27 obese patients were subjected to a ten day fast consisting of 250 Calories per day. The Subjects were divided into two groups, a group that exercised and a group that did not.
After ten days:
- Both groups had similar weight loss.
- The exercise was well tolerated without problems.
- The loss of muscle was significantly less in the exercise group.
The authors concluded “This may indicate that muscular activity is useful in aiding adaptation to fasting and may orient weight loss preferentially towards fat mass.“
While certainly not earth shattering…the part that is very interesting to me is that this study was published in 1975!
So, we had a vague idea over 3o years ago that exercise was needed to maintain muscle mass while dieting. Yet, nowadays we still argue about protein ratios, carb cycling and meal frequency and supplementation. Seems like something was lost in the last 30 years!
Simple truth – Just like Schrub et al. hypothesised over 30 years ago, if you are dieting and you want to preserve muscle mass, lift weights.
BP
