Cardio Empty Stomach Plateau Buster
In my previous article, I talked about your gut health and its impact on losing weight (plus other nasty diseases like diabetes and mental illness).
Today I’m going to tell you about a form of exercise that might seem a bit extreme at first, but according to science, it CAN work.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to (and it’s pretty much impossible) follow all this advice all at once.
My goal with these articles is to help you with useful, simple and proven methods to get over your weight loss plateaus.
So far, I’ve talked about…
- Mindset changes
- Diet changes
- Lifestyle and workout changes
Most of them were easily implementable into your routine.
Remember, plateaus are TEMPORARY and they can be OVERCOME.
Here’s the total opposite of high-intensity interval training (aka HIIT).
Let’s see how it works…
Plateau Buster #15
Do Cardio On An Empty Stomach First Thing In The Morning
There’s an argument among scientists and fitness coaches as to whether is it okay to do it fasted (or morning) or not. There are both advantages and disadvantages of doing cardio on an empty stomach.
Here’s what science has come up with.
A study tested the fat burning effect of fasted cardio vs regular cardio on cycling men. There were two groups, one of them fasted overnight and the other ingested 0.8g/kg of glucose or fructose before hopping on their bikes to do a moderate ride (1).
The results were interesting.
The fasted group’s rate of fat burning was higher than the group’s that had eaten before the test. HOWEVER…
The catch is that this trend applied only during the period of MODERATE intensity exercise. That means that doing lower intensity exercise in a fasted state in the mornings might result in more efficient fat oxidation.
An opposing argument to empty stomach cardio, however, is that it might be a better idea to maximize fat oxidation after the exercise, rather than spending hours of burning fat during low or moderate intensity exercise.
Dozie Onunkwo, Ph. D. in biomedical engineering, summarized his thoughts and experience on fasted cardio as the following in his 2011 article. “I’d have to place fasting cardio in the “Everybody’s body is different” category. For those who can drop fat easily, fasting cardio might not be necessary. But for others that struggle to burn fat in those stubborn areas, fasting cardio may be beneficial. Also, with the differences in fat utilization in women, it may be more beneficial for the ladies…”
This statement alone indicates that it’s worth giving it a shot if you’re struggling with a plateau.
Basically, empty stomach cardio is the total opposite of high-intensity interval training. Both have their pros and cons, so choose whichever suits you the most.
Alright, that’s all for today…
I hope that you’ve found these suggestions to be useful so far.
There are three more to come! So let’s keep in touch.
Your friend in fitness,
Mark Patrick
P.S. Need help losing weight? Try the power of hypnosis…
Mark Patrick’s Lose Weight Seminar with Hypnosis (Online)
==> See details about the next seminar
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Reference
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15795476