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30.03.2018

Why a low-carbohydrate diet might make intermittent fasting more effective

Athletes, slimmers and life extensionists who use intermittent fasting to achieve their goals may increase their chances of success if they combine that approach with a low-carbohydrate diet. We, arrogant and unrestrained by too much knowledge, derive this from a study published by English nutrition scientists at the University of Surrey in the British Journal of Nutrition.

Study
The researchers experimented with ten healthy but overweight subjects. On three different occasions, these test subjects were given a standard breakfast in a lab, that provided them with 74 grams of carbohydrates, 24 grams of protein and 23 grams of fat.

The researchers monitored the test subjects for a period of six hours thereafter.

On one occasion, the subjects had eaten more or less normally on the day before the measurements. They had been given meals that provided 100 percent of the amount of calories that was burned their body. 55 percent of the energy came from carbohydrates, 15 percent from protein and the rest from fat.

The other time the subjects had fasted the day before the measurements.

Yet another time the subjects had eaten only 25 percent of the amount of calories their bodies had burnt. 37 percent of the energy in these low-calorie meals came from carbohydrates, 35 percent came from protein and 28 percent came from fat.

Results
After the three meals the subjects burned the same amount of energy. The researchers found no effect of fasting and the severe caloric restriction on resting energy consumption and the thermogenic effect of the meal.

What did change was what the body of the test subjects burnt. After fasting and after the heavy caloric restriction their body burned fat, as the figures below show. Moreover, the body was more efficient with glucose after fasting and the caloric restriction.

Conclusion
Imagine that the subjects had breakfasted low on carbohydrates. Wanna bet that their calorie expenditure would have gone up?

More coming soon.

Source:
Br J Nutr. 2016 Mar 28;115(6):951-9.

More:
Exercising before breakfast trains your fat tissues to break themselves down 01.07.2017
Lose weight faster than you'd believe possible: skip breakfast and jog for an hour 20.05.2017
Build muscle mass, increase endurance capacity and lose fat through intermittent fasting 01.07.2015

Archives:
Low Carbohydrate Diet
Intermittent Fasting

Experienced strength athletes lose fat by intermittent fasting, not muscle mass or strength These researchers used bodybuilders who had at least five years' experience of weight training as test subjects.	Strength athletes perform no better or worse with time-restricted feeding Intermittent fasting, time-restricted feeding, or whatever you want to call it, doesn't reduce the effect of strength training on strength or muscle mass.	L-Carnitine makes fasting easier and more effective Fasting for a couple of days every so often is very healthy, but a lot of people find this really difficult. They feel hungry and tired. Supplementation with L-carnitine can help.