In theory this makes perfect sense. No glycogen available, so straight to the fat stores for energy. When combined with hypertrophy based training, and performed on off days of said training, one would essentially achieve the illustrious goal of every man in the gym: burn fat while gaining muscle.
But something doesn’t seem quite right to me. How can you do the fasted cardio, and still spare you muscle stores from being used as fuel. It is due to this reason that I drink chocolate milk before and after cardio to try and preserve my muscle mass with some, but not too much carbohydrate, from which I can get some quick glucose for my workouts.
Is there some supplement or something people take when they do fasted cardio to prevent them from going catabolic, in regards to muscle?
is what i currently do okay? I thought it was BCAAs, but thanks for the confirmation. Am I alright with what I am doing until I can get some? Also, if I am doing cardio, should these be taken as if I were doing a lifting day?
Completely fasted no. Even if you have a few scoops of whey and 1-2 tbsp olive oil then the primary source of calories you’ll burn will still be from fat and gluconeogenesis. You can still eat before cardio but it should be low to no carb if your goal if fat burning.
[quote]E-man wrote:
Completely fasted no. Even if you have a few scoops of whey and 1-2 tbsp olive oil then the primary source of calories you’ll burn will still be from fat and gluconeogenesis. You can still eat before cardio but it should be low to no carb if your goal if fat burning.[/quote]
Correct and T-man your chocolate milk has carbs and sugar that’s why some (not I) like to use it as a Surge replacement. You want to burn glycogen up and move into fat burning mode. If you add sugar pre cardio you are adding more glycogen fuel that needs to be burned before you can hit the fat reserves.
[quote]YoungGunner wrote:
First off, just sleeping overnight doesn’t deplete your glycogen magically.
Don’t qoute me on the rest, maybe liver glycogen gets lower, but your main glyocgen stores in muscles don’t get depleted from the act of sleeping.[/quote]
Depleted Glycogen isn’t really the goal here. Morning cardio while our insulin levels are low is what makes our body tap into the fat stores.
To the OP: as long as you’re taking 6-12 grams of BCAA’S/Amino Acids with maybe some HOT-ROX 20-30 min before cardio, and keep it low intensity for no longer than 45 minutes, your body won’t use LBM or Glycogen. Glycogen is used during cardio when it’s high intensity.
People overanalyze this stuff for days. Somebody better tell the 1000s of bodybuilders who have done morning cardio that they are wasting away all their muscle. Could you imagine how much bigger Ronnie Coleman could have been if he had just known how catabolic his morning treadmill session was? (sarcasm)
What would be ideal in my mind? 5-10 grams of BCAAs with some green tea and maybe a mild fat burner.
Intensity is the key to keep burning muscle to a minimum when fasted, that is why pretty much everybody walks on an incline. Super general guideline, keep the heart rate below 70% MHR. Running or rowing or something like that would be too hard, especially for most big guys. Drinking chocolate milk before doing cardio is not a good idea if you are trying to lean up IMO.
You can do fasted cardio supplement free if you want, but BCAA’s do probably help. And fasted cardio works great if you do it right, don’t let anybody tell you different.