Comments on: 3 Great Reasons Why Intermittent Fasting is a Good Idea

By: Anders

Anders — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:20:17 +0000

Hi,

I was wondering can you gain musclemass and still doing intermittent fasting once a week?

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:47:48 +0000

Thank you for an interesting and informative post, as always. Here’s an alternate view on the subject from Dr. Ben Kim, someone whose advice regarding vibrant good health I think we’d all do very well to heed:

http://drbenkim.com/fasting-fast-one-day-week.htm

Keep up the exceptional good work, sir.

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:51:45 +0000

To each his/her own.

To me, a good nutrition plan is one that provides you with a steady stream of nutrients (vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals) to fight disease on an ongoing basis, day in, day out. (So you see, I am not a fan of fasting.) I would think you would suffer not having these nutrients on 2 days out of 7. Brad? What’s the research on this?

By: Mateusz

Mateusz — Tue, 03 May 2011 18:29:46 +0000

I started this some time ago, but I’ve to tell I had some problems with fasting. Sometimes it gave me headaches.

By: Rio

Rio — Tue, 03 May 2011 03:23:12 +0000

Fasting has been prescribed for centuries and is not a new phenomenon. Many religions advocate fasting as a physical and spiritual cleanse. In Islam we fast from sunrise to sunset and do not consume any food or drink during that period, usually in the month of Ramadan. However, it is a tradition of the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) that Muslims fast regularly, such as twice a week, or a few days every month in order to purify the body and the heart. There are numerous traditions that are just beginning to be validated, but have been practiced and recommended for ages. See the book, Medicine of the Prophet for more details.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 02:03:30 +0000

Jason,

I am fond of carb-cyclying, having found through many different experiments that it really works for my body. How would you incorporate this into a carb-cycling nutrition plan?

Thanks!

Mike Mahony

By: Gurpreet

Gurpreet — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 01:50:48 +0000

HI Jason,

great post! am a late joiner to your posts. your advise and suggestions are a great help, thanks. just like Marc, i was wondering when is the best time to fast, on work out days or on days off? and should you take protein powder on workout days in the meantime or not at all?

By: Max

Max — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 21:58:58 +0000

I’ve been using Martin Berkhan’s “Leangains” approach to fasting. It’s basically a 14 hour or so fast everyday. So I just don’t eat until lunchtime everyday. I’ve never been hungry in the morning so it’s a very convient way to eat. I had to force feed myself every morning and did it because that’s “what you have to do” in bodybuilding and strength training. Well this approach to fasting has been the best thing I’ve ever done. My stretnth is going up, I’m leaner than ever and I just feel great.

By: Marc

Marc — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:09:19 +0000

When do you recommending fasting: on heavy training days, on conditioning days, or on days off?
It is an interesting concept, but being ~ 5’8″, 155lb, 9-10%bf and seeming to need 4000+ cal/day for maintenance (always had trouble adding muscle weight), I’m not sure this would be appropriate/conducive for strength/muscle gains.

By: JP

JP — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 23:24:21 +0000

I’ve seen something similar to this promoted on another site, but with a bit of a twist. The other protocol did not utilize an absolute fast, protein shakes were still consumed throughout the fast day. The rational was that keeping some amino acids in the system would diminish the degree of muscle catabolism. Eliminating all carbs was thought to help increase insulin sensitivity in the muscle, resulting in better nutrient uptake by the muscle in the next few days following the fast.