There’s a new fad hitting gyms across the world: fasted cardio. There is good reason for this. Imagine a workout that can burn more calories and fat, simply by doing it first thing in the morning. Sound good? Read on to find out what fasted cardio is and how it can quickly help you shed those unwanted pounds.
How Does Fasted Cardio Work?
When you go to bed at night, you probably have food waiting to be digested. As you sleep, your body empties your stomach because you’re not eating anything for hours. When you wake up, you’re in starvation mode. You have nothing in your stomach, so your body has started to use your carb stores as fuel – this burns fat. In fact, researchers suggest that people will burn 20 percent more body fat when they do cardio in the morning before they have eaten anything.
Your body is burning fat because it needs that fuel to keep your organs running. When you get up and start running or doing some other cardio, your body increases its need for fuel and start to pull from those carb/fat stores more. This is why people who do fasted cardio are more likely to lose weight.
Just be careful what you eat later on, because it’s important to continue your healthy diet throughout the day. If you eat more than your body will use, you’ll end up cancelling out all of the benefits you’re getting with fasted cardio.
What Can You Do for Cardio?
You can do just about any type of cardio that gets your heart pumping. This means you can run, jump rope, use the stair master or elliptical. You just need to get your heart rate up because that’s what is going to burn the fat.
You may want to invest in a heart rate monitor. This can help you track how hard you are working and see if you should use more effort to burn the fat.
Precautions to Be Aware Of
Just be sure that you don’t overdo it. When you do cardio on an empty stomach, you may feel a bit dizzy or lightheaded. Be sure to slow down or stop as soon as you feel this way, so you don’t hurt yourself. It’s also important to have plenty of water. You need to hydrate yourself, and yes, it still counts as fasted cardio if you drink water.
Keep in mind that if you are trying to build muscle, you may need to take a supplement to help you. Fasted cardio can affect building muscle because it burns amino acids as well as the calorie stores. This can prevent muscle gain. The good news is there are many supplements on the market that will replace those lost amino acids.
You may feel as though you don’t have a lot of energy when you first start. Your body needs to get used to working so hard without fuel from food. With time, it will get easier to work out on an empty stomach.
Before you start fasted cardio, you should check with your physician. It’s important you are in good health before starting a new exercise regimen.
Try fasted cardio when you’re trying to cut the fat from your body. You may just find it’s more effective than any other weight-loss strategy you’ve tried before.
*Our content is not intended to provide medical advice or diagnosis of individual problems or circumstances, nor should it be implied that we are a substitute for professional medical advice. Users / readers are always advised to consult their Healthcare Professional prior to starting any new remedy, therapy or treatment. Your Wellness Group accepts no liability in the event you, a user of n-gage and a reader of this article, suffers a loss as a result of reliance upon or inappropriate application of the information.
Comments are closed.