How to lose fat faster (and keep your muscles) with cardio training while fasting Part 1

If you want to know how you can best use cardio training while fasting to lose fat as quickly as possible, you should read this article

"Cardio training on an empty stomach burns more fat". This is one of the headlines you'll read every spring/summer in numerous mainstream fitness magazines. At the same time, you'll read articles with titles like "Fat loss myth disproved: Cardio Training on an Empty Stomach." claiming the exact opposite.

So who is right? As is so often the case, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Doing cardio on an empty stomach won't necessarily help you lose fat faster, BUT doing cardio while fasting can help you lose fat - and especially stubborn fat - faster. And the latter is especially true when combined with other fat loss strategies, which I will discuss later.

Cardio training while fasting is a double-edged sword. Do your cardio training incorrectly when fasting and you won't lose fat any faster. Instead, you will lose muscle, which is a perfect way to achieve a skinny fat look.

I'll cover all of this in this article and here's what you'll learn about the simple science of fasted cardio:

• What fasting cardio training is (and isn't)
• How fasted cardio can help you lose fat faster
• Why fasted cardio training can cause muscle loss
• How you can maximize the benefits of fasted cardio (fat burning) and minimize its disadvantages (catabolism)
• Which types of cardio training are best when fasting

By the end of this article, you'll know how to use fasted cardio to accelerate your fat loss without sacrificing muscle.

My experience with fasted cardio training

I have managed to lose weight both with and without the fasting cardio training strategies described in this article - and I have to say that it is noticeably faster with the help of these strategies.

With the help of these strategies, I recently managed to reduce my body fat percentage from 11 to 7% within 10 weeks without losing any muscle mass. So in addition to the scientific research we will be looking at in this article, I also have practical experience and because of this positive experience, fasted cardio has become an important part of my fat loss program.

What is fasting cardio training?

Most people equate "cardio training on an empty stomach" with "cardio training in a fasted state" - and this is a mistake, because they are not necessarily one and the same.

Your stomach may be empty when you do cardio training in a fasted state, but not all cardio training on an empty stomach falls under the heading of cardio training in a fasted state.

Let's take a closer look at this statement. First of all, we need the correct definition of fasting cardio training, which is as follows:

Cardio training in a fasted state is cardio training performed in a fasted state.

That sounds simple. And what exactly is a fasted state? Well, to understand this, we need to look at what your body does when you eat food. When you eat a meal, your body breaks that food down into different molecules such as amino acids and glucose as part of the digestive process.

Your small intestine absorbs these nutrients into your bloodstream, where they meet the hormone insulin. The job of insulin is to transport these nutrients into the cells for use. How long this takes and how long your insulin levels remain elevated depends on the composition of the meal (1).

This results in two possible states:

• When your body processes the food you have eaten, you are in a postprandial state (nourished state after a food intake). In this state, your insulin levels are higher than normal.
• As soon as your body has completed its task and digested the meal, it enters a fasting state. In such a fasting state, your insulin levels are low and at the baseline level.

As you can see, your body switches back and forth between these states several times a day - and as you have probably already correctly deduced, this goes beyond how "empty" your stomach is.

Many people will have the feeling of an 'empty stomach' as soon as an hour after their last meal, whereas for others this is only the case after 2 or 3 hours. For this reason, I want you to think in terms of "postprandial/nourished or fasting state" instead of "full or empty".

Let's apply this to cardio training:

• Cardio done when your body is processing food and insulin levels are high is cardio done in a postprandial/nourished state.
• Cardio training performed when your body is no longer processing food and insulin levels are low is cardio training in a fasted state.

Now that we've covered some of the basics, let's take a look at what all this has to do with fat loss.

Fasting cardio and fat loss: the good and the bad

Many people turn to fasted cardio (or what they think of as fasted cardio) because it sounds easy. You don't have to do any other workouts or cut calories further or use any supplements. You simply change the timing of your workouts and hope to lose fat faster.

In reality, however, it's not quite that simple...

Neither cardio training in a fasted state nor any other type of training will accelerate your fat loss if you don't know what you're doing with your diet. The laws of thermodynamics are immutable. At the end of the day, fat loss requires an energy or calorie deficit regardless of your workouts - and this means you need to know how much energy you're burning and how many calories you're eating.

There is nothing wrong with cardio training in a postprandial/nourished state

All exercise burns calories and this helps you burn fat regardless of whether your insulin levels are high or low. If cardio exercise in a fasted state doesn't suit your schedule or lifestyle, or you simply don't like it, then don't force yourself to do it. You can still achieve your goals.

However, fasted cardio has some unique fat loss benefits. Studies show that training in a fasted state increases both the rate of lipolysis and the rate of fat oxidation (2, 3). Lipolysis is the breakdown of fat to release fatty acids, which are then used to provide energy for the body. Fat oxidation is the burning of these fatty acids by the body's cells.

These studies show that if you exercise while your insulin levels are at baseline, your body is able to both mobilize more fat and burn more fat than when insulin levels are elevated.

Studies also show that blood flow in the abdominal area is increased when fasting (4). This is important because one of the problems with stubborn fat in this region is reduced blood flow. Less blood flow means fewer fat-burning chemicals and therefore less fat breakdown in this region.

So much for the benefits, but what about the disadvantages of fasted state cardio?

Well, training in a fasted state also has a dark side: it increases the rate of muscle breakdown (5). These effects may not be directly catastrophic, but considering the fact that natural muscle building is slow and laborious, they are enough to matter.

Just in case you're not sure why this isn't desirable, here's a simple explanation: if you damage a lot of muscle cells during your training sessions, your body won't keep up with the repair. This means less muscle growth or even muscle loss over time.

Another disadvantage of training in a fasted state is lackluster training sessions. Many people have less energy and focus when exercising in a fasted state. This means lower levels of physical and mental intensity than they are used to.

As you can see, training in a fasted state can be a double-edged sword. It's good for losing fat faster, but not so good for maintaining existing muscle mass and enjoying your workouts.

What about training with weights in a fasted state?

Training with weights in a fasted state is just as effective as cardio training in a fasted state as it dramatically increases your body's production of fat-burning chemicals (6). When I define, I do all my workouts with weights and all my cardio workouts in a fasted state.

However, there can be a catch: If you go from training in a postprandial/nourished state to training in a fasted state, then you'll likely be weaker during the first few weeks. I usually manage a few less reps on my heavier basic exercises and sometimes on one or two of my smaller exercises, but this is completely normal and nothing to worry about.

This is not because you are losing muscle, but because eating a good amount of carbohydrates before training can boost your performance (7). Cut out these carbohydrates and you lose that boost. Add them back in and the boost is back.

What's more, scientific research has shown that your body can adapt to training in a fasted state by learning to use its glycogen stores more efficiently. But despite this fact, my fasting workouts are never as good as usual.

Ways to burn more fat with fasted cardio training

Fasting cardio training is often criticized by fitness experts for having little practical value. These people don't dispute the facts already mentioned, but they say that it won't make much difference in practice.

And here they have a valid argument. Scientific research shows that cardio training in a fasted state doesn't burn much more fat on its own (9). However, if you combine fasted cardio training with high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and a few supplements, the effects will be much more pronounced. And these effects will be particularly noticeable if you are at the end of a definition phase and still need to lose some stubborn fat.

Let's take a look at why this is the case.

Perform HIIT cardio training in a fasted state

High-intensity interval training is an excellent training method that alternates between periods of near-maximal intensity and low-intensity recovery periods.

The idea is simple:

• During your high-intensity phases, you push yourself as hard as you can.
• During your low-intensity phases, you try to catch your breath in preparation for the next sprint.

And why would you do this to yourself? There are two reasons:

You will lose fat faster with HIIT cardio

A large body of scientific research shows that high-intensity interval training is a more effective way to lose fat than traditional cardio training at a low, consistent intensity. For example, a study conducted by scientists at the University of Western Ontario found that subjects who performed 4 to 6 30-second sprints (with 4 minutes of rest) burned more fat than walking on an incline treadmill for 60 minutes (10).

If you ask me, that's pretty impressive. 17 to 27 minutes of high-intensity interval training resulted in greater fat loss than 60 minutes of traditional bodybuilder cardio. And this was not an isolated study result - similar results were also observed in a number of other studies.

The scientific evidence is clear: if your goal is to burn as much fat as possible in the shortest possible time, HIIT is the way to go.

Although the exact underlying mechanisms are not yet fully understood, scientists have isolated some factors. Scientific research (11) shows that HIIT:

• Increases metabolic rate for up to 24 hours.
• Improves the insulin sensitivity of the muscles. This helps the body to better absorb and use the food you eat (instead of storing it as fat).
• Increases the muscles' ability to burn fat for energy.
• Increases the body's growth hormone levels, which aids fat loss.
• Increases catecholamine levels. Catecholamines are the body's own messenger substances that mobilize fat for the purpose of burning it.
• Reduces appetite after exercise, which helps prevent overeating.

The bottom line is that if you want to get the most value for your efforts in terms of fat loss, you should do HIIT cardio training. And if you do this type of training in a fasted state, it is even more effective as many of the physiological mechanisms associated with fat loss work better in a low insulin environment.

In the second part of this article, I will first discuss how HIIT training can not only help you lose more fat, but also protect your muscles more effectively from diet-induced muscle loss. I will then go into more detail about planning your diet and supplements before showing you how to put what you have learned into practice using a specific example plan.

Source: HTTPS://LEGIONATHLETICS.COM/FASTED-CARDIO/

By Michael Matthews