Fitness truth or myth?

omakase619

#1.Someone told to do my cardio in the morning before eating anything to maximize fat burning?

Truth or myth?

Is it suppose to use your body fat for fuel instead of the food just eaten?

cwolfman13

Your body is constantly cycling through fuel sources as well as fat storage and oxidation...the particular fuel being utilized for a specific thing is irrelevant. If you work out fasted and eat at maintenance, guess what's going to happen? If you workout fasted and eat in a surplus, guess what's going to happen?

Also, you burn more fat as fuel sleeping than anything else you do in a day...but I'd hardly call it a prescription for weight loss.

omakase619

cwolfman13 wrote: »

Your body is constantly cycling through fuel sources as well as fat storage and oxidation...the particular fuel being utilized for a specific thing is irrelevant. If you work out fasted and eat at maintenance, guess what's going to happen? If you workout fasted and eat in a surplus, guess what's going to happen?

Also, you burn more fat as fuel sleeping than anything else you do in a day...but I'd hardly call it a prescription for weight loss.

Basically what you're saying is it makes no difference?

lilawolf

Yep, calorie timing makes no difference at all to what/how much gets burned/lost/gained.

You may have a preference. I prefer my cardio fasted and my weight lifting not, but that is entirely because of how the food in my belly makes me feel. I prefer lighter days during the week and heavier weekends. That is all completely personal preference (and therefore helpful for adherence)

sijomial

Myth - makes no significant difference.
The fuel substrate used in exercise (varying proportions of carbs and fat) is primarily influenced by exercise intensity not by feeding schedules. You have plenty of carbs on board already and don't need to fuel from breakfast (unless you are going to do endurance cardio over 2 hours....).

Fat loss comes from your calorie deficit over an extended period of time, how you fuel your exercise is an irrelevance for weight loss.

The more significant thing is how best you perform at your exercise, fed or fasted, which is very individual.

pamfgil

If you're doing a lot of cardio, more than 45 min vigorous, you don't want to do it fasting, otherwise there's no difference

omakase619

I got one more question. How do carbs negatively effect body building? I see so many people telling me to go low carb.

lilawolf

Also myth. Pretty much identical answer as above. You may have a preference that helps with adherence, but it does not change the ratio of fat/muscle lost/gained. I prefer lower carb and higher fat than MFP sets me up for when I'm cutting because of satiety, but it wouldn't matter if I got the same calories with a different macro split.

The only thing that matters in that sphere is protein. You need to get enough to keep/create muscle. Carbs and timing may also help with performance, but that depends on the person and type of exercise.

TimothyFish

The idea behind fasted workouts is that it is supposed to train your body to perform at a higher level even when low on available carbs. If you are in an endurance race this is a useful thing. There are some studies that indicate it may work. But if all you are concerned about is fat burning and not athletic performance then it doesn't matter where the energy comes from. If your exercise pulls from your gut then your other body functions will pull from fat. If exercise pulls from fat then other body functions will pull from the gut. Total fat loss is the same either way.

AnvilHead

omakase619 wrote: »

#1.Someone told to do my cardio in the morning before eating anything to maximize fat burning?

Truth or myth?

Is it suppose to use your body fat for fuel instead of the food just eaten?

Myth. Very detailed discussion of it here: http://weightology.net/fat-loss/fasted-cardio-an-undeserved-good-reputation.html/


As for carbs, they do not negatively effect bodybuilding. Carbs are actually muscle-sparing and are helpful for hypertrophy (muscle growth). That's somebody with a low-carb agenda giving you bad information. Low carb is very trendy right now (which you can see by reading the boards here, as about every third thread is something about keto), but many people have a lot of misconceptions about it and ascribe magical properties to it which are not fact.

NorthCascades

omakase619 wrote: »

Is it suppose to use your body fat for fuel instead of the food just eaten?

So then you eat breakfast and it goes right to body fat instead of fueling the exercise you already did? Six of one, half dozen of the other. A calorie deficit is what rids people of fat.

stealthq

AnvilHead wrote: »

omakase619 wrote: »

#1.Someone told to do my cardio in the morning before eating anything to maximize fat burning?

Truth or myth?

Is it suppose to use your body fat for fuel instead of the food just eaten?

Myth. Very detailed discussion of it here: http://weightology.net/fat-loss/fasted-cardio-an-undeserved-good-reputation.html/


As for carbs, they do not negatively effect bodybuilding. Carbs are actually muscle-sparing and are helpful for hypertrophy (muscle growth). That's somebody with a low-carb agenda giving you bad information. Low carb is very trendy right now (which you can see by reading the boards here, as about every third thread is something about keto), but many people have a lot of misconceptions about it and ascribe magical properties to it which are not fact.

+1

However, going low carb lets you temporarily drop water retention/weight. It's common for bodybuilders to go low carb for that reason as part of stage prep to look more shredded, and for sports competitors to do it to get into a lower weight class.

I think outsiders see competitors doing low carb and advocating it for others and just assume it's for performance reasons.

jessef593

omakase619 wrote: »

I got one more question. How do carbs negatively effect body building? I see so many people telling me to go low carb.

They don't. Carbs positively affect it by giving your body a constant fuel source to fuel the repair and growth of your muscles along side protein which is used in the repair process. Macro percentages arent a big deal. People over complicate everything. Make sure you're eating 1g Of protein per pound of lean mass to pound of body weight and just fill the rest with carbs and healthy fats.

omakase619

jessef593 wrote: »

omakase619 wrote: »

I got one more question. How do carbs negatively effect body building? I see so many people telling me to go low carb.

They don't. Carbs positively affect it by giving your body a constant fuel source to fuel the repair and growth of your muscles along side protein which is used in the repair process. Macro percentages arent a big deal. People over complicate everything. Make sure you're eating 1g Of protein per pound of lean mass to pound of body weight and just fill the rest with carbs and healthy fats.

Thank you for clarifying