Pizza-loading... It's a more specific type of carbo-loading.
If you’ve been contemplating what to eat before a workout in order to maximize your total fat loss, here’s an idea… don’t eat anything! It might sound strange to expose your body to exercise and training without properly fueling it first, but when you think about it, it’s a primal way of living.
Imagine barbaric nomads in the early years of human existence. Do you think that they sat around all day and took 3 planned breaks so that they could down a sandwich or two? Probably not. They were most likely hunting, foraging, and doing whatever they had to in order to survive and when the day ended, they rewarded themselves with the meat of their kill.
For a long time, trainers and diet experts have encouraged us to:
- Fuel up (via energy drinks/carbs/bars)
- Work out
But newer research suggests that not eating before working out has more beneficial results for those aiming to look lean and toned instead of big and bulky.
Workouts Less Than 90 Minutes Don’t Require “Fueling”
While I favorably say nothing is best what to eat before a workout along with a number of others, there’s still some debate among licensed physicians whether to eat before or after a workout depending on the training intention.
From an article in USA Today, they quoted a exercise physiology professer of the University of Leuven in Belgium, Peter Hespel, as favorably saying,
When you exercise (after fasting), your adrenalin is high and your insulin is low… That ratio is favorable for your muscles to oxidize (break down) more fatty acids.
He went on to explain that those who fast before working out tend to burn more fat because of it.
Oppositely Ron Maughan, a professor at Loughborough University for sport, exercise and health sciences stated,
That might help you get very good at burning fat, but you won’t be very good at whatever exercise it is you’re doing… Without enough fuel, you won’t get the intensity of training you need to get improvements.
While Ron Maughan makes a good point as to the intensity of the exercise restricting improvement, I’ll be referencing a study later that shows an actual improvement in muscle glycogen (stored carbohydrates to increase work ouput) as a result of fasting.
One of the common questions about not eating before a workout is
If I don’t eat before working out, won’t I feel tired and not put forth as much effort?
While this is a valid concern, it really only applies to workouts that extend beyond 60-90 minutes. Since more muscle glycogen is stored if you fast before exercising, you can expect better work output for shorter routines.
According to the study Pre-Exercise Carbohydrate And Fat Ingestion: Effects On Metabolism And Performance from the Journal of Sports Sciences, consuming more carbohydrates in the previous days and/or 3-4 hours before exercising can supply adequate energy to maintain a strong level of endurance that may last beyond 90 minutes.
From the pre-introduction,
Increased dietary carbohydrate intake in the days before completion increases muscle glycogen levels and enhances exercise performance in endurance events lasting 90 min or more. Ingestion of carbohydrate 3-4 h before exercise increases liver and muscle glycogen and enhances subsequent endurance exercise performance. The effects of carbohydrate ingestion on blood glucose and free fatty acid concentrations and carbohydrate oxidation during exercise persist for at least 6 h.
I’ve heard that this is a common method for Olympic athletes like Michael Phelps to prepare for events and get a little more competitive edge. My goal, however, is to lose more fat during my workout and that’s why I stick to more progressive strategies like Eat Stop Eat.
What Are The Benefits Of Fasted Exercise?
A study was done in 2010, Training In The Fasted State Improves Glucose Tolerance During Fat-Rich Diet, to observe the beneficial and detrimental aspects of fasted exercise.
This shot... your face.
For this study, 3 groups were created. The “CHO group” or carbohydrate group consumed a meal approximately 90 minutes before their training session, the “F group” or fasted group ate the same meal after the training session, and the control group ate the meal, but didn’t exercise. The meal consisted of 50% fat, 40% carbs, and 10% protein and the calories were hypercaloric meaning that each participant was eating slightly more than what their body would use to maintain a stable weight.
For both the CHO and F groups, they trained 4 times a week with 2 workouts lasting 60 minutes and the others lasting 90 minutes. The workouts involved a series of cycling and running.
Now, in order for your body to properly burn fat, glucose is absorbed by your cells in order to fuel the body… and maintaining adequate insulin is important for this process. Without the necessary insulin, your cells won’t absorb extra calories and the glucose becomes stored as fat. Of course exercising increases favorable insulin sensitivity, but the question is whether exercising on an empty stomach improves the process.
Some important takeaway aspects of the study was that glucose tolerence and insulin sensitivity increased favorably for fasted participants as opposed to participants who consumed a pre-workout meal. Glucose transporter type 4 (GLUT4) is an important transport for glucose into the muscle cells and this increased by 28% for the F group and only 2-3% for the CHO group. So, less glucose was left to be turned into fat for the fasted group.
Muscle glycogen (carbohydrate stores in the muscle that promote improved work output … aka “You can lift a little heavier”) increased more in the F group than the CHO group.
While the CHO group was able to train a little longer due to the carbs providing sustenance, one of the major finds of the study was the amount of weight that each group gained being on a hypercaloric diet over the 6-week period. The F group gained 0.7 kg while the CHO group gained twice as much at 1.4 kg doing the same amount of exercise and eating the same food… just at a different time.
My Recommendations About What To Eat Before A Workout
While a high-carb meal appears to be the best thing to eat before a workout, it appears that this approach is better-suited for a longer competitive physical event. If you’re getting ready for a marathon, be sure that you’re properly fueled, but if you’re going out for your routine gym session to stay in shape, skip the energy drinks and pre workout food.
Remember, feeling hungry when working out is good. You probably don’t hear that enough, but it’s true. This means that you’re body is burning stored fat for fuel instead of food calories and this is exactly what you want.
Even if it seems difficult at first, there are a number of powerful fasting strategies that you can use to fight hunger cravings and ensure that you’re burning body fat instead of food calories during your workouts. Plus, training before eating is a another sneaky tactic that allows you to overeat a little and not suffer the consequences to0 badly.
P.S. If you're interested in the diet that I use when I want to get particularly lean, it's Eat Stop Eat. It's very progressive, and probably not like anything you've tried before.
