Fasting Cardio :The best time to do it?

Fasting Cardio, what you should know

The well-known cardio fasting is one of the most used tools mainly by bodybuilding competitors in their preparation with the aim of burning more fat. But why not perform cardio in the afternoon? Or at night? Or the time of the siesta? Exercise early in the morning on an empty stomach is attributed certain advantages that other times of the day do not have and we will see what they are.

The main difference with cardio fasting and with cardio at any other time of day is the hormonal environment. Aerobic exercise uses fat as the main source of energy but the amount of glucose we have in the blood at the time of exercise will determine how quickly your body can use your fat reserves as fuel. In other words, a person who has just finished his plate of macaroni with tomato and prepares to exercise will take more time to use fat as an energy source than another who exercises on an empty stomach, so at equal intensity and duration of the exercise, a person who does cardio fasting will burn more fat than a person with a full stomach. This is due to insulin

Insulin

Insulin is a hormone generated by the pancreas that acts by transporting glucose from the bloodstream to the cells. The main culprits of the excess of glucose in the blood are carbohydrates (without detracting from fats and proteins that also increase it, but less) than in the previous example, after consuming a high-carbohydrate meal such as macaroni, your blood glucose levels will increase in such a way that your pancreas will have to generate insulin to "clear" that excess glucose. The problem is that while there is insulin circulating in your body, the burning of fat becomes unviable, insulin causes a sealed effect in the adipocytes that inhibits the mobilization of fatty acids. Mobilization is the first step to fat burning, the next steps are transport and use, but if there is no mobilization, fat is neither transported nor used and with insulin, through the clouds we are complicating this process a lot.

However, as soon as we get up, after having spent several hours sleeping and many hours have passed after our last meal, the blood glucose levels are stable and the pancreas does not need to generate insulin, in fact the opposite hormone is produced to the insulin, the glucagon that unlike the insulin, this hormone if it favors the mobilization of the fat cells.

As you see, doing cardio fasting is beneficial for the mobilization of fat thanks to the absence of insulin. The other important hormonal factor for the mobilization of fat are the catecholamines.

Catecholamines
Adrenaline and noradrenaline are two substances included in the catecholamines that the body releases when we subject it to a high level of stress. These situations of stress can occur in various ways, from watching a horror movie to jumping on a parachute. The catecholamines generated by these situations, leave the body in a position of "fight or flight" or as they said in the movie Breaking the rules "Either you retire or go for all".

The training is another of these stressful situations that cause the body to produce catecholamines. Any form of exercise increases the catecholamines but the more intense it is, the more catecholamines it generates. Catecholamines cause an increase in heart rate and blood pressure but also help in the mobilization of fatty acids. This mobilization is not balanced, fat is not mobilized equally easily from different parts of the body. The receptors for catecholamines are called alpha and beta. The interesting ones are alpha-2 and beta-2 and they are interesting because you should know that when the catecholamines are found with a beta-2 receptor the mobilization of the fat increases, but before the alpha-2 receptors it decreases. Therefore, body areas with more beta-2 receptors will mobilize fat earlier than areas with more alpha-2 receptors.

Fasting Cardio Sprint

Besides exercise, fasting also increases catecholamines (in a lesser way but also does) so if we put both together (fasting and exercise) we have a perfect environment to raise the catecholamines. Therefore, doing cardio on an empty stomach is ideal for mobilizing fatty acids.

Cardio on an empty stomach The Holy Grail?
As we have seen, exercising on an empty stomach is very useful in terms of the mobilization of fat since it generates an ideal hormonal environment. However, as you have read before, fat burning is divided into 3 steps, not just one. This means that for the fat that you have been able to mobilize finally burn, it must be transported and then oxidized. If these last two steps are not met, the fatty acids will return to their origins: To your love handles.

To eliminate fat, you have to make sure it is used as a source of energy, and for this to happen, glycogen levels in both the muscles and the liver should be low. This brings us back to the premise of fasting and exercising, however, we must not forget that the body is constantly fluctuating, creating and degrading tissues. Fasting cardio is a very catabolic process and this is not bad (you must lose your fear of the word catabolism) because for example digestion itself is a catabolic process and I do not see anyone worried about it. So if the body fluctuates continuously between anabolic and catabolic processes, it is useless to do all the fasting cardio that you do if at the end of the day or the week or the month the anabolism overcomes the catabolism. If this happens, there will be no loss of fat, at least, not substantial and this brings us back to "the mother of the lamb": Calories.

No deficit, no party! If your body is not in caloric deficit, you will hardly get rid of body fat. That's why fasting cardio is a very good tool used intelligently and complementing the rest of your arsenal of tools for achieving goals, but used in isolation or excessive will not work as you expect it to.

When to use Fasting Cardio

Fasting cardio is a very interesting protocol and it has its place in the planning of fat loss. However, it is a measure that in my opinion is quite unnecessary especially in the first stages of a definition stage. When a definition period is considered, the most important variable is the caloric deficit and to obtain it, it can be done either through the diet (fewer calories) or through exercise (more energy expenditure). Either of these two measures will work and help you lose fat.

Once your phase of fat loss is more advanced you will see that it is more complicated to keep moving forward and the burning of fat becomes more and more complicated. This is because you have already got rid of the "easy" fat, the fat of the parts of the body that have more beta-2 receptors and therefore, easier to mobilize. It is at this moment when you have to face your rebellious fat that does not respond as well to conventional measures and is more difficult to mobilize. Fasting cardio would come into play here, favoring the mobilization of this type of fat.

It is true that you could start using the fasting cardio protocol from minute 1 of your definition, however, the problem presented by low-intensity cardiovascular exercise is that the body is becoming more efficient and more tolerant of it. the more you practice it, the longer you will have to subject the body to that activity to burn the same amount of fat. That is why I advise using cardiovascular exercise in general in a moderate way and specifically fasting cardio to fight against that rebellious fat that is so difficult to eliminate, but until you are in condition to face this type of fat, it is preferable not to exercise on an empty stomach.

Conclusion for Fasting Cardio

Fasting cardio has several advantages that make it special, make it useful for certain objectives but should not be the basis of a defined period, to get to step 2 you have to start at 1 and fasting training is not the first step Eye! Throughout the article I am referring to fasting cardio used as a method for fat loss, that is if someone does cardio fasting for personal tastes or for convenience of time or because it helps you start the day with energy, it is a great option , however if for you the cardio fasting is a sacrifice and you do it with the sole intention of burning more fat make sure you have under control the other variables that affect the rest of your day, such as gym training (essential not to lose muscle during definition and also useful to increase caloric expenditure) or food. The utility of cardio fasting lies in the elimination of unruly fat and it is against it that you can get the most out of this controversial tool.