Fueled by body fat?

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justinkimcentral
justinkimcentral Posts: 127 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
As many of you know i follow IF where i drink a protein shake at 12pm and workout from there to 3:30pm. So usually i dont get hungry during the workouts and if the shake is only 100 calories and workouts burn usually 500-800, what is fueling my workouts? Is it the stored glycogen from the day before(I have large dinners), or is it body fat or is it muscle itself?

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  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,088 Member
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    Glycogen and fat. All according to intensity of exercise me thinks
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
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    The body is pretty good at storing energy, either in glycogen or fat. We'd drop dead pretty quickly if our bodies depleted all of our energy stores overnight.
  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,209 Member
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    justinkimcentral wrote: »
    what is fueling my workouts? Is it the stored glycogen from the day before(I have large dinners), or is it body fat or is it muscle itself?

    Probably a mix of all 3. The protein shake is only 100 calories, plus it's too close to the workout time, so it's probably not preventing the high level of gluconeogenesis (muscle conversion to glucose) that happens during long fasted workouts.

    But the type of fuel used during workouts doesn't necessarily affect long term results. :+1:
  • stwida
    stwida Posts: 10 Member
    edited July 2018
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    So if i workout likr 10 minutes after eating only 100 calories but workout for like 3 hours lifting and cardio, do i burn fat?

    It's not that simple. If you're working out in a fasted state, and you only ate 100 calories beforehand, you are probably going to pull from fat stores. I say probably because this is completely dependent on your glycogen stores, which are completely dependent on what you've eaten even prior to that 100cal protein shake.

    Your body is a machine, and it's efficient. Glycogen is essentially the quickest and easiest way for your body to get energy. Your body will attempt to expend all glycogen stores before reaching for the 'hardest' source of energy to obtain, which is from fat in your body.

    If I were you, assuming your ultimate goal is simply weight loss, I'd focus on simply eating at a certain caloric deficit and setting that deficit as a goal depending on how quickly you'd like to lose weight. Don't focus so much on the 'when' and focus more on the 'what'.

    I've been dieting and working out for 2 months now. The first month, I was convinced intermittent fasting was some mind blowing success secret. I lost 9 pounds in my first month. After the first month, and doing some research, I came to the conclusion that IF was useless to me, and that all that really mattered was my daily caloric intake. I maintained my caloric deficit, but started eating the protein bar I usually ate at lunch as a breakfast and quit IF. My second month has now passed, and I've lost another 9lbs.

    Take that as you will...
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    justinkimcentral wrote: »

    So im using glycogen? Or fat

    Both. That's the piece of the jigsaw you are missing I think.

    You use a blend of both fuels for 99.9% of the time you are exercising in a ratio that varies primarily with your exercise intensity.
    Lower the intensity the higher proportion of fat used, the higher the intensity the higher proportion of glycogen you use. It's not a switch from one to the other, it's a continuum. It's not sequential use, it's concurrent.

    And it's still irrelevant for losing body fat.
    Remember you don't have to do any exercise at all to burn body fat, you just need a sustained calorie deficit.

    Body fat and glycogen stores are both dynamic, varying with your food intake and calorie expenditure (not just exercise).
    You don't have to try to manipulate using your fuels unless you are interested in endurance cardio and that's for performance and not for weight loss.
  • Avidkeo
    Avidkeo Posts: 3,190 Member
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    What they said. Also did I read right, you workout for 3.5hrs? That's excessive
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    justinkimcentral wrote: »
    Avidkeo wrote: »
    What they said. Also did I read right, you workout for 3.5hrs? That's excessive

    Volume and theres no set time. Check out jeff nippards recent video and his scientific proof with a registered exercise specialist

    scientific proof of what?
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
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    justinkimcentral wrote: »
    Avidkeo wrote: »
    What they said. Also did I read right, you workout for 3.5hrs? That's excessive

    Volume and theres no set time. Check out jeff nippards recent video and his scientific proof with a registered exercise specialist

    What are your goals? Are you obtaining the results you desire with this way of training?
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
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    If you tend to rely on glucose as your main fuel/food source then you are probably using more glycogen while fasting than if you tend to use fat as your main food/fuel source. Everyone uses a mix of both but the foods you eat regularly will have an effect on what fuels are getting used more while fasting.

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