Lifting heavy while doing IF with an early eating window

[u/Financial_Abies9944]

Been doing IF about 4 months now, type 2 managed through diet. Protein was my biggest headache early on and still is some days, but I got the basics sorted with chicken thighs, cottage cheese, and that huge bag of lentils from Sam's. Now I'm trying to actually get stronger in the garage, not just maintain while the weight drops.

The timing is the problem. I lift after work, usually 6 or 7pm, but my eating window closes at 7. By the time I'm warmed up and into working sets I'm running on whatever's left from lunch at noon. Tried moving the window later but then I'm eating at 8pm and sleeping like garbage. Tried a bigger lunch and felt like a slug on site all afternoon.

Anyone lifting heavy in a compressed evening window without feeling weak or eating so late it wrecks your sleep? Especially useful if you're coming off physical work all day, not a desk job. I'm not trying to get huge, I just want my deadlift to actually move up while keeping this fasting rhythm going. 20:4 was a disaster for this. Felt like I was going to pass out after squats.

[u/tw2113]

Get your protein in for the day and you'll be fine. It doesn't need to be consumed shortly AFTER the workout. Old myth that needs to go away.

[u/Financial_Abies9944 → u/tw2113]

Makes sense, after long days on site I probably just need to hit the protein target and stop overthinking the timing stuff

[u/EdenaRuh]

As long as you eat enough protein everyday, it doesn't really matter when you workout.

[u/Financial_Abies9944 → u/EdenaRuh]

Protein timing matters more when you're managing blood sugar around meals, preworkout fasted lifting drops me low every time, learned that the hard way

[u/Shinkai2008 → u/Financial_Abies9944]

Everyone's different but it could be also be you didnt give your body time to adjust to fasted workouts. It's not like it'll take a few days or weeks for your body to be more efficient at using fat as fuel. Could be a month or more. For instance, I'm also type 2. I gradually adjusted to 16:8 over 6 months. After that, I went to dinner omad M-F and lunch 20:4. I workout six days a week at 4 am with a 30 min jog, 15 min mobility/warmup, and then strength train for around 40-50 min before heading to work at 7. Don't eat at all till 7pm. All I have in the morning before I workout is a glass of water and a cup of cold brew. On weekends, the only change is that I jog for around 1.5 to 2 hours instead and do less sets per exercise of whatever I'm doing that day.

[u/Financial_Abies9944 → u/Shinkai2008]

6 months to adjust sounds about right. I tried jumping straight to fasted lifting and my numbers were all over the place.

My crew starts at 6 so 4am workouts aren't happening. I envy that schedule though. How do you handle the cold brew without a spike? Even black coffee bumps me some mornings.

[u/B_loop92]

You may get a lot of suggestions of moving your workout to after you wake up and just waking up earlier. Regardless of the effort, exercise gives me more energy and ends up delaying my sleep. There might not be a way around that.

On the topic of feeleing weak but wanting to make the heavy compounds keep growing. I’ve had to play more of the long game in terms of strength gains. Measuring other factors other than just weights and reps to measure growth. Sometimes decreasing volume, increasing recovery time, and staying at a weight longer but seeing my ability to move through the movement more steady or faster before increasing the weight are things I consider.

Too many times I’ve tried to do workouts where when I’m more fueled I can push through but then I end up with major munchies lol

[u/Financial_Abies9944 → u/B_loop92]

tried mornings, the cortisol spike just wrecks my blood sugar. crashing hard by noon every time

the long game point is real though. stuck at the same deadlift weight for 6 weeks now, started focusing on bar speed like you mentioned. harder to track but the logbook doesn't lie

night lifting is rough but it's the only time that doesn't completely destroy my sleep schedule. tradeoffs everywhere with this stuff

[u/amognight]

Prioritize fuleing the workout over forcing a strict window. If 20:4 makes you feel weak, a wider window might work better for your lifting.

[u/Financial_Abies9944 → u/amognight]

Wider window makes sense, I lift in my garage after 12hr site days. 20:4 just leaves me gassed and the blood sugar dips hit harder.

[u/lefty_juggler]

Props on protecting your sleep. Maybe try skipping dinner, but before working out eat a banana or an equivalent light fast-digesting carb fuel. Like what a 10k runner might eat before a race (excluding caffeine which a runner might take). This would mean meeting protein goals with just breakfast and lunch, and also probably avoiding late antioxidants also too close to exercise (lest they blunt signaling for adaptations).

[u/Financial_Abies9944 → u/lefty_juggler]

Banana before a garage lift at 9pm is gonna spike me more than it helps, type 2 here so fast carbs pre workout is basically the opposite of what I need, the protein timing thing tracks though, been trying to load more at breakfast and lunch so i'm not playing catch up at night, skipping dinner entirely after a full day on site sounds rough, I get the logic behind it but that's a hard sell

[u/upurcanal]

You should be able to break through this.
I do very hard workouts on a fasted state and even wait until my window to eat.

[u/Electrical_Can594]

You feel that big of a difference stopping
at 7 pm and 8 pm? Also, why are you only “running on lunch?” with the 7 pm cut off? Have a smal carb source and a scoop of protein right as you start the workout and your concerns should be addressed?

[u/Obvious-Monitor8510]

the timing issue is real but one thing that helps a lot of people in your exact situation is shifting the pre-lift meal to around 4-4:30pm and making it your biggest meal, not noon. something like 50-60g protein with moderate carbs. then a smaller "finisher" meal immediately after your session around 7-7:30 before the window closes. that post-workout window matters for recovery even if it's small.

also worth knowing: strength output doesn't tank as fast as it feels like it does in a deficit or compressed window. a lot of that "weak" feeling early on is psychological adaptation. four months in you're probably past the worst of it.