Strength training on an empty stomach for weight. Pre-workout nutrition: benefits of fasted training for weight loss

28.07.2017 121782

There is a lot of controversy about working out on an empty stomach. Many claim that they actually help you lose weight more effectively. Others say that without refreshment, productivity will be much lower. Where is the truth? Should you eat before training? Let's try to figure it out.

What happens in the body?

From the moment you wake up in the morning until your first meal, insulin levels in the blood are at their lowest point, and glycogen stores are completely depleted overnight. What does it mean? Low insulin levels ensure more active lipolysis - the breakdown of fat cells, and we lose weight faster. Yes, indeed, numerous studies confirm this fact. But not everything is so rosy: there are some nuances.

Why is training on an empty stomach harmful?

If you regularly exercise on an empty stomach in the morning and ignore the morning meal before that, a constant deficiency of insulin in the blood can even provoke a disruption in its normal and natural production. The result is problems with blood vessels, arterial disease, exacerbation of chronic diseases, stroke, and even the development of diabetes or hypoglycemia.

In addition, a complete refusal nutrients before training will not give you the dose of energy that is necessary for full work. You simply don’t have enough strength to do the exercises, your endurance will also be zero, you will feel weak, tired, and apathetic. And if you decide to push yourself and lift a lot of weight, this is fraught with muscle injuries (due to low sugar levels in muscle tissue).

Why is it necessary to have breakfast?

And if you think that working out after breakfast will not give you the desired effect for weight loss, then you are deeply mistaken. Despite the fact that fat reserves will be consumed faster on an empty stomach, this will still not give the desired and immediate result. It's all about not so much the calorie consumption per workout, but the total calorie consumption for the whole day - this is the key to competent and gradual weight loss.

American scientists conducted a study in which one group of people ate breakfast regularly, and the second skipped their morning meal. For the first “experimental” subjects, the total energy consumption per day was approximately 2800 kcal, and for the second, only 2000 kcal. And even when physical activity took place, the first group expended approximately 500 kcal during exercise, while the second only 300 kcal. An impressive difference, isn't it?

Drawing conclusions

Therefore, we can safely draw the conclusion that you need to have breakfast before training. Of course, your weight loss process will not be as fast as during long-term training on an empty stomach. But it will proceed competently, without harm to the body, and you will not provoke various disruptions in the functioning of systems and the development of diseases. In addition, your performance during training will increase significantly, which means that you will work more productively!

There is more and more information that doing cardio on an empty stomach is beneficial, as it helps speed up the breakdown of fats and overall metabolism. Physiologists have even formulated a theory of energy balance, based on the principle that you need to absorb fewer calories than you burn them. Consequently, training on an empty stomach contributes not only to the normalization of metabolic processes, but also to weight loss. Although there is an opinion that the timing of cardio or vigorous exercise does not matter. Therefore, the issue needs to be addressed.

The body after waking up

In the morning, after sleep, the body's reserves of glycogen and insulin in the blood are depleted. Why is this information important? Insulin slows down lipolysis, that is, fat breakdown, therefore, a person loses weight more slowly, and cholesterol accumulates in his blood. When glycogen is low, the body has to use its own energy (from fat reserves), which is not prevented by small amounts of insulin. Other processes in the body at this time reflexively slow down out of the principles of self-preservation.

At the same time in the morning it is celebrated high level growth hormone released in response to lack of food. It is this substance that accelerates fat breakdown. At the same time, insulin and growth hormone are interconnected - they slow down each other’s synthesis. Therefore, morning hours are optimal solution for those who want to burn fat reserves and lower cholesterol levels.

Training in the morning on an empty stomach: is it possible?

Early training on an empty stomach involves playing sports before breakfast, when a person runs, lifts dumbbells, etc. The effectiveness of such exercises is based on the expenditure of the body’s own resources to produce energy, in return for carbohydrates not supplied from outside. Exercising in this mode is useful for those who want to lose weight. For those who are focused on gaining weight, exercising on an empty stomach will allow you to slightly break down fat and dry out muscle tissue. The technique allows you to ultimately obtain the required muscle definition by resuming training on a full stomach.

Despite the apparent benefits, there are limitations to fasted training. It is not recommended for diabetics or people with liver problems to get involved in technology as a therapeutic measure. If training is indicated, the sports program is selected individually with the approval of the attending physician. Sports activities on an empty stomach for the listed pathologies are indicated because with an increase in muscle mass and a decrease in the percentage of body fat, the effect of insulin on cells improves, making it easier to control diseases. But in order not to faint from hunger, it is still recommended to eat 2-3 apples and drink a glass of juice 1-1.5 hours before training. But you shouldn’t eat heavily, because when exercising on a full stomach, the body will work at half capacity due to the need to waste a lot of energy not on training, but on the process of digesting food. Besides, it's harmful.

Strength training and its effects

The effect of such exercises in the early morning and on an empty stomach is purely positive, if not aggravated. With the right approach and proper selection of the program, accelerated fat breakdown and a decrease in cholesterol in the blood will occur due to the consumption of one’s own fat tissue, instead of absorbed from the outside. But if abused, the opposite effect will be achieved. Energy will be extracted from muscle tissue, since against the background of exhaustion and lack of fat deposits there is nowhere else to take it from.

When fasting and strength training are combined, somatotropin, the “elixir of youth,” begins to be intensively produced, which helps build muscles, burn fat, and strengthen bones. At the same time, physical endurance increases due to a jump in testosterone levels, which accelerates the functioning of organs and prevents the occurrence of depression, fatigue, and lethargy. Thanks to early training, the efficiency of glycogen storage in muscles increases and endorphin is produced - the hormone of happiness.

The peculiarity of early cardio without breakfast is the acceleration of metabolism, which continues throughout the next day.

In addition to effectively burning fat when running or walking on an empty stomach, the positive effects are:

• acceleration of endorphin production, which improves mood;
• ensuring quick awakening with the launch of all organs and systems at the same time;
• regulation of appetite throughout the day;
• establishing a circadian regime, thanks to which it becomes possible to quickly adapt and improve physical capabilities;
• acceleration of metabolism.

The effectiveness of a cardio session is judged by the ability to burn fat after training, that is, over the next 3-4 hours. However, it is important to exercise wisely on an empty stomach. It is better to run for no more than half an hour, and during the rest of the day, avoid feeling hungry. The best option alternation of aerobic and anaerobic physical activity is considered.

How to play sports correctly?

Based on the above, there are 2 types of physical activity:

• strength (barbell) - for building muscles;
• cardio (running, race walking) - increase metabolism, endurance and weight loss.

Both options are good, but only if the body has sufficient endurance. Otherwise, it is better to give preference to running or walking in the early hours, which helps release adrenaline into the blood and charge the body with energy for the whole day. But doing exercises based on the use of force is more effective in the afternoon, when fat reserves continue to be burned after running or walking.

It is equally important to choose the right load intensity and session duration. A fasted morning workout should not last more than 45 minutes or less than 30 minutes. The pace should be average. Otherwise, during training, the body will begin to consume carbohydrates rather than fats for energy. This is due to an imbalance of oxygen entering with inhalation and leaving with exhalation. carbon dioxide. It is considered ideal to run at an average rhythm for at least 45-60 minutes in one cardio session.

To maximize the effectiveness of your early workout, it is important to reduce your carbohydrate intake the night before. This need is due to physiology. So, for the first half hour, the body uses carbohydrate reserves to get a boost of energy, and then begins to consume fat deposits. But you shouldn’t completely give up carbohydrates in the evening. It is better to consume them in the form of vegetables with a carbohydrate content of 3-6%. These include cabbage, beets, tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers, greens, pumpkin, carrots, and onions. But it is better to eat fruits in the first half of the day and no more than 250 g per day. If it is absolutely impossible to run on an empty stomach in the morning, experts advise drinking a glass after getting out of bed warm water, after 10 minutes - a mug of warm tea or coffee without sugar.

A competent combination of effort work and running provides the following health benefits:

1. Disappearance of joint problems.
2. Increasing elasticity and improving the condition of blood vessels.
3. Acceleration of metabolic processes, weight stabilization.
4. Enrichment of bone tissue minerals, which is important in the prevention of osteoporosis.
5. Increased cell sensitivity to insulin.
6. Increasing the level of “good” cholesterol with decreasing “bad” cholesterol.

If, at the time of training, you feel intense muscle, joint, headaches, heart pain or chest compressions, severe shortness of breath, or blurred vision, it is recommended to stop exercising. Dizziness and fainting are considered dangerous conditions. To prevent the disorder, you should run with a heart rate monitor. The device will monitor your pulse and alert you if any irregularities occur.

Experts and amateurs are always arguing about the effectiveness of sports and its new trends. And about what exercises to choose to burn fat. There is even debate about how exactly to combine diet and exercise to get maximum results. Now there's a new dilemma in the sports world: will working out on an empty stomach help you lose weight faster?

Bodybuilders are one hundred percent confident in the veracity of this hypothesis. However, some athletes continue to use before exercise. I decided to look into this issue and considered several different opinions.

The theory behind exercising on an empty stomach is that exercising on an empty stomach helps you burn fat faster. In the morning the level in the body is significantly lower than at any other time of the day. Therefore, the body is expected to draw energy from fat stores during an early run.

• Fat burns faster. A study of 12 men found that fasted treadmill exercisers burned up to 20 percent more fat ( 1 ). Interestingly, people who skip breakfast are not prone to overeating during the day. Jogging or exercising will have a beneficial effect on your diet. As a result, you will achieve your ideal figure faster.
• Productivity increase. When carbohydrate levels are low, the result is standard training will be more effective. The body reacts more strongly to physical activity and calories burn out more easily.

• Time without food will help you lose weight. The good thing about training on an empty stomach is that you won't eat food during it. And after class, refresh yourself with whatever you want. But there is one limitation: you should eat strictly at certain hours. The human body knows its nutritional schedule. Hormones burn fat more actively and promote weight loss during hours free from food. Exercising before meals can stimulate your body to burn even more fat, especially if you exercise in the morning.
• Improving the body's response to insulin. When we eat, the body uses insulin to collect all the nutrients from foods. But when we eat too many carbohydrates and sugar, the body becomes less responsive to insulin. Vitamins and microelements are not fully absorbed. Over time, insulin builds up, which can cause a number of chronic diseases such as diabetes. Short fasts awaken insulin sensitivity. The hormone is not produced in excess, and the body remains receptive to it.
• Workout Inspiration. Very often people do not have enough time and energy for regular sports exercises. If you have to go to work early, it's better to get your workout in early and go, rather than wait for the food to settle down to exercise.

Who is not suitable for sports on an empty stomach?

International Journal Research sports nutrition They say that fat is lost better if you eat before training. The result of this experiment does not coincide at all with that described above. ( 2 ) Therefore, this approach to nutrition is not suitable for everyone.

Another problem is that it will be very difficult to perform various exercises on an empty stomach; you simply won’t have enough strength. A light pre-workout snack containing carbohydrates, protein and healthy fats can provide the energy you need.

Replenishing your energy reserves will help you more easily overcome intense stress that burns a large number of calories in the shortest possible time.

If you do endurance exercise, are used to running long distances, or have mastered triathlon. Working on an empty stomach at a grueling pace is simply unrealistic. After all, at the passing stage you will need a lot of strength.

And people with diabetes or low level blood sugar, “hungry” sporting events are even contraindicated. Be sure to have a snack before exercise, this will guarantee your safety during training.

conclusions

I wanted to tell you about the existence of a theory sports activities on empty stomach. But remember that it may not be unconditionally suitable for everyone. Personally, I used to train on an empty stomach and it was always very difficult for me to go to training. Now I still prefer to recharge my energy an hour before training and I don’t regret this approach at all.

In any case, you should remember to drink water before and after training. Energy levels depend on the amount of fluid in the body.

And I advise you to pay special attention to what you eat after. A combination of protein and healthy carbohydrates will help your muscles recover. Eat eggs/meat and vegetables within the first 45 minutes after training and you will feel much better.

Monitor your health and the beauty of your figure. Choose the types of exercises that you enjoy.

People who go to the gym with the desire to lose weight often make one common mistake. They think that working out on an empty stomach will help them burn more fat. If you are also sure that this method has a rational grain, we hasten to disappoint you. In fact, there are many more disadvantages than advantages to avoiding food before a workout. Let's talk about this in more detail.

Hungry Athletes Burn More Fat

You dream of having an ideal body, you count calories every day and have developed the ideal workout program. It's time to hit the gym. It seems you have thought of everything. Stop! Did you remember to eat two hours before class? Or do you decide to skip a meal? Proponents of exercising on an empty stomach suggest that they can speed up weight loss by not eating. A scientific study published in the British Journal of Nutrition confirms these findings.

During the experiment, participants who attended the gym were divided into two groups. As you might guess, one group of recreational athletes did their workout on an empty stomach, while the other did not ignore food before training. As a result, it was found that participants in the fasting group managed to burn 20 percent more fat than their well-fed opponents. Similar results were obtained in another study. From which the following conclusions follow: aerobic training in a state of hunger reduces the percentage of fat in the body.

Why does excess fat disappear?

Everything seems fine. You can deprive yourself of one meal, exercise and only then make up for the lack of calories. Sports nutritionist Kelly Pritchett explains how the body switches fuel sources. Intense physical activity (long distance running or lifting weights) causes the body to burn glycogen and carbohydrate stores. During long workouts or when you skip meals, these resources can be completely used up. And then the body switches to another mode. To maintain movement, it begins to use previously accumulated fat. Ideally, your pre-workout meal-skipping plan should work, and excess weight melt rapidly.

There are several nuances

However, in reality, you will have to face unprecedented resistance from the body. You will be surprised when in practice you come across several features at once that are, in fact, protective. Firstly, the human body is not a fan of fasting, so it tends to store fat in reserve. When you burn fat quickly, your body switches to energy-saving mode. Remember yourself at the moment when you insure yourself against unexpected financial expenses. When the amount of remaining money reaches a certain point, you realize that you don’t need to spend any more and turn on the saving mode. The same thing happens with fat reserves. The body realizes that it is at risk of losing its nest egg and begins to regulate its metabolism to compensate for this loss. This way, you will actually make some progress in your first few workouts. However, after some time, the indicators on the scale will remain unchanged.

Defense mechanism

Don't blame your body for disobedience. This defense mechanism really needed for survival in extreme conditions. If internal resources were instantly consumed, not a single person lost in the forest would survive even a week in the wild. But in fact, we know examples of people returning home even after 30 days of ordeal.

In survival mode, the body burns far fewer calories than usual. You think that you can outwit the body, but in reality you yourself are deceived. The dinner you eat after your workout fully compensates for what you just spent in gym. These findings are confirmed by a scientific study, the results of which were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. As scientists have found, long periods of fasting can lead to a slowdown in metabolism. Are you still ready to give up food before training?

Skipping meals makes you eat more after exercise

The following pitfall of fasting is faced by all fans of express diets, who get their body into shape in a month, and then gain excess weight again. The same thing happens to you, only in an even shorter time frame. If you skip meals during the day, then in the evening, be prepared to face an insatiable hunger attack. A study published in the journal Appetite found that participants who didn't fast before exercising felt less inclined to crave food later. Overall, volunteers from both groups burned the same amount of calories per session. Considering the fact that weight loss comes down much more to the quality of your diet rather than the number of calories burned in the gym, this can be an important factor for those who exercise to lose weight.

Is being healthy easy?

Many of us seem to know the golden formula for health: eat less, move more. It's easy to write on paper, but difficult to translate into reality. Another secret is that to burn fat we need strong muscles. They are your allies in the fight to speed up your metabolism. Protein is required to build strong and elastic muscles. If you fast, then you risk burning not only excess fat. Intense workout will take with it not only part of the loose fat layer, but also muscle proteins. At first glance, the method of fasting before training can be effective, but until the recovery process comes into play. You can't do this without good, strong muscles.

Satiety promotes progress

The success of a morning run does not depend on whether it was done on an empty stomach or whether you consumed breakfast before going outside. According to the results scientific research, in the morning the body has a sufficient amount of glycogen remaining from the evening meal. However, here too there is one important nuance: A body without fuel cannot produce its maximum. This means that the effectiveness of training suffers. Progress in your fitness is only possible if you improve your results and update your personal records. This, in turn, becomes possible only with a full tank of fuel (a full stomach).

Ideal nutritional balance

Some people exercise on an empty stomach because they don't like feeling heavy. However, there are many disadvantages to this method. Ideal option will eat complex carbohydrates approximately an hour before classes. Eat protein foods for recovery after workouts. Agree that it is better to end the lesson on a positive note than to feel exhausted.

There is an unspoken classic installation, according to which an athlete’s diet before training should consist of either food containing proteins and carbohydrates, or sports nutrition with the same composition (for example, gainers). The scheme is used to provide the muscles with enough energy for training. It is recommended even during drying, and by experienced athletes.

But there is another opinion on what is presented as an axiom. Many athletes believe that training in the morning on an empty stomach is more effective. How justified is this, is it worth training on an empty stomach and breaking existing rules? This is what we are talking about today.

Many people believe that morning workouts on an empty stomach are dangerous because by the morning glycogen negligible remains. They are sure that if you don’t have breakfast, your body will have to waste energy to get energy. own potential. Therefore, it is urgent to replenish it, so as not to faint on the exercise machines and not go into the “other world” from catabolism. However, not everything is so sad.

During sleep, the body enters the anabolic stage. Adrenaline and corticosteroid levels drop and the body begins to produce growth hormone, which is responsible for protecting and repairing muscles and bones. For the functioning of brain cells, cardiac activity, nervous system and other important functions performed in the absence of food, the body uses liver glycogen.

The breakdown of muscle glycogen occurs only during muscle activity and is used by them exclusively for their needs. Muscle catabolism during sleep is not true. An overnight “hunger strike” will not reduce the supply of muscle glycogen, and, in fact, the liver glycogen, too.

You shouldn’t load up on protein at night - drink milk, protein, eat cottage cheese, there’s no point in this no necessary.

How quickly is glycogen used up?

It is known that the fastest supplier of energy in the body is glucose. Fats and proteins are its “slow” form, because much more time is spent on their fermentation.

An athlete's daily diet should contain 60% carbohydrates. Under this condition, glycogen is preserved to the maximum. Its total amount in the body is from 300 to 500 g, muscles account for 200-300 g, the rest accumulates in the liver.

Every hour intense power training on an empty stomach causes the body to consume about 150 g of glycogen. After it is spent, the destruction of muscles will begin and only then - adipose tissue.

Glycogen reserves are vital for the body, so they are not completely depleted ( we're talking about not about long-term fasting). Active training processes reduce glycogen reserves, but not enough to switch to a strategic type of fuel - fat. In one workout on an empty stomach, it is unlikely that you will be able to completely extract all the glycogen, therefore:

• do not rush to immediately pounce on nutrition because of the threat of death from catabolism;
• do not replenish glycogen stores within 20-30 minutes. after training, and within 24 hours.