Metabolic and structural adaptations to exercise in chronic intermittent fasted rats

The effect of repetitive alternance of 3 days fasting and 3 days refeeding on morphological and biochemical ability to perform exercise was investigated in adult male rats. At the end of 10 wk of chronic intermittent fasting, the rats had consumed 20% less food but were able to maintain their initial body weight. Intermittent fasted rats (IF) had significantly lower carcass fat but had maintained the percent contribution of proteins to total carcass weight. The relative mass of liver, heart, kidney, and muscles was not affected by such dietary manipulation. Both glycolytic and oxidative enzyme capacities were reduced in IF rat muscles. In response to exercise (2 h of swimming), control rats displayed hypoglycemia, whereas IF rats were able to maintain plasma glucose level in spite of a reduced energy supply from liver (low glycogen stores) and adipose tissue (low plasma free fatty acid levels). This had been obtained by accumulating glycogen and triglycerides in muscles and by deriving energy for muscular contraction from the in situ breakdown of these energetic substrates. In addition, although IF rats displayed a markedly reduced liver protein content, the liver exercise-induced protein breakdown was abolished in these animals.