What’s the big deal with fasted cardio?
Does anybody do it by itself in place of all other types of training… or is it only effective as an add on to training? I would think that it is pretty useless by itself because it would just make everybody into runners… runners who look like all they do is run.
I also get the whole free fatty acid availability thing and the burning of fat selectively… but is fasted vs. unfasted really going to make a difference over the course of a month or three?
Why don’t you find out for yourself?
Because I’d rather not do any steady state cardio. I was just asking because it seems to me that if it isn’t effective by itself, it probably isn’t worth my time. I’d rather spend that time sleeping or picking up things off the ground.
First, quit being so lazy, no one here is your clone that can identify what will work for you or not.
Second, many bbers have used steady state to get ripped, you’re not special, give it a shot if you think it’s what you’re missing.
And if you’d rather not do it, then don’t. Why are you even bothering to post this shit? You’ve already made up your mind, you just want someone else to ‘back you up’ in your decision so you don’t feel responsible for your decision.
Well since I do it in the morning and I’m not even hungry when I wake up it’s not much of a challenge to do it without eating. I mean that it’s easy to do and I don’t even feel hungry for a good 45 minutes to an hour after.
If I lift on an empty stomach, which is most times, I get hungry about 20 minutes after I’m done.
I used to do about 30 mins of rucking 5 days/week with a lighter pack (only about 30lbs). I would do this fasted, first thing A.M… Although I should probably have gone heavier pack-wise, I found it felt pretty good and did good things for my BF and overall conditioning. I still did intervals/speed work 2-3 days a week and lifted but the fasted rucking definitely helped, IMO. Check out the Warrior Athlete thread on this forum.
What kind of ruck sack/back pack?(I’m not sure what it’s called) do you use and where do you buy one?
Dude, my pack sucked ass, but any decent larger “day” pack with an internal frame would work fine IMO, so don’t break the bank on anything super “tech”. For weight plastic sacks of playground sand are literally dirt cheap at any hardware store and are somewhat soft/flexible. Leave it in the bag though, way cleaner and easier to deal with. Also consider wrapping it in duct tape to help protect from puncture. You could go with something from Army/Navy if you want. I understand the old Alice packs are fairly cheap but not always super comfy. There is a thread somewhere on this site all about pack selection and loading written by the military types, if you can find it (I had a quick look but couldn’t). Also depending on your budget consider a weight vest. If you don’t have to ruck (with a pack) for work this is probably just as good and way more comfortable. About 50lbs of total weight should be good.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the input batman
Hey Matty, I’m glad you decided I was lazy because I don’t currently train in the morning. Anyway, my research on the subject has led me to believe that fasted cardio is a lot like the “fat burning zone” on cardio equipment… where we shift away from actually giving a shit about intensity so we can burn a higher percentage of fat… which makes little sense because we should be focusing on raising our metabolism. I like Alwyn Cosgroves take on it.
Now… my initial question was “is it only effective as an add-on to training?” There is no way in hell I’m going to experiment with stopping my strength training program to put fasted cardio in place of it. I don’t have the desire to abandon my current program in favor of 3 months of experimentation. It was a theoretical and philosophical question anyway… which you didn’t answer or provide any insight into.
Dude, I called you lazy because you want answers from people about how you’ll respond to fasted cardio. No one is going to be able to tell you how you’ll respond to it.
I don’t know where you got the idea that you have to stop strength training while doing fasted cardio.
Why are you pondering hypotheticals that you’re not going to try? Quit the mental masturbating.
Depends on the goal of the person. I don’t see why it would be ineffective w/o concurrent strength training, although I don’t think it would be optimal for body composition purposes.
Well sometimes it’s hard to understand exactly what someone is asking around here. It helps if we know what your goal is and where you’re starting from.
If you like you can do cardio after your weight training 3 times a week and see how that goes. See if you can do it fasted. If you get too hungry then have a protein shake before the weight training.
[quote]batman730 wrote:
I used to do about 30 mins of rucking 5 days/week with a lighter pack (only about 30lbs). I would do this fasted, first thing A.M… Although I should probably have gone heavier pack-wise, I found it felt pretty good and did good things for my BF and overall conditioning. I still did intervals/speed work 2-3 days a week and lifted but the fasted rucking definitely helped, IMO. Check out the Warrior Athlete thread on this forum.
[/quote]
Thanks for the honorable mention brother!
Isn’t the whole purpose of a forum to discuss things? Forums aren’t places where we exercise together and try out new training methods and experiment. That’s called a gym.
So sorry for masturbating all over a forum… or maybe you are supposed to do that in a gym as well… I don’t know anymore. Maybe you have some insight?
Anyway, the whole purpose of me posting this thread was to start a discussion… I wasn’t looking for any advice on my own training. I just read the latest “fasted cardio” article on this site and wanted to bring up some new points about it. So, sorry for sounding like a dick… I’m not looking for training advice.
I actually linked to something that would have added to the discussion… but it was from a bodybuilding forum on a competing website… and I was told I can’t do that and the comment was deleted.
What it said was that fasted cardio misses the point… here’s the quote without the link (Alan Aragon)
“On the surface, it seems logical to separate carbs from cardio if you want a maximal degree of fat oxidation to occur during training. But, thereâ??s the underlying mistake - focusing on stored fuel usage during training instead of focusing on optimally partitioning exogenous fuel for maximal lipolytic effect around the clock. Put another way, itâ??s a better objective to coincide your carb intake with your dayâ??s thermic peaks, where insulin sensitivity & lean tissue reception to carbs is highest. For some reason, this logic is not easily accepted, nor understood. As we know, human physiology doesnâ??t always cooperate with logic or popular opinion, so letâ??s scrutinize the science behind the claims.”
So I guess that’s the point I was trying to discuss in the first place.
[quote]edwardhuntington wrote:
There is no way in hell I’m going to experiment with stopping my strength training program to put fasted cardio in place of it. I don’t have the desire to abandon my current program in favor of 3 months of experimentation. It was a theoretical and philosophical question anyway… which you didn’t answer or provide any insight into.[/quote]
why the hell would you stop lifting while trying to drop fat? No one is substituting FMC for lifting. You’re supposed to do both. If you’re dieting to get extremely lean you’re going to need lifting and cardio.
and for the record… you do sound kinda lazy. You’re going to have to try different things out and see what works for you cause everyone is different and everyones body reacts differently.
[quote]gregron wrote:
[quote]edwardhuntington wrote:
There is no way in hell I’m going to experiment with stopping my strength training program to put fasted cardio in place of it. I don’t have the desire to abandon my current program in favor of 3 months of experimentation. It was a theoretical and philosophical question anyway… which you didn’t answer or provide any insight into.[/quote]
why the hell would you stop lifting while trying to drop fat? No one is substituting FMC for lifting. You’re supposed to do both. If you’re dieting to get extremely lean you’re going to need lifting and cardio.
and for the record… you do sound kinda lazy. You’re going to have to try different things out and see what works for you cause everyone is different and everyones body reacts differently.
[/quote]
Yea buddy.
IMO, it makes sense for FMC to keep insulin as low as possible as these sessions are dedicated to using stored fat.
For intervals, since you’re going for EPOC and not kcal burned, I’d fuel those sessions for maximizing EPOC.
[quote]edwardhuntington wrote:
Because I’d rather not do any steady state cardio. I was just asking because it seems to me that if it isn’t effective by itself, it probably isn’t worth my time. I’d rather spend that time sleeping or picking up things off the ground.[/quote]
It works and it is good for your mind and body. You don’t have to cut back on lifting for a brisk walk although hard running may screw up your leg training.