Teamliquid Health and Fitness Initiative for 2014 - Page 61

On April 17 2014 23:58 Arisen wrote:
So, I've got a question about nutrition in relation to working out. I've recently started walking an hour every morning. I live right on a state trail and it's a great way to see the sun rise in the morning, and I'm not much of a morning person, so I'm hoping this will start to give me more energy through the morning.

When I do this; when should I be eating breakfast? I have tried both eating before and after the walk, and both feel fine. I've heard varying opinions on doing any kind of cardio in a fasted state, and was hoping someone more knowledgable than myself could let me know what's up. If it matters any, usually my breakfast is eggs, some fruit and maybe a few strips of bacon or a few ounces of chorizo/sausage (~400-500 cals). Would it change things if I ran in the morning (I run 3x a week, thinking about moving my run to the morning) as opposed to walking?

Thanks for any tips!

On April 17 2014 23:58 Arisen wrote:
So, I've got a question about nutrition in relation to working out. I've recently started walking an hour every morning. I live right on a state trail and it's a great way to see the sun rise in the morning, and I'm not much of a morning person, so I'm hoping this will start to give me more energy through the morning.

When I do this; when should I be eating breakfast? I have tried both eating before and after the walk, and both feel fine. I've heard varying opinions on doing any kind of cardio in a fasted state, and was hoping someone more knowledgable than myself could let me know what's up. If it matters any, usually my breakfast is eggs, some fruit and maybe a few strips of bacon or a few ounces of chorizo/sausage (~400-500 cals). Would it change things if I ran in the morning (I run 3x a week, thinking about moving my run to the morning) as opposed to walking?

Thanks for any tips!

On April 18 2014 03:59 IgnE wrote:
The people who know better probably haven't tried it, and probably aren't familiar with the latest fasting research.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20837645

In 2011 van Proeyen et al. observed that training fasted does not only increase the intramuscular fatty acid oxidation in 20 healthy young volunteers, it did also and this may come as a surprise, prevent "the development exercise-induced drop in blood glucose concentration" (Van Proeyen. 2011) - the same drop in blood sugar that will make you feel exhausted and is a potential risk factor for an acceleration of the metabolic downregulation that occurs, whenever you are dieting. One year before van Proeyen et al. had already established that in times of high fat overfeeding (+30%kcal; 50% fat) only fasted training was able to increase the AMPK levels (=anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, anti-obesity effect) in young men (van Proyen. 2011).

When you take a look at the AMPK/mTOR pathways for metabolism it becomes pretty clear that in purely in terms of body composition, it's not detrimental to train (semi)fasted, as lifting in trained athletes activates the mTOR pathway, which leads to protein synthesis and halts catabolism (at least as long as you deliver aminos eventually). So exercise prevents your body from breaking down muscle during the fast.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2011.01395.x/abstract

The BCAAs pre-workout help to mitigate any muscle-specific catabolism during the lifts, while the activation of the AMPK metabolic pathway through fasting and exercise in the previous 12+ hours helps to mobilize and burn fat.

Would I train fasted if I were trying to get as strong and as big as possible as quickly as possible? No.
Would I train fasted if I didn't have as much muscle and training history as I do? I don't know.

All that said, I think farva is right that eating a small something before working out in the morning can stoke metabolic fire. Whey protein in particular spikes insulin and really cranks up the metabolism. Watch how hungry you get if you take a whey shake in the morning and then don't eat for a few hours. Personally, however, I find that people don't deal well with that kind of hunger feeling, and end up overcompensating by eating more when they get back. I think alternate day fasting is one of the easiest ways to actually drop weight without losing lean body mass because its very very difficult to overcompensate on a non-fast day when you just dropped thousands of calories from your diet the day before. It's very easy to remain compliant because the hunger passes quickly and you don't have to worry about preparing meals. There's plenty of solid research backing up it's efficacy too.

On April 19 2014 05:23 sJarl wrote:
Good to see many of you still hanging around here.

How you all been?