Fasted cardio ?!?!

sijomial wrote: »

My experience - which I forgot to add - was I did it as part of an intermittent fasting style of eating and went from any cardio on a fasting day at all making me feel like I was glycogen depleted to feeling and performing the same fasted or fed. Took a few months to adapt.

^ This

One theory floated around for cycling is that it leads to increased muscle mitochondrial enzymes, capillarization, and interconversion of fast twitch muscle fibers (type IIb to type IIa). But it a bit more complicated than just working out fasted. The core ideal is to exhaust your glycogen supply. But since there are two main types of muscles, one have to target them in succession. Day one and two are high intensity to burn off glycogen stores in type II muscles. On the third day, it is type I's turn. During all three days, carbohydrate intake is keep low. Day one and two is maximal workout to exhaustion. Day three is low intensity but long duration (4-5+ hours). It's not something for the novice or recreational crowd; we are talking about the last few % gain to podium.

mr_coach_e wrote: »

BrianSharpe wrote: »

mr_coach_e wrote: »

Does it work? Does it not? Hate it or love it? What are your opinions and results of doing it?

I'm not sure what you mean by "does it work?" In the context of weight loss a 10km run will burn the same number of calories fasted or not. There has been some suggestion that you burn slight more fat but again in the context of weight loss the fuel source is immaterial.

I work out in the morning (running, riding or rowing) on an empty stomach as a matter of personal preference (I hate running with food in my stomach) but I'm also getting enough carbs throughout the day that I have plenty of stored glycogen to fuel the workouts.

All I can suggest for you is to try for yourself. If you do feel sluggish have a banana or a glass of juice before working out.

By "does it work", I mean "does it work". I don't really know how else to say it. Like if I said "does weightlifting work"? "Does Tylenol work"? "Does a pencil work"? See where I'm coming from?

That's still vague because it doesn't clarify your goal. Is your goal with weightlifting to get stronger or build muscle or prevent osteoporosis or something else? Is your goal with fasted cardio to burn more calories than with non-fasted cardio or to get your run in while it's still dark because you don't like people seeing you run or something else? Fasted cardio works in the most basic sense, in that yes it is possible to run/bike/etc on an empty stomach but do you have a goal beyond the ability to simply perform a movement?