What is fasting?
Fasting has steadily become the “hot topic” in the nutrition world. Fasting involves controlled, voluntary abstinence from caloric intake for a period of time, to achieve a physical, mental, or spiritual outcome. Intermittent fasting, or time restricted eating, involves fasting for 12-16 hours generally, for improving general health and improving fat loss or to gain muscle building efforts. Intermittent fasting of 12-16 hours can elevate fat metabolism and growth hormone secretion, which leads to improved body composition. Fat metabolism can also be elevated while exercising in a fasted state. Time-restricted eating has demonstrated beneficial effects in healthy adults. In conjunction with resistance training, an 8-hour time-restricted eating window in healthy males resulted in a decrease in blood glucose, blood insulin, and fat mass, while maintaining muscle mass, according to an article titled, “Effects of weight weeks of time-restricted feeding on basal metabolism, maximal strength, body composition, inflammation, and cardiovascular risk factors in resistance-trained males.” Furthermore, resistance-trained females who followed an 8-hour time-restricted eating window and fasted for 16 hours per day did not experience skeletal muscle atrophy. Rather, they experienced muscle hypertrophy and performance similar to women in a control diet group who ate all their food within a 13-hour per day period. Before starting any kind of fasting, however, it is important to speak with your primary care physician to see if fasting is right for you.