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Build muscle mass, increase endurance capacity and lose fat through intermittent fasting
We are not aware of it, but our eating habits are pretty unnatural. We eat from the moment we wake up to when we fall asleep again. If we can break this pattern and start doing intermittent fasting, we can make dramatic changes to our body. We lose fat, get fitter and build up extra muscle mass researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in the US believe. They investigated the effects of intermittent fasting in a series of animal studies.
Study
The researchers gave mice standard food which would enable them to live healthily to a ripe age [N], food that consisted for 60 percent of fat [F], or food that consisted for 30 percent of fat and 25 percent of sugar [FS]. If you give mice food that contains extra fat or sugar then they eat more of it and they put on weight and become more unhealthy.
For one period of several months the mice were allowed to eat whenever they wanted [A], on another occasion they were only given access to food during an 8-9 hour period per 24 hours. Interestingly, during that shorter period of time the animals ate almost as much as they did when they were given unrestricted access to food.
Intermittent fasting makes you slimmer
The figures below show the body composition and fat percentage of different groups of mice. Whether the animals were on a healthy diet or a high-fat one, when they did intermittent fasting they lost weight.
FAA = six months unlimited access to high-fat food;
FTT = six months access to high-fat food for 8-9 hours a day;
FTA = first three months access to high-fat food for 8-9 hours a day, then three months unlimited access to high-fat food;
FAT = first three months unlimited access to high-fat food, then three months access to high-fat food for 8-9 hours a day;
NAA = six months unlimited access to high-fat food;
NTT = six months access to normal food for 8-9 hours a day;
NTA = first three months access to normal food for 8-9 hours a day, then three months unlimited access to normal food;
NAT = first three months unlimited access to normal food, then three months access to normal food for 8-9 hours a day.
Intermittent fasting builds muscle mass
In the mice that were given normal food, intermittent fasting had a positive effect on lean mass.
Intermittent fasting builds fitness
The researchers got the mice to run on a treadmill to the point of exhaustion. This was done after the mice had been exposed to different eating regimes for a period of 12 weeks.
NA = unlimited access to normal food;
FA = unlimited access to high-fat food;
9hFT = access to high-fat food for 9 hours a day;
12hFT = access to high-fat food for 12 hours a day;
5T2A = access to high-fat food for 9 hours on weekdays, unlimited access to high-fat food at weekends;
FSA = unlimited access to high-fat (40 percent) and high-sugar (25 percent) food;
FST = access to high-fat (40 percent) and high-sugar (25 percent) food for 9 hours a day.
As you can see, intermittent fasting for 16 hours a day improved endurance capacity. Intermittent fasting for 12 hours had little effect. Intermittent fasting made mice with an unhealthy diet even fitter than mice that had unlimited access to healthy food. (The researchers did not look at the effect of intermittent fasting on mice that ate a standard diet.)
Mechanism
Intermittent fasting made the animals more sensitive to insulin, reduced the synthesis of inflammatory proteins such as TNF-alpha and interleukin 1-beta, and boosted the activity of enzymes involved in fat burning in the animals' cells.
Conclusion
"Our results highlight the great potential for time restricted feeding in counteracting human obesity and its associated metabolic disorders", the researchers wrote. "Future work should explore the role of known metabolic and circadian regulators in restoring the organism's energetics to normalcy under time restricted feeding."
"Furthermore, it is worth investigating whether the physiological observations found in mice apply to humans. A large-scale randomized control trial investigating the role of time restricted feeding would show whether it is applicable to humans."
Source:
Cell Metab. 2014 Dec 2;20(6):991-1005.
More:
Rapid weight loss without losing muscle: combine intermittent fasting and cardio 11.02.2014
Animal study: slimmer and healthier with part-time fasting 30.12.2013
Confining the time in which you eat makes you slimmer 12.07.2012
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