Cardio fasted or fed

When doing fasted cardio normally first thing in the morning on an empty stomach your glycogen stores (carbohydrates) are empty which means you force the body to use stored fats as fuel. But this doesn’t mean that you will burn more fat throughout the day. Research shows that we burn less fat for the rest of the day after fasted cardio then with fed cardio but it all balances out over any 24-hour period.

PROS AND CONS

PROS

● Convenience: No need to get up at stupid o’clock to eat and digest your food

● Calories consumption: Less time to consume greater calories when living a healthy balanced life style

● Mood lifting: sets you up for the day, increases productivity for the day ahead and can also help with consistency as leaving until the end of the day can interfere with your resistance session if you are doing these (highly recommended) or just makes it easier to find an excuse not to do it (fasted or not fasted)

● Time: try and keep your fasted cardio session to under 60 minutes and keep it steady. This will reduce some of the risk of muscle breakdown which can happen when completing over 60 minutes of cardio which can also have a negative effect on your performance.

● Increased nutrition absorption post workout: after exercise our muscles are in a state of hunger and wants glucose, our insulin sensitivity is increased and nutrients from your post workout meal are better absorbed

● Increased blood flow: this is required for the mobilization of fatty acids. This can have an effect on stubborn areas that even when lean hold on to fat due to a reduced blood flow in those areas. Increased blood flow can allow better fat oxidation in those stubborn areas

CONS

● Less risk of an upset stomach: fed cardio can have the adverse effect of causing a upset stomach in some of us (not all)

● Decreased performance during the exercise: for the average gym goer that just wants to walk on the treadmill or use the cross trainer this isn’t much of a problem, but if you are trying to increase performance or hit your next goals or targets and are chasing your next achievement, fasted cardio might be for you

● No better fat loss over 24 hours: Less calories burned after exercise has been completed for the rest of the day

● High cortisol level: Increased risk of high cortisol levels when running low on energy cortisol releases energy stores. This can have a negative effect on health and wellbeing. If it gets too high can elevate stress and anxiety in some of individuals

Take away from

Lower intake of calories is key to fat loss (make sure these have a high nutritional value and not just lower in calories (macros are key to performance) Cardio is good for heart health and wellbeing, aerobic fitness, low blood pressure and better immune system. It’s a long list so if you like fasted cardio in the morning or fed cardio in the evenings, it doesn’t really matter. It’s what suits your life style. And Remember 400cal in the AM is the same as 400cal in the PM Fasted cardio isn’t superior over fed cardio Crack on and enjoy your workouts