Reading this sort of research about fasting is interesting but I always end up with this dissonance because it seems to clash a bit with literature showing that

Reading this sort of research about fasting is interesting but I always end up with this dissonance because it seems to clash a bit with literature showing that exercise is good for maintaining health in all sorts of ways (slowing cognitive aging, preventing muscle loss, and so forth). Of course, they're not completely at odds: nothing says you can't be doing an every-other-day fast and walking or doing activities like that. But if you go to a triathlon or weightlifting forum, you'll see it full of discussions about how hard it is to get nutritional needs in even without fasting, and how things like weight loss while training are basically threading a near-impossible needle. In one of these forums someone summarized my impression of these two well-established literatures, which is something like "fasting extends lifespan and exercise extends healthspan." Not sure if that's really completely accurate, but sometimes it feels like you have to pick one of two. Of course, I don't see any of these fasting studies involving intense endurance or weightlifting athletes so maybe the calculus is different (but I'm not an expert so I might just not be seeing them?) Maybe less fasting is needed if you're exercising more?