Pre-AM cardio meal/snack - what do you eat?

People have already pointed out that you will get contrasting opinions/reports of the effects of fasted cardio on fat loss, personally I prefer to eat before as It allows me to push my muscles further rather than just emptying my energy supplies.

However, and unfortunately I don't have a link to a journal, I believe what you heard regarding muscle breakdown for energy when performing fasted cardio is correct, since fat metabolism isn't quick enough to be the only metabolic substrate you will use a combination of glycogen stores and muscle tissue depending on your intensity (this also occurs when you have eaten but the % of energy coming from muscle should be lower)

And with regards to what I eat, something on the lines of 1 scoop of protein, with soya milk, ice and a banana (blended) works for me.


Just found this <excerpt below> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9931180


Our results support the hypothesis that endurance training enhances lipid oxidation in men after a 12-h overnight fast at low relative exercise intensities (22 and 40% VO2 peak). However, a training effect on RER was not apparent at high relative exercise intensities (59 and 75% VO2 peak). Because most athletes train and compete at exercise intensities >40% maximal VO2, they will not oxidize a greater proportion of lipids compared with untrained subjects, regardless of nutritional state.


So by the looks of it unless you are doing very light intensity fasted cardio whether you eat or not will not change fat loss. However, it doesn't investigate muscle wastage but with that in mind you may well be better off eating before.

Fyi people you can't just cite one study and say "here's the evidence, so I know it's true." There is a lot of contrasting research on this subject. I actually wrote a paper on this very topic for my metabolism class last year, and my final say was that there is no conclusive call on whether or not it's better to eat or exercise in a fasted state.

Personally I work out in the morning without eating anything, but only because I work out at 5:30 a.m. and I'm not going to make myself get up any earlier than that to have a snack. If I work out later in the day I'll probably eat something first.