Here's really an excellent all-in-one from Mike at The IF Life that covers all the basics for how to improve your ratio of lean mass to fat. I can personally attest to the simplicity and completeness of this, and it's really all right there; everything you need.
By the way, I got an email asking about my own progress since I haven't posted anything lately. Very interesting. Even with 24-30 hour fasts twice per week I have lost next to no net weight in nearly a month. I hit 212 and it's like a brick wall. But I feel great and my back, legs, and triceps are definitely larger. I also changed up my routine, such that rather than chest, triceps, abs & legs one day, then shoulders, biceps, back & legs the next, I now pack a full-body workout into that 30-minutes twice per week. It's almost CrossFit in the way my trainer stages each exercise and I just go from set to set to set, never stopping or resting much at all. Overall intensity has increased dramatically, and so I'm pretty certain my failure to lose more net weight recently is due to lean gain.
I'm contemplating a 48-hr fast at the beginning of next week just to see if something needs to be shaken loose somewhere. Of course, ultimately your weight is just a number. I'll want to get my BF down to around 10%. If I do that then it doesn't matter what I weigh.
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I had a huge drop in weight initially and now its more of a slow reduction. I too am only concerned with BF% as opposed to the arbitrary number of my "weight". One thing I've done in addition to fasting though is to trim out low-nutrition carbs (breads, potatos, bananas) and replaced them with berries.
One consequence (a welcome one, I think) of going low-carb is that I shed a great deal of water weight. Anyway, thanks for the updates!
Richard,
What % BF are you now?
I don't know precisely, because I've never done the submersion test. I was very lean when I graduated HS at 165, 5' 10". I estimate that my normal, 15% BF adult self would be in the 175 range (I've a large frame). The weight training has added at least 10 pounds of lean, so let's say optimal me would be 10-15% at 185. I'm at about 210-212 now, depending mostly on how much water I'm retaining at any one time. So, that means I'm probably carrying about 50 pounds of fat, still, which would put me at near 25% BF. I've lost at least 20 pounds of fat, so 20 more and I'll be getting close to normal
5'10", 185 at 10% would be a nice level of musculature. I'm 5'10" also and I would love to end up at 185 with 8-10% BF.
Good Luck!