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Can intermittent fasting be used during training?

The Ketogenic Diet and Intermittent Fasting Sports. Absolutely yes, indeed it can be a very interesting help. Intermittent fasting is a name or label for something that human beings have been doing since the dawn of their history.

The paradigm of breakfast-lunch-dinner plus a snack is a modern invention without any scientific basis. It comes from a diet poor in essential nutrients and based on grains and sugars, which requires a constant intake of calories over time.

1. Intermittent fasting is actually an excellent maximizer of the benefits of physical exercise.
2. Humans have developed a completely different strategy than ruminants (such as cows and sheep).
   • These graze continuously throughout the day so that they can ensure an adequate supply of nutrients while consuming low-calorie, low-nutrient food (grass). In contrast, humans are predators, successfully hunting high-calorie, high-nutrient prey and needing to eat twice on average daily.This is very difficult on a diet low in essential nutrients, but it becomes quite natural with a well-balanced diet that excludes sugar, flour and seed oils.
     

     Benefits of Intermittent Fasting for Athletes

     Intermittent fasting is not suitable for most runners (marathoners, cyclists) who undertake large races. Obviously, these athletes must eat more than two meals a day to feed the amount of athletic work they have to do.

     But most normal athletes can eat two meals a day. Intermittent fasting will help you maintain metabolic flexibility, your body’s ability to feed on both fat and glucose when needed, and give you explosive endurance and strength. And that won’t happen if you eat a keto diet for a few days and for others a carbohydrate-based diet.

     But it happens if:

     • we don’t eat too often during the day;
     • we eat very rich and concentrated foods that do not stimulate insulin too much;
     • we only do high-intensity training occasionally (i.e. a few times a week).

     Exercise before breakfast

     Recently, interesting research has been published that shows the breakfast index. The timing of breakfast appears to affect your body’s response to exercise. Additionally, fasting physical exercise can improve glucose and insulin parameters, reduce the risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes (especially in predisposed individuals) (12).

     It is also more sensitive to glucose intake, generates less need for insulin and optimizes the muscle’s ability to improve sugar absorption. This happens if you fast for 16/18 hours, which activates autophagy.

     Muscles are actually excellent glucose absorbers and when activated during fasting, they easily allow the blood to carry the sugar present in the muscles ready to receive and expend it.

     1. Skipping breakfast and postponing it with regard to training also allows you to reduce your overall calorie intake.
     2. If you manage to skip breakfast and train on an empty stomach, you will perform better at work, improve memory and creativity, which will be greater until mid-afternoon.
     3. In addition, you will experience less mental fatigue and tension during the day than those who previously trained by consuming sugars or cereals.
     4. Finally, fasting exercise is particularly effective for fat loss.