Plenty of bodybuilders do fasting, especially intermittent fasting. Make sure you get the nutrients you require before and after a fast and combine with resistance training and you have no reason for concern (IANAN)

> Plenty of bodybuilders do fasting, especially intermittent fasting.

I know that they do IF, but do we have examples of bodybuilders that do 3+ day regular fasts? I'm not aware of any. IF can simply be a neat way to calorically reduce, but legitimate multi-day fasting is another beast entirely.

I’m on mobile, so can’t easily find it right now. Some research has shown that IF can lead to to increase production of HGH. That in turn led to an increase in muscle mass with no other changes. We all know how hard it is to control nutrition studies though, so I suggest you search for yourself.

Personally I haven't noticed any reduction in strength doing 8 hour time restricted eating. I've hit my most recent PRs doing this. For reference I'm decently strong with squat/bench/deadlift being 470/320/545 lbs.

A 500+ lb deadlift is no joke, nice work. Conventional or sumo?

Regarding the fasting time, I think there's a big difference between the IF you are doing and eg the multi-day fasts people here are talking about. They don't sound helpful for strength sports.

Thanks! I pull conventional, I'm no good at sumo.

I would agree that multi-day fasts would not be good for strength sports. There doesn't seem to be a authoritative source but LeanGains states you won't lose muscle if you're fasting less than 24 hours. (https://leangains.com/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked-major-u...)

I agree. IF is something I think people can just fit into their lives. It appears to have tons of benefits with little downside.

Longer fasts are something different entirely. They have their place, but are more of an event that must be planned. Personally, I like things I can do for life and turn into habits. I don't see how I could make 3-7 day fasts a habit.

Oh, and I'm not the person you asked, but my best DL was conventional 525lb weighing 199 :)

Not an expert but I would not think you would suffer much muscle loss in a short (less than 1 week) fast. It takes longer than that for your metabolism to transition into starvation mode. Maybe there's some risk if your body fat is already very low.

> https://www.lifehack.org/389060/how-much-muscle-mass-can-you...

It looks like you can lost a fair amount of muscle mass, and that you lose the most muscle mass early, so 1 21 day fast would be better for you than 3 7 day.

Probably unfounded, unless you're in the uncommon niche of having very low body fat and not exercising regularly (a few days a week). Depending on how long you fast, of course. 12-24 hours isn't going to make all that much difference.

I can't find the links, but I recall that muscle atrophy is minimal until around 3 days.