Hey! You. Yeah, you. Put down that protein shake bro, haven’t you heard not eating is the new thing?
Right, intermittent fasting. I’ve not seen one shredded fitness youtuber that doesn’t seem to promote the IF lifestyle. The warrior diet, 16/8, 24 hour fasts, all these variations seem extremely attractive – don’t eat or eat in a certain period of time and you too can have a six pack and huge veiny biceps, right? Well, sort of.
I mean, is it really that IF has some sort of magical fat burning effect? And if so, wouldn’t every single person be doing it right this second?
Common misconceptions
- Fasting burns fat by itself
- Leads to eating disorders
- Will lead to muscle loss
- Encourages overeating
- Slows down metabolism
You see; once you break that initial hunger with a black coffee, a green tea or something of little to no caloric value, you can subdue that initial hunger. You then have already killed a few hours into your day whilst taking on 0 calories, putting you closer to the end of the day whilst still only having 0 calories. This is an incredibly effective tool to put yourself into a calorie deficit to prevent overeating which is the element to IF that burns fat, instead of eating throughout the day – which consistently gives you the feeling of hunger.
IF has been glamourised by the likes of Kinobody and other well known fitness youtubers with extremely aesthetic phyisques. Words like “Hollywood physique” and “Warrior diet” are often connotations that follow intermittent fasting, and it just looks too good to be true.
SO, if there isn’t any proven evidence of IF burning additional fat, what does the science actually say?
Fasting benefits – Wan et al. 2003
- Lower secretion of stress hormones
- Improved cardiovascular health
- Improved glucose metabolism
Despite the study being performed on rats, these are still huge benefits. Less epinephrine was secreted with the IF rats when subject to cold water, a potential benefit for anxiety sufferers if there is carry over to humans.
The “better” weight loss is likely due to the larger caloric deficit than a conventional weight loss diet, and the health benefits seen are put down to having a more efficient stress adaptation occur in response to IF (as not eating for a prolonged period can put the stress on a living organism, therefore the body adapts to becoming stressed).
But, can IF aid with muscle building?
Halberg et al. (2005) conducted a study that was the first to show in humans that intermittent fasting increases insulin-mediated glucose uptake rate.
Insulin is one of the most anabolic hormones within our body, therefore if we improve the efficiency of said anabolic hormones – we create a more powerful anabolic response within the body. Simple science, right?
Sadly, this is the only real evidence we have to support IF being magical, other than this it is largely for health benefits and not a necessity to improve your physique, rendering it still in the myth stage of it’s physique building capabilities.
References
Wan, R., Camandola, S. and Mattson, M.P., 2003. Intermittent food deprivation improves cardiovascular and neuroendocrine responses to stress in rats. The Journal of nutrition, 133(6), pp.1921-1929.
Halberg, N., Henriksen, M., Soderhamn, N., Stallknecht, B., Ploug, T., Schjerling, P. and Dela, F., 2005. Effect of intermittent fasting and refeeding on insulin action in healthy men. Journal of applied physiology, 99(6), pp.2128-2136.
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