so i (M18, 180, 6’0) have been working out and eating differently for the past month 1/2, trying to simultaneously build muscle and and lose fat. while i have been noticing a steady increase in my muscle mass, the fat loss has been going slower than i hoped, which is also making my muscle mass increase harder to notice.
i’m planning on water fasting for as long as i’m able to (starting today), while still working out and drinking one protein drink after the workout, but i’m afraid of losing muscle mass. what can i do to lose as little as possible?
note: my workout consist of 3 days, with one day for arms and pecs, one for shoulder and back, and one for legs, with abs and cardio everyday. this is followed by one rest day and then starting over.
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Ok. If you’re drinking a protein drink, you’re not fasting. I’ve gotten a lot hate from this subreddit and others about this topic and how I’m doing it but here it goes. Bodybuilding pros have been doing this for years. Are you gonna be Mr. Olympia… no but you can learn from the process. It’s difficult to gain muscle and loose fat at the same time. It’s much easier to gain mass then do keto and fasting to cut the fat. You can never maintain muscle while fasting. I’d love to see any research saying different. Good luck.
Muscle is not only contractile protein that is associated with strength, it’s also a storage of amino acids within its connective tissue for maintenance of hormones, organs, skin, hair etc. During the fast you are not providing those AA’s so some muscle will be broken down to provide them instead.
Protein synthesis in muscle takes 24+ hours so taking some protein once a day will not last long and most of it will be used for energy, because it will be too much of it in a short amount of time.
Loss of muscle is inevitable during water fasting, it’s only question how much, which depends on the amount of fat in storage and the rate that fat can be mobilized.
I tried fasting and working out for some months to see if I got ripped. I did notice a lot of weight loss, pretty quickly, I may have taken it too much because sometimes I would even do a 24h one but they were mostly 18 hours fasting. My strength never came, I felt that at most I was maintaining some muscle if not losing a bit. Not saying it will happen to you but for me I felt like it was very tricky.
I’m sure there are studies that have shown 48 hours fasting seems to be the sweet spot for optimum fasting whilst not effecting lean muscle. I think studies have also shown that fasting improves muscle building during eating windows. I’m not a pro, but I would assume you would need to be eating a decent amount of food/protein during your eating window to be able to build considerable muscle