What is Fasted Cardio?

Combinations of training and feeding are recurrent because they are the two variables that define losing weight and gaining fitness. But in these two vectors there is a possibility: the Fasted Cardio. What is it and how can it be done without risk?

Fasting Cardio for weight loss and improve performance

The formula is simple, the theory is always simple: mix a cardio workout with fasting to achieve weight loss and improved fitness. How to do this, how to carry it out, is the complicated part, in order to make it as effective as possible and so that it does not represent any risk to health.

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Surely sometimes you've had to run out of the house at dawn and haven't even had time to make yourself a coffee, much less a full and varied breakfast. Of course, breakfast is probably the most important meal of the day, but there are times when we do not have it. Well, on that occasion, you came close to making Fasted Cardio.

Basically, that's what Fasted Cardio is all about: in our case, going out cycling before eating anything. And to do so in the morning, because to earn that definition of Fasted Cardio, it is essential that you have spent more than 10 hours without eating anything, which is difficult to do the rest of the day.

How to do Fasted Cardio without risk

When you wake up, after so many hours without eating anything, glucogen is at its lowest levels, so your body, in response to the demand for energy to which you are subject, begins the parallel process of burning fat. By breaking down these fats, our organism is able to obtain the energy it needs, which it cannot find, so to speak, in the first deposit to which it resorts.

Although this process is slower than glucogen, the amount of fat consumed is considerably higher than in training without fasting, so the amount of fat in the body is reduced. Let's say it resorts to reserves in the absence of food, to oxidised fats instead of glucogen or carbohydrates, the two main immediate sources.

Thus, Fasted Cardio burns up to 20% more fat than a workout with breakfast.

However, many cyclists on fasting cardio lose fat and thus weight at risk. First and foremost, if this Fast Cardio is not accompanied by a healthy diet and weight loss, it won't matter if you burn some more fat in the morning, because you'll gain it back later. It's like when some people wear a rain jacket in the summer to lose fluids and weight, but they forget that the body recovers them quickly at the first liquid intake you make.

Also, doing cardio on an empty stomach often means that in addition to fat you burn protein, so you'll have less strength, less power. And if that's not enough, when you're working out too hard, fasting cardio can lead to even bigger problems, such as fainting. According to medical experts, it's advisable to do a light workout of no more than 60 minutes. Thus, when accompanied by a balanced and healthy diet, Fast Cardio gives results. Otherwise, it will give more problems than results.