Exercising while fasted??
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I'm going to echo quite a few people here, I swim fasted, but I can't weight lift fasted. I go lightheaded.
I guess it's A.) down to preference and B.) Ok for cardio, not so much for strength-training.Its good. I did it last year and will do it again soon. Let's say, you ate on the previous day around 8pm. By the morning your stomach will be empty. When you train, your body has no food(carbs) for energy. So it uses your fat source for energy. Rather the norm it uses carbs, so on an so forth for energy.
The bolded isn't so true. Anyone doing Keto or LCHF will tell you it takes about 2 weeks for your body to become fat-adapted. Meaning your body burns fat for fuel. In the morning you are still using carb reserves and/or protein.
I knew a smart *kitten* will pop up.
glycogen, a type of carbohydrate that our bodies store, “runs out” overnight. When you wake up and hit the gym first thing in the morning, because your body is low on carbs, the idea is that the body will turn to fats next to gain energy.
You don't have to believe what I say, you just religiously hold tight with your opinion.
I'd like to see some evidence for this glucose depletion while sleeping.2 -
Sometimes I exercise fasted because I can't be fussed to eat early (no appetite in the morning), other times I exercise fed because I do my workout a little bit later. No difference either way, at least to me, and I don't believe there is any significant difference beyond minmaxing a minuscule amount of fat to achieve that last 1% of body fat drop for competition, which isn't relevant in my case.
For what it's worth, I've read some research that showed no difference for people with enough body fat, and a modest difference for very lean individuals.0 -
I'm going to echo quite a few people here, I swim fasted, but I can't weight lift fasted. I go lightheaded.
I guess it's A.) down to preference and B.) Ok for cardio, not so much for strength-training.Its good. I did it last year and will do it again soon. Let's say, you ate on the previous day around 8pm. By the morning your stomach will be empty. When you train, your body has no food(carbs) for energy. So it uses your fat source for energy. Rather the norm it uses carbs, so on an so forth for energy.
The bolded isn't so true. Anyone doing Keto or LCHF will tell you it takes about 2 weeks for your body to become fat-adapted. Meaning your body burns fat for fuel. In the morning you are still using carb reserves and/or protein.
I knew a smart *kitten* will pop up.
glycogen, a type of carbohydrate that our bodies store, “runs out” overnight. When you wake up and hit the gym first thing in the morning, because your body is low on carbs, the idea is that the body will turn to fats next to gain energy.
You don't have to believe what I say, you just religiously hold tight with your opinion.
Wasn't really a smart *kitten* reply, I was just sharing information. If you want to take it as a personal slight, that's up to you. I was simply saying that just because you haven't eaten in 12 hours doesn't mean you have run out of carbs (or glycogen). The stores are still full, it takes longer than that length of time to become depleted.1 -
stevencloser wrote: »I'm going to echo quite a few people here, I swim fasted, but I can't weight lift fasted. I go lightheaded.
I guess it's A.) down to preference and B.) Ok for cardio, not so much for strength-training.Its good. I did it last year and will do it again soon. Let's say, you ate on the previous day around 8pm. By the morning your stomach will be empty. When you train, your body has no food(carbs) for energy. So it uses your fat source for energy. Rather the norm it uses carbs, so on an so forth for energy.
The bolded isn't so true. Anyone doing Keto or LCHF will tell you it takes about 2 weeks for your body to become fat-adapted. Meaning your body burns fat for fuel. In the morning you are still using carb reserves and/or protein.
This also isn't quite true. Your body always uses some amount of fat for energy unless you're doing maximum effort. It's called substrate utilization, the lower the intensity of whatever you're doing, the higher the percentage of fat energy used. In the big picture, it doesn't matter anyway whether you're using more fat or carbs, if you're using carbs your body will fill up its glycogen when you're eating carbs again instead of using them for fuel and you lose the fat then and there.
Exactly. My point was that you don't become a fat(only) burning machine literally over night.0 -
I always workout while fasted. It takes a little while to get used to, but I like it better. The only time my lifts are weak is when I'm fasted and have been on a deficit for a while.1
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every person it different. i run in the mornings, without eating anything prior, and just taking a small sip of water. i can run for 15kms and it doesn't affect me at all.Haven't tried a longer distance to see if it would affect me. You can try both ways (eating or not eating prior) and decide what you like best. Concerning weight loss, it makes zero difference.1
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I'm going to echo quite a few people here, I swim fasted, but I can't weight lift fasted. I go lightheaded.
I guess it's A.) down to preference and B.) Ok for cardio, not so much for strength-training.Its good. I did it last year and will do it again soon. Let's say, you ate on the previous day around 8pm. By the morning your stomach will be empty. When you train, your body has no food(carbs) for energy. So it uses your fat source for energy. Rather the norm it uses carbs, so on an so forth for energy.
The bolded isn't so true. Anyone doing Keto or LCHF will tell you it takes about 2 weeks for your body to become fat-adapted. Meaning your body burns fat for fuel. In the morning you are still using carb reserves and/or protein.
I knew a smart *kitten* will pop up.
glycogen, a type of carbohydrate that our bodies store, “runs out” overnight. When you wake up and hit the gym first thing in the morning, because your body is low on carbs, the idea is that the body will turn to fats next to gain energy.
You don't have to believe what I say, you just religiously hold tight with your opinion.
that's so not true. your glycogen doesn't run out overnight. you use it when you work out. if you don't work out, it will stay there until it is needed. it can run out while you're working out. for example, a runner doing a 20km run, might run out of glycogen, and unless he/she eats during their run, their body will start using their fat stores (which by the way is not as effective an energy source ).It is actually recommended to eat more carbs the day before your run, to make sure your glycogen stores are full.1 -
jennypapage wrote: »I'm going to echo quite a few people here, I swim fasted, but I can't weight lift fasted. I go lightheaded.
I guess it's A.) down to preference and B.) Ok for cardio, not so much for strength-training.Its good. I did it last year and will do it again soon. Let's say, you ate on the previous day around 8pm. By the morning your stomach will be empty. When you train, your body has no food(carbs) for energy. So it uses your fat source for energy. Rather the norm it uses carbs, so on an so forth for energy.
The bolded isn't so true. Anyone doing Keto or LCHF will tell you it takes about 2 weeks for your body to become fat-adapted. Meaning your body burns fat for fuel. In the morning you are still using carb reserves and/or protein.
I knew a smart *kitten* will pop up.
glycogen, a type of carbohydrate that our bodies store, “runs out” overnight. When you wake up and hit the gym first thing in the morning, because your body is low on carbs, the idea is that the body will turn to fats next to gain energy.
You don't have to believe what I say, you just religiously hold tight with your opinion.
that's so not true. your glycogen doesn't run out overnight. you use it when you work out. if you don't work out, it will stay there until it is needed. it can run out while you're working out. for example, a runner doing a 20km run, might run out of glycogen, and unless he/she eats during their run, their body will start using their fat stores (which by the way is not as effective an energy source ).It is actually recommended to eat more carbs the day before your run, to make sure your glycogen stores are full.
Some gets used overnight to feed your brain. Probably not enough to run out though if it was reasonably filled and considering overnight is when you use the least percentage of glucose for fuel because you're at rest.0 -
I have run in the morning after not eating for 12 hours, and in the afternoon four hours after lunch and at various states in between. For training runs or shorter runs (8 miles and less) it has not seemed to matter that much which state I run in. Lifting I have primarily done about 4 hours after lunch, which is typically a small meal for me (300-400 kcal).
Races I eat something two to three hours before and for race distances of over 8 miles (like 15 km or half marathon distances) I will usually do a gel pack every 35 or so minutes but that is because in a race I tend to have a problem holding back the intensity to the level I trained for.1 -
It's an individual thing. I can't work out fasted or I get sick and light-headed and/or just have no energy whatsoever. Try it and see what works best for you.0
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As so many have said, it is really a personal preference.
I always go to the gym first thing in the morning, before I eat. I have a bottle of water with me. I eat when I get to work. It makes me nauseous when I exercise after eating.0 -
The one thing fasted exercise will do is make you better at fasted exercise - whether that has any benefit is individual.
For people doing endurance cardio it may well be useful to reduce need to fuel during an event.0 -
I'm going to echo quite a few people here, I swim fasted, but I can't weight lift fasted. I go lightheaded.
I guess it's A.) down to preference and B.) Ok for cardio, not so much for strength-training.Its good. I did it last year and will do it again soon. Let's say, you ate on the previous day around 8pm. By the morning your stomach will be empty. When you train, your body has no food(carbs) for energy. So it uses your fat source for energy. Rather the norm it uses carbs, so on an so forth for energy.
The bolded isn't so true. Anyone doing Keto or LCHF will tell you it takes about 2 weeks for your body to become fat-adapted. Meaning your body burns fat for fuel. In the morning you are still using carb reserves and/or protein.
I knew a smart *kitten* will pop up.
glycogen, a type of carbohydrate that our bodies store, “runs out” overnight. When you wake up and hit the gym first thing in the morning, because your body is low on carbs, the idea is that the body will turn to fats next to gain energy.
You don't have to believe what I say, you just religiously hold tight with your opinion.
No glycogen doesn't run out overnight - you are predominately running on fat while you sleep.
Exercise intensity is by far the biggest factor in what ratio of carbs/fat you use whether you are fasted or fed.
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I'm going to echo quite a few people here, I swim fasted, but I can't weight lift fasted. I go lightheaded.
I guess it's A.) down to preference and B.) Ok for cardio, not so much for strength-training.Its good. I did it last year and will do it again soon. Let's say, you ate on the previous day around 8pm. By the morning your stomach will be empty. When you train, your body has no food(carbs) for energy. So it uses your fat source for energy. Rather the norm it uses carbs, so on an so forth for energy.
The bolded isn't so true. Anyone doing Keto or LCHF will tell you it takes about 2 weeks for your body to become fat-adapted. Meaning your body burns fat for fuel. In the morning you are still using carb reserves and/or protein.
I knew a smart *kitten* will pop up.
glycogen, a type of carbohydrate that our bodies store, “runs out” overnight. When you wake up and hit the gym first thing in the morning, because your body is low on carbs, the idea is that the body will turn to fats next to gain energy.
You don't have to believe what I say, you just religiously hold tight with your opinion.
No glycogen doesn't run out overnight - you are predominately running on fat while you sleep.
Exercise intensity is by far the biggest factor in what ratio of carbs/fat you use whether you are fasted or fed.
.... I knew I should sleep more! All these stupid early morning gym sessions.2 -
Thanks everyone for your comments! I have noticed, upon thinking about it, that I get slightly light-headed while doing Insanity in the fasted state. But I still finish the workout burning an average of 400 calories. I had a banana this morning before I did the workout and actually felt better. So I guess, for me, I should eat a little something before doing heavy cardio like that.4
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