What is the health benefit of fasted cardio? Fasted cardio means doing cardio on an empty stomach. And this happens either first thing in the morning or after sleeping overnight. There have been a lot of theories in the fitness industry that fasted cardio can help you lose more bodyfat than non-fasted cardio.
What is the health benefit of fasted cardio? iStock- photo credit: Valeril Apetroaiei
Studies have shown that the difference in fat loss for fasted cardio vs non-fasted cardio isn’t that significant. If you are doing cardio for an extended period or high intensity interval training on any empty stomach there are side effects to this such as dizziness, lightheadedness, shaking and even fainting.
There was a study done on 20 females that were split into two groups. One group did one hour of fasted, steady state cardio and the other group did 1 hour of non-fasted steady state cardio. Both groups exercised 3 times a week for 1 hour and they followed a diet plan that put them in a deficit.
The researchers found no difference in weight loss or body composition in both groups. Many fitness enthusiasts want to make themself believe that they can lose more bodyfat doing fasted cardio, but most studies show that this isn’t the case.
At the end of the day, you should pick what works best for you but neither of them work better than other when it comes to losing bodyfat. Some of the risks of doing fasted cardio are muscle loss and a decrease in exercise performance because your energy is impaired because of the lack of calories in your system at the time of exercise.
If you have a medical condition of low blood sugar, low blood pressure or you are pregnant then you want to avoid doing fasted cardio. Fasted cardio isn’t for everybody so be careful in trying this out. Most people have better workout results when exercising in a non-fasted phase.
If you are going to do fasted cardio try to implement low to moderate intensity steady state cardio like walking, biking, elliptical, swimming for 5 to 10 minutes to see how you feel. Try not to implement anything high intensity when doing fasted cardio.
The Bottom Line is fasted cardio is not better than non-fasted cardio when it comes to fat loss. Studies show there aren’t any significant differences in losing body fat when it comes to fasted cardio. Fasted cardio isn’t for everybody because most people can’t workout on any empty stomach because it affects their energy and strength levels.
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References
- Schoenfeld BJ, Aragon AA, Wilborn CD, Krieger JW, Sonmez GT. Body composition changes associated with fasted versus non-fasted aerobic exercise. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2014 Nov 18;11(1):54. doi: 10.1186/s12970-014-0054-7. PMID: 25429252; PMCID: PMC4242477.
- Villablanca PA, Alegria JR, Mookadam F, Holmes DR Jr, Wright RS, Levine JA. Nonexercise activity thermogenesis in obesity management. Mayo Clin Proc. 2015 Apr;90(4):509-19. doi: 10.1016/j.mayocp.2015.02.001. PMID: 25841254.
