Working Out On an Empty Stomach
If you have a hectic schedule in the morning, eating a proper breakfast in the morning can become almost impossible. If you’re short on time, you may want to quickly grab a smoothie or shake before you leave the house.
Preparing a light meal in the morning before a workout is generally a smarter decision since larger meals will take longer to digest, making you feel bloated or nauseous before exercise.
If you’re one of those people that like to work out on an empty stomach, you may be wondering if training this way will have any noticeable effects on muscle/fat loss.
When the stomach is completely empty you’re in what’s called a fasted state, and exercising during his state is fasted training. Fasted training is one of the most effective methods to lower body fat levels while keeping plenty of lean muscle mass.
What is Fasted Training?
The stomach has two cycles when it digests food, a fed state or a fasted state.
You’re said to be a fed state when your hormones, mainly insulin, rise to high enough levels to rush a large quantity of nutrients into the body’s cells.
High amounts of insulin signals the body to switch to a fat storage state, where extra calories that aren’t needed can be stored in adipose fat tissue. Extra calories are stored in the body’s fatty tissue to conserve energy for later use when blood sugar levels are low.
The fasted state causes the opposite effect, your body wants to use as much stored fat as possible when glycogen isn’t available.
Knowing whether you’re in a fed or fasted state is crucial to know because of how it can affect your body fat percentages.
The fasted state helps release hormones, called catecholamines, that help to mobilize fat from areas that have smaller blood passageways. When there are smaller blood vessels in an area of fatty tissue, it becomes more difficult for the fat cells to reduce in size.
In men, stubborn fat is usually found in the lower back region, lower abdominals, upper thighs, and the side abdominals.
Stubborn fat cells have to be unlocked by these catecholamines and they’re impossible to be released without having consistently low blood sugar levels.
Maintaining low insulin levels not only makes it easier to get rid of stubborn fat, but it can also make you more insulin sensitive as well.
When your insulin sensitivity is high, larger amounts of insulin is released than the average, which allows more nutrients to be stored inside the cells rather than circulating in the bloodstream.
This is why low insulin sensitivity people often become pre-diabetic from maintaining high blood sugar levels.
Larger releases of insulin also mean you’ll have a greater likelihood of building more muscle than you would have before.
Why Would You Want to Train Fasted
For individuals with slower metabolisms, fasted training allows you to burn those extra calories during the day that add up from cheat meals, snacks, or any food with a high amount of calories.
Fasted training is also for guys that really want to get their body fat percentages below 10%. 10% body fat can be achieved by virtually anyone, but reaching single digit number often require more stringent diets and advanced techniques to continue fat burn.
Figuring out body fat percentages is one thing, but maintaining low levels is another story. Athletes that train fasted also use the intermittent fasting eating windows to keep their body fat levels low to boost their metabolism.
Intermittent fasting is the method of eating within a small time window of the day to allow your body longer periods spent in the fasted state. Although the conclusive studies have been done with animals rather than humans, fasting does show physiological benefits and hormonal release that can benefit fat loss.
The Wrap Up
Fasted training can be used to save time in the morning from making breakfast and benefit from the release of fat burning hormones called catecholamines. Fasted training differs from training in the fed state, as you have a greater chance of reducing fatty tissue in stubborn fat areas around the body.
