Do you lose muscle if you do HIIT fasted?

Fighterforever473 · June 2019

Some articles were saying you do and you should just stick to low to moderate cardio. I like doing fasted HIIT in the morning and I don’t feel tired or anything. I am just concerned about the muscle loss thing. And also it adds cortisol?!

sardelsa · June 2019

The best way to preserve muscle in a deficit is to run a progressive lifting program. Also getting adequate protein and not being too aggressive with your weight loss according to your stats.

ozgurvh · June 2019

The metabolism use glucose first for the energy, than fat and proteins. During the night your body uses the carbs for the energy and you glucose storage will be replaced from fat generally. But best way the protect muscle, having enough carbs and fats and proteins also weight lifting. Insulin is a hormon that stimulates fat deposition as well *kitten* muscle building. I would recommend eat some good quality low glisemic index carbs before the workouts.

mmapags · June 2019

The short answer is no if the rest of your diet has adequate protein and calories. HIIT also does very little for building muscle. As sardelsa said, resistance training is best for that.

HIIT is also an trendy overused and misused strategy these days. It is for primarily for increasing V02 max for endurance or "burst" sports athletes. If you goal is fat loss LISS is a higher fat burning activity per sessions. Typically, a true HIIT sessions is only 20 minutes or so. And resistance training is best for muscle development.

quiksylver296 · June 2019

Between this and your protein thread, it appears you are "majoring in the minors". Do the work and fuel your body. The rest is just noise.

mmapags · June 2019

Op, i'm noticing that you have 3 threads that all deal with training fasted and protein timing. The answers you are getting in all cases are pretty much the same. None of this really matters. Personal preference and training performance are all that matters in the context of having an overall diet that suits your goals. Timing of nutrients is a very flexible thing.

mbaker566 · June 2019

i would like to mention that lifting specifically is not required to maintain muscle tissue. just strength training of any sort.

Azdak · June 2019

The fuel substrates utilized during a workout have no significant long-term effects (assuming a normal eating routine). Using a higher percentage of amino acids during exercise is not “losing muscle”.

Acute increases in cortisol are necessary for improvement.

Often when claims are made about an exercise, diet, etc, “burning muscle” the reference point is the effect on an elite athlete/lifter/competitor who needs to maintain peak gains. The effects are usually not noticeable for anyone else.

mmapags · June 2019

sardelsa wrote: »

The best way to preserve muscle in a deficit is to run a progressive lifting program. Also getting adequate protein and not being too aggressive with your weight loss according to your stats.

sijomial · June 2019

"I like doing fasted HIIT in the morning and I don’t feel tired or anything.
My guess then is you aren't actually doing HIIT but circuit training or calisthenics perhaps?
HIIT should be wiping you out (whether fasted or fed) - if you aren't tired either you aren't doing HIIT or you aren't doing it properly.

"I am just concerned about the muscle loss thing."
Far more important factors to worry about.

"And also it adds cortisol?!"
So?

Lot of over-thinking going on OP!

peggy_polenta · June 2019

when you do HIIT properly, you don't just feel like you are going to die, you are praying you will die. I don't think you are actually doing HIIT as sijmial said.

MT1134 · June 2019

quiksylver296 wrote: »

Between this and your protein thread, it appears you are "majoring in the minors". Do the work and fuel your body. The rest is just noise.

Sleep is at the top of the pyramid where you would categorize it as "noise"?

I would disagree with this. Without adequate sleep your "gainz" will be short lived.

We breakdown our bodies in the gym. We recover outside of the gym. There's no possible way to train harder than your recovery will allow. If you want to keep or even add muscle, prioritize sleep.

Do you lose muscle if you do HIIT fasted?

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