Eli5 How did the morbidly obese guy(Angus Barbieri) who fasted for one year not lose all of his lean body mass(muscles)? Does the body actually work to preserve muscle mass and not break it down when fasting as a morbidly obese person?
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Preservation of lean mass is dependent primarily on energy expenditure and activity. Lean mass does degrade substantially through long duration fasting as the amino acids contained in the proteins of your body (in muscle, bone, convective tissues, really everything structural) are required for your energy systems to function when deprived of carbohydrates. It’s likely the guy who starved himself for a year lost a good 30-40% of muscle mass. This not my exact area within doctoral study, but its pretty close.
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