The Science and Tricks to Boosting HGH and Muscle with Fasted Training
/Thought I'd share what it's like to train without preworkout, sugars, carbs or any food for that matter and how to boost HGH and muscle growth.
I was fasted 20 hours when I began the workout in this post. It wasn't intentional, I just wasn't hungry. Thats my favorite part of keto. Hunger is like...meh...I could eat, but I could also just not eat for a day.
Fat adaptation is what makes fasted training do-able.
Beginning the workout my blood glucose was at 70. That's low for most people but pretty average for me. This is a benefit of the keto diet and important to me as I have a family history of diabetes.
Theres a sharp increase from 70 to 103 during exercise. It spikes because high intensity exercise requires glucose (sugar) as fuel. My liver and muscle then release stored glucose (glycogen) into my bloodstream for energy.
You might be thinking, "where does this glucose come from if this guy doesnt eat sugar or carb?"
It comes from the negligable carb I get from green vegetables, nuts, seeds, a little blueberry AND my body makes it from protein and fat. Yes, sugar is made form protein and fat...this process is called gluconeogenesis. This is why sugars and carbs are NOT necessary for exercise.
Moving on...
After exercise, blood glucose drops down to 50 and later that night levels off around 60. Post workout I ate a big ass salad with some salami and cheese, nuts and seeds etc. Dinner was pastured eggs, grass-fed beef, bacon, cheese and pumpkin seeds with lots of salt.
You can see in the video that this is no half-ass session. It's totally possible to escape carbohydrate dependency and train like a warrior without any food whatsoever. Step one is fat adaptation...below are some extra tricks I've leanred over the years.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Fasting boosts muscle growth
Studies show that fasted training stimulates post training anabolism. Basically, don’t eat prior to training you will grow more muscles. This study split subjects in two groups; (F) athletes fasted overnight and (B) athletes who were fed breakfast (85% carb, 11% protein, 4% fat) and had them perform exercise.
One hour after training, muscle biopsies were taken from both groups. The fasted athletes showed twice the amount of p70s6 kinase, an enzyme indicator of protein synthesis (muscle growth).
So, by initiating exercise in a fasted state, athletes can potentially DOUBLE their growth response.
Fasting boosts HGH production by 2000%!
HGH (human growth hormone) is the sexiness molecule. It's a metabolic protein that boosts muscle repair, fat loss and is responsible for cell regeneration. It's sold as an anti-aging, libido wonder drug. Yes, you want more of it.
One study showed that by fasting for 24 hours HGH production increased 1300% in women and 2000% in men. WELCOME TO SHREDZVILLE!
Amino Acids block muscle breakdown
Exercise damages muscle. It's repaired with amino acids. If we fast 24 hours (for the hgh boost) we're low on amino acids needed for repair...because we havent eating any.
The body breaks down muscle tissue to harvest amino acids for repair. This is catabolism and it's no bueno for gains.
Solution - Ingest amino acids right before exercise.
This provides the body with the materials needed for repair, preventing catabolism. No muscle breakdown!
Amino acids boost muscle growth
In this randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled crossover test (a very legitimate test), amino acids during and after exercise enhanced p70s6k (as mentioned above) 3.5 fold during recovery. In other words, these guys almost quadrupled their muscle growth potential!
I use and recommend Perfect Amino. It's the best product on the markey by a landslide, especially if you're going low carb. It has no carb, sugar or bullshit fillers. And it doesnt activate protein farts...
I became an affiliate after years of using Perfect Amino. I was raving about it on instagram and a team member reached out to me. Heres a link - https://affiliates.bodyhealth.com/748-27-3-46.htm Use coupon code, gabe10 for 10% off.
Conclusion
This is cheating. Im boosting HGH and muscle growth to horny teenager levels. I can exercise half as much with better results. Simultaneously I'm turning off muscle wasting while totally managing my blood glucose. Fuck you diabetes!
I don't know why everyone isn't training like this.
Thanks for reading
Gabe
Gabe@ancientgains.com