First off, you might be wondering why I decided to go 5 days without eating anything... a very good question.

After all, wouldn't that run the risk of burning up muscle mass and tanking my strength levels?

Absolutely...and that's exactly why I wanted to test it...

I decided to try a 5-day water fast after reading this book... The Underground Fat Loss Manual by my friend and colleague, Matt Marshall (the one I've been talking about the past few days). He had some really eye-opening stuff about fasting in it so it got me intrigued.

Just to be clear, a 5-day fast is NOT part of his program, but some of the information he revealed in the book got me curious enough to really dig into researching the effects of fasting on testosterone levels and muscle mass.

Which takes me to the #1 thing I learned by not eating for 5 days...

 

1. The fear of losing muscle mass while dieting is highly exaggerated.

When I was younger (in my 20's and 30's), I had this powerful fear that if I were to get really hungry or somehow allow my body to go without food for any substantial length of time, my muscle mass would disappear and my strength would permanently drop into the toilet.

I got to the point where I was almost irrational about it...

- I would set an alarm for the middle of the night to wake up and have a protein shake that I would have sitting by my bed (not kidding)

- I would religiously eat half a dozen eggs after every workout and BEFORE I would have a post-workout meal.

- I would bring Tupperware's with chicken breasts to social events if I didn't know for sure there would be protein foods there.

To me, getting hungry meant I would suddently start losing my hard-earned muscle mass...

Or would I?

It took me a long time to come around to the fact that the human body does NOT operate like this. We would be dead as a species if this were the case.

After 5 days of not eating anything (and after "refeeding" back to normal intake), I determined that I lost essentially ZERO muscle mass or strength.

I could see that I lost substantial amounts of fat. And once I was back in my normal state of nutrition (a few days later), my strength levels were exactly the same.

I was actually expecting to lose SOME muscle mass and strength. It was shocking to me that I didn't lose ANY.

Bottom line, if you want to get REALLY ripped, you need to get comfortable being hungry...and you need to not freak out about losing muscle mass. As long as you train, your body will have a reason to hang onto muscle.

 

2. You get used to it. Your body adapts to it. It gets easier.

My wife always tells me she's jealous of how I can "flip a switch" and just start dieting and not have any cravings for anything.

When I decided to fast for 5 days (she actually completed the 5-day fast with me!), she was certain I would be in rough shape after a day or two. I was certain I could do the 5 days easy.

I was right.

I had done a lot of low-carb eating and intermittent fasting for years, so I had become what is called "fat adapted." This means my body very easily switches to burning fat (and bodyfat) for energy.

Many people are "carb burners" and have a really hard time eating low-carb. Their bodies haven't created the cellular machinery necessary to easily make that switch in primary fuel from carbs to fats.

So when I didn't eat for 5 days, it was like another day at the office...I went smoothly into burning fat for energy...no crashes, no mood swings, nothing like that.

When you use a program like what's found in the Underground Fat Loss Manual, your body begins to adapt to the low-calorie situation rapidly. It creates the metabolic cellular machinery necessary to burn fat for energy.

If you're not used to it, it's not easy...but as you GET used to it, it actually gets easier...and the results are phenomenal.

 

3. It was a good idea to NOT workout during the 5-day fast the first time I did it.

When doing a normal fat-loss program, you absolutely SHOULD workout...as much as you can while still recovering from it.

Going back to #1 above, you NEED this training stimulus in order to give your body a reason to hold onto muscle mass during long-term depriavtion.

Since this was SHORT-term and TOTAL deprivation, I opted not to train in order to establish a baseline for the next time I try it.

Now that I know what it feels like and how my body reacts to it, I WILL include some targeted training during the 5 days (or more!).

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Conclusion

Overall, I was really happy with how the 5-day fast turned out. It really drove home the lesson that you don't have to be as reliant on a constant supply of food as you've been told. Your muscle mass isn't going to shrivel up and die if you miss a meal or three.

Your body can adapt and thrive, even when you don't eat any food at all.

Will I do it again? Absolutely. There's a lot more to it that I what I've written here, but I feel the benefits of the fast were enough to make me want to do it again, with some adjustments.

 

The point I really want to make is that I honestly never would have even considered trying something like this without having read Matt's "Underground Fat Loss Manual."

I've been training more than 30 years now and I am ALWAYS learning. Reading his rationale and research gave me the push I needed to step outside my comfort zone and try something well beyond what I had tried before.

To me, THAT is the true value of a book like this.

You're going to learn a lot of very unconventional and often controversial things when it comes to losing fat and getting shredded.

Some of these things you might not agree with...some of these things you might think are absolutely insane...but some of these things might be exactly what you need to GET to 5 or 6% bodyfat...or 10% bodyfat... or whatever fat loss goal you havne't yet been able to achieve yet because of self-limiting beliefs.

Go read more about it and grab your copy of Underground Fat Loss now.

Nick Nilsson
The Mad Scientist of Muscle

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