As a Singaporean personal trainer and fitness camp owner, one of the issues we have to help clients with in our multi-racial country of Singapore is the fasting month of Ramadan.

There are personal training and fitness bootcamp members at the Genesis Performance Center who will enter fasting month soon this year. And recently they’ve been wondering what would be the best way to maintain the fat loss, weight loss and muscle building results they’ve achieved. This is usually a big concern for them because after a while in our programs they already have very healthy habits and lifestyles.

In fact, when I was working at the Singapore Sports College, we researched how to help Muslim athletes perform well even during the fasting/Ramadan month. Training and international competitions continue despite the month of fasting.

So here are my recommendations…

Train early in the morning (immediately after breakfast in the morning) or at night (after breakfast in the afternoon)

If you train in the morning, do it around 7:30 am or 8 am, if you do it at night, do it around 8 pm This is so you don’t train on a super full stomach.

Although we may not get the ideal 6 feeding opportunities per day, we should get at least 3 good ones. Morning breakfast, evening breakfast and one more great meal before bed. These foods should be slow digesting so you feel full longer. That means there are no bad things with starch. More protein and healthy fats that digest slowly.

So a sample daily schedule for morning training would be:

*Breakfast at 6am: eggs, meat, nuts, cheese, a whey protein shake
* 730am training
* Breakfast at 7:15 pm (night): eggs, meat, nuts, cheese, a caesin protein shake
* 10pm Dinner: Eggs, Meat, Nuts, Cheese, Casein Protein Shake

For evening training:

*Breakfast at 6am: eggs, meat, nuts, cheese, a casein protein shake
*Breakfast at 7:15 pm (night): eggs, meat, nuts, cheese, a whey protein shake
* 8:00pm workout – another post-workout whey protein shake
* 10pm Dinner: Eggs, Meat, Nuts, Cheese, Casein Protein Shake

Here we go! It’s not ideal, but it’s good enough that you don’t lose too much progress during the fasting month.

NOTE: Drink plenty of water as often as you can during times when you are allowed to do so. You should need constant bathroom breaks and your urine should be colorless, that’s the right amount!