Re: Weightlifting After A Fast

That's right and then lactic acid is recycled by liver to glucose. It's called Cori cycle. Thus the demand for protein to make glucose goes down.

Not sure what you mean by "stressing the body". If I remember correctly, you're now fasting with a low initial weight and are concerned whether you have enough to last you 3 weeks that you planned. You can do an experiment right now, provided you have a good scale and weigh yourself daily.

Here is what you can do to determine this for yourself. Go to your gym and do your regular routine at third to a half of your normal intensity. And see how much weight you loose for that day (by weighing yourself next morning). Compare it with your weight loss on a previous day. You should loose LESS weight after an active day. You will also feel infinitely better and stronger after your take-it-easy workout. Because you've been conditioned to think differently, you will not believe it until you try it out yourself.

There are plenty of anecdotal reports by people who weightlift regularly and they say they loose less muscle if they workout during their fasts. Also, lately I've been reading posts by girls on the Russian fasting forum who are obsessed with their weight and watch those numbers closely. As a group, they noticed that when they work out (and some bike for miles and others run and swim, lift weights, etc. -- that's Russian way to fast), on those days, they say, they loose LESS weight than on the days when they lie around taking it easy.

That's a very valuable observation on their part.It is well known that muscle weighs more than fat. I believe what happens on those active days is that they loose less muscle to gluconeogenesis, mainly because protein turnover goes up due to exercise and, as mentioned above, due to lactic acid being recycled to glucose. Besides that, there are other reasons why exercise on a fast will contribute to LESS muscle loss than bed rest. It has to do with mitochondria and is rather involved for a post on curezone. The bottom line is that anecdotal reports support the notion that less muscle (and weight) is lost on a fast when one exercises. But thus far there are no actual studies on humans that would confirm or deny that.

You can carry out this experiment yourself and decide for yourself rather than relying on other people speculations about what should be happening on a fast. Good luck :) Tweet