Fasted cardio vs Fed cardio(only BCAA) vs Fed cardio(whey) vs Fed cardio(Carb whey)

[ftfaaa]

Firstly, there are many people will ask whether they should drink whey or bcaa before fasted cardio. From the definition, eating anything with calories violates the definition of fasted cardio and they should belong to fed cardio. (Note even BCAA has calories)Therefore if you want the true fasted cardio, you shouldn't drink bcaa or whey before cardio. However, in fact we don't care about the rigorous definition of fasted or fed cardio and we just care about which one can lose more fat and keep more muscle.

Therefore which of following is most efficient for losing fat and keep more muscle:

1. fasted cardio( can only drink water and dark coffee before cardio)
2. fed cardio (drink only BCAA and dark coffee before cardio)
3. fed cardio (drink only whey without carb and dark coffee before cardio. Note: most brands of whey contain sugar, here I mean pure wpc or wpi powder without any sugar or carb)
4. fed cardio (eat carb and whey before cardio)

[Tucane]

For fat loss; Fasted cardio, unless you move less or calories are eaten back later on.

For muscle retention: Fed cardio, unless it's compensated for by eating less or moving more later on.

Simply put, energy balance rules.

[Luclin999]

Your lean mass retention will be minimally impacted by moderate (300-400 calorie/session) cardio in a fasted state.

However depending upon how well your body regulates its blood sugar levels while in a fasted state, you may have less endurance and become fatigued faster performing cardio while fasted vs. fed.

Example: Personally, I can handle a 30 minute session on my elliptical machine (5 min warm up, 20 min HIIT and 5 min cool down) in a fasted state without any problems while on the other hand my wife cannot even be on the machine for 10 minutes in a fasted state without feeling "woozy".

Ultimately though, unless you are doing extreme amounts of cardio, then the only factor that really matters is whether you are in a daily deficit or not.

[ftfaaa]

Your lean mass retention will be minimally impacted by moderate (300-400 calorie/session) cardio in a fasted state.

However depending upon how well your body regulates its blood sugar levels while in a fasted state, you may have less endurance and become fatigued faster performing cardio while fasted vs. fed.

Example: Personally, I can handle a 30 minute session on my elliptical machine (5 min warm up, 20 min HIIT and 5 min cool down) in a fasted state without any problems while on the other hand my wife cannot even be on the machine for 10 minutes in a fasted state without feeling "woozy".

Ultimately though, unless you are doing extreme amounts of cardio, then the only factor that really matters is whether you are in a daily deficit or not.

Therefore no BCAA or protein before morning workout right? I'm for cutting fat.

[MeadxHole]

Semi-worth a quick read.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4242477/

At least it's true science haha

[bLinkMoore]

Fasted and fed cardio will have the same effect on weight loss if you total caloric intake is the same.

Don't worry about the BCAAs

You won't be losing muscle from fasted cardio unless you're in an aggressive deficit and doing tons of cardio

[sunsean]

Don’t know how much truth there is to this, but I heard a while back that risk of muscle loss is minimal if cardio sessions are 1 hour or under, regardless of intensity. I’ve used this as my personal cut-off for all cardio, fasted or not, and it has worked pretty well for me.

This would also partially explain why sprinters are much more muscular than distance runners (on top of the explosive nature of sprinting).

[ftfaaa]

Semi-worth a quick read.



At least it's true science haha

I've seen this paper, it says the best way is to only drink casein protein before morning cardio
"Metabolic impact of protein feeding prior to moderate-intensity treadmill exercise in a fasted state: a pilot study" (Please search this name, I cannot post link)

[Tommy W.]

Fatloss is a product of a consistent calorie deficit over time and not a product of meal timing. If you like training fasted as many do then do it. If you like training in a fed state then do that. At the end of the day it won’t matter.
Anecdotally fed is better as you can train harder and burn more calories

[hardyboysare]

As both the papers highlighted above have overall stated there is no significant difference between fasted vs non-fasted cardio

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4242477/

https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/arti...970-018-0263-6

The idea behind paper two that increase in fat oxidation post exercise from consumption of casein and whey increases fat oxidation is because the increase in protein causes higher dietary thermogenesis. It is well known that protein burns more calories in digestion then the other two macros (higher TEF), therefore this support with exercise would increase higher levels of fat oxidations.

That said the author of the article does highlighted the problem of the results when examined on a longer bases:-

Quote:-

"Limitations of the current study include the lack of a mixed gender cohort and the absence of longer-duration metabolic assessment following the cessation of exercise"

I can imagine based on other research that if you measured the results over a 24hr period with all subjects consuming the same level of protein then overall fat burnt during the day would be equal.

Research suggest that fed exercise actually would be more beneficial for performance for multiple reason firstly for glycogen storage which would offer higher performance ability of exercise both cardio and weights (you can work harder). And also to benefit from the raised MPS from engaging in resistance exercise.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4042570/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5852756/

That said for weight loss neither are more beneficial.