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I was thinking of doing a 24 period where i eat no carbs and no protein, the calories id get would be solely fat. Shot of coconut oil, olive oil, bit of butter if im bored kinda thing.

The idea is to do a quickish cut, lean out a bit without too much fuss.

I thought id ask about what role BCAAs (branched chain amino acids, specifically i guess leucine) could play. My thinking was that maybe i could extend the fast for like a full 48 hours or so as long as i was getting a good supp of BCAAs, since maybe they would keep my body from breaking down my own protein.

Currently im very low carb strict paleo all the way, and fast daily for about 14 hours and ive never taken BCAAs so any help would be rad.

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 It is worth noting that your body has to get glucose from somewhere. If you're sending a hormonal signal not to break down muscle, where does it come from? If glycogen is not fully depleted that seems like an obvious route. Otherwise your body needs to ignore that signal and convert protein anyway (requiring higher cortisol levels), or it doesn't ignore the signal and blood glucose crashes... I honestly don't know the answer, and have wondered about this myself. – Will Aug 6 2010 at 20:52
Ketones if not glucose – Stephen-Aegis Aug 6 2010 at 21:31

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If you are training while fasting, take the bcaa before and after your workout. Then eat a bit later. Martin recommends men fasting for 16 hours and eating for 8. For women he recommends fasting for 14 hours with a 10 hour eating window. I don't think he recommends longer than that for fasting, though. I believe (and practice) that training fasted is the most effective way of achieving results.

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Worth bearing in mind that BCAAs are also very insulinogenic, so there's maybe potential there for stimulating hunger due to the accompanying drop in blood sugar...?

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 With the intake of BCAAs directly before a resistance workout, any insulin spike would be quickly brought down to baseline levels with the workout. – LiveForIt Aug 8 2010 at 21:06
Probably not at the doses usually recommended. A quick google search for "bcaa plasma glucose" shows a couple sources to support LiveForIt's assertion. – Chris Aug 9 2010 at 15:44
It was just a thought... "doses usually recommended" can be very high however, ala Poliquin (& Thibaudeau) 20-30g! Additionally the OP was not specifically discussing pre/post-workout use of BCAA (with which I have no problem). – Chris Ford Aug 15 2010 at 10:06
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Martin Berkham (leangains.com) talks about BCAA pre fasted workout to forestall protein breakdown

He recommends Purple Wrath

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so does arthur de vany – vmary Aug 6 2010 at 21:39
thanks stephan, appreciate it. I follow a lot of your comments on these boards. Vmary, you too. I suppose ill look into Purple Wrath. Ill report what happens. – ben61820 Aug 6 2010 at 22:07
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Eating fat during the 24 hour fast pretty much negates all the benefits of the fast.

But to the other question, yes taking BCAAs before the workout will definitely help.

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 Exactly. Other than coffee or water, I don't think anything should be consumed during the fast. Otherwise, it's not a fast. – Jamie Aug 6 2010 at 23:09
A few hundred calorie snack does not negative the benefits of a fast. – Chris Aug 8 2010 at 15:45
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 Chris - that cannot be said with any certainty. That would greatly vary from person to person. For example, if those couple hundred calories came from HFCS or high glycemic carbs in general, you can certainly bet the fast is broken. – LiveForIt Aug 8 2010 at 21:05
LiveForIt: Good point, I'll amend my statement to a couple hundred calories of paleo-kosher fat/protein. – Chris Aug 9 2010 at 15:37

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