offthewall14420
JUB Addict
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2015
- Posts
- 1,637
- Reaction score
- 5
- Points
- 0
https://www.livestrong.com/article/394573-does-fasting-speed-up-metabolism/
What Fasting Does to Metabolism
When you severely limit calories, your body senses this shortage of fuel and slows down its functioning to conserve energy. Instead of boosting your metabolism, you may experience a suppression of your resting metabolism equal to as much as 20 percent. Your resting metabolism is based on the energy your body uses to fuel basic functions, such as pumping blood and breathing. These activities don't stop, your body just becomes more efficient and burns fewer calories to do them than it would when adequately fed.
This is one of the reasons very low-calorie diets and fasts don't often bring about the results you'd expect. Your body is fighting what it perceives as starvation by slowing the rate at which it burns calories.
Fasting Leads to Muscle Loss
Fasting diminishes your RMR, or resting metabolic rate, because it may have a negative effect on your body composition. Your body may interpret your fast as starvation from a famine. As a result, it starts to use lean muscle for energy and holds onto fat to sustain you during this perceived starvation. Muscle demands more energy, or calories, to maintain than fat. When you lose muscle, your metabolism slows down and so does weight loss.
If you stay on a fast long enough, your body may also start to use more than just your biceps for fuel. Fewer than 800 calories a day for a long period of time can wreak havoc on the functioning of your heart muscle, warns the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders. Your heart may be reduced in size, which subsequently leads to a slowed pulse, erratic rhythms, dangerously low blood pressure and eventual heart failure.
What Fasting Does to Metabolism
When you severely limit calories, your body senses this shortage of fuel and slows down its functioning to conserve energy. Instead of boosting your metabolism, you may experience a suppression of your resting metabolism equal to as much as 20 percent. Your resting metabolism is based on the energy your body uses to fuel basic functions, such as pumping blood and breathing. These activities don't stop, your body just becomes more efficient and burns fewer calories to do them than it would when adequately fed.
This is one of the reasons very low-calorie diets and fasts don't often bring about the results you'd expect. Your body is fighting what it perceives as starvation by slowing the rate at which it burns calories.
Fasting Leads to Muscle Loss
Fasting diminishes your RMR, or resting metabolic rate, because it may have a negative effect on your body composition. Your body may interpret your fast as starvation from a famine. As a result, it starts to use lean muscle for energy and holds onto fat to sustain you during this perceived starvation. Muscle demands more energy, or calories, to maintain than fat. When you lose muscle, your metabolism slows down and so does weight loss.
If you stay on a fast long enough, your body may also start to use more than just your biceps for fuel. Fewer than 800 calories a day for a long period of time can wreak havoc on the functioning of your heart muscle, warns the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders. Your heart may be reduced in size, which subsequently leads to a slowed pulse, erratic rhythms, dangerously low blood pressure and eventual heart failure.
