The one time that intermittent fasting may be able to help professional bodybuilders, is when they're trying to cut down before a competition. If this is the case, then intermittent fasting can be a useful asset, particularly as it may help with lipolysis and increase your daily energy expenditure.
THE CASE FOR SLOW AND STEADY
Often, people find a smaller calorie deficit easier to accomplish day-to-day and stick with over time. Fast weight loss can also make a person lose more muscle and body water than slower weight loss. “This indicates that slow weight loss can perhaps help you maintain more muscle mass.
But if you cut calories too quickly, muscle tone will seriously suffer. “Calorie restrictive diets may cause your body to break down the muscle for energy and fuel,” says Satrazemis. In addition to waving goodbye to your shapely guns and rear, a loss in muscle mass can slow your metabolism.
It's possible to maintain and build muscle while in a fasting state, but you'll need to put in a little effort. Exercise is crucial. Exercising during intermittent fasting is a healthy way for you to burn more fat and build muscle.
SUMMARY There's no evidence that fasting causes more muscle loss than conventional calorie restriction. In fact, studies demonstrate that intermittent fasting may help you maintain muscle mass while dieting.
Recent clinical evidence bears out the fact that repeated short-term fasting does not cause muscle loss. In a 2010 study of alternate daily fasting, patients were able to lose significant fat mass with no change in lean mass.
Most bodybuilders do not exceed cuts of 4 months but usually do at least 2 months. This is because you will need enough time to provide decent results but not overextend yourself with a long-term restrictive diet. Our bodies are highly adaptable, which can result in a long-term cut being unsuccessful.
Your cut lasts too long
Try and avoid any cutting cycle lasting longer than six weeks – and include cheat days to keep you on track.
Conclusion. Yes, you can gain muscle while cutting. However, it may be more complicated than if you were maintaining your weight, trying to lose fat, or trying to gain muscle individually. Regardless, focus on eating a healthy diet and getting enough protein.
So, what are the best rep ranges for cutting? The best rep range for cutting is one that allows you to sometimes train with heavier loads to preserve basic strength (5-10 reps) and more moderate to light loads to allow you to retain as much muscle while training in higher volumes (10-20 reps).
Once you reach a body fat percent of 15% for men or 25% for women, that's when you'll want to start the cut. With a calorie deficit and ensuing weight loss, you'll start losing that fat gain you've put on over the winter months.
Your diet is what makes or breaks your cut. Two to three 20–40 minute cardio sessions per week are enough for most bodybuilders.
Competitive bodybuilders typically follow a cutting diet for 2–4 months . A person can decide the duration of a cutting diet according to their individual needs, but it is not a long-term diet. Bodybuilders usually go through a bulking phase before a cutting diet.
How Long Should You Mini-Cut? As a rule of thumb, it will need at least 2 weeks to lose enough fat to be worthwhile. At the other end of the spectrum, dieting for more than 6 weeks will start to increase your risk of muscle loss. So, 2-6 weeks is the range for mini-cuts.
I suggest most lifters choose a 4-5 day workout split when cutting. My go-to splits are either a 4-day (upper, lower, upper, lower) split or a 5-day split that has a lifter training most muscle groups at least twice per week.
Cutting is an increasingly popular workout technique. It's a fat loss phase that bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts use to get as lean as possible. Typically started a few months before a major workout regimen, it involves a weight loss diet that's meant to maintain as much muscle as possible.
In a cutting competition, you have two and a half minutes to show the judge how good you and your horse are at cutting cattle. During the allotted time, the horse and rider must cut at least two cows from the herd, and one must be a 'deep' cut (the cow must come from deep inside the herd instead of from the periphery).
If you cut the calorie-intake too low, the body will break down hard earned muscle. That is not how you should be doing it. Slow and steady yields best results. A common mistake is to go straight to 20% less calories and then after a week become impatient and lower to 25% or even lower.
In humans. Ordinarily, the body responds to reduced energy intake by burning fat reserves and consuming muscle and other tissues. Specifically, the body burns fat after first exhausting the contents of the digestive tract along with glycogen reserves stored in liver cells and after significant protein loss.
On fasting days eat 500–600 calories. The 16/8 method: Fast for 16 hours and eat only during an 8-hour window. For most people, the 8-hour window would be around noon to 8 p.m. A study on this method found that eating during a restricted period resulted in the participants consuming fewer calories and losing weight.
The correct answer is that fat is converted to carbon dioxide and water. You exhale the carbon dioxide and the water mixes into your circulation until it's lost as urine or sweat.
If you're lean enough to bulk (10-15% body fat or less for a man, or 18-23% or less for a woman), you should probably bulk first. If you're above these ranges, you should cut first. And if you're a beginner who's somewhere in the middle, you should recomp.