Last year a study was published that attempted to map out what happens to fat deposits during intermittent fasting. The study made the unexpected discovery that some types of fat are more resistant to weight loss in mice. This study was performed on mice, mind you, however it seems to be in-line with my own experience, doing intermittent fasting for well over two years now. Been doing mostly OMAD and 18:6. Exercise roughly five times a week.
The fat around the belly / love handles just does not seem to go away. It’s not much, but noticeably more than on other areas of the body.
Wondering what’s your take on this?
>During fasting, fat tissue provides energy to the rest of the body by releasing fatty acid molecules.
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>However, the researchers found visceral fat became resistant to this release of fatty acids during fasting.
And this is the really interesting bit:
>There were also signs that visceral and subcutaneous fat increased their ability to store energy as fat, likely to rapidly rebuild the fat store before the next fasting period.
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>Dr Larance said it was possible that a history of repeated fasting periods triggered a preservation signalling pathway in visceral fat.
Link to the paper: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(21)00118-2
Now this is all conjecture on my part and I could be wrong about a lot of it and the connections between them.
Smaller mammals generally have much faster metabolisms and live for less time, but the number of heartbeats a mammal has is generally fairly even, regardless of body size or lifespan.
So in my mind, making mice do alternate day fasting seems like a very long period. Like the equivalent of doing 3-4 day fasts for humans (and that could be even longer depending how you judge the lifespan and metabolism differences).
I’d be curious to see how that idea plays with the “survival” mode they talk about, since these mice are probably literally alternate day starving. Which would actually trigger a starvation response leading to lower metabolism and the body trying to retain as much energy as possible.
Did…did a mouse write this?! Only joking, thanks for sharing the studies and your perspective.
The paper is interesting and sounds to me like it confirms some priors: fasting alone is not enough, your body’s fat stores are obdurate and will hold on to and seek to restore it’s reserves. Underlines the value of blending intermittent fasting and exercise for sustaining weight loss.
This is a really fascinating study. Thank you for sharing, OP!
For my two cents, I subscribe to the notion put forth by Paul Rivelia (among many others) who trains bodybuilders that have to get “stage lean” for shows. Basically it comes down to consistency in your caloric deficit, but not so much that your body wants to hold onto every calorie you take in.
So for example: eating right at your maintenance tdee, but walk just a little more, or shave 200-300 calories off you maintenance and continue exercising the exact same amount. In this way you stimulate muscle retention, your body isn’t starving, and the slight deficit will cause the stubborn fat to eventually come off.
I’ve also seen it suggested that shifting your macros to include a higher percentage of protein can get you there. The reason provided was that protein has a higher thermogenic effect, requiring more calories to break down than the other macros.
Anyway, cool study. Thanks again OP