Sport Fasted Cardio Vs Traditional Wisdom

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Nigh on every book I've read on nutrition has stated to eat breakfast within at least an hour of waking up.

Fasted cardio flies right in the face of that. I get up, have a shake, then swim for an hour, and leave it right until the last minute to have something like a white omelette on bagel.

So, by doing cardio on an empty stomach in the morning am I forcing my bodies metabolism to kick in through exercise?

Am I right in thinking the wisdom behind fasted cardio is that glycogen stores are as low as they'll get during the day forcing the body to dip into fat stores for its energy?
 
You would be right on that, your body is supposedly 300% more efficient at burning fat during fasted cardio than doin cardio at any other time of the day apparantly! Altho sadly I get too hungry :)
 
I can hack the hunger, early morning, aches/pains etc. as long as I know there's a beneficial point to it :)
 
Here's one prominent trainer's take on fasted cardio:

2) FASTED CARDIO

Are you ****ing kidding me? Seriously, are you ****ing kidding me? Why are we even talking about this?

Let's take two twins, both 200lbs, both doing the same training program, taking the same supplements, and following the same nutrition plan in the hopes of getting lean.

One difference, though: one of them eats 2 eggs and does 30 minutes of cardio three days per week. The other does 30 minutes of cardio, three days per week and THEN eats 2 eggs.

So what's the magical difference in terms of fat loss after six months? Drum roll please...

I'll tell you — no ****ing difference.

However, whenever you bring up this question we get a ton of responses saying, "This is exactly the information I needed!". Oh **** off. The reason you are still fat is because you couldn't decide to do cardio on an empty stomach or not?

30 minutes of steady state cardio will burn about 300 calories. Three times per week – 900 calories. Add that up for 26 weeks and we get a whopping: 23,400 calories.

Or 6.6 lbs of fat.

In six months.

If doing it fasted, burned 30% more (which it doesn't), you're looking at another 2lbs of fat in that same six month period.

Or an additional 0.07 pounds per week.

And for those of you who say – I do fasted cardio but I have a small scoop of protein first, then you're NOT DOING IT FASTED THEN, ARE YOU?

Fat people finish marathons all the time. Aerobic training doesn't do a hell of a lot for real world fat loss. Even if you're hungry.
Click to expand...

Rest of the article found here: http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=05-209-training

I've tried fasted cardio and didn't like it much. I find it's alright if you're doing slow, steady-state cardio, but if you prefer interval training (as I do) then it's less than ideal as you simply don't have the energy to keep the intensity up.
 
Fasted cardio is VERY effective for fat loss, yes. Others may disagree but what it boils down to is what works for YOU. My body responds very well to fasted cardio.
 
I agree with LV. I recently began fasted cardio and I have seen noticeable improvements. Maybe thats due to the extra 30mins cardio each day but, it certainly seems to work for me.

I wouldn't say that I like doing it but, based on the results I've seen to date, I'll happily keep forcing myself out of bed in the mornings!

d_lurie, from what I have read, there is no need for intervals with fasted cardio as the fasted element is intended to achieve similar results.
 
Chris, my preference for intervals is more about saving time than anything else. I'd rather do 20 minutes of HIIT than 40 of steady state, just so I'm out of the gym faster. Unfortunately, in my case at least, going fasted doesn't really permit that.
 
The issue of your diet the previous day also comes into play. When this topic came up not too long ago, it was noted that for those individuals that are not necessarily cutting, it may be different because of the diet.

For example, some people eat all day and all night, I usually eat immediately before bed ( of course it depends on what you're eating though). The topic with fasted morning cardio is essentially for fat loss, right? because your body will have to dip into your fat deposits for energy rather than the traditional route - but - if you still have a good amount of food in your system, including carbs, fats, and protein, then the hopeful fat loss is not as defined.
 
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