Fasting training to lose weight

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Training on an empty stomach involves a series of undoubted advantages in terms of lipid oxidation, deriving from the metabolic implications of morning hypoglycemia. It is no coincidence that this training technique is now widely used to promote weight loss as a loss of fat mass in favor of the lean one.

Benefits of fasting training

Running or cycling for 30 minutes early in the morning, after fasting at night, is one of the most popular ways to lose weight. In fact, it is believed that the aerobic activity carried out on an empty stomach allows to burn larger quantities of superfluous fat, raising the metabolism for the rest of the day and promoting psychophysical well-being. In the morning, due to long nighttime fasting, blood sugar and glycogen stores are generally lower than the rest of the day; given the relative lack of glucose in the blood, training in these conditions promotes greater use of fat in terms of energy. The hormonal picture is also favorable, characterized by low levels of insulin and high levels of counter-insular hormones (adrenaline, noradrenaline, cortisol, thyroxine, glucagon, and growth hormone). All these hormones promote weight loss by stimulating lipolysis directly or indirectly. The strong adrenergic secretion (adrenaline and norepinephrine) recorded during the physical exercise greatly raises the metabolism, which remains high for a certain period even after the end of the fasting training session. The important release of endorphins induced by physical activity is instead potentially useful for promoting a sense of psychophysical well-being for the rest of the day.

Advice and reflections

• Exercising on an empty stomach, with the intent to lose weight, could lead to excessive muscle catabolism, because in conditions of hypoglycemia also increases the share of energy obtained from amino acids. Given that taking solid foods or a protein mix would attenuate the metabolic benefits induced by fasting, to prevent excessive muscle catabolism it can help to ingest a few branched amino acid tablets before training. For the same reason, in order to avoid excessive protein catabolism, it is good not to prolong the fasting aerobics beyond 30-40 minutes.
• Fasting training should be included in a dietary context aimed at weight loss. The ideal is to combine these aerobic sessions with weight training (obviously at different times of the day) focused on strength development. In such conditions it is in fact necessary to give everything in a few series, given that due to the lack of glycogen it is not possible to sustain prolonged efforts like those typical of mass cards. Be careful though; this does not mean that you have to train with a high number of repetitions. Rather, demanding loads in perfect "short and intense" style should be used.
• Fasting training increases the risk of hypoglycemic crises, especially in those who are untrained or not used to exercising in such conditions; the appearance of hypoglycemia is reported by symptoms such as excessive food cravings, pallor, cold sweating, headache and dizziness, excessive irritability, tremor, agitation, difficulty in concentration and risk of fainting. Upon the onset of these symptoms it is good to immediately stop fasting; the symptoms will therefore be resolved by taking small amounts of foods rich in sugars (chocolates, dextrose, sweetened soft drinks, honey, raisins), followed by a more substantial meal based on complex carbohydrates (to prevent reactive hypoglycemia from copious ingestion of simple sugars).
• Taking a couple of coffees or a thermogenic supplement (based on bitter orange, synephrine, mate, guarana, cola, tea, theine and / or theobromine), before training on an empty stomach, is theoretically useful for enhancing the lipolytic action.
• Before starting training it is good to take a couple of glasses of water, especially when you do not have the opportunity to drink during the training session.
• Fasting may lead to excessive stress also from the psychic point of view, especially when too many hours of night rest are sacrificed. For this reason, generally this practice is limited to those short definition periods that precede a photo shoot, a bodybuilding competition or a costume test. All this also due to the fact that it is not a miraculous strategy, given that the advantages over traditional training are limited. On the other hand, in front of a sprinter we notice a lean and muscular physique despite his training involving negligible fat consumption. This makes us understand, in the event that the concept was not yet clear, that the ideal physical activity for weight loss cannot do without exercises with high intensity isotonic weights and machines, to be added to the traditional but often overrated aerobic workouts, independently whether they are performed fasting or not.