Every Ramadan the same question comes up in gym forums and family kitchens: if I only eat twice, how do I still hit my numbers? The usual answers are "eat a lot at iftar" or "drink a big shake at suhoor". Neither is wrong, and neither tells you how much. This guide does the arithmetic, using the same rules our planner uses on a fasting day, for three different people.
Your body does not need less food in Ramadan
The first thing to settle is whether the target itself should change. The best measurement we have says it should not. An observational study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition measured 29 healthy fasting adults and found resting energy use of 1,366 kcal a day in Ramadan against 1,363 kcal after it, with total daily energy use, measured by doubly labelled water in a subgroup, also unchanged. People walked less and slept differently, but the engine kept burning at the same rate.
So we do not lower anyone's target because they are fasting. What changes is the time you have to eat it in.
The one cap we do apply: the length of the night
There is a limit to how much a person can comfortably eat between sunset and dawn. We plan at most 350 kcal for each hour of the eating window, a figure we chose rather than one from a study, and we say so on our method page. For most people it never binds: an 8-hour night holds 2,800 kcal. For a large person on a short summer night it does, and then the calories come down while protein stays exactly where it was. Carbohydrate and fat absorb the cut. We never plan a fasting day below 1,200 kcal unless your usual day is already lower.
How the day splits between suhoor and iftar
On a two-sitting night we put 40% of the day's calories at suhoor and 60% at iftar, and split protein 45% and 55%. Suhoor carries more of the protein than of the calories on purpose: it is the meal that has to last until sunset, and protein is what keeps it from being gone by mid-morning. The old Department of Health guide, still hosted by the NHS, put it like this:
"Suhoor, the pre-dawn meal, should be a wholesome, moderate meal that is filling and provides enough energy for many hours."
Department of Health, Ramadan Health Guide, 2007
The same guide's line about iftar is worth keeping too: the meal should remain a meal and not become a feast.
Worked example: an 8-hour night, two sittings
Three people, each eating to maintain their weight and training one to three times a week, on a night of 8 hours. The figures are the planner's own output; a test in our code rebuilds this table from the engine and fails if the page ever says something else.
| Person | Day | Suhoor | Iftar | One sitting at 0.55 g/kg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Woman, 60 kg, 165 cm, 30 | 2,046 kcal, 96 g protein | 818 kcal, 43 g | 1,228 kcal, 53 g | 33 g |
| Man, 75 kg, 175 cm, 30 | 2,633 kcal, 120 g protein | 1,053 kcal, 54 g | 1,580 kcal, 66 g | 41 g |
| Man, 95 kg, 180 cm, 40 | 2,800 kcal, 152 g protein | 1,120 kcal, 68 g | 1,680 kcal, 84 g | 52 g |
Two things stand out. The 95 kg man's usual day is 2,914 kcal, and the 8-hour night trims it to 2,800 while his protein stays at 152g. And in every row, iftar asks for more protein than the last column.
Why the last column matters
That column comes from the most cited paper on how much protein one meal can put to use. In a review of the trials, Schoenfeld and Aragon recommend 0.4g per kg per meal over at least four meals to reach 1.6g per kg a day, with 0.55g per kg as the upper end:
"we conclude that to maximize anabolism one should consume protein at a target intake of 0.4 g/kg/meal across a minimum of four meals"
Brad Schoenfeld and Alan Aragon, Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2018
Ramadan makes four meals impossible, and the honest reading of the newer evidence is that a big sitting is not wasted. A 2023 tracer study found that 100g of protein after exercise gave a larger anabolic response, lasting more than 12 hours, than 25g. So we treat 0.55g per kg as a reason to spread protein when the night allows it, never as a reason to cut it. Your protein target on a fasting day is the same number as on any other day.
Worked example: a 12-hour night, three sittings
When the night is 9 hours or longer, as it is through a winter Ramadan in the UK, we plan a third sitting and split the day 35%, 45% and 20%, with protein almost evenly across all three:
| Person | Day | Suhoor | Iftar | Night meal | One sitting at 0.55 g/kg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Woman, 60 kg, 165 cm, 30 | 2,046 kcal, 96 g protein | 716 kcal, 33 g | 921 kcal, 33 g | 409 kcal, 31 g | 33 g |
| Man, 75 kg, 175 cm, 30 | 2,633 kcal, 120 g protein | 922 kcal, 41 g | 1,185 kcal, 41 g | 527 kcal, 38 g | 41 g |
| Man, 95 kg, 180 cm, 40 | 2,914 kcal, 152 g protein | 1,020 kcal, 52 g | 1,311 kcal, 52 g | 583 kcal, 49 g | 52 g |
Now every sitting sits at or under the line, and the 95 kg man gets his full 2,914 kcal back because 12 hours holds it easily. The night meal can be small and simple: yogurt and dates, eggs on toast, a bowl of dal. Our protein ranking shows which foods carry the most protein for the fewest calories when a sitting has to be light.
Between 6 and 9 hours we offer the third sitting rather than plan it, and under 6 hours we plan two.
Where training fits
On a fasting evening we look for a 45-minute slot that starts at least an hour after iftar and ends at least 90 minutes before fajr, with an extra hour held back if a night meal is planned. If you pray taraweeh and tell us so, we try the gap before isha first and then after the prayer. If no 45 minutes fit, we say nothing rather than squeeze one in. The other option is straight after suhoor, with the whole fast ahead of you, which suits a light session better than a hard one.
None of this changes your calories. It is a line on your clock, not a training programme.
The short version
- Fasting does not lower what your body burns, so the target stays.
- The night caps calories only when it is short; protein never moves.
- Two sittings: 40/60 for calories, 45/55 for protein.
- A long night gets a third sitting, so no meal has to carry too much protein.
- Train an hour after iftar or right after suhoor, never on a full stomach.
If you want the whole month planned this way, with your own prayer times and your own body, start from The Ramadan Protein Plan or the suhoor and iftar meal plans.