So I had been fasting a ton and having really great weightloss results, but was doing a bunch of endurance training and I think I lost too much muscle mass as a result. I started showing signs of thoracic outlet syndrome, but once I stopped fasting and did a few weeks of weight training, my symptoms have subsided. (It was horrible - watch the muscleloss y’all!)
I want to start fasting periodically again since my body fat is quite high and it’s basically the only way I’ve successfully lost weight.
Can folks who do resistance training during a fast give me some advice? Do I tackle the same level of weight as my eating days? I feel nervous about that because the protein won’t be there to repair the muscles.
My goal is simply to preserve muscle mass to whatever degree possible during three day fast. How do I activate the muscle sparing mechanisms?
Let me know what works for you or if you have any resources! Thanks everyone
Fasting jacks up HGH. It’s about as muscle sparing as you need. You can sauna to help, it rasies HGH as well and does a dozen other awesome things to body. I think some light cardio wouldnt hurt either. Whatever you do, also do some rows but keep the total workout under 30 minutes. Hiking is probably better than anything, get as much skin exposure as you can handle.
People forget we eat the sun too.
I’m currently doing a week long fast after bulking for past 3 months. It’s my first time ever doing it for gym recomp so i’m playing with it a bit. I’m drinking small amounts of water and tea and getting 30-60 minutes of daily full body sun. I’m generally not too active during fasts but trying to fix that. Rn I feel i’m holding muscle real well. And fat is dropping pretty fast. I feel really good most of the time.
My advice to you would be to do longer fasts. And when you are not fasting you are going to the gym, lifting decently heavy weight, doing full body work outs every session, and making sure your diet and macros are on point. For instance it is almost impossible to hit daily protein intake without a shake. Unless you are just slamming lbs of fish or chicken every day.
Benefits of longer fasts mean your body spends more time in a combination of ketosis, low insulin, high HGH and less time adjusting to it’s deeper states.
Fasting is muscle sparing due to heightened HGH. I do a 72-90 hour fast every month and as a bodybuilder, I can honestly say my body put on more muscle doing this for three years than I have in 30 years of weightlifting. Day one of three I lift. Day two is a rest day. On day three, when hgh production is highest, I lift right before I break my fast to take advantage of the hgh. It works. DO NOT listen to or read the bodybuilding forums that tell you that fasting will cause muscle loss. They are all full of shit and didn’t do the research and don’t have the discipline to try it.
You don’t lose muscle mass through fasting, you lose muscle mass through caloric restriction. Counterintuitively enough fasting doesn’t count towards caloric restriction as you are switching your body towards an alternate fuel source. This is not me saying this; the science done on it has measured this pretty consistently. After 4 days of fasting your HGH shoots up and your resting metabolism speeds up.
Intermittent fasting can play along well with hard training by timing your nutrition around your recovery. What you do not want to do is fast, train, and cut calories; that’s a recipe to shut down your metabolism and catabolize your lean muscles.
Check it out with OMAD. Normally there are three meals in a day, with OMAD there is one. If you are eating maintenance, 66% of your calories come from burning fast plus your one meal a day. But maintenance can suck. If you eat meal and a half you are still getting 50% of your calories from your fat reserves. Heck have a double plate and you are still pulling 33% from fat. Not shabby.
Fast, exercise, and do eat. The more clean food you eat the better off you will be.