Re: Awesome info Chris

Okay. Ketones are not an evil! They are actually what the body survives on when it has no outside source of food. This is the case in fat-burning when doing aerobic or anaerobic exercise just the same as it is during long term fasting. The liver runs out of glycogens which are it's energy source while we are eating enough food to supply the body's needs. When we exercise vigorously enough the energy supplied by the sugars we have been eating are depleted, then the Free Fatty Acids from our fat cells are transferred to the liver where they are used to create ketones which provide energy for our body's needs after what is in our blood is used up. This is a temporary condition during fat-burning exercise but a permanent condition when we abstain from food. The ketones are what our body lives on. Fats are our body's stores. They have no other function. Muscles are used by our body for many things, including some rather vital ones like keeping the heart pumping for example- they are NOT broken down during a fast before fat stores are, that's just not how it works. If our body is using muscle tissue to live off before using the fat stores that are there for that very purpose then something is going wrong.

I know I did not lose muscle mass for the reason that I stated. I was doing strenuous exercise for the whole fast, several times a week for at least two hours at a time plus my full time job. I don't know if you have done any type of martial arts but especially for advanced training one of the goals of each class is to totally exhaust yourself constantly so that you train your body and mind to give it's absolute best under the toughest physical conditions. If there was any reduction in my strength I would have certainly noticed it having been using my muscles and pushing them to exhaustion continually during my fast. Ask any body builder, the mass of your muscles is behind the power that lifts the weight. If you lose muscle mass you lose strength and I did not.

On the contrary, I can say right now with absolute surety that in recent times I have been running further while fasting and in particular in regards to muscle growth I have noticed this in my stomach while fasting. I do sets of crunches with an upper body workout to exhaustion every other day, and despite not eating the amount of crunches is rising, indicating muscle growth. My muscles are not cannibalising each other, they are being created by autolysis, which is a natural function of any body. I'm not suggesting for a moment that everyone should do this, it is something I am experimenting with, and something I need to do for myself. However the fact that it is being done is proof that it can be done.

The best thing you can do to prove this to yourself is try fasting for a short time and see the benefits of it for yourself. You will find no shortage of negatives flying about regarding fasting, it is ignored at best and treated as dangerous at worst by the Mainstream, but if you dig deep enough you can find the truth about it, and the easiest way to prove it for yourself is to try it for periods that even the Mainstream doesn't think of as dangerous first.

It can be very hard to go against what everyone around you seems to believe. And the first steps are often the hardest of all.

Andrew. Tweet