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Intermittent Fasting: What Does It Mean For Building Muscle

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Intermittent fasting (IF) is hot right now, but fasting is nothing new. Ramadan, for example. Professional athletes have performed on the biggest stages and at the highest level under fasted conditions, but how viable is IF? Does it burn more fat than traditional dieting? Will it cause muscle loss? Does it impact performance? How is it done?

Great questions you have there 😆, let’s get into it.

Note: any diet “works” for fat loss if you’re dropping calories and junk food. Losing fat is all about a calorie deficit and compliance.

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What Is Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent means to happen other than continuously.. Spotty, sporadic, broken up in segments.

Fasting means to intentionally ban an act for a segment of time.

When we bring them together for nutritional holy matrimony it means to avoid eating for certain periods of the day and/or week.

The method to the madness is when you seize calorie consumption your body has to run on some form of energy, so it turns to what’s stored. What you have stored is glycogen, adipose tissue (body fat), and muscle protein. A combination of the three will be catabolized for energy.. To what degree each is involved is dependent on what activity is taking place.

IE scrolling Facebook? Fat more likely to be used. Lifting weights? Muscle protein will be broken down because it converts energy faster when you’ve bypassed creatine phosphate and have burned through glycogen stores.

Note: any calorie deficit will produce this effect. If you’re eating less calories than you burn your body has to find energy elsewhere, so it turns to fat stores and/or muscle protein after expending glycogen.

What Are Different Types Of Intermittent Fasting

There’s more than one way to flip a burger. Intermittent fasting is no different. If you decide to take a shot at the restrictive eating life here are some of the options at your disposal:

  • Time-restricted fasting (TRF): any daytime nutritional window of 12 hours or less would abide by these rules. For example, your opportunity to chow could be 0600-1400 each day.

  • Alternate day fasting: dialing between 24 hours of zero calories and 24 hours of traditional calorie consumption.

  • 5:2 fasting: 5 days traditional and 2 days fasted per week.

  • Eat, stop, eat: 1 day off from eating per week.

  • 48 hour fast: 2 straight days of hunger and fat burning.

Pros Of Intermittent Fasting

With all of the potential diets it’s hard to decide which way to go, so aside from the benefits of every diet involving a calorie deficit here are some benefits that are unique to IF:

  • A study by the journal of clinical endocrinology & metabolism showed a 48 hour fast resulted in a growth hormone increase of 500%. [11] human growth hormone (HGH) is responsible for helping build muscle, maintaining sex drive, and assists multiple functions within the body. Whether this increase is sustained or anecdotal wasn’t thoroughly researched, yet the potential remains.

  • TRF may result in marginally more fat loss with the same number of calories and macros compared to an identical diet without time restraints. [9] this study was conducted comparing results of maintenance diets. Results in a calorie deficit are assumed to have a similar outcome, yet wasn’t tested. There is a caveat, however. See cons.

  • Reduces inflammation. Inflammation reduction has turned into a buzz phrase these days. Anytime you improve your dietary habits from excess and junk food to cleaner, more manageable portions you’ll reduce inflammation, but it’s unclear if the reduction is greater than, equal to, or less than other diets.

  • If you’re in great physical condition, especially in the cardio sense.. There’s a chance of entering ketosis simply from a 16 hour fast. Ketosis is when your body is short on insulin in the blood due to lack of glucose (no carbs coming in) and you’re forced to break down stored fat for energy. It’s the goal of a ketogenic diet.

Cons Of Intermittent Fasting

As good as the benefits of IF are there are red flags to disclose:

  • muscle protein synthesis optimization is not part of the IF protocol. This inherently will not eliminate, but will limit muscle growth potential. Could also be a problem for muscle retention when in a caloric deficit since those muscle sparing amino acids are avoided during unfed intervals.

  • No matter how “takes less effort than tracking calories” fasting may seem the name of the game is still calories in vs. calories out. For fat loss you still need to consume less calories than you burn. If you pig out during your meal window, you’ll still ultimately gain weight. A calorie surplus is a calorie surplus.

  • The previous con leads me here. The gravy train will eventually stop if you don’t know your consumption. Without any form of tracking what you consume you’ll plateau one day or another. At this point you’ll haven’t a clue what to do to restart the train.

  • Extended fasts can lead to micronutrient deficiency.

  • Being in a fasted state releases more cortisol than usual, which is a catabolic stress hormone.

  • Slowed exercise recovery.

  • Uphill battle for weight gain. Try chomping on 5,000 calories in an 8 hour window on a daily basis. Even worse if you go with alternate fasting.. That’s 10,000 calories for your feeding day.

  • Compliance is tough. Food starts to call your name during an off-period, many quit. Although in defense of IF most diets are given up on. Don't give up on your diet.

  • IF studies tend to not mention calorie conditions. Unclear if they’re fasting for the sake of fasting, maintenance, or in a calorie deficit.

  • Lack of controlled macronutrient long-term comparisons of an IF fat loss diet against a traditional calorie restrictive diet.

  • An 8 week study of trained athletes by the journal of translational medicine showed a significant decrease in testosterone and insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) despite consuming a maintenance level of calories [9]. Igf-1 is naturally occurring and manages the effects of growth hormone. Igf-1 levels correspond with that of growth hormone, which may suggest the growth hormone surplus from IF is anecdotal, limited to untrained athletes, or only applicable to the 48 hour fast being that this case monitored subjects conducting a TRF.

Note: don’t train fasted, even less so when in a calorie deficit. Lifting weights in a fasted state raises the likelihood of using muscle protein for fuel tenfold. High intensity interval training is also a no-go when fasted. Even low intensity cardio is a risk, yet not as detrimental as anaerobic training such as high intensity interval training and resistance training. Eat before you workout.

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Side Effects To Expect When Intermittent Fasting

  • Hunger

  • Fatigue

  • Insomnia

  • Weakness

  • Brain Fog

  • Nausea

  • Headaches

Note: Most of these typically go away as you adjust and become more accustomed to fasting. The first few weeks are the toughest.

Best Way To Do Intermittent Fasting

To make IF as good as it can be for bolstering fat loss and maintaining as much muscle as possible, first figure out your caloric needs. Track your calories to make it work long-term. You’ll want to include 1-1.8 grams of protein per pound of lean mass you carry as well. Lean mass is how much of your body weight isn’t adipose tissue.

Workouts are to occur during your food window since your gains are the opposite of optimized if you were to lift fasted. Excessive breakdown of muscle will take place and if inexperienced you may even pass out.

The preferred method of IF would be the 16:8 method. 16 hours fasted and 8 hours for grub. This is closer to a traditional diet while still allowing for some of those fasting benefits. You even give yourself a chance to pull off a bulk if you really get it in during your window.

My Thoughts

The best way to lose, maintain, or gain weight remains a traditional diet. One of you manipulating calories and macros according to what direction and body type you have in mind.

If you are under the impression IF is the easy way out on your road to fat loss this isn’t quite the case long-term. It’ll still come down to calories in vs. calories out.

Studies say IF forces the body to burn more calories to conduct the same activities as normal. This increase in energy expenditure can help burn more fat, yet the literature doesn’t cover what percentage of that calorie burn is from catabolizing muscle protein vs. Adipose tissue. Intermittent fasting could be limiting your muscle building goals over time. Losing fat along with muscle isn’t the best idea if you want to keep fat off. More muscle means a higher metabolism. Less muscle means a lower metabolism.

I always think about sustainability.. Long-term. Can this be continued? What can I do with this to overcome a plateau? And with IF this leads me to, you should still track calories. Otherwise you will eventually hit a wall and not know what to do to blow by it. IF seems to be a solid way to go, but results are quite similar to a traditional diet. Do what works for you and your lifestyle, IF isn’t the most optimal, but it can work.

Note: if you want your IF results to stay you must continue the IF lifestyle, in that if you return to what led to your initial fat gain.. It’ll come back since you never learned how to consistently diet the traditional way.

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So, It’s About That Time.

Any fat loss diet can work as long as you’re in a calorie deficit over time. Intermittent fasting is where you allow no calories, only water for specific times throughout the day or week. It’s unclear, but if may have some fat loss benefits a grade above traditional dieting. However with this ying is the yang potential of not maintaining or building muscle at the highest level. Stay mindful, stay consistent, put those muscles to use, and Be Great.