Subject: fasted morning cardio 

Submitted by: John Jaquish, Malden, MA

I have read both NHE and HIE, and have enjoyed both greatly. A lot of information that was new to me, as well as some I had already known, but the most valuable thing I got from them was bringing everything together. I do have a number of questions that I hope you can help me with:

1. I hear a lot of people recommending fasted morning cardio for more effective fat burning. Is this something you recommend, or what are your thoughts on this?

2. In HIE, during the momentum cycle of workouts, you have the type of exercises alternating each week. Is this better than sticking with the same exercises for a few weeks, then switching to others?

3. I realize the efficacy of the carb-load in terms of athletic performance and anabolism, but do you believe it's actually healthy? It just seems to me sort of unnatural, and by "unnatual" I am talking in an evolutionary sort of sense. I mean, I'm sure our ancestors would have devoured large quantities of carbohydrates at some points, but this would only be possible in the form of fibrous vegetables and fructose-containing fruits, which are not the recommended carb-load foods.

 

1. I don’t think there’s anything unhealthy about fasted morning cardio, but I don’t recommend it. Even if you burn a bit more fat (which you probably do), you’re likely to store a bit more fat from the post-workout meal. The total amount of calories burned is the same, the only difference is the fasted element, and we know that anytime fasting is involved bioregulatory feedback kicks-in. Fasted morning cardio is sort of a gimmick, and unfortunately gimmicks rarely succeed at outwitting the body. Furthermore, you need to weigh the speculative benefit of fasted morning cardio against the greater subjective difficulty of training in fasted state. For folks barely able to marshal the motivation to train, training in a fasted state might be just enough to make them quit.

2. No, one is not better than the other. The key is to vary your routine, the pattern of variation is less significant.

3. You are correct that a modern day carb-load diverges from an ancestral one. There are other aspects of the modern diet that differ from it as well, some of which are unavoidable and not all of which are bad. I think variation and occasional indulgence is important for long-term compliance, and the desirability of “athletic performance and anabolism” should not be dismissed. Our ancient ancestors often didn’t get enough carbs to fuel an optimal workout.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

. . . you need to weigh the speculative benefit of fasted morning cardio against the greater subjective difficulty of training in fasted state.