Can Strategic Fasting Enhance Muscle Gain (Reduce Fat During a Bulk)? | Bonus

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Ever wondered if you could hack your bulking phase to gain more muscle and less fat?

This episode answers a question from our free Facebook community that many data-driven "optimizers" are wondering about.

John asked if strategic extreme deficit days during an otherwise surplus-focused bulking phase could help "clean up" fat gain.

It seems logical on paper... create a weekly calorie surplus while periodically burning fat through protein-sparing modified fasts. But does your body respond to this the way you might expect?

Learn how muscle building actually works and how to optimize your approach to building muscle with minimal fat gain.

And if you want YOUR question answered with this level of detail, join our free Wits and Weights Facebook group and use the #AskPhilip monthly thread.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Surprise, surprise, another bonus episode for
Saturday.
I'm dropping here a Q&A.
This was a question posted inour Facebook group, free Wits
and Weights Facebook group.
We do a monthly Ask Philip,where you can ask a question and
get a very detailed,personalized response.
So it's a great way to do that.
If that is what you're lookingfor and if you want to submit
your own question like this andget a personal response in the

(00:22):
live, click the link in the shownotes to join our Wits and
Weights Facebook group.
It is totally free.
Again, that's the Wits andWeights Facebook group Link is
in the show notes.
Enjoy.
Let's dive into today's question, which is from John, and I love
this.
He says I have what I think isa logical plan.
However, I'm sure something ismissing.

(00:44):
Oh, I got windows popping uphere on my end.
Something is missing, or thebody doesn't work that way.
Here's the scenario If you atein a surplus and gain 10 pounds
for this, let's say, five poundsmuscle, five pounds fat very
reasonable.
50, 50, very common.
A lot of people will gain evenmore muscle than that if they're
doing it right, or if we'recoaching them going to gain more

(01:05):
muscle than that.
If, though, during this periodof gaining body weight.
Once or twice a week onnon-consecutive days, you ate an
extreme deficit.
Did protein sparing modify fast?
Okay, so you're saying you'rein a surplus overall, but within
the week once or twice not onconsecutive days, not a weekend
or something.
Two different days you reallycut the calories down and I can

(01:29):
think of the extreme of thisbeing a fast.
You mentioned protein sparingmodified fast, which is you're
going to keep your protein inthere but everything else just
drops off, so it's like pureprotein.
Would this allow you to burnsome of the fat off you
accumulated?
Thus, at the end of the surplus, instead of gaining 10 pounds,
it was seven pounds, with theend result being five pounds

(01:49):
muscle and two pounds fat,having burned off the other
three pounds of fat with thelower calorie days.
In such a scenario, I know you'dhave to make up for the loss of
calories on the low days to bein a surplus for the week.
I have a feeling you'll tell meto try it and see which I plan
to not serve.
My thinking is logical orrealistic.
Thanks, as always.
Actually, you're in luck, John,because I'm going to tell you
that this probably is not goingto work.
So you don't even have to tryit and and I know you're looking
for clarity here so I would sayyou're, there is logic to your
thinking, but it's not how thebody works in practice.

(02:12):
Because if you, let let's runthrough this and then I've got
some main points I want to hitfor you here.
If you alternate between surplusdays which would have to be
higher surplus days, like yousaid and protein-sparing
modified fast days, could itslightly reduce the net gain,
net fat gain, during a bulk?
I don't think so and I'm goingto tell you why.

(02:33):
The first one is that it's theoverall surplus itself and the
daily surplus that's drivinggrowth, not just the weekly
average.
I know I talk about weeklyaverages, like for fat loss and
muscle building, but for both ofthose, even for fat loss, if
you have a lot of variants, thatcould actually throw a wrench
in your plans for a number ofreasons we're not going to get
into, but one of them is beingthe inconsistency creates a

(02:54):
sense of scarcity for your bodythat it then adapts to.
But muscle growth is driven bya chronic surplus and adequate
training with that right Like.
You've got to be in thatanabolic environment always If
you dip into a large deficitonce or twice a week, you might
blunt that anabolic signal,confuse things.
You might actually hurtyourself, despite the weekly

(03:15):
average being what you want.
Just you know, depending on howdeep that cut is, which is
going to be deep the way you'retalking about, right, If you're
normally eating, you know 4,000calories on the other day and
now you're dropping to 800,which is roughly what would
happen, that's probably notgreat for your body, sending the
signal to your body that it'sin an anabolic environment.
I'm not saying it would likehurt it tremendously, but I

(03:38):
don't think it's gonna add tothe fat loss, right, Right.
The second thing is, justbecause you're in a deficit for
a day, you know your body's notlike a bank ledger or that
sounds so old school, like uh,you know what I mean A bank
register, right, when you've gotlike money coming in, money
come out.
So you're thinking like I'vegot a surplus, I've got a
deficit.
It doesn't lead to like thisnet swap of muscle and fat,

(04:00):
right, You're always muscleprotein synthesis and fat
oxidation are always occurring,and the deeper the deficit, the
more likely you'll tap into fatstores.
But guess what else?
You're going to increase yourmuscle protein breakdown and
your stress.
And I know you're saying, well,look, I'm still holding on to

(04:21):
my protein with the proteinmodified fast, but you're
whacking out all those carbs.
You're adding allostatic loador stress to the body, so you're
offsetting whatever potentialbenefit might be there.
And then the last thing is it'slike you're trying to have your
cake and eat it too, and I getit.
I'm always looking for acreative little hack.
I do think there are sometimeshacks like that, but they're
more of hacks of practicalityand sustainability than anything

(04:42):
like the weekend diet that Italked about.
Yeah, there's data that doesshow you might retain more lean
mass in a fat loss phase whereyou have refeeds, but that could
just as well be a function ofyour psychology and your energy
and you're able to hit it hardin the gym and things like that.
So when you're minimizing fatgain during, the bulk is
definitely smart.

(05:02):
That's why we want to go toreasonable rate of gain based on
your training age.
Right, the more advanced youare as a trainee, the more
conservative that rate of gainis going to be, and you can't
like clean it up as you go withthese drastic low calorie days.
It might actually slow thewhole process down.
I would actually.
I'm going to give you a middleground, a compromise I would, I
like either making sure the bulkitself is just a nice lean bulk

(05:26):
it's going to take longer, butyou're going to minimize fat
gain Again.
However, it depends on yourtraining age.
I've talked about this manytimes, but if you're a complete
beginner you could go 2% a month, like half a percent a week
easily for a beginner.
As you get more advanced itdrops to 0.4%, 0.3%.
Maybe the vast majority ofpeople I work with it's going to

(05:46):
be at least 0.3.
Some women, or if you're leaneror if you're a little bit
scared of gaining too much fator too much weight, we'll dial
it back to like 0.25, 0.2,understanding it's going to take
longer and that sometimes canbe more frustrating because you
don't quite see the visiblechanges in muscle and you're
gaining a little bit of fat andso your waist starts to increase
.
So for some people, being moreaggressive is actually feels

(06:09):
better, right Cause then you'rereally seeing the muscle gain
and the strength gains.
The other compromise, option B,here is what I've talked about
before rapid fat loss phases,mini cuts and micro cuts, just
interrupting the bulk.
You know your nine month or 12month bulk, that's usually where
it's more appropriate, ratherthan like the bare minimum six

(06:29):
months.
But if it's like a nine monthor 12 month and you want to
interrupt it with six weeks of amini cut or two or three weeks
of a rapid fat loss phase andthen shave off three pounds,
that way, to me that's way moreefficient and it doesn't
interfere with that whole musclebuilding phase.
The other thing, man, is thatsounds miserable, Like what
you're proposing, just soundsmiserable.
It's like when I'm in a bulk.
I'm in a bulk, I want to beeating, I want to be nourished,

(06:51):
I want to be fed, I want to bethriving on all cylinders.
You know, sometimes I have toshift training days around or I
don't get enough sleep.
I want to know that food isalways there.
It's always there.
I'm hitting it hard.
I'm hitting it hard, and somany people don't do that enough
.
So there's nothing wrong withexperimenting If you want to try
it and report back to us.
I would love to learn from youselfishly if you decide to do it

(07:12):
.
And you know who's really goodinto all this stuff is loud
McDonald.
He loves all these like, almostlike biohacking, these
different strategies.
So maybe check out his stuff.
He might've actually talkedabout it.
But don't sabotage this processof growth just to try to stay a
little bit lean during a bulk.
That's not the point, right.
Go at the right rate of law ofgain or throw a mini cut in
there when you need it, but like, really give yourself that

(07:33):
chance to grow.
And there you have it.
That is it for today's bonusepisode.
Just wanted to share a taste ofwhat we do in our free Facebook
group Link is in the show notesand remind you that our early
prelaunch of the new WWPU andremind you that our early
pre-launch of the new WWPU,which used to be 87 a month and
now we have a $27 a month tier,is open.
If you use the link in the shownotes at the very top of the

(07:54):
show notes to join, you'll alsoget a free nutrition plan from
me.
It's a custom nutrition planfor your goals, whether it's
building muscle, fat loss ormaintenance.
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Again, that's 27 a month.
You can join now early, get allthe features in there, plus a
free nutrition plan that willlater on be a $47 add-on.
You can get that for free.
Thank you for tuning in, asalways.

(08:16):
Looking forward to talking toyou on Monday with our next full
episode.
Cheers.