Hello all, I was planning to do 7-12 days water fasting( I have done mac upto 3 days), I’m a bit worried about muscle loss while fasting, any tips on how to prevent it? Also those of you who have done this fast, how was your experience with respect to muscle maintenance?
Muscle loss on a fast is mostly a non issue and is much more difficult to maintain on a traditional calorie restriction. The minor muscle loss is completely negated when you come off the fast and have incredibly high insulin sensitivity.
Supplement with 5Grams of creatine starting a few weeks before to saturate your muscle. This will help keep your workout quality up. Try and do 2 workouts a week with as much intensity as possible. Supplement with plenty of caffeine as well. You likely will not be able to get yourself to sweat as you’ll be weak and out of breath
I prefer 5 day fasts in regards to optimizing performance/muscle as I can get right back into eating normal meals after 1-2 light meals to break the fast.
Loss of muscle is inevitable and will largely depend on your fat stores. If your body fat is low it won’t be able to provide energy at the rate required and muscle would be used to make up for the deficiency.
Intensive training will also cause breakdown of muscle and if there is no intake of amino acids it will create negative nitrogen balance which means loss of muscle. So don’t exercise or limit your exercising to aerobic range during the fast.
Muscle is our storage for amino acids that are necessary for maintenance and syntheses of hormones and other important organ tissues so some muscle will be used to make up for the lack of dietary intake.