What Is Anabolic Fasting?
Written by Ben Bunting: BA, PGCert. (Sport & Exercise Nutrition) // British Army Physical Training Instructor // S&C Coach.
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Anabolic fasting is a hybrid between carb-restriction and intermittent fasting. It aims to help you build lean muscle mass while reducing body fat.
While it can be an effective strategy for building lean muscle mass, it may not be suitable for all body types. It requires a healthy diet that includes both carbohydrates and healthy fats.
Anabolic fasting is a hybrid between carb-restriction and intermittent fasting
Anabolic fasting is a hybrid of the anabolic diet and intermittent fasting. It involves alternating low-carb days with high-carb days.
This method allows the body to adjust to fat as its primary source of energy while avoiding the depletion of glycogen stores.
The fasting period should last at least six days. In order to make anabolic fasting work, you must consume food that is rich in protein and healthy fat.
While intermittent fasting is popular amongst athletes and bodybuilders, anabolic fasting uses a unique diet protocol to optimize muscle gains.
This diet cycle involves low-carb days during the week and high-carb days during the weekend.
During this time, your body will be able to replenish its glycogen stores and activate the anabolic effects of insulin. This allows you to optimize your diet and training schedule.
Insulin levels are low when you first wake up. This means your body enters a fasted state a couple of hours after the last meal.
However, eating your first meal can spike your blood sugar levels and turn off fat-burning. Therefore, you should push your first meal out at least a few hours.
It helps you build muscle mass while cutting body fat
Anabolic fasting is a popular exercise and nutrition method that enables you to build lean muscle mass while cutting body fat. It involves alternating between high-carb days and low-carb days.
During an anabolic fast, your body will use most of the carbohydrates in your diet as energy. It will then replenish your glycogen stores.
Fasting also helps your body produce growth hormones, which promote muscle growth. In addition, it prevents age-related bone loss.
Research has shown that fasted training boosts the release of HGH. And since growth hormone production decreases with age, intermittent fasting becomes even more important for muscle gain.
The human body has three primary nutrient sensors. When these sensors are activated, the body switches from a catabolic to an anabolic state.
The fasted state causes your body to break down stored energy, including body fat and glycogen.
By contrast, when you eat before you train, you activate the nutrient sensor insulin, which builds up energy stores by blocking the enzyme responsible for breaking down stored body fat.
It requires healthy sources of protein and fat
To reap the benefits of anabolic fasting, you must eat healthy sources of protein and fat. The diet you follow should consist of minimally processed whole food sources.
In addition, you should avoid carbohydrates on certain days. This way, you will acclimate your body to fat as its main source of energy.
Anabolic fasting is a diet plan that combines carb-restriction with muscle-preserving measures.
This plan can be adapted to your specific needs and goals. You can use this plan to achieve the body you've always dreamed of.
In general, anabolic fasting meal plans promote the repair of muscle and re-fueling glycogen stores after intense exercise.
A balanced diet that incorporates all the macronutrients will aid in gaining muscle mass and reducing body fat.
In addition to this, it is important to eliminate bad carbs during the fasting period and focus on whole grains and vegetables.
Protocol
The anabolic diet has become popular amongst bodybuilders and powerlifters as it promises to transform your physique into a fat-burning machine.
It's a clever combination of the eating strategies of carb cycling and intermittent fasting into a fine-tuned plan that targets your body's fat stores and preserves lean muscle mass.
The Anabolic Diet (also known as a Carb Cycling Diet) comprises of five days of consuming low carb foods, followed by two days of eating high-carb food.
By alternating between high-carb and low-carb meals, the anabolic diet changes your metabolism to the point where it favours fat burning over carbohydrate fueling.
This format also allows you to adjust your weekly workout schedule – so you can tackle more difficult strength-building workouts earlier in the week while your body's glycogen stores are still plentiful.
You'll also be encouraged to maintain or build muscle mass as your body will release more IGF-1, testosterone and growth hormones – all of which are essential for promoting muscle gains.
Aside from the obvious benefits of weight loss and muscle building, anabolic fasting has been proven to be a safe and effective way of cutting body fat. However, it is important to note that it can deprive your body of nutrients that it needs for proper functioning.
While it can be a great way to boost your performance at the gym, it's not for everyone. This is why it's important to follow a program that's tailored to your needs.
Conclusion
Anabolic fasting is a diet designed to promote muscle gain and repair. It can also help to replenish the glycogen stores that are lost during intense exercise.
It is important to stick to a diet that incorporates all the macronutrients your body needs to grow muscle.
To maximize muscle gain during your anabolic fast, you should limit the amount of refined 'bad' carbs you eat and focus on eating a variety of whole grains and vegetables. A good way to meet carb-loading needs is to limit unhealthy fats.
Anabolic fasting is a low-carb diet that incorporates some of the principles of the ketogenic diet. The idea behind the fast is that you eat no carbohydrates for 12 days in a row, reset insulin levels, and jumpstart your metabolism to burn stored fat.
This process is known to be effective for some people, but it is important to be sure it is right for you before starting a new diet plan.
