Intermittent Fasting and Increasing Muscle Mass

Let’s take a look at whether increasing muscle mass is possible when you practice intermittent fasting and how to do it correctly.

Intermittent Fasting and Increasing Muscle Mass

Several factors are involved here. People generally think they should consume as much protein and carbohydrates as possible, which stimulates the activation of insulin, an anabolic hormone that enables the absorption of nutrients into cells. In fact, when you do that, you increase insulin resistance. The greater the insulin resistance, the more poorly amino acids and carbohydrates are absorbed.

This is exactly why people in prediabetic and diabetic states have problems with muscle recovery—the reason is poor absorption of amino acids.

There are mass gainer products on the market based on maltodextrin, which is much worse than regular sugar. With such a product, you will gain mass, but you will also trigger a sudden sugar spike, accumulate fat, and damage your health.

It would be best to have two meals a day within an 8-hour window, while fasting for 16 hours. You can increase the number of fasting hours if you feel it isn’t a problem for you. If you want to switch to one meal a day (which will give you many benefits), it will still be harder, unless you have been used to it for a longer time, eat very healthily, and take in vitamins and minerals in the necessary amounts.

As for training, try to increase the weight you lift or, in the case of calisthenics, work on your technique. Do exercises more slowly, but not too slowly, otherwise you just waste energy. The best exercise for increasing growth hormone secretion is sprinting. Run as hard as you can for less than a minute or over a shorter distance. Take good breaks between sprints and other exercises, especially if high-intensity exercises are involved.

Omega-3 fatty acids improve the process of protein synthesis in muscles by more than 40%.

During intermittent fasting, keep your daily carbohydrate intake below 50 grams. Of course, that is proportional to age; younger people can have 60 grams a day, but this number should not exceed 70. The reason for this is exactly the insulin mentioned earlier.

With two meals or one meal a day, it is very important to consume complete proteins, that is, proteins that contain all the different amino acids. The best sources of protein are eggs and veal. Try to buy veal from people you know rather than from large supermarkets, because the difference in meat quality is huge. It is important that the cow grazed on open, uncontaminated land, and then the meat contains all amino acids. Vegans can also consume complete proteins, but the problem is that plants very rarely contain complete proteins. Plants are most often characterized by a large presence of a few amino acids, while others are present in smaller amounts in that plant. Although plant food is healthier than animal food, in order to take in all the necessary amino acids in adequate amounts, you need to know which amino acids dominate in which plant and combine them appropriately.

Hemp is the best plant source of complete protein!

Hemp protein powder is well known and is considered the best protein supplement. Hemp proteins have a high digestibility rate (91%–98% of the protein is digested [1]) and are also easily digestible, which is generally a characteristic of animal protein. Hemp is also rich in minerals.

Protein composition is more important than protein quantity!

The last and most important factor, which is always there, is sleep. Quality sleep is the foundation of any improvement, including muscle development.