6 Brilliant Intermittent Fasting Muscle Gain Hacks

Some people in fitness and bodybuilding argue that intermittent fasting makes muscle gain impossible.

While some believe intermittent fasting induces muscle loss, others believe eating many small meals improves metabolism.

However, as recent studies show, intermittent fasting can be a tool to improve muscle growth if you use it correctly. In this article, you can find out exactly how it works.

Intermittent Fasting | Muscle Loss | Muscle Gain | Keto | FAQ | Studies

What Is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting involves eating within a specific time and fasting during the rest of the day.

Although very different intermittent fasting forms exist, fasting within a time window of around 16 hours is by far the most popular.

Because it allows you to gain muscle and lose body fat simultaneously, 16/8 intermittent fasting is known as the Lean Gains Method or Peak Fasting.

For example, you eat between noon and 8 pm. This way, your gastrointestinal tract can rest for the remaining 16 hours of the day.

After you sleep 8 of the 16 fasting hours, intermittent fasting is more comfortable than many assume.

Therefore, to begin regular 16/8 intermittent fasting, you only need to skip breakfast.

Contrary to popular belief, breakfast is far from mandatory due to the energy boost from hormone release in the morning.

Due to increased adrenaline, cortisol, glucagon, and growth hormone levels, we wake up in the morning.

In conclusion, breakfast is the most important meal of the day for the food industry, but not for you. Nevertheless, Intermittent Fasting is flexible and can be customized to fit your daily routine.

Besides 16/8 intermittent fasting, the following intermittent fasting protocols are widely used:

• One-Day Fasting (6:1 Diet) – you do not eat anything on a full day a week
• Two-Day Fasting (5:2 Diet) – you do not eat for two days (often with a small meal)
• Alternate Day Fasting (ADF) – Eat one day, fast one day (often with a small meal)
• One Meal A Day (OMAD) – 23/1 intermittent fasting, where you eat once a day

Intermittent Fasting: Muscle Gain or Loss?

Fasting does not cause muscle loss.

The misconception that fasting destroys muscles arose because your body can break down protein and use it for energy when fasting sufficiently long.

However, this is not muscle protein. Instead, the body focuses on defective proteins, for example, in the skin or intestinal mucosa.

In this way, the body obtains amino acids that you otherwise supplied with food.

This recycling of broken cell parts, which starts at the earliest after 14 hours of fasting, is instead a detox and repair of the body than a danger for your lean mass (Yang et al. 2017¹).

Moreover, this process of autophagy also protects against muscle breakdown (Jiao et al. 2017²).

Indeed, many of our metabolic pathways are designed to conserve muscle mass at all costs.

When you fast, the body preferentially consumes stored carbohydrates (glycogen) because it can mobilize them most quickly.

When you empty these glycogen stores, your body taps into fat for energy.

This natural process of fat-burning is called ketosis. In addition to intermittent fasting, exercise induces ketosis, preventing muscle loss, according to recent studies (Paoli et al. 2019³).

The body releases counter-regulatory hormones to protect lean mass during fasting.

One of these is human growth hormone (HGH). During fasting, the release of growth hormone peaks to ensure you don’t lose muscle mass.

Simultaneously, intermittent fasting protects against muscle loss and protects bone mass from degeneration (Rudman et al. 1990⁴).

How to Gain Muscle on Intermittent Fasting

Since intermittent fasting helps maintain muscle mass, you can use it to build muscle.

For a good reason, 16/8 Intermittent Fasting is called the Lean Gains Method. In bodybuilding, it has been used for decades to build muscle mass without gaining body fat precisely.

By following the points below, you, too, can master this task and even lose body fat in the process.

1. Exercise Fasted

Few authors want to give you this vital point – mainly if they sell sports nutrition.

The human body has three primary nutrient sensors, shifting it from a catabolic (breaking down) to an anabolic (building up) state.

Accordingly, the body is busy breaking down stored energy in a fasted state. These are stored carbohydrates (glycogen), body fat, and dysfunctional cellular parts (proteins).

You can read about exactly how this works in my article on autophagy.

However, when you eat before exercising, you activate the nutrient sensor insulin. And as the name suggests, the storage hormone is responsible for building up energy stores.

Insulin also blocks the enzyme that breaks down stored body fat (Meijssen et al. 2001⁵).

Also, the body preferentially consumes the energy food supplies in the bloodstream. Ultimately, it would be much more helpful to burn stored body fat instead.

Therefore, there are only two fundamental reasons to eat before exercise:

• You intend to build body fat in addition to lean mass
• You are a professional athlete who trains several times a day and needs additional energy

Therefore, amateur sports’ ubiquitous orientation to competitive sports has kept countless people from getting into shape over and over again.

Since sports also help you get into ketosis, you can burn fat even more efficiently when exercising in a fasted state.

In the same way, exercise also promotes autophagy.

Therefore, you can maximize the health benefits of intermittent fasting by exercising in a fasted state—these range from cancer prevention and improved insulin sensitivity to an overall increase in life expectancy.

Last but not least, fast training helps you maximize growth hormone release. As a result, you gain muscle much more effectively.

2. Elevate Growth Hormone

Fasting is one of the most effective ways to stimulate HGH naturally (Ho et al. 1988⁶).

HGH promotes bone, cartilage, and muscle growth. As a result, you get bigger, stronger muscles and protection from age-related bone and muscle loss.

In short, intermittent fasting is a kind of anabolic bio-hacking.

You maximize the release of growth hormones until you break the fast after training and send the body into an anabolic state at the right time for targeted muscle growth.

If you also eat the right natural foods, such as fatty fish, the body will get everything it needs for improved muscle building during intermittent fasting:

• Growth Hormone
• Proteins
• Creatine
• Healthy fats

With the natural release of growth hormone decreasing as we age, intermittent fasting is becoming increasingly crucial for muscle gain.

It helps muscle recovery after exercise and sets the stage for healthy bones, organs, and long life (Besson et al. 2003⁷).

3. Do Not Restrict Calories

Fasting is not about how much you eat but instead WHEN you eat.

On the one hand, it means you eat specifically after your workout. On the other hand, it means you don’t eat during fasting before exercising because even small meals raise insulin levels.

Hence, conventional diet advice often prevents fat loss through exercise.

Besides, intermittent fasting does not require calorie reduction, as many people would like to believe. It merely involves timing calorie intake to favor fat loss and muscle gain hormonally.

If you only eat two instead of three times daily, your meals will get bigger. For some people, this may still result in a slight calorie deficit.

However, if muscle building is your stated goal, intermittent fasting 16/8 does not require you to hold back during the eating period. Instead, you concentrate your daily needs on a specific period.

Although conventional calorie restriction can lead to weight, it leads to fat gain and muscle loss in the long term. Besides, the basal metabolic rate decreases when you eat less but frequently (Fothergill et al. 2016⁸).

Unfortunately, the human body is still often reduced to a combustion engine. Nevertheless, it is controlled by hormones. And this fact applies to both muscle building and fat loss.

4. Boost Your Metabolism

Contrary to the popular belief that intermittent fasting slows metabolism, research has long shown that it improves it (Drenick et al. 1964⁹).

After fasting releases growth hormones and norepinephrine, our ancestors could forage longer for food when their stomachs were empty (Ho et al. 1988¹⁰).

Thus, they could ensure our species’ survival when food was scarce.

Besides, this increased hormone release improves the basal metabolic rate, according to science (Zauner et al. 2000¹¹).

As a result, intermittent fasting can also help burn body fat more efficiently.

5. Burn Off Critical Fat

Fasting and exercise force your body to burn off stored sugars and tap into body fat for energy.

When released fatty acids from body fat or food enter the liver, they are converted into ketones to provide energy for the body.

Therefore, ketosis supported by intermittent fasting can burn fat reserves even faster (Paoli 2015¹²).

But intermittent fasting does not just burn uncomfortable fat deposits.

Accordingly, recent studies state intermittent fasting burns dangerous visceral fat more effectively than a low-carb diet (Catenacci et al. 2016¹³).

Visceral fat accumulates in and around vital organs, such as the liver, intestines, or pancreas. Thus, this intra-organ fat contributes to fatty liver, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (Bray et al. 2007¹⁴).

Since the liver is the first place where visceral fat accumulates, it can lay the foundation for other metabolic diseases through insulin resistance.

6. Gain Flexibility

People are diverse. Even if we share the common goal of using intermittent fasting to help build muscle, we often have different motivations.

While some people want to lose fat by building muscle, others aim to maximize athletic performance.

The latter may not always want to avoid carbohydrates, as they continually deplete their glycogen stores, and dietary carbohydrates may contribute to muscle recovery (Murray et al. 2018¹⁵).

With this in mind, flexible fasting intermittents and carbohydrate intake can support your training:

• Intense training day: Longer eating periods and more carbohydrates, which can again directly replenish muscle glycogen stores
• Rest and fasting day: No or shorter eating periods on a low-carb diet

Accordingly, carb-cycling or a cyclic ketogenic diet can help you adapt your intermittent fasting plan to special athletic needs.

Nonetheless, carb-refeed days are not mandatory for muscle growth as long as protein intake is provided (Koopman et al. 2007¹⁶).

Although the increased insulin levels from carbohydrates can help muscles recover, it also helps build body fat faster (Shah et al. 2011¹⁷).

For this reason, some bodybuilders claim they can’t gain muscle without building up fat.

Therefore, amateur athletes and those who want to get in the best shape with little effort are usually better off with a ketogenic diet.

Gaining Muscle on Intermittent Fasting and Keto

If low body fat and increased longevity are the main reasons you want to boost muscle gain through intermittent fasting, a ketogenic diet best supports these goals.

Since fasting burns your body fat for energy, it is the most ketogenic diet. Therefore, keto can be an excellent complement to intermittent fasting.

A ketogenic diet is defined by energy intake from the three macronutrients:

• 75% from fat
• 20-25% from proteins
• 5-10% from carbohydrates

However, a higher caloric intake from protein may be exceptional for targeted muscle gain through weight lifting:

• 1.6 to 3.4 g protein per kg of body weight per day for resistance training (Leaf et al. 2017¹⁸)
• 1.6 to 4.4 g protein per kg daily for bodybuilders and elite athletes (Antonio et al. 2014¹⁹)

Nevertheless, training in a fasted state and supplying proteins after exercising, preferably through whole foods, is essential.

The Bottom Line

Intermittent fasting does not make your muscles atrophy.

Quite the opposite – adequately applied, intermittent fasting sets the hormonal course to achieve maximum muscle gain and fat loss with minimal exercise.

But that doesn’t mean you can leverage it to gain heaps of lean mass when exercising enthusiastically. However, training in a fasted state and eating proper whole foods is essential.

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to starve, count calories, or always prepare meals.

Accordingly, the best thing about intermittent fasting is the freedom that comes with it.

Therefore, you can always customize your intermittent fasting schedule to fit your exercise plan and promote gaining muscle in the best possible way.

To start gaining muscles faster today, check out my 30-Day Intermittent Fasting Challenge and take advantage of the increased growth hormone release.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Can you build muscle while intermittent fasting?

It is possible to build muscles while fasting. In bodybuilding, intermittent fasting 16/8 has been used for decades as the so-called “lean gains method.”

What should I eat to gain muscle while intermittent fasting?

Avoid refined carbohydrates (e.g., bakery) and replace them with natural protein and healthy fat sources (e.g., fatty fish, grass-fed beef, olive oil, avocados).

Is intermittent fasting good for bodybuilding?

Since it spikes human growth hormone 4-5 times as much as exercise, intermittent fasting is an excellent bodybuilding support.

How do you get enough protein when intermittent fasting?

You get enough protein on intermittent fasting the same way as without – by eating. Intermittent fasting does not mean eating less. Eating within a specific time window means setting hormone balance to promote muscle gain.

Do bodybuilders do intermittent fasting?

Yes, bodybuilders exploit the vast growth hormone spike induced by fasting. 16/8 and 18/6 have been used by European and world champions in powerlifting.

Does intermittent fasting reduce belly fat?

While fasting, growth hormone protects lean mass, enabling your body to burn fat more efficiently while working out.

Studies

#1-6

¹Yang JS, Lu CC, Kuo SC, Hsu YM, Tsai SC, Chen SY, Chen YT, Lin YJ, Huang YC, Chen CJ, Lin WD, Liao WL, Lin WY, Liu YH, Sheu JC, Tsai FJ. Autophagy and its link to type II diabetes mellitus. Biomedicine (Taipei). 2017 Jun;7(2):8. doi: 10.1051/bmdcn/2017070201. Epub 2017 Jun 14. PubMed PMID: 28612706; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5479440.

²Jiao J, Demontis F. Skeletal muscle autophagy and its role in sarcopenia and organismal aging. Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2017 Jun;34:1-6. doi: 10.1016/j.coph.2017.03.009. Epub 2017 Apr 10. Review. PubMed PMID: 28407519.

³Paoli A, Cancellara P, Pompei P, Moro T. Ketogenic Diet and Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy: A Frenemy Relationship?. J Hum Kinet. 2019 Aug;68:233-247. doi: 10.2478/hukin-2019-0071. eCollection 2019 Aug. PubMed PMID: 31531148; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6724590.

⁴Rudman D, Feller AG, Nagraj HS, Gergans GA, Lalitha PY, Goldberg AF, Schlenker RA, Cohn L, Rudman IW, Mattson DE. Effects of human growth hormone in men over 60 years old. N Engl J Med. 1990 Jul 5;323(1):1-6. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199007053230101. PubMed PMID: 2355952.

⁵Meijssen S, Cabezas MC, Ballieux CG, Derksen RJ, Bilecen S, Erkelens DW. Insulin mediated inhibition of hormone sensitive lipase activity in vivo in relation to endogenous catecholamines in healthy subjects. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2001 Sep;86(9):4193-7. doi: 10.1210/jcem.86.9.7794. PubMed PMID: 11549649.

⁶Ho KY, Veldhuis JD, Johnson ML, Furlanetto R, Evans WS, Alberti KG, Thorner MO. Fasting enhances growth hormone secretion and amplifies the complex rhythms of growth hormone secretion in man. J Clin Invest. 1988 Apr;81(4):968-75. doi: 10.1172/JCI113450. PubMed PMID: 3127426; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC329619.

#7-12

⁷Besson A, Salemi S, Gallati S, Jenal A, Horn R, Mullis PS, Mullis PE. Reduced longevity in untreated patients with isolated growth hormone deficiency. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2003 Aug;88(8):3664-7. doi: 10.1210/jc.2002-021938. PubMed PMID: 12915652.

⁸Fothergill E, Guo J, Howard L, Kerns JC, Knuth ND, Brychta R, Chen KY, Skarulis MC, Walter M, Walter PJ, Hall KD. Persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after “The Biggest Loser” competition. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2016 Aug;24(8):1612-9. doi: 10.1002/oby.21538. Epub 2016 May 2. PubMed PMID: 27136388; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4989512.

⁹DRENICK EJ, SWENDSEID ME, BLAHD WH, TUTTLE SG. PROLONGED STARVATION AS TREATMENT FOR SEVERE OBESITY. JAMA. 1964 Jan 11;187:100-5. doi: 10.1001/jama.1964.03060150024006. PubMed PMID: 14066725.

¹⁰Ho KY, Veldhuis JD, Johnson ML, Furlanetto R, Evans WS, Alberti KG, Thorner MO. Fasting enhances growth hormone secretion and amplifies the complex rhythms of growth hormone secretion in man. J Clin Invest. 1988 Apr;81(4):968-75. doi: 10.1172/JCI113450. PubMed PMID: 3127426; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC329619.

¹¹Zauner C, Schneeweiss B, Kranz A, Madl C, Ratheiser K, Kramer L, Roth E, Schneider B, Lenz K. Resting energy expenditure in short-term starvation is increased as a result of an increase in serum norepinephrine. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Jun;71(6):1511-5. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/71.6.1511. PubMed PMID: 10837292.

¹²Paoli A, Bosco G, Camporesi EM, Mangar D. Ketosis, ketogenic diet and food intake control: a complex relationship. Front Psychol. 2015;6:27. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00027. eCollection 2015. Review. PubMed PMID: 25698989; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4313585.

#13-17

¹³Catenacci VA, Pan Z, Ostendorf D, Brannon S, Gozansky WS, Mattson MP, Martin B, MacLean PS, Melanson EL, Troy Donahoo W. A randomized pilot study comparing zero-calorie alternate-day fasting to daily caloric restriction in adults with obesity. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2016 Sep;24(9):1874-83. doi: 10.1002/oby.21581. PubMed PMID: 27569118; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5042570.

¹⁴Bray GA, Jablonski KA, Fujimoto WY, Barrett-Connor E, Haffner S, Hanson RL, Hill JO, Hubbard V, Kriska A, Stamm E, Pi-Sunyer FX. Relation of central adiposity and body mass index to the development of diabetes in the Diabetes Prevention Program. Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 May;87(5):1212-8. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/87.5.1212. PubMed PMID: 18469241; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2517222.

¹⁵Murray B, Rosenbloom C. Fundamentals of glycogen metabolism for coaches and athletes. Nutr Rev. 2018 Apr 1;76(4):243-259. doi: 10.1093/nutrit/nuy001. Review. PubMed PMID: 29444266; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6019055.

¹⁶Koopman R, Beelen M, Stellingwerff T, Pennings B, Saris WH, Kies AK, Kuipers H, van Loon LJ. Coingestion of carbohydrate with protein does not further augment postexercise muscle protein synthesis. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2007 Sep;293(3):E833-42. doi: 10.1152/ajpendo.00135.2007. Epub 2007 Jul 3. PubMed PMID: 17609259.

¹⁷Shah PK, Mudaliar S, Chang AR, Aroda V, Andre M, Burke P, Henry RR. Effects of intensive insulin therapy alone and in combination with pioglitazone on body weight, composition, distribution and liver fat content in patients with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2011 Jun;13(6):505-10. doi: 10.1111/j.1463-1326.2011.01370.x. PubMed PMID: 21272186; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3580155.

#18-19

¹⁸Leaf A, Antonio J. The Effects of Overfeeding on Body Composition: The Role of Macronutrient Composition – A Narrative Review. Int J Exerc Sci. 2017;10(8):1275-1296. eCollection 2017. Review. PubMed PMID: 29399253; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5786199.

¹⁹Antonio J, Peacock CA, Ellerbroek A, Fromhoff B, Silver T. The effects of consuming a high protein diet (4.4 g/kg/d) on body composition in resistance-trained individuals. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2014;11:19. doi: 10.1186/1550-2783-11-19. eCollection 2014. PubMed PMID: 24834017; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4022420.