Okay although I believe this a simple topic it keeps coming up so I’m going to cover it.
Firstly guess what we’re doing when we sleep? Fasting. Guess where the word breakfast comes from? Break-the-fast. See where I’m going with this? Most of us are already fasting each day so why would it make sense to increase that window of fasting? In short it wouldn’t. Now the reason you may lose weight from intermittent fasting is because you’re shortening the period of which you’re eating, it’s harder to eat 2500 calories in 8 hours than it is 16 hours right? Of course it is. So basically your more likely to eat less due to the window of opportunity to eat being shorter. But this is not a healthy approach and eating across the day is much better on the body for nutrient absorption, maintaining steady energy levels and also to maintain and grow muscle mass, so guys eating protein evenly across the waking day will help you keep those biceps and girls it’ll help you keep that bum round.
Intermittent fasting is similar to just not eating after a certain time of the day as many do. I’ve found most clients of mine eat most of their junk food when at home in the evening. It’s not best to cut food completely, what is optimal is to eat as needed for your goal at that point. So sitting watching tv eating junk isn’t great for any goal (unless your goal is to get fat).
As said this is a pretty simple subject but people try make intermittent fasting look great by giving snippets of science without explaining the other side of the story. So anyone who wants to mention increased HGH levels or insulin sensitivity go do some more research and look at the bigger picture. Put simply intermittent fasting is not optimal for muscle growth, muscle retention, gym performance or fat loss.