Does Intermittent Fasting Cause Muscle Loss? The Science
Channel: Dan Phoenix
Date: 2018-03-01

Does Intermittent Fasting Cause Muscle Loss? The Science 

Intermittent Fasting and Muscle Loss: As the interest in fasting has increased, so have the myths and misconceptions. There is a large group of “fitness and nutrition experts” who feel personally threatened because it undermines their previous advice. Can you blame them?

After preaching, “6 small meals,” “never skip breakfast,” and “don’t go catabolic,” how would they look admitting that they were wrong? Enter the haters!

Bring up fasting to a bodybuilder and they will tell you it eats muscle (um ok…)

Bring up fasting to a nutritionist and they will tell you its unhealthy to skip meals (um quite the opposite)

Bring up fasting to a random person  and they will warn you that not eating makes you fat (???)

Fasting for Muscle?

In terms of muscle loss, the study, “Intermittent versus daily calorie restriction: which diet regimen is more effective for weight loss,” found that an intermittent fasting diet lead to more lean mass being retained vs. a diet of daily calorie restriction. Numerous studies on Ramadan also show that fat free mass is retained quite well in regards to fasting.

But if you want muscle you’re still probably wondering why we would ever want to stop protein synthesis, right? In order for us to gain muscle, protein synthesis (the creation of new proteins) must be greater than protein degradation (the breakdown of proteins). Luckily for us, the body undergoes some unique changes during the halt of nutrients that actually protect muscle quite effectively if it’s planned properly.

One way to explain this is the increase in growth hormone that is seen during a fast period. Growth hormone decreases amino acids being broken down for energy (oxidation), which preserves amino acids and allows them to continue to build new proteins.

Because of this, growth hormone has a positive impact on protein synthesis. There are also increases in SIRT-1 and mitochondrial biogenesis that have a positive effect on muscle growth. I am not saying this release of GH will put slabs of muscle on you, simply that it will help protect your muscle tissue during a fast.

Autophagy and Muscle

Autophagy is a word I’ve thrown around when writing about fasting so what exactly is it? Put simply, autophagy means “self – eating”, as auto means self in Greek and phagy is abbreviated for eating.  It is a catabolic process that helps rid the body of unneeded and possibly dysfunctional cellular debris.  So why does this happen?

Remember, hundreds of years ago food wasn’t as accessible as it is today. Our body needed ways to cope with stretches of no food intake. As more time passes with no food, your cells will start to eat or digest themselves. Don’t panic, this is actually healthy and normal (within reason). Your cells can actually use old proteins to recycle and release amino acids out into your bloodstream.

Autophagy is initiated when the cell is starved and lacking nutrients or even under normal conditions when the body needs to remove damaged proteins and organelles in response to possible cell damage.  There seems to be a potential link between autophagy and disease which makes sense given the research that is emerging about so many diseases potentially being metabolic in nature. 

Right now you’re probably thinking, “A catabolic process where my body is starving and eating itself, my poor muscle has no chance.” Wrong.  Although most of the attention autophagy garners is due to its beneficial health and anti-aging effects; it actually helps preserve muscle mass. 

“Autophagy inhibition exacerbated muscle loss during denervation and fasting. Thus, autophagy flux is important to preserve muscle mass and to maintain myofiber integrity.”


“Moreover, autophagy inhibition does not protect skeletal muscles from atrophy during denervation and fasting, but instead promotes greater muscle loss. In conclusion, autophagy plays a critical role for myofiber maintenance and its activation is crucial to avoid accumulation of toxic proteins and dysfunctional organelles that, in the end, would lead to atrophy and weakness.”

Does Intermittent Fasting Cause Muscle Loss? The Science 

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