Intermittent fasting: lose fat while keeping the muscle
By Dr. Carl Juneau, PhD
 · 2 min read
Contents

If you want to:

  • Sculpt your body
  • Lose fat
  • Build (or maintain) muscle

You may want to try intermittent fasting.

It’s actually how I diet when I want to lean out and show that six-pack to the world.

Some studies have found this new science-based diet strategy could help you maintain muscle mass better than traditional diets (it’s hard not to lose muscle on a diet—but fun fact: women lose less than men).

That diet strategy is called “intermittent fasting.” Maybe you’ve heard about it. It’s getting more and more popular. With good reason, I think.

Let me list a few:

  • It’s easy to do (sometimes you eat, sometimes you don’t—it’s that easy)
  • No food is off the list (even “cheat” foods—you can eat a little of them once in a while)
  • It may let you keep more of your muscle mass while you lose fat than traditional diets

This last point is a big one, and I’ll expand on it. In short, I’m saying it “may” maintain muscle mass better because the scientific community is split. Let’s look at 3 reviews:

– Varady (2011) concluded that it may indeed “be more effective for the retention of lean mass.”

– Alhamdan et al. (2016) said that it “may be superior to very-low calorie diets for some patients because of ease of compliance, greater fat-mass loss and relative preservation of fat-free mass”

– Seimon et al. (2015) said: “Intermittent fasting thus represents a valid–albeit apparently not superior–option to continuous energy restriction for weight loss.”

As you can see, these researchers don’t all come to the same conclusions. That happens often in research: scientists don’t agree, even when they review the same literature. It’s part of why science can be so damn hard.

Personally, I still use intermittent fasting, because it’s easy. And maybe, maybe it helps me keep my muscle mass better.

If you’re looking to lose fat, and you’ve never tried it, I think you should.

Now, I could write a whole book to explain how it works. But instead, I’ll just refer you to Dr. Jason Fung's book The Complete Guide to Fasting or his informative YouTube videos:

Let me know how it goes. I’d love to hear about your experience with intermittent fasting. For me, it does the trick (‘cuz hey, I like being efficient, and eating just 1 or 2 meals a day saves me a boatload of time).

To your health,

Carl