(+2.3kg- D=0.25.)
Both groups had an increase in upper and lower body strength as well as muscle endurance. Well, well interestingly enough there was an increase in the fasted group.
This goes to show that time-restricted eating did not have an effect on keeping lean muscle mass or adding muscle in the short term study with young males.
This goes against the preconceived notions that you will go catabolic if you are not eating every 3 hours. More bioscience debunked, I’m coming with the knowledge! While OMAD isn’t ideal to add muscle, you can definitely do it.
| Time-restricted eating will not cause muscle loss but studies have shown an increase in muscle versus a non fasted group. |
What’s the best time to do strength training While doing OMAD
It looks like the more and more I look at the circadian rhythm cycles and listen to other health and fitness experts speak about meal timing that the morning seems to be the best time to eat your biggest meal of the day.
This is not ideal for me and others who have families or those who want to go out with friends and eat in the evening. I also tend to train more in the evenings because I like to follow up workouts with a meal.
If you are able to pull off this type of OMAD eating schedule in the mornings, it seems to be optimal. You could set yourself up for success by planning out your day. If you will be with friends or family during the evening just use this as your eating window.
What’s the optimal strength training program during OMAD Fasting
The best type of strength training during OMAD or any type of training program is hands down compound exercises. They are simple, yet effective, as I like to say the most bang for your buck!
Instead of curls for the girls, you are working for more than one muscle group at a time and they are getting high volume training. Which is a must for natural weightlifters like me.
There is a good chance you will be wasting your time if you are a natural weight lifter and you are not following this type of routine. Volume and compound exercises should be the staple of any program.
Here is a list of some Compound Exercises
- Bench Press
- Dead Lift
- Barbell Squat
- Standing Barbell Press
- Barbell Row
What’s the Best Program for a beginner?
The best workout for a beginner or some who doesn’t want to be a gym rat is a 5×5 workout. This is 5 repetitions by 5 sets. You are working multiple muscle groups at a time with high volume.
This means that less time will be needed to be spent at the gym because this is efficient training. I like to do this when I’m starting my routine over or recently we had our first child and I didn’t work out for about 2 months.
A 5×5 workout gives you a good base and is great for building strength. As well as for beginners who are training their body motor movement patterns for each exercise.
This not only good for learning the form which is one of the biggest overlooked training methods but also, prevents injuries. This a great routine for beginners or those who are getting back in the gym.
I get it sometimes life happens and gets in the way, but if you do this type of training consistently you ‘ll be back in shape in no time.
| One of the most optimal strength training programs is a 5×5 with compound exercises with high volume. |
Does Fasting lower Testosterone?
This study was performed on men who were overweight. The goal was to show the relationship between fasting and hormones. Once again this is where the brofessors have failed us.
If you follow standard advice from the fitness industry you have to eat every 2-3 hours or you will go catabolic and you will get fat if you don’t.
This study showed during a fast they were able to increase their LH (luteinizing hormone) which is a testosterone precursor up to by 67%! Their overall Testosterone had an increase of up to 180%.
These are pretty solid increases when you factor in it was done just by fasting alone.
| According to studies, it appears fasting can raise testosterone. |
My experience with OMAD
I think OMAD is great if you want to lose weight and have a lot of extra body fat. If you do get lean it does become tough to do every day. I like to cycle OMAD as I get leaner for that reason.
The more body fat you have the longer you can fast for. Once you get down to a desired weight or you’ve reached your goal I would use it as a tool. I find it tough to make sure you are eating enough “quality” calories.
If you want to eat healthy whole foods it can be tough to reach your caloric intake for the day. On the other hand, fast food is loaded with calories and much easier to do.
Obviously our goal here is to become the healthiest version of ourselves. And eating junk food all of the time will not help with that.
I believe in the 80/20 rule, 20 % of the time you can eat junk food and won’t have much of a negative effect. OMAD diet is great, but it also does not mean you can just pig out and not worry about calories.
It is very important if you are trying to build muscle while strength training on OMAD is tracking calories but more importantly your protein intake.
Protein is crucial for building lean muscle and keeping lean muscle mass on your body. It can be tough to do this if you are not tracking and are only eating one meal a day. Even though a lot of advice recommends not counting calories.
Once I get to the desired leanness I prefer to do a 20:4 eating schedule with some OMAD mixed in.
| OMad is great for losing weight but it’s important to still track your calories to make sure you are eating enough and getting all of your vitamins/nutrients. |
Final thoughts
OMAD diet is good to do while strength training. I prefer to eat some food so I will be stronger during my workouts, but some prefer to exercise while fasted.
It’s important not to stay on OMAD forever because the leaner you get the harder and more likely unhealthier it could be for you. Once I get to a weight I feel healthy at I will eat in a 20:4 window.
It’s still important to track calories because you will want to take what is called a diet break. You just add 5-10% of calories back from your calorie deficit.
Studies show that we need a diet break while still being in a slight calorie deficit to keep from gaining all the weight back and then some.
Most people can lose weight but it’s been proven that a lot will reagin it. I know I have and know a lot of others who have as well.