Why I don’t do FASTED CARDIO
“I’ve done it! I finished my morning fasted cardio.... and now I’m ready to eat!” Hey, I’m a victim of this too lol. Oops, did I say “victim?” I mean, I really didn’t know any better. I was just going off what my competition prep coaches would tell me to do without knowing the real science and research behind all of it. Yes, a little naive and gullible. I could be lol. I’m currently prepping for my 8th NPC Bodybuilding Bikini competition (I’m 4 days out!_ -- and I did not do ONE “fasted cardio” session. HALLELUJAH! And do I feel pretty amazing? YES I DO! Am I losing body fat and getting more lean?! Yes I am! I actually dropped about 4% body fat in the past 3 months!
No, I won’t take these pictures down. I want to make sure that you know, that yes, I’ve tried it too. But what works better for me is eating a meal at least an hour or two before and then going to do my conditioning workout!
In this past spring 2015 semester at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, I took a Sports Nutrition class. This was from one of our books: 2015c Williams, Melvin H., Nutrition for Health, Fitness and Sport, 10th Edition, McGraw Hill Publishers.
Check it out! Even here, it talks about exercising in the “fasted state.” Interesting huh? Let’s take a closer look into all of this. I found some online articles from different websites that talked about fasted cardio/exercise. Here there are:
1. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/the-myth-of-cardio-before-breakfast-debunked.html -
Here are some awesome little phrases that stood out to me from this article:
As a general rule, if you burn more carbohydrate while exercising, you'll ultimately burn more fat in the post-workout period and vice versa (1).“
True, the research does show that fasted cardio can increase fat utilization during exercise compared to performing cardio in the fed state. Except this only occurs at very low levels of training intensity.During moderate-to-high intensity levels, the body continues to break down significantly more fat when fasted compared to after you've eaten. So far, so good. Unfortunately, the rate of breakdown exceeds your body's ability to use the extra fatty acids for fuel. In other words, you have a lot of extra fatty acids floating around in the blood that can't be used by working muscles.Ultimately, these fatty acids are repackaged into triglycerides post-workout, and then shuttled back into fat cells. So you've gone to excessive lengths…only to wind up at the same place.
Horowitz and colleagues (2) found that when trained subjects exercised at 50 percent of their max heart rate, an intensity that equates to a slow walk, there was no difference in the amount of fat burned--regardless of whether the subjects had eaten.
Fasted cardio makes even less sense when you take into account the impact of excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. EPOC, commonly referred to as the "afterburn," represents the number of calories expended after training. Guess what? Eating before exercise promotes substantial increases in EPOC (3).
Ever try to engage in HIIT session on an empty stomach? Bet you hit the wall pretty quick. In order to perform at a high level, your body needs a ready source of glycogen; deplete those stores and say goodbye to elevated training intensity.
On top of everything, fasted cardio can have a catabolic effect on muscle. Studies show that training in a glycogen-depleted state substantially increases the amount of tissue proteins burned for energy during exercise (4).
Protein losses can exceed 10 percent of the total calories burned over the course of a one-hour cardio session -- more than double that of training in the fed state (5).
2. http://www.barbellsandbeakers.com/2014/02/09/fasted-cardio-myth-or-fact/
They found that the thermogenic effect of exercise (that is, your long term calorie burn) is HIGHER if you’ve eaten before exercise. They also found that training fasted decreased your overall energy output, so if you felt sluggish you didn’t put as much effort into a training session as someone who ate before.
3. http://www.weighttraining.com/blog/5-biggest-myths-about-cardio-and-muscle-building-totally-busted
Research has shown that fasted cardio has two really serious downsides: first, it can result in muscle catabolism (the body tears down muscle tissue and uses that as fuel) and it limits the after-burn effect, which is the raised metabolic rate (for up to 48 hours) that results from a good workout. There is also research that says eating first thing actually speeds our metabolism on its own and that we may burn more calories (and fat) by working out after we’ve eaten.
Ok there you have it! Make your decisions wisely, and you’ll probably thank me later for not having to get up in the wee morning hours to get your “fasted cardio” in! BOOM!
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