Intermittent Fasting And Muscle Building

Two sides are at war in bodybuilding: intermittent fasting and frequent feeding. In this article LJ Walker discusses some of the possible downsides to restrictive eating.

Extremism, extremism, extremism; the wonders of the fitness industry. It never ceases to amaze me how there apparently cannot be a middle-ground when it comes to bodybuilding.

It’s either high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or low-intensity, steady-state (LISS) cardio; it’s either high-carb dieting or no-carb dieting; it’s either over-training or under-training; last but not least, it’s either 9 small meals per day or 1 gluttonous feast per day.

For now, I’d like to zone in specifically on the extreme patterns of intermittent fasting, like alternate-day fasts, and why they really aren’t ideal for people looking to improve body composition, especially those looking to build muscle.

Intermittent fasting taken a bit too far

While intermittent fasting, at it’s core, is certainly an intriguing feeding pattern for human health and longevity, there is a point where one can take this approach a bit too far. People will argue that meal frequency is completely “irrelevant” and believe that essentially starving their body for 24+ hours and then pigging out (e.g. alternate-day fasting) is somehow beneficial.

While acute phases (generally between 8-12 hours) of fasting do have physiological benefits, such as improved insulin sensitivity,blood glucose regulation, growth hormone output, increased adiponectin levels, and others, extreme periods of food abstinence (such as fasting one day and eating ad libitum the next day) may actually induce negative metabolic effects. [1,2,3,4]

Not to mention long-term dietary compliance and applicability don’t really seem feasible for most humans on such extreme feeding patterns; who really wants to go through cycles of starving themselves for a day or two and then bingeing the next? The thing that’s important to keep in mind here is that alternate-day fasting diets “work” for weight loss mainly because they inherently reduce total calorie intake.

It’s not possible that an unshared instrument be competent to “kind up” the artefact day of not consumption by pigging out on supply life, unless they are ingestion several real calorie-dense foods. But again, this activity of supply may in fact bonk disadvantageous ramifications on glucose metastasis, not to name you are greatly limiting your power to shape contractor.

Building muscle while intermittent fasting

On that same note, the rational for alternate-day fasting while trying to build muscle seems somewhat inane given that you are essentially cutting off muscle-building pathways for an entire day and trying to make up for it the next day. This fashion of starving your body one day and then overloading it the next doesn’t necessarily mean all those calories are being put to good use; in fact, your body will probably just store most of the excess energy in preparation for the next “fasting” day as opposed to using it for muscle building.

When you debate that there does indeed seem to be a “cap” to yobbo accelerator synthesis at each ingestion, it doesn’t piddle overmuch sagacity to essentially extent yourself by intake every else day. [5] A much practical attack would be either impulse your accelerator intake throughout the day and then intake somewhat large, comprehensive meals to windup off your calorie condition, or state much shortened with your fast/feed route.

What I would suggest, if you plan to follow a fast-the-feed eating pattern, is to consider keeping the fasting period short enough to get the benefits of fasting, around 8-12 hours, and yet not limit your capacity to build muscle. If your goal is to build muscle, it should seem rather intuitive that extreme periods of food abstinence are probably not conducive to that process.

Just because something “works” doesn’t mean it’s optimal

A last thought to consider before wrapping up this article is that while many things in the health and fitness industry have some sort of merit, this doesn’t entail that such methods are ideal/optimal for your goal(s). This article is not making the claim that you absolutely can’t build muscle by following alternate-day fasting, but rather that it’s probably not as efficient as a less restrictive feeding pattern.

The body is adaptable and can make do with what you give it, but sometimes we can push it a bit too far for our own good. Also, to reiterate, extreme patterns of feeding behavior often lack long-term compliance for a myriad of reasons. So just keep in these things in mind if you plan to follow intermittent fasting eating patterns while building some appreciable muscle.

Intermittent Fasting And Muscle Building