Fasting and fitness

Fasting changes when you eat, not how much your body needs. Your calorie and protein targets stay the same on a fasting day, so the work is fitting them into fewer hours or a smaller list of foods. Done that way, you can keep your muscle and strength through a fast.

Who should not fast

Do not fast without your doctor’s advice if any of these apply to you:

• You are pregnant or breastfeeding.
• You have diabetes and take insulin or other medicine that lowers blood sugar, because fasting can drop it dangerously low.
• You have, or have had, an eating disorder.
• You are under 18.
• You have kidney disease, heart disease, or any condition that needs regular meals or medicine at set times.

Break the fast and get help if you feel faint, dizzy, confused, very weak, or have chest pain or palpitations. Most traditions excuse people who are ill from fasting, so a missed fast is not a failure.

Intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting means eating only within a set window each day, such as 8 hours (16:8) or 10 hours (14:10). In studies it works about as well as ordinary calorie counting for fat loss, mainly because a shorter window makes it easier to eat less. It has no special fat-burning effect, so pick it only if it suits your routine.

• Fit two or three protein-rich meals into the window, each with 30-40 g of protein; see meal timing.
• Put the window around your training where you can, so you eat within a few hours after a session.
• Black coffee, plain tea and water are fine outside the window.
• A 14:10 or 16:8 window is easier to keep than shorter ones, and it leaves room to reach your protein target.

Ramadan

During Ramadan the fast runs from Fajr (dawn) to Maghrib (sunset), and you eat from iftar at Maghrib until suhoor ends at Fajr. That leaves only about 8-12 hours to eat in India, depending on the season, so plan the night.

Suhoor and iftar

• Iftar: break the fast with dates and water or nimbu pani, then a light plate such as fruit, chana chaat or sprouts, and a proper dinner an hour or two later.
• Dinner: a normal meal with a good protein serving, such as chicken, fish, eggs, paneer, dal or soya with roti or rice.
• Suhoor: eat it as late as you can, and make it slow to digest, with protein and fibre: oats with milk, eggs with roti or toast, paratha with curd, or keema with roti.
• Go easy on fried snacks and sweet drinks at iftar; they take up calories without much protein.

Spread protein and water across the night

Split your protein over iftar, dinner and suhoor, about a third at each. For water, aim for your usual daily amount, spread out: a few glasses at iftar, a few through the evening, some with dinner and a few at suhoor. Drinking it all at once at suhoor does not keep you hydrated through the day, and very salty or spicy suhoor food makes thirst worse.

Training in Ramadan

• The easiest time is an hour or two after iftar, once you have eaten and drunk something.
• Training just before iftar also works for some people, because you can eat and drink straight afterwards, but keep it short and lighter.
• Cut volume a little, keep the weights heavy enough to hold your strength, and skip hard conditioning while you cannot drink.
• In hot weather, stop if you feel dizzy or stop sweating.

Navratri and other vrat days

Navratri and Ekadashi fasts usually allow a set of vrat foods and exclude grains, pulses, and often onion, garlic and ordinary salt. Customs differ between families and regions, so follow your own.

Common vrat foods:

• Flours and grains that are not true grains: kuttu (buckwheat), rajgira (amaranth), singhara (water chestnut flour), samak rice, sabudana.
• Vegetables: potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, lauki, cucumber, raw banana.
• Dairy: milk, curd, paneer, chaas, lassi, Greek yogurt.
• Fruit, nuts and seeds: all fruit, almonds, peanuts, cashews, walnuts, makhana.
• Seasoning: sendha namak (rock salt), green chilli, ginger, cumin, lemon.

Vrat food is mostly carbohydrate, so protein is the thing to watch. Dairy is your main source: paneer, Greek yogurt or hung curd, milk and high-protein dairy products each give 10-25 g a serving. Peanuts and makhana help a little. Fried items like sabudana vada and kuttu puri add up quickly, so keep them to one meal.

A one-day vrat like Ekadashi barely affects your progress; eat what the fast allows and pick up your normal meals the next day. For the nine days of Navratri, plan for enough protein each day, and keep training as usual if you feel well.

Using the tracker

In the tracker, set intermittent fasting, Ramadan or Navratri under More. Today then shows whether your eating window is open, with Ramadan times for your city, and a one-day vrat toggle for Ekadashi or any other fast day. On vrat days, food search and the meal plan show only vrat foods.

The short version

• Fasting changes when you eat; your calorie and protein targets stay the same.
• Do not fast without medical advice if you are pregnant, diabetic on medication, have had an eating disorder, or have a serious illness.
• In intermittent fasting, fit two or three protein-rich meals into the window.
• In Ramadan, spread protein and water over iftar, dinner and suhoor, and train after iftar.
• On vrat days, lean on paneer, curd, milk and nuts for protein.

This is general information, not medical advice; see a doctor before fasting if you have a medical condition or take regular medication.