Fasted Cardio For Fat Loss
If fasted cardio does not work, then how come it yields results to hundreds of bodybuilders and celebrities?
We have heard it, “Fasted Cardio is the key to losing belly fat”. Fasted Cardio reached its peak in popularity in the early 2000s where Muscle and Fitness magazine highlighted Terry Crews following his huge success in the movie White Chicks. After the magazine release, fasted cardio became a main talking point in the fitness community and research regarding the topic exploded. In this blog we will be discussing the positives and negatives regarding fasted cardio, and we will give you our expert advice on how to utilize cardio to reach your fitness goals.
The Premise
In popular fitness culture, fasted cardio is a strategy to maximize fat loss with the assumption that by doing so fat molecules will be targeted. This can’t be further from the truth, in fact, our bodies cannot choose what energy system to use, meaning, all of the main energy pathways are always generating energy at the same time but at different ratios. In the first minutes of aerobic exercise, lasting less than five minutes, the body mainly uses glycogen and blood sugar as energy. Aerobic exercise lasting more than five minutes mainly uses the oxidative pathway (OP) as energy. In the OP triglycerides (fat) gets broken down into free fatty acids (FFA) and burned in the mitochondria producing energy. Notice that during this time all energy systems are being used at the same time.
The Problem
It is important to understand the principle of specificity, which states that the body adapts to the imposed demand. In other words, if you want to get stronger, lift heavier and the body will adapt. The same goes for aerobic training, if you want to run faster than try to run fast. When it relates to fat loss however, it is a little more complicated but essentially, you must burn more calories than consumed. Creating this negative caloric balance will make you lose both fat mass and lean mass. The problem becomes obvious when you want to lose fat and keep your lean mass. In essence, fasted cardio is the fastest way to lose your muscle mass because of the depletion of muscle glycogen upon the onset of aerobic metabolism. Hence the saying “fat burns on a carbohydrate flame”.
At a glance, it might be hard to deny the results obtained with fasted cardio, however, that might only be half the story. Fitness and health professionals know that fast extreme transformations are not only achieved by diet and exercise. Although diet and exercise are the healthy way to get rid of the excess fat in our bodies, it is not the fastest. The way extreme transformations are achieved is by following a precise exercise program, strict nutrition guidance, proper regeneration and body composition drugs. There are many drugs that accelerate the fat oxidation process to improve body re-composition as a secondary effect. These new categories of drugs have been around since the late 80s and early 90s but until 2009 Byetta was the only approved GLP-1 agonist medication in the market. Currently there is a lot of research being funded by private organizations and the federal government to slow down the growing obesity epidemic. These drugs fall under the categories of anti-diabetes drugs, they work by increasing the insulin productivity in the pancreas, lowering blood sugar. When you have low blood sugar and high levels of insulin in the body a negative feedback loop gets turned on causing the body to create new glucose (gluconeogenesis). When combining fasted cardio with GLP-1 agonist medications in a disease-free individual another pathway that creates energy for the brain gets turned into overdrive, ketogenesis (ketosis). Both ketogenesis and gluconeogenesis occur in the liver, and the substrate that is needed to create more glucose and ketones is fat. You can assume that during this state you are a fat burning machine.
What to Expect.
Cardiovascular exercise is a key factor to promote physical health and wellbeing. It is also one of the fastest ways to use fat as energy, but the results are sometimes lower than the expectations. Often, the natural process is too slow for individuals trying to lose weight and their lack of patience and consistency drives them to use other means to accelerate the process. Although GLP-1 agonist medications combined with fasted cardio yield incredible fat loss results, GLP-1 meds should not be used without your doctor's supervision. Side effects of these drugs are related to the digestive system, including, bloating, diarrhea, indigestion, nausea and vomiting. It is highly advised (individual users' “researchers”) to use GLP-1 drugs in short term recreationally. There is not enough data to support long term use.
Coach Jordi’s Recommendation
“I advise all my clients and patients to start at the bottom of the pyramid in order to get to the top”. Take control of behaviors that got you to your current weight before searching for the “magic” pill that will make it all better. Such a pill does not exist, but if it did exist most people will return to their previous obese state because lifestyle changes did not take place. The first step to weight loss starts with adopting exercise and modifying your diet. My recommendation in terms of exercise is to do resistance training three times a week and low to moderate cardiovascular exercise for 150 minutes a week. An important step to get your diet on the right track is to consume 25-38 grams of insoluble fiber per day, drink water ½ of your bodyweight in ounces per day and cut out sugar in your drinks (sodas, juices, beer, mixed drinks). By following my advice, I have witnessed my heaviest clients drop 30-40 pounds in twelve weeks. I will consider these basic interventions the bottom of the pyramid giving you a great foundation to take your health to the next level.