I've gotten quite a few emails from people wanting to know my take on a rat study showing that intermittent fasting may lead to increased belly fat.
Thankfully, two very smart people have already taken the time to go through the study and point out some of the reasons why this type of research isn't applicable to humans.
So I'll point you to to these two articles if this topic interests you.
So Does Intermittent Fasting Now Make You Fat?
But I also want to add my own take on things from a top-level perspective: People aren't rats. And athletes aren't people. I think the first part of that statement is pretty self-explanatory. But athletes aren't people? Huh? 'splain please!
The simple fact is this: If you engage in regular resistance training and metabolic conditioning activities, you are a very different "test subject" than the average couch potato. As such, general diet advice that works fine for "regular people" will not apply for the athlete. For example: The government's take on how you should eat might be a fine recommendation for a normal person. But an athlete would eat dramatically different.
Let me give you another example: If you fed a rat a steady diet of carbohydrates and sugar products, you would expect the rat to get fat.
If you fed a regular human a steady diet of carbohydates and sugar products, you would expect the human to get fat.
But ultra-marathoner Dean Karnazes regularly eats an entire whole pizza WHILE he's running, along with copious amounts of sugar.
And Dean Karnazes is anything but fat.
People aren't rats. And athletes aren't people.