Fat loss and muscle building are some of the easiest sciences that human beings love to over complicate and for good reasons too. When there is so much misinformation out there in the fitness industry and you don’t know who to listen to or who is credible, it is easy to make money off desperate people trying to lose weight. Fat loss is actually very simple from a mathematical standpoint and building muscle is very simple from a physiological standpoint. Regardless of what diet approach a person takes to losing weight or losing fat, there is common denominator in their success factor. I will address what that common denominator is later in this article. The same is true for building muscle. No matter what exercise program a person is on, there is a common reason why muscle growth is achieved on that program.
How Calories drive Fat loss
Fat loss is achieved through a prolonged net energy deficit or a caloric deficit. That is not a theory, an opinion, a perspective, or something that is debatable. That is the actual science of fat loss. For example, if you are a 175-pound male that requires 2600 calories a day to maintain your bodyweight and you start eating 2000 calories daily, your body must compensate for that 600-calorie deficit. It would compensate by taking those calories from either your fat storage or your muscle tissue. However, you don’t want the calories to be taken from your muscle tissue but that happening is dependent on how much body fat you carry and how big your caloric deficit is. Body fat is just stored energy and a calorie is a unit of energy. For us to lose fat, we must systematically deplete our bodies of excess energy over a prolonged period.
How Intermittent Fasting Supports Fat loss
Intermittent Fasting can be an incredible tool to enhance overall health and longevity. It gives you a boost in human growth hormone, metabolism, and cognitive functioning. However, fasting alone is nothing magical when it comes to fat loss. As I stated before, to lose fat your body must sustain a caloric deficit for a prolonged period. Fasting is great for fat loss because it makes eating lesser calories more enjoyable. Eating 1800 calories a day is not fun if you are eating 6 meals consisting of 300 calories every 2 hours. It does not do much for your satiety. It’s a tease to you. If you were to condense those calories into a 6 to 8 hour eating window, 1800 calories can be an incredibly amazing thing. You would be able to eat 2 big 900 calorie meals a day. Instead of six small 300 calorie meals a day. You would also be way more satisfied on a lower calorie diet plan.
How Strength Training Drives Muscle Growth
Muscle is a by product of strength. 80 percent of your muscle growth comes from getting strong on low repetition high-intense compound movements like bench press, squats, and advanced compound body weight movements. With this style of training, you want to take longer rest periods to optimize central nervous system recovery. The other 20 percent of muscle growth comes from high repetition training with shorter rest periods. Its best to perform high repetition training on smaller isolated muscle groups like biceps and triceps.
How Intermittent Fasting Supports Muscle Growth
Intermittent fasting supports muscle growth through the boost you get in Human Growth Hormone or HGH. It is also known as your “fitness hormone.” Research has shown that fasting for 16 – 18 hours daily can boost HGH by over 200%. When you break your fast with a high protein meal, your body is better able to redirect those nutrients to muscle tissue. You get better nutrition partitioning and retain more muscle on a lower calorie diet. It would be possible for you to even build muscle on a lower calorie diet. Also, when you do intense exercise in a fasted state you can boost growth hormone even more.
How Proper Protein Intake drives both Fat loss and Muscle growth
Protein is one of three essential macronutrients that we as humans need for our bodies. It supports workout recovery, muscle building, and or muscle retention if your calories are in a deficit. Out of the three macronutrients, protein is known as your major macronutrient. It is also the macronutrient that promotes satiety the most. There is a lot of confusion as to how much protein your body needs to support fat loss and muscle retention. It is commonly believed in “bro-science” culture that you need 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight but it’s not true. The research shows that natural strength training athletes only need about 0.7 to 0.82 grams of protein per pound of body weight. Even that intake of protein is dependent on how much lean mass you carry in relation to fat mass.
Eat Stop Eat: Brad Pilon’s perspective on Intermittent Fasting
Eat Stop Eat is a method of Intermittent Fasting that was popularized by diet author Brad Pilon. It involves having 1 to 2 days out of the week where you are fasting for a full 24-hour period. For the other 5 to 6 days, you would eat normally on the condition that you are not consuming more than your bodies energy needs. This style of fasting is great because it allows for more cellular repair and fat metabolization in the body. Fasting is something people have done for most of human evolution and obesity was not an issue when human was doing it. If you want to learn more about the Eat Stop Eat Program by Brad Pilon, click here.
Conclusion
Fat loss is very simple from a fundamental standpoint. Nobody is 300 pounds and obese because of bad genetics for fat loss or dysfunctional hormones. They are that way because their bodies have been in a prolonged net caloric surplus over time. Intermittent fasting can help with fat loss by delaying the time of your first meal and programming you to eat fewer calories over time. Strength training is essential for building muscle if you are applying the concept of progressive overload. You want to get a sufficient intake of protein to support satiety, muscle growth or muscle retention, and workout recovery. When you combine strength training with intermittent fasting, proper protein intake, and a calorie-reduced diet, you will retain more muscle on a cut or even build muscle on a cut. If you want to learn a different perspective on intermittent fasting, I recommend the book Eat Stop Eat by Brad Pilon. Click here to learn more.
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