North Coast Miller
Level 9 Valued Member
Anecdotally I think the response to this is going to vary by person. Thib is no fan of using it to control bodyfat.
The Fasted Cardio Folly
Lose More Fat, Stop Training Fasted For fat loss, the idea of fasted cardio makes sense… until you look at the actual science. Here’s what really happens. Fasted Cardio: Not So Fast People believe that training without eating means less readily available energy for fuel, leading to the...
www.t-nation.com
Generally the body burns more fat in response to lowered muscle glucose levels, and this effect will last until and after glucose is topped off.
Another part of this is that the body won't store hardly any surplus carbs as fat even in a sedentary person at a large surplus. It will resort to burning more carbs/less fat (REE can increase as much as 30%) and topping off every possible storage site to the brim.
In an exercising individual, de novo lipogenesis from excess carbs is a virtual impossibility, but you certainly won't burn much of your fat stores either, unless you train at a high enough intensity to deplete local storage sites of glucose.
Based on my very limited understanding, if you train fasted at high intensity it will achieve the goal of higher fat burn post exercise, somewhat, due to having smaller glucose stores to winnow down (IIRC a 15 minute HIIT session can trash muscle glucose storage by 50% or more anyway). At lower intensities it probably won't do anything that training after a meal would do.
