Have you been wondering “Is fasted cardio better for fat loss?” it’s about time to find out once and for all.
When talking about fasting, it really feels like you're talking to competing teams
Is fasted cardio good for fat loss and better than fed cardio?
Before providing you an informed answer, let’s play a game: take a few seconds to think about an answer yourself. What do you think?
Long-story-short the answer is NO: fasted cardio doesn’t make any difference compared to cardio after eating.
Now that you have read the answer, let’s see why
Here is the science behind the answer:
Body composition changes associated with fasted versus non-fasted aerobic exercise
Study structure: two groups of young female volunteers randomly assigned to either the training fasted or the training fed group.
- The training fasted group had an overnight fast and went straight to a steady state cardio session of an hour.
- The training fed group had some food – a snack – before doing the same steady state, hour long cardio on a treadmill.
- The steady state cardio sessions were three times a week and hour long under monitored condition to be sure that the intensity was moderate or MISS (what other types of cardio are there? Check it here.)
Key elements of the study to have very clear
- Moderate steady-state intensity (MISS) is usually the type of cardio recommended to increase the usage of fat for energy in your body.
- The subjects had customized dietary plans designed to induce a…. surprise, surprise calorie deficit.
- The participants had nutritional counseling throughout the study to help ensure dietary adherence and self-reported food intake was monitored on a regular basis.
Long story short, they ate a specific amount of calories and tracked them through an app, specifically MyFitnessPal.
After four weeks what did the study find in the participants?
The findings indicate that the body composition changes associated with aerobic exercise and a hypo-caloric diet are similar regardless whether or not the individual is fasted or fed prior training.
What does this mean?
It means that if you want to do cardio:
- When fasted because it makes you feel great, perfect, go ahead, do it.
- After having a snack because it makes you feel better, perfect, go ahead, do it.
The point is, if you're looking for ways to lose fat that are sustainable in the long term, the rule is simple
You have to be in calorie deficit no.matter.what.
On top of that add exercise because it’s really important for your health and if it is associated with a calorie deficit, this is the combination that helps you lose fat and keep it away in the long term.
The next time your trainer tells you that to lose fat you AbSoLuTeLy have to do fasted cardio, gently tell your trainer to f*** off and choose a better trainer.
You now know that there’s no substantial difference in fat loss if you work out fasted or fed.
Once again, what's the simplest way to lose fat?
I said it above and I’ll say it again here: if you want to lose fat, you do not necessarily need to do any kind of physical activity as long as you are in calorie deficit.
This is still the simplest way to lose fat, although there is a lot of data suggesting that:
a change in your nutrition plus an exercise program is far more effective in promoting long term fat loss than with nutrition only.
This is pretty straight forward: if you keep the energy level consistent but do more activity – you consume more calories – you will lose body fat a little faster and more consistently over the long term while being able to keep it off.
What type of exercise? Fasted cardio!?
You do not need to go to the gym and become a body builder when it comes to exercise.
If you can’t do anything else just practice a very simple but consistent exercise as the study shows: walk.
The steady state aerobic training in the study is similar to walking for an hour three times a week.
For your general health walk more than three times a week and aim for at least 7500 to 8000 steps a day, even better if you can do 10,000.
Point is:
be consistent in whatever goal you aim to achieve daily
One last consideration for you to make an informed decision
If you’re weight lifting and you want to do it in a fasted state, good luck with that.
Pushing hard while being on an empty stomach and hungry, will greatly reduce your performance and your results.
In case you really are into doing fasted training, let me suggest that you eventually do some fasted cardio, eat something and then go ahead and lift.
Lifting or an empty stomach is miserable and it won’t help you perform like you would normally.
If you’re wondering, yes, I’m saying this also from personal experience too.
Just one study?
There are several studies on this topic, here you can find a peer review for you to find out more information.
The peer review study takes into consideration several studies and the result is still pretty much the same: there’s no significant difference if you do cardio while fasting or while having food in your stomach.
Ultimately, it is a matter of your preference.
Keep doing the one thing that you prefer because this way you’ll be able to keep on doing it consistently but do it while informed and not just because you saw it on TikTok and it looks cool.
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