Is Fasted Morning Cardio Really More Effective Than Normal Cardio

A Brief History

Fasted cardio in the morning is an age old ritual for people who want to lose weight fast, it’s true you may lose weight fast but it might not be all fat your losing. The idea of  performing fasted cardio was adopted by bodybuilders several years ago, people would ask them how the stepped on stage so lean and cut and they would respond “my diet is impeccable, my genetics allow me to get so lean and retain muscle, I do fasted cardio every morning. Most people will ignore the first two responses and jump straight into the fasted cardio.

You wake up early the following day, put your sweats on, have a glass of water and hit the pavement. You’re quick to realize that you’re getting fatigued much faster than normal, your knees fell stiff and are starting to throb, your lungs start to burn and you start to fell nauseas, you may even throw up, leaving a pretty picture for all the morning power walkers to see.

Common Belief Regarding Fasted Morning Cardio

The common belief is when you wake up your glycogen stores are very low so your muscles have to tap into it’s fat stores for energy. Insulin levels are also very low so this facilitates fat oxidation. Keep in mind that your body will also resort to burning amino acids (muscle) for fuel. So if maintaining as much muscle as possible is a goal fasted cardio is a no.

Science Behind Fasted Morning Cardio

The International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism carried out a study on 16 healthy men. Of which 8 did cardio before eating and after eating. 

Workout 1: 8 men did 36 mins of moderate cardio at 65% heart rate BEFORE eating
Workout 2: 8 men did 36 mins of moderate cardio at 65% heart rate AFTER eating

Results

The group that ate BEFORE the moderate cardio session continued to burn significantly MORE calories up to 24 hours after the exercise bout.

The authors concluded that “when moderate endurance exercise is done to lose body fat, fasting before exercise does not enhance lipid utilization (fat use); rather, physical activity after a light meal is advisable.”

You should wait at least 2 hours after eating, before you workout. After you eat (especially carbohydrates) your body will release insulin (fat storing hormone), when you perform high intensity activity your body releases growth hormone (fat burning hormone). When you have high amounts of insulin in your blood, it inhibits growth hormone release, which is counter productive for fat loss.

As we know fat loss is a matter of calories in vs calories out, but if you do have your heart set on doing morning fasted cardio, having a whey protein shake or BCAA supplement may prevent some muscle loss.

So What Happened To What Those Shredded Bodybuilders, They Said To Do Fasted Cardio And I’ll Be As Lean As Them

Clenbuterol, Epehedrine, Trenbolone, Anavar, Testosterone, GH and Winstrol happened. For those of you who don’t know, the listed compounds are very potent muscle building, fat burning steroids. While on these drugs, you can gain muscle and lose fat at an incredible rate. They can get away with the fasted cardio as their body is not going to lose any muscle while on a cocktail of drugs. Although they do use drugs, their work ethic and diet are perfect.

Final Words

Perform cardio about 2 hours after eating at a moderate intensity, and if you do decide to go with fasted cardio, have a whey protein shake or a BCAA supplement before hand.

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