about cardio on an empty stomach in the morn...

[jimovertx]

I'm pretty sure this has been brought up many times, but I tried searching and really couldnt find a straight answer on this really. I currently have a three day split. MON, WED, and FRI are my workout days and TUES, THURS, and SAT are my cardio days. For my PRE and POST nutrition for my workout days are cool, but with cardio I really want to do it on an empty stomach so I can really get rid of the unwanted fat. Question is this. How badly will my muscle be hurt if I do cardio on an empty stomach? One of the dudes at my gym has a three day split and he does his cardio on an empty stomach in the morn and follows it immediatly with a shake. I asked him the same question and he said it doesnt hurt muscle gain at all. He told me as long as I keep cardio with weight training on sept. days and eat right everything is cool. Any truth to this madness?

[mustang GT]

Well he is right about keeping cardio on seperate days from weight training and and eating right. However, when you first get up your body is in a catabolic state and doing cardio on an empty stomach may not be the best thing for muscle.

I tried doing cardio on an empty stomach when I first got up, and I lost muscle. If you do your cardio on an empty stomach in the morning, take a serving of whey protein about 20 minutes before your cardio to prevent muscle breakdown. Try that out and see how it goes

[Tear]

Why does everyone always worry about burning muscle when they run. Geez, just run for health and to burn fat. Don't worry about muscle unless you're running in a damn marathon.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by mustang GT

doing cardio on an empty stomach may not be the best thing for muscle.
If you do your cardio on an empty stomach in the morning, take a serving of whey protein about 20 minutes before your cardio

that's about the best advice you can get, Jim. Also take some whey after.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by Tear

Why does everyone always worry about burning muscle when they run. Geez, just run for health and to burn fat. Don't worry about muscle unless you're running in a damn marathon.

Because we work so damn hard building that muscle, we want to do anything possible to prevent loss.

[cursor]

Give this thread a read: Burning Muscle?

[Tear]

Originally Posted by Steve

Because we work so damn hard building that muscle, we want to do anything possible to prevent loss.

Yah, I understand that perfectly. but how much muscle can you lose by running 1-2 miles a few times week?

[qlharvey]

I rather be in shape and slightly less muscular than big and out of shape.

[Octagon]

Originally Posted by Tear

Yah, I understand that perfectly. but how much muscle can you lose by running 1-2 miles a few times week?

That's a fair question but it raises a few too.

How much fat can you burn by running 1-2 miles a few times a week?

More to the point, how much *more* fat will you burn doing that running on an empty stomach as compared to doing the same running after eating something?

Proponents of cardio on an empty stomach make it sound like you're going to burn tons more fat and my rather strong hunch is whatever fat-burning differences there might be are a bit more marginal than that.

To be fair, the pro empty stomach folks do have some credible research on their side. The problem is, that research almost always focuses exclusively on the workout and a short period following it to the exclusion of the other 22 or so hours in the day. It also tends to be fairly theoretical rather than practical. You almost never see studies that say things like 'we looked at 30 people trying to lose weight over a period of sixteen weeks' and that's a shame because *that's* the practical comparison we're all trying to make when we ask these questions.

Does it really matter how much fat is burned *during the workout*? No, not really. What matters is how this stuff plays out over time and what, if any, effects differences like empty or full stomach has on the body and those are much tougher calls.

[Tear]

Sprint 2 miles 4 times a week and see how much fat you lose

[Octagon]

Originally Posted by Tear

Sprint 2 miles 4 times a week and see how much fat you lose

Probably not all that much, actually. Cardio is a great exercise and essential from an overall health and fitness standpoint but is often greatly overrated as a fat burner.

At a 7-8mph pace it will take roughly fifteen minutes to cover 2 miles and you'd burn somewhere between 200-250 calories (depending on a ton of individual variables including like bodyweight, metabolic rate, etc).

At a more leisurely 5mph pace it would take about 25 minutes and somewhere between 250-300 calories to cover that same 2 miles.

Even bumping the pace up to 10mph isn't going to significantly increase calories burned running 2 miles.

Regardless of pace, you're basically looking at burning between 200 and 300 calories four times a week for a total of 800-1200 calories burned per week. At those rates it would take between (a little under) three weeks and (a little over) four weeks to burn a single pound of fat.

Contrast this with trimming 500 calories from your daily intake which will burn a pound of fat in seven days or three vigorous one-hour sessions slinging weights around which can burn between 350-500 calories per hour.

And again, none of this tells us anything about whether cardio on an empty stomach is a better overall fat burner than cardio on a full stomach and that's an important question. Earlier you basically said 'why worry about muscle anyway, just run to be fit'.

Well, okay.

But what if something as simple as eating a quick meal before running had no impact on overall fat loss and minimized muscle loss.

Wouldn't that be worth knowing?

[Tear]

Negative

[Octagon]

Originally Posted by Tear

Negative

Well, I certainly can't argue with that

[Jock]

Excellent post Octagon, some very good conclusions in there. I cannot disagree that cardio is an overrated fat burner, because that is very true. However, I don't think you can totally ignore cardio when trying to lose fat, it does have a place.

Jock

[Octagon]

Originally Posted by Jock

However, I don't think you can totally ignore cardio when trying to lose fat, it does have a place.

In a general sense I totally agree. Cardio offers significant health benefits that you just don't get from lifting or nutrition and if your ultimate goals are geared toward fitness, health and longevity cardio is an essential part of a balanced regimen.