So, we hear you're looking for ways to boost your muscle mass.
Maybe you're lifting weights excessively or spending hours at the gym consistently, but you’re still not getting the physique you want.
We have just the thing for you.
Intermittent Fasting for the win!
You can do all the bench presses in the world, breaking buckets of sweat to bulk up, but if your body is not receptive to muscle gain, you may be wasting your time. No matter how many shakes you have, trying to optimize your health and lean out all at the same time can become impossible if you’re not properly training your body, and your muscles, for success.
However, all that can change with Intermittent Fasting!
This is the fitness strategy that will finally give you that cutting edge you’ve been working so hard for. It works to optimize every part of your body, down to your very cells, for the most effective muscle gain you can achieve.
You may be thinking, Intermittent Fasting? Yeah right! Fasting eats away at muscle mass! Plus, I need to eat directly prior to and after my workout for maximum muscle growth!
These myths have circulated far too long - it’s time we bust them! You’re about to find out how this metabolism-boosting, health strategy can help you build muscle and lose fat unlike anything else!
Read on for all the hard-backed science and health benefit facts for intermittent fasting.
What Is Intermittent Fasting (IF)?
Intermittent Fasting (IF) is defined as the short-term abstention from food for the sake of one's health. It puts your body on an eating schedule, designating time spent in the “fed” or “feeding state,” and time spent in the “fast” or “fasting state”. When in the fasting state, your body turns to fat for energy instead of breaking down glucose.
The FASTer Way relies mainly on time-restricted feeding for maximum health benefits. Time-restricted eating extends a regular, overnight fast to anywhere between 12 to 20 hours by consuming all of your day’s meals within an 8-12 hour window, let’s say from 12pm - 8pm. Now, the crucial part of maintaining healthy and efficient body functions is to meet all your calorie and macronutrient needs within the adjoining compressed window. If not, you’re simply punishing your body instead of helping it. That’s one of the reasons that fasting under the care of certified experts is so important.
Intermittent Fasting For Men With The 16:8 Protocol
This is the method of Intermittent Fasting most regularly implemented by the FASTer Way. The 16:8 Protocol asks that individuals keep their “feeding window” to 8 hours per day and their “fasting window” to 16 hours a day. The exact time you begin each window doesn’t necessarily make an impact, as the most important factor is the length of each “fasting window.” During this time, your body’s at digestive rest, which is when a majority of desired cellular changes occur.
Benefits of this method include:
Decreased inflammation
Improved digestion and gut health biodiversity
Decreased blood glucose levels
Improved hormone profile (decreased insulin and improved insulin sensitivity)
Maintenance of muscle mass
Remember, though, intermittent fasting is great and comes with many benefits, it is not by any means a substitute for a whole-food nutrition-based diet. It’s crucial to combine healthy metabolism-boosting foods with the process of intermittent fasting for effective muscle-building results. The intersection of these components is integral to our proven program.
The Muscle Building Power Of Intermittent Fasting For Men
The idea of fasting can be concerning to some, especially those that want to gain size or see serious muscle gains. However, the idea that you can’t increase muscle mass with intermittent fasting is an old wives' tale, we promise!
The act of fasting actually increases the production of the Human Growth Hormone (HGH), which has powerful muscle-building and fat-burning properties. When intermittent fasting, this important hormone works to increase testosterone, insulin sensitivity, and decrease circulating insulin levels. All of this combined helps your body to increase muscle mass, hasten recovery, and maintain your hard-earned gains!
In other words, this strategy is crucial in achieving body recomposition by decreasing your overall fat percentage and increasing muscle mass simultaneously.
Read that again - Intermittent Fasting can actually help you increase your lean muscle mass while shedding body fat!
Disease Prevention
Hormone Profile Changes
As mentioned previously, intermittent fasting increases the human growth hormone (HGH). However, it also increases another hormone known as norepinephrine. This neurotransmitter positively impacts your metabolism by helping to break down fats for fuel. The combined increase of these two hormones can lead to fat loss and help to protect against certain chronic diseases.
But wait, there's more!
Intermittent fasting also has major impacts on insulin, which can positively or negatively affect your health depending on the circumstances. This pivotal hormone regulates whether extra glucose, the most broken-down form of carbohydrates, gets stored in your body as fat. In other words, it's a large contributor to fat loss and therefore muscle gain. Intermittent fasting works to actively decrease insulin, decrease hyperinsulinemia, and improve insulin sensitivity. In addition, with a decrease in insulin, your body is able to alter your genes in favor of healthy aging and longevity. For instance, fasting decreases a genetic marker known as insulin-like growth factor 1, which when present increases your likelihood to develop certain diseases such as cancer.
Cell Resiliency and Health
By undergoing intermittent fasting, you help to train your body’s cells to respond adaptively, which enhances their ability to cope with stress and resist disease. When you implement this strategy over time, your cells build in strength and durability.
Beyond this, fasting also helps your body to cleanse itself, a waste-removal process known as autophagy. This is when your system “cleans house” of any broken or damaged cells and the regeneration process of healthy new cells can begin.Yet another way intermittent fasting can help protect your body against diseases such as cancer or dementia as well as the negative effects of oxidative stress and inflammation.
Mental Focus Or Sharpness and Energy
Besides gaining muscle, we’d all like the energy of our younger selves back, right? Well, intermittent fasting can help give you that! This healthy lifestyle strategy works to improve neuron development in the brain and slow down brain-aging biomarkers which promotes healthy sleeping patterns and enhanced mental clarity. It also changes how your body processes different macronutrients in a positive way! Keep reading to find out how.
Sugar Burn To Fat Burn
During digestion, carbohydrates are broken down to the simple sugar glucose which is what cells use for energy. Any glucose that your body doesn’t use is stored as stubborn fat. However, when you fast your body turns to this excess fat for energy which can hasten fat loss and decrease your risk for cardiovascular diseases.
Many men think that fasting eats away at muscle mass, because your body can start breaking down protein for energy leading to muscle loss.
However, this fear comes from the circumstance in which you remain fasted for three days straight, which we don’t recommend.
Rest assured - when you participate in intermittent fasting the FASTer Way, you encourage the maintenance of lean muscle mass and the decreasing of fat mass simultaneously!
In addition, when fats are used for energy your body releases fatty acids known as ketones into your bloodstream. This chemical plays a major role in preserving brain function, helping to provide security against seizures, Alzheimer’s, and other neurodegenerative disorders. They also release a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) which strengthens neural connections, specifically in the memory and learning parts of your brain.
Are you ready to take your healthy lifestyle to a new level? Or maybe you’re giving your best efforts but still not seeing results?
Then our FASTer Way for Men program is for you!
We bring you a diverse selection of personal coaches for 1-on-1 training and healthy eating strategies, such as Intermittent Fasting, customized to your specific needs. Our program also provides daily 30-minute workouts suited for your body composition goals and an online community of individuals trying to upgrade their way of life just like you!
Sign up today to elevate how your body looks and feels!