Don’t sweat the short term changes. Look at it over weeks.
Also, if you gain muscle under a layer of flab… or even if the lifting causing water gain from inflammation, you’ll feel bigger but you’re not actually gaining fat.
If I hadn’t maintained my weightlifting while I water fasted for a few weeks, I know I would have lost a lot more lean mass.
Oh wow so you had a multiweek water fast and lifted at the time?
Any lightheadedness?
The longest I’ve gone is around 96 hours. I would’t feel weird after working out, but I’d get lightheaded when I’d stand up after sitting down/resting for a few minutes.
No. Lightheadedness is a function of electrolytes.
Once ketones rev up, you can lift without issue.
I went 19 days and only stopped when I felt that my metabolism had dropped too far. That’s why I’m modifying my current 3 day “fasts” with protein.
I hit 9.3 ketones in the last week and had lots of energy to burn.
The difference is intensity. Without replenishing glycogen, muscles can’t do heavy excursions… so I could do high rep, high volume, low weights forever… but heavy weights to failure were hard.
Also, legs were hardest. It’s a large muscle that consumes massive energy and it feels much harder when fasting.
So I would do cardio or something else on those days … and that’s where I lost the most lean mass. Check out my fasting thread for the details.
Fasting is a mental challenge. The body is amazingly strong, but the mind is weak without training. Thankfully fasting strengthens the mind.
I know they say the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. That’s only true on SAD 
… when I fast, the spirit is strong and the body is strong… but the mind starts off weak and gets stronger.
Leg days are killer. 1 day of a few squats and I feel the aches for a week lol.
I hope the fat isn’t just sitting there while muscle is getting added. I guess I’d feel better about some gain and water retention if I knew that fat loss was simultaneously happening
I hear you. That’s why I go for DEXA scan every three weeks or so. My last one showed great muscle gains in the regions I focused on. Check out my carnivore thread for those.
Good idea. There’s a company here in southern CA that does them for $45. I should check it out.
What state are you in? I booked an appointment next week. This company, Bodyspec, has locations in a few states.
Sounds like a business opportunity then. The Dexa in Dallas needs to be scheduled weeks in advance now.
That’s what I was thinking too. Of course it’s a major investment in equipment, but great long term business opportunity.
The place I booked mine at charges $45 per scan, and they have packages where you can purchase up to 4 scans in advance at a discount with each additional scan. I believe they take up to 50 appointments per day at their brick and mortar location and their mobile truck. That’s an easy $4,500/day, plus their RMR test isn’t too shabby either at $75 lol.
I actually sized up the investment. The DEXA itself is $100k and the RMR is about the same.
Says $250k in capital equipment that can be amortized over 7 years or so. Assuming just a 15% fill rate of that $4500 a day, that would pay back in a year & just make money for the next 5… I’m ignoring actual running costs just for a super rough back of the envelope.