Training promotes protein synthesis during a fasting phase

Bodybuilders and active people often use short periods of fasting to lose body fat quickly. Unfortunately, fasting shuts down biochemical pathways - particularly the mTOR pathway - that promote muscle growth. During fasting, cells - especially muscle cells - atrophy and use their cell contents for energy.

A Japanese study conducted at Juntendo University School of Medicine in Tokyo on fasting mice found that exercise activated the mTOR pathway, which is responsible for protein synthesis, and slowed down pathways associated with fasting that are linked to atrophy.

People who use short-term fasting for weight loss should exercise to minimize the loss of muscle mass.

(Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 456: 519 - 526, 2015)

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