Science- Faisal Abdalla is a Muslim fitness coach who fasts for the holy month of Ramadan every year.
- He maintains his muscle and fitness by training as normally as possible and eating lots of protein.
Fitness coach Faisal Abdalla has told Insider how he maintains his strength, muscle, and fitness while fasting during Ramadan.
In 2023, Ramadan falls from March 22 to April 21 and sees Muslims across the world fasting from sunrise to sunset. Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam, with the goal of feeling closer to God while also engendering gratitude, self-discipline, and self-improvement, as per the Muslim Council of Britain. The dates change every year, meaning the fasting window does too — at the end of Ramadan 2023 in London, UK, for example, Muslims will be fasting from 5:53 a.m. to 8:07 p.m.
During Ramadan, Abdalla, who lives in London, ensures he eats plenty of protein and increases the rest periods in his workouts, but mainly tries to keep training as normally as possible.
However, Abdalla acknowledges that what works for him might not work for everyone, and he advises people to stick to a small amount of movement, be it a half-hour workout or a walk, three to five times a week.
"All you need is maintenance," he said. Taking some time to reset and lighten up your workouts is usually beneficial anyway, allowing you to return to the gym with full gusto afterwards, Abdalla said.
Abdalla rests more during Ramadan workouts
As a personal trainer, Abdalla, 38, is used to working out a lot. In an ideal world, during Ramadan he likes to train late in the day so that he can eat and refuel not too long afterwards. The demands of work and being a dad, however, don't always make this possible, he said.
In his own training, Abdalla doesn't push for new personal bests, but he strives to keep going as normally as possible. One concession he does make, however, is longer rest periods to give his body a bit more recovery time.
For example, Abdalla might rest for two minutes as opposed to one between lifting sets. And if he's doing an "every minute on the minute" workout, where a certain number of reps of an exercise are repeated every 60 seconds, he will decrease the number of reps so he gets more rest time, he said.
Abdalla's work as a group fitness instructor means he's very active, but during Ramadan he tends to push himself slightly less when teaching, he said.
He finds the limitations of what he can do are more in his head than his body though, and when he gets going, his body still performs: This Ramadan, he matched his previous snatch one-rep-max of 85 kilograms (187 pounds).
"I'm not losing strength physically, but in my mind I feel weak," Abdalla said.
For him, a big part of Ramadan is the challenge of maintaining his normal lifestyle while fasting.
"I enjoy the challenge, I enjoy when it starts to get hard," Abdalla said.
Eating protein is key for maintaining muscle
Abdalla has found that most men he knows worry about losing muscle mass and most women worry about gaining weight during Ramadan.
He generally emerges from Ramadan leaner than when he started because he usually has to eat a lot to sustain his body, and he can only eat so much in the available window.
Abdalla prefers to sleep in the morning rather than get up early to eat before dawn, so he eats all his food for the day after sunset and before he goes to bed around 9:30-10 p.m., he said.
Abdalla's wife Louise does Ramadan with him and she batch-cooks lots of meals — such as chicken curry with rice and peas, breaded chicken and pasta, tagines, or pasta bolognese — in advance and freezes them so they don't have to cook during the month.
They don't eat huge portions though, because the stomach shrinks and it's important to ease the muscles into opening up, Abdalla said.
An average eating window for Abdalla is:
- beef chilli and rice
- dates
- bagel with peanut butter and banana
- protein pudding
- protein shake made with two scoops of protein powder
By the time Abdalla gets to the shake, he's uncomfortably bloated but knows it's important to keep his protein intake high to help retain his muscle mass and get more calories into his body.
He also drinks water with electrolytes to stay hydrated too.
Abdalla finds fasting is "phenomenal" for his body and his mindset. Not only does he appreciate food more, but he shows himself what he is capable of and enjoys the challenge of staying positive.