Deborahg382's Journal, 29 Apr 14

I really think it's a bad idea to do resistance training with an empty stomach because, when you train, you are tearing muscle tissue (made of proteins). When this happens, and the body doesn't find proteins lying around in your system, it will "canibalize" proteins from your own muscle tissue, including organs like your heart. The other consequence of this is, you will have a very hard time building muscle because there is no construction material available. You can mitigate this with almost no calorie impact by having like a protein bar or some other low caloric protein source :). Apart from the protein, you might also feel confusion, disorientation, light-headedness, cold sweats, impaired vision etc, that would be caused by low blood/sugar, and this is very dangerous for your brain. Take something to eat just in case. If you start feeling like that, eat it right away because your brain being deprived of glucose causes brain damage! Exercise is one of those things. It burns calories while you do it. It also burns calories after you do it by raising your metabolism. But doing it without fuel can take your body to the limits :P 

Euheide, I heard its good go to fasted, but I plan to come home and eat after. What is your thought?  

All of the IF sites I have found say to exercise in your fasted state. That's what .i do and have lots of protein after. 

Here's one http://fitness.mercola.com/ sites/fitness/archive/2012/08/24/intermittent-fasting.aspx. Part of the explanation for why exercising while fasted is beneficial is that this regimen complements your sympathetic nervous system (SNS) along with your capacity to burn fat. Your body's fat burning processes are controlled by your SNS, which is activated by exercise and by lack of food. Another reason is that fasting can trigger a dramatic rise in human growth hormone (HGH), also known as "the fitness hormone." Recent research found fasting raised HGH by 1,300 percent in women and 2,000 percent in men!1 The combination of fasting and exercising maximizes the impact of cellular factors and catalysts (cyclic AMP and AMP Kinases), which force the breakdown of fat and glycogen for energy. This is why training on an empty stomach will effectively force your body to burn fat. Exercise and fasting also yield acute oxidative stress, which keeps your muscles' mitochondria, neuro-motors and fibers intact. (You may have heard of oxidative stress before in a negative light, and indeed, when it is chronic it can indeed lead to disease. But acute oxidative stress, such as occurs due to short intense exercise or periodic fasting, actually benefits your muscle.) Regardless of when you choose to exercise, remember that you need to eat 30 minutes after your workout, which will effectively break your fast. If you exercise in the late morning or early afternoon, you could break your fast by including 20 grams net protein from a fast-assimilating source like a high-quality whey protein concentrate 30 minutes before you start your exercise, and then have another recovery meal 30 minutes after. 

Thanks so much for all that Kriz AZ.. I plan to go fasted but eat upon my return home. Some days will be on my fasting day, but I will consume up to 500 calories on those days.. I will try to push more protein on those days.  

Thanks for asking! :) If the exercise is light, there should be no problem in eating afterwards (blood sugar-wise). But, protein-wise, remember that, when you eat, it takes at least like 1 hour or two for the food to be processed and its nutrients to become available to the body. If you want the proteins to be available right after training, the best timing to eat is like 1 hour before training ;) Just make sure it's something light. If you do this, just about when you're finish training, is the time when those proteins become available. if the exercise is light, you don't have to worry too much about low blood/sugar. :) Protein-wise it's a matter of choice though. The most important is the blood-sugar if the exercise is going to be intensive, just have some snack ready (just in case)  

I prefer lifting on an empty stomach and eating after.I just don't feel right if I eat before.However some people get light headed and sick if they do this. So take it slow and see how you feel. 

Thanks you Euheide and King of the North- lots to consider. Appreciate your input! 

That is definitely interesting information Kris! I didn't know all that! The link doesn't work though because FatSecret trunks links. What you can do is use Tinyurl.com to shorten the adress. That usually works :) 

If you choose to go fasted Deborah, just take a snack with you just in case. You don't need to eat it unless you start feeling hypoglycemia. Kris's information definitely looks worth considering! You're welcome! :) 

This a great topic (exercising during a fasted state) and one that I have been curious about for a while. Deb thanks for posting your entry so that this info could be shared. And thanks to Kris AZ and euheide for such excellent remarks. Very interesting and so much to learn about how our bodies work.  

Once you start going to the gym you will love it , and you will not want to miss it, It will become the highlight of your day. If you miss a day , you may even feel guilty , once it becomes a habit, on the days that you don't go, you could do some other activity that would be different from what you do at the gym. Some people recommend going to the gym every other day to rest your muscles and on the off day you could do yoga, swimming or something more relaxing. but still an activity. 

Karenromiaih2002 we will go Monday- Friday. I plan to do legs one day, cardio day, then arm day rotations. Decided cardio on fast days, and resistance training on feed days.  

Euheide, thanks for the tip on urls! Here's my 2nd try...let me know what you think, as I'm not sure... http://tinyurl.com/a29mdw3..... 

It's always difficult to be sure with so much conflicting information nowadays heheh. I'm like that too. I'm taking a look at it right now! :) Just to confirm, the title of the article is "The Power of Intermittent Fasting" right? :) 

Just one small thing that's on this article. I'm not disputing it, but just putting it in this context "le. It takes about six to eight hours for your body to metabolize your glycogen stores" When resistance training, you will deplete your glycogen stores after doing just two or three sets though, depending on the intensity. Exercise apparently changes the speed at which you deplete your glycogen stores tremendously (again, I'm not sure about any of this). Another thing (and now I'm not questioning the theory) is that, protein timing is, in itself, controversial. Some recent studies have found that, the most important is to have the right amount of proteins for the day. So, that's why I said that , the time of day when you eat your proteins might be relative or even unimportant. It's always a little counter intuitive though since, right after you working out, the damage is already done to the muscles and, supposedly, the body would start the reconstruction right away and searching for materials to do it. Due to that always feel that, it's best to have your proteins being absorbed near the time when your muscles have been worked. But the fact that there is that study which denies the importance of protein timing, explains why I'm not so certain about it heheh. That being said, When it comes to an improved health and longer lifespan, I think (though I'm not sure) that you can reduce your calories in other ways, not only by fasting. As long as your calories are less than normal, from what I read/heard so far, you're getting that benefit :). Again, this is only my perception. The thing that brings me most doubts in this article is the time fasting as a condition to get results since, what I have seen in documentaries so far, only talked about the calories being lower overall, for the day. It didn't mention the supposed fact that the time you go without eating plays an important part in it. This is something that brings me doubts but that I can't deny either heheh. But it's definitely thought provoking! :)  

That study which found that the most important was to have that number of proteins for the day, basically had athletes divided into two groups. One group would obey a timing for proteins before and after training, while the other group would completely ignore timing but both groups would have the same number of proteins for the day. The results supposedly were identical for both groups, in terms of muscle building. Of course that, this possibly doesn't show what impact it might have had health-wise for the group that did not to have proteins more readily available. 

Interesting stuff! :) 

Yep that's the article, feel free to dispute, I won't go off about it because I have no experience in this and just want to find the best thing to do when I read all these different ideas. Thank you! 

I only know that on the day that you do ab workout, you are suppose to do it on an empty stomach. I read an article that you should probably do your exercises on an empty stomach, because a lot of them do incorporate the core muscles, and it needs to be empty. when I was training my personal trainer , only wanted me to drink water, during the exercises, no food, then after I would have an egg white omelet with cottage cheese, mushrooms and spinach. that's what he would have me eat, he wanted me to have protein with veggies.