Should you do cardio on an empty stomach? One of the great arguments in fitness and nutrition that may never get settled is whether or not to do cardio on an empty stomach. Fasted cardio, say its proponents, will allow you to burn more fat than if you eat beforehand. Lets look at the pros and cons of this approach. Glycogen is the stored carbohydrate that your body uses as its preferred fuel source during exercise. The fasted cardio crowd says that because glycogen is somewhat depleted in the morning after the nights fast, your body will burn a greater percentage of fat during training as its next resort. Now a smart nutritionist will tell you that your body can store glycogen for 12 to 16 hours before it absolutely must be replenished by a meal. If it isnt, your body will turn to MUSCLE (ee gads!) to break down for glucose (quick energy). This isnt negotiable. With trace levels of glycogen in your system, your body CANT burn fat. It has to use muscle. When you burn up muscle, youre basically inviting your body to store more fat, not to mention look and feel weaker and flabbier. Sucks, doesnt it? Most of us have some sort of meal within two hours before we go to bed and we rarely sleep for more than 8 hours, so if you get up and start training 10 or so hours after your last meal, your glycogen will be low, but it wont be gone. So it could be argued that youll have just enough glycogen left to allow your body to burn fat, but low enough levels that youll burn more fat than normal to compensate for it. Now the question becomes what kind of cardio youre doing. The fasted cardio believers usually say to keep it to a light jog or elliptical session for around 45 minutes. When your body exercises at a low intensity, it does use more fat than carbohydrate. However, because the work is easier, youre not burning as many calories. Its pretty clear that you couldnt run sprints or do some other high-intensity exercise as the lack of glycogen in your system wouldnt allow for it. Youd feel tired and you wouldnt be able to train hard. Worse, youd force your body to harvest muscle that much sooner. With all this said, I recommend that you DO NOT train on an empty stomach. Yes, many bodybuilders do it, and theyre huge. But theyre also bodybuilders, and thanks to good genetics, a high level of muscle mass, and--sometimes--steroids, muscle burning isnt as big a problem for them.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 06:04:31 +0000
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