Intermittent fasting and physical exercise: Chronic effects on parameters of body composition and physical performance

Abstract

Intermittent fasting is a diet-based strategy characterized by a change in eating habits that involves regular periods of calorie intake interspersed with an abstinence of food during a period of time that is greater than a typical night of sleep. The literature shows that a combination of fasting with the execution of physical exercise is capable of causing metabolic changes and a reduction of body fat that together can lead to negative effects of physical performance. The objective of the present work is to present the results on the research into the impact of the referred interventions, fasting and exercise, on anthropometric parameters and physical performance. To achieve this, a search of the bibliographic database in Pubmed was realized. After an analysis of four selected articles, it was found that the chronic combination of intermittent fasting with physical exercise promotes improvements in body composition and does not compromise the gain or maintenance of physical performance. However, shorter interventions in fasting models, which promoted a deficit in caloric uptake without an adequate protein intake, appeared to negatively affect physical performance and mitigated gains in lean mass.