Fasting For Muscle Building

The Bulking Diet Delusion by John Meadows really lit a fire under my heinie. It reminded me of all those people that tell me they’re in bulking mode but never seemed to be in cutting mode.

So basically what you want to tell me is that you’re fat and too damn lazy to do anything about it? But you still want to tell all the girls that you’re a bodybuilder, right? As you stuff your face with pizza. Come on now, you can do better than that.

What You Need To Know

Intermittent fasting won’t burn your hard earned muscle. That’s not an excuse anymore.
Insulin sensitivity is the key to both muscle building and fat loss.
Lifting weights but being fat all year round doesn’t make your a bodybuilder or an athlete it just means you’re fat and lazy. Pony Up.

Fasting for Muscle Building

Slow down buddy, pick your jaw back up from the keyboard and try not to scream needless profanities at me through a computer screen, tough guy. You read it right; fasting for muscle building.

I’m about to tell you how fasting CAN help you build muscle and of course burn fat. OK, think logically for a second. To build muscle you need to be in a caloric surplus, correct? So right away I haven’t a hope in hell of explaining to you how not eating can help you build muscle do I?

That’s because it can’t. But, now pay close attention, what it will do is prime your body for muscle building. Here’s how young Padawon;

You know all about blood sugar. Do you know about insulin though?

If you give a hoot about building muscle and given that you’re a Critical Bench follower then you’ve at least heard of insulin before. I’m going to give you a quick crash course anyway. When you eat you break down the food in to sugar.

That sugar likes to hang out in your blood until you do something about it. You really better do something about it though because just like a bunch of kids hanging out on the corner, all that can happen after a while is trouble. You’re just going to get fat.

You use insulin to take the sugar out of your blood and shuttle it around your body. Treat insulin right and it will make you look like Hercules.

Points to Remember

Every time you eat you spike your blood sugar and in turn your blood insulin.
If you have insulin in your blood you cannot burn fat.
Eating too often will cause insulin resistance. Insulin resistance means you will get fat, become sick and not build muscle.*

*insulin resistance means your body has to secrete more insulin than normal to take less sugar from your blood.

That can’t be that big of a deal for muscle building, can it? Oh it can my dear friend, it can. You know all those guys that claim they are bulking all year round for years on end? Well my bet is they have f****d with insulin so much that they literally can’t burn fat.

The same goes for their muscle building quest. Have they gotten any bigger this year? My guess is they haven’t. Why? Because insulin isn’t working as effectively as it could.

Moral of the story; make friends with insulin. I mean cuddle up and get real cosy.

How Fasting Can Help

Intermittent fasting is the cure for those of you that have been mean to insulin for quite a while. It’s like the judge in a divorce hearing; it will decide who gets what. Fasting is the perfect fix for insulin resistance. It works by giving your body a break from eating and constantly secreting insulin.

If you stop secreting insulin for a while your body is going to get the chance to catch up with itself and start being more efficient when you eat. Think about it this way; if you were asked to work overtime every night for a month would you be as productive? No way, you would just burn out.

It’s the same for insulin. If you keep acting like your beak can hold more than your belly can then insulin is going to burn out.

It’s not going to be able to shuttle your post workout drink in to your muscle cells as effectively as before. Fast every so often and give your body a break and things are about to start looking a whole lot different for you.

The more sensitive you are to insulin (which you will be from fasting) the more likely your body is to respond well to you and start slapping pounds of muscle on to your frame rather than mounds of fat.

Basically you will reset your insulin switch. You will thank your lucky stars you read this article when you see the difference it will make to your muscle building.

I just had to include this picture. It doesn’t exactly have a whole lot to do with fasting or muscle building, but it’s hot and I love strong women.

How to Fast for Muscle

I’m going to give you two options, both of which are very effective.

Option #1: Fast Once Per Week

This will sound like hell on earth to a lot of you but I urge you to give it a go. Once per week you will fast, ideally not a workout day. Yes that means you eat NOTHING. You can drink water, black tea and black coffee. That’s it.

There are no more rules. If you’re hungry suck it up, you shouldn’t have ate like an elephant for the last ten years.

Option #2: 16/8 Intermittent Fasting

This is a more long term method and it works great. It’s going to really force you to burn fat while simultaneously resetting your insulin switch for muscle building.

As the name suggests you will fast for 16 hours each day leaving you with an 8 hour eating window. Trust me you’ll be able to get in the amount of calories you need in 8 hours.

Just make sure to take full advantage of your new friend insulin and eat like a pig** directly after your workout.

Get a protein and carb drink in to you immediately and then 1-2 BIG carb and protein meals afterwards.

Why? Well your muscles want energy at this time and now that you’re friends with insulin it’s going to help you like a best friend should and take all those calories in to your muscle cells and your muscle energy stores.

This method will work a lot faster than option #1. I like fasting until noon each day and eating until 8pm. Figure out what hours fit your schedule and do that. Just remember that if you workout in the morning your 8 hour eating window has to start in the morning so that you can take full advantage of your post workout meals.

** Now listen closely. The whole point of this article was to get you to stop eating like a pig. I was being facetious here. Do however eat a lot. Just make sure it’s good wholesome muscle building food.

Stay Healthy,

Andrew Beatty

About Andrew

Andrew was born and bred in Ireland. Having the stature of a leprechaun he forced himself to learn how to build muscle and burn fat. As a muscle building and fat burning expert he studies the most cutting edge nutrition and training practices to deliver the best muscle building, fat burning results to his clients and to YOU.