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?

Question

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?

In: 41

Answer 1

*NOTE: I don’t know this case you’re referencing, nor am I nutritionist*

Fasting essentially throws your body into more of a ‘we don’t have calories available, let’s be smarter about using our fuel to not die’

Without eating (the preferred fuel of choice), the next source of fuel that the body will use is fatty tissue. Typically this will get used before moving on to the body’s proteins