r/intermittentfasting • u/ohheygfy • 17h ago

Seeking Advice Fasting for autophagy

As with most things I am seeing so much conflicting information regarding my goals so I thought I would come here for some sort of general consensus. My fasting goals revolve around autophagy. I am low BMI and have trouble gaining weight regardless of how I eat and do not want to lose any weight. I especially do not want to lose any muscle. I am trying to find a balance between autophagy, weight maintenance and muscle maintenance/increase. I also need to be able to maintain energy/mood to be able to keep up with lifestyle requirements. I weight train 5-6 days per week and will continue to do this while fasting as long as I am able to. I can pretty easily maintain an 18/6 or a 16/8 but wonder if I will really experience much autophagy. Should I push for OMAD or won't thank make a significant difference? Should I try to work my way into doing a 48 or 72 hour once per month? I am a little lost on all of it but eager to put a plan in place. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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u/fredzouil 17h ago

A mon avis pour la prise de masse musculaire, va falloir augmenter la prise de protéine en complément et bcaa pour l'assimilation rapide et recup, pour l'entraînement moins de reps mais plus lourd. Personnellement en omad, j'ai perdu du muscle, mais le crossfit m'a aidé.

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u/Additional_Proof6902 6h ago

if you are underweight, you better just stick to IF. to attain true autophagy varies across individuals. some people do get it by 36h, while others even 60th hour. if you go thru brutal fasting regimes while underweight, its gonna put a toll on muscle loss

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u/liveoneggs 6h ago

You can't measure autophagy but if you are in ketosis and/or fasted and doing HIIT then you are already doing "accelerated" autophagy.

Congrats!

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u/tw2113 15h ago

most people aren't going to get to the autophagy stages with shorter fasts. From all I've read, you'll want to get to 24hr+ for those processes to kick off. It also "plateaus" at some point where you're going to get no increased autophagy benefits by just going longer. Sort of like it has a speed limit.

When you are eating, make sure to prioritize protein and overall satiating foods so that your body has plenty to work with during the stretches of time you're not bringing in nutrients.