Fasting rant and a question

[NicholasAstro]

I’ve recently fallen victim to reading about the benefits of autophagy and fasting. The fasting community seems to suggest that without giving your GI tract time to rest, you increase your risk of colorectal cancer or other ailments. From what I’ve gathered, eating in the so-called “window” or refraining from any calories for a determined period of time causes the body to eliminate free radicals, ward off illness, and clear the body of damaged cells that cause disease.

These benefits appear to occur in a vacuum. The consequences and drawbacks on a lifters progress are obvious, achieving adequate musculoskeletal recovery seems to be contrary to fasting.

At face value it seems the benefits of fasting are off the table for serious lifters. Curious of other board members thoughts on the topic.

[Robert Santana]

You have to draw the line somewhere on this stuff. The better question to ask is: Under what conditions does this make any sense?

[Maybach]

Most of those "benefits" are, to be generous, mostly bullshit.

If fasting did all those things, and they are so god damned fantastic, why doesn't it help you recover any better? Why is a person who has eliminated their free radicals, cleared their bodies of damaged cells, and I suppose aligned their chakras and whitened their teeth, so much worse recovered than someone who hasn't? Those all sound real helpful for recovery. Why don't they help at all?

What the fuck is the job of a human being, exactly, if your bodily systems are arranged in such a way that using them close to the limit of their ability (strength training) requires you to accumulate damaged cells and get colorectal cancer? What the fuck is your body FOR, if not MOVING SHIT AROUND?

Fasting is not "good for you." Ask any of your ancestors. Most people who report benefits from fasting fall into one of two camps:

1) People (usually guys, let's be honest) who went from "not giving a shit about what they ate" to some fancy fasting protocol. This dramatically by definition cuts down not only the amount of food they eat, but also the amount of bad food and probably ups their intake of good food. They feel better, lose ten pounds, and start saying stupid shit about growth hormone because they don't eat during the hours their local pizza place delivers.

2) People with something to sell. These guys do a lot of calisthenics and shit and probably also "train like an athlete" to boot.

It's all horseshit man. This isn't like the carnivore or seed oil guys, who might be nutcases but at least have a few little nuggests of truth buried at the bottom. Fasting is bad for you. You are better when you have eaten. The evidence is, oh, the entirety of human existence up to this point. Pick any of it.

[NicholasAstro]

You have to draw the line somewhere on this stuff. The better question to ask is: Under what conditions does this make any sense?

As a lifter it would be entirely counterintuitive. As a non-lifter? I suppose it would be beneficial, especially if you don’t engage in any physical activity. Which feels like a fairly stark dichotomy- are you trying to gain lean muscle mass or not.

This really boils down to a wanting my cake and eating it to for me. Why wouldn’t someone want to take advantage of this if it’s true, right? I don’t think I ever would, because for me, keeping my gains are most important.

[biggah_traps]

I fast for 8-12 hours every night, and so do you unless you're getting up in the middle of the night to stuff your gob. Fasting significantly above that would mean going the best part of a whole 24 hours without food, which would put most people into a coma unless they were literally lying on their bed the whole time. It's totally impracticable.

[mikemckone]

Fasting benefits probably depend very much on who you are. Are you 21 and actively training? Or, are you in your mid 60's, like me, and trying to prevent diabetus, HBP, and other conditions from getting a foothold in your life? I've been doing the 16/8 fasting method. I lost some belly fat (and about 15 pounds). My weight training is about the same today as it was two years ago. I'm not certain if fasting is doing any good as much as it prevents me from having a late night dish of ice cream or drinking that two fingers of bourbon that ygoes straight to my visceral belly fat. So, saying it's bullshit may be right. But, I get a sense it is actually doing some good.