Is working out right after a good night’s sleep a method you’ve considered? If doing this burned additional fat, would you consider doing it? I’d like to discuss the potential benefits of performing morning cardio on empty stomach. Otherwise known as fasted cardio, recent studies have shown that exercise on empty stomach burns fat quicker. Some people think, though, that when workouts are performed without eating, the intensity level goes down and the exercise does not work as well at burning fat. Still others argue that things like exercise on empty stomach result in muscle loss. Who’s right?

Advocates of morning cardio claim that your body will burn fat faster in the morning due to reduced levels of glycogen, more commonly known as carbs. This reduced level of glycogen needed to burn fat is also the reason trainers demand 20 minutes of cardio to warm-up before a workout. By eating prior to working out, your body will be saturated with glycogen, which means you will have to work out for a longer period of time before you can burn any fat. Of course, this theory doesn’t just apply to morning cardio. If you do cardio exercises or weight lifting after fasting (going between 3 and 4 hours between meals) you will receive the same fat elimination advantages. In principle, working out in the morning will give you the greatest benefits because your body will have used all its glycogen over night.

As usual, I don’t believe in absolutes when it comes to any potentially biased studies. There are still several questions regarding the value of fasted cardio that must be addressed. For instance, isn’t it just as effective tot burn glycogen as fat? Are they not still calories? The simple equation for weight loss is to burn more calories than you eat. Whether you do fasted workouts or not, the results should be the same so long as you follow this rule. Others argue whether glycogen levels are really reduced during sleep at all. They wonder if the body is able to use glycogen when it is asleep and not in motion.

Additionally, some people just naturally struggle to exercise first thing in the morning. This can be a huge problem when motivating someone to do the workout. Extenuating circumstances, like the birth of a child for example, can make the need for sleep more important to your health. After all this time, I still do not lift weights when I first get up. I do not feel like I have enough time to prepare my body properly to lift. I can perform cardio more readily since I get a nice warm-up from taking my dog for a walk around the neighborhood.

There are two misconceptions about fasted workouts that need to be discussed. The first is that you can’t exercise intensity in a fasted state. The reason this is important is that more intense exercise results in EPOC and a significant calorie after burn effect. HIIT training or high intensity interval training addresses this important issue. In my own experience, I run as quickly in a fasted state as I do after I eat in the evening. There is no change in intensity, even on intermittent fasting days. It might even be that are bodies are capable of greater intensity during fasted workouts as a matter of survival. In essence, your body’s survival mechanism kicks it up a notch to provide an extra oomph of energy.

The second misconception about morning workouts is that you risk losing muscle. This is a total falsehood as far as I’m concerned. Many bodybuilders ensure they have plenty of protein and carbs in their systems to provide their bodies will muscle building nutrients. But, these people generally eat all the time, so they are never in a position to workout without having eaten. But it is not necessary to eat a big meal before every workout. As long as you’re adequately nourished over the course of the day and continue lifting heavier weights, you won’t lose muscle. Muscle loss should only be a concern if you find yourself unable to lift as much as you could previously, and your weight capabilities continue to fall. If you’ve recently lost a lot of weight in a short amount of time, this is more likely to be the cause of muscle loss than fasted workouts or morning cardio.

While the results of current studies on exercise on empty stomach remain inconclusive, there’s no reason why you should not give fasted cardio a try. You could accelerate the rate at which you burn fat. Even if it doesn’t speed up, you will still burn the same number of calories you would have if you worked out at another time. Your exercises will not be any less intense, and you will not decrease your muscle mass. I’ve only just recently begun to perform morning cardio on empty stomach again. It’s definitely a great way to start the day.

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