There are a lot of comments and opinions about the benefits of starting a sporting practice without having ingested any kind of food, but the truth is that fasting training is nothing more than wanting to train without having breakfast because that will make us lose weight much faster there are certain scientific patterns that demonstrate what are the real benefits of this strategy, as well as those who are the people most indicated to carry it out and their contraindications are.
What is empty stomach training?
Ayunar refers to spending a period of approximately 8 to 12 hours without ingesting any food. Many people will think it’s a very long period without eating, but if we take into account that it is recommended to sleep for at least 8 hours a day, there the fasting would already be fulfilled. Many people follow the well-known intermittent fast.
The glycogen in the liver, which is the reserve of carbohydrates, will be at a lower level after a long period of fasting. The body stores glycogen in two ways:
– Muscular: It is used when muscles are exercised, and can hold up all night because it is not used.
– In the liver: Decrease while we sleep, as the glycogen of the liver must supply the fuel brain.
The real goal by which people do fasting training is to lose weight and fat, but is it viable for any type of training?
There is a lot of history and evidence in the practice of fasting training carried out by elite athletes from disciplines such as cycling, marathonists, and triathletes, among others; in order to achieve better use of fats during training and thus optimize the process of fat consumption.
Estefanía Fernández, nutritionist, educator, and coach of Adidas Runners Madrid; better known on social networks as StefyActiva, conducted research to try to find out if the real goal was to achieve only benefits at the level of fat and weight and found that it is much more complex.
The study took a sample of two race athletes, who had to run for 10 km before the studio started. These athletes were taken anthropometric measurements such as weight, folds, perimeters, and diameters, as well as tested with several career tests to measure their metabolic variables, career economy, blood lactate, and speed.
Six weeks after the investigation, which culminated in another 10km race, the results that were effectively observed were a clear improvement in weight and body fat in the athlete who did the fasting training, compared to the athlete who did not. But, beyond the good results obtained in weight and body fat, there was an excellent improvement in the competition values, that is, a higher speed in the 10 km race. The nutritionist concluded that this type of strategy can offer an improvement in the performance of career-to-walking efforts.
Advantages of training on an empty stomach:
The empty stomach cardiovascular exercise has certain benefits such as preventing problems associated with diabetes, as fasting train improves insulin sensitivity, one of the main causes of diabetes and obesity; it helps to activate the body, but also:
– It does provide greater energy efficiency, as the body is able to use more fats as fuel and not be as dependent on glucose.
-It is capable of increasing energy capacity by increasing the capacity of glycogen deposits, inducing the creation of new mitochondria, those cells that function as a battery for our body. You can be fully able to exercise without the need for breakfast.
– It also improves metabolic flexibility, cholesterol, and triglycerides in the blood.
StefyActiva concludes with a few recommendations if you are a person who has no problems exercising without having breakfast:
– Let the training be a low to moderate-intensity cardio, that is, walking at a quick pace or jogging.
– Have consumed a dinner with at least one serving of carbohydrates the day before.
– Recover us after training or breakfast, with a serum protein with L-Glutamine to promote muscle recovery.
For other cardiovascular exercises such as HIIT, which has a lot of evidence at the level of fat loss, it is better not to be fasting.
Precautions when it comes to doing so:
It is very important to keep in mind the following if you decide to start fasting training:
‘It’s important to start training softly, as chances are you’ll feel weak or even get dizzy. Give up time to adapt and your body gets used to it.
– He’s going through the exercises. The body is often used to it if you always do the same routine, at the same time and with the same duration. So once your body adapts to the initial phase, see the pace rising and changing the exercises.
– Careful with stress. If you’re going through complicated times where your body and mind are subjected to a lot of stress, it’s best to rest and not push your body to the limit, it can be harmful.
– Exercising on an empty stomach usually causes loss of muscle mass, so be careful with your muscles and keep them well.
What Does Science Tell Us?
Currently, the vast majority of scientific research being done is with people who perform large-scale sports as athletes, for example, but there is very little evidence to support the results in normal people who exercise to eliminate body fat.
All these studies show positive results regarding an improvement in the rate of fat oxidation, an increase in enzymes that are involved in lipolysis, a decrease in intramuscular triglycerides (fat), increase in hormones that stimulate the mobilization of fats (lipolysis), but in almost none of the studies (except 1 or 2) they demonstrated a direct benefit in terms of loss of body fat, that is, there is no sustainable scientific evidence to show that performing this type of strategy increases the loss of body fat.
The answer to this is that no matter how much fat mobilization there is during empty-stomach training, the body can NOT use all these fatty acids as energy, so all these fatty acids that were mobilized in your blood are again stored as fat, because the recommended intensity to do this strategy does not require much energy, such as an HIIT.