Perform aerobic exercise on an empty stomach

There is no absolute good or bad. People who are healthy and have a certain foundation of exercise can do it with confidence. People with blood sugar problems, basic cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and fitness novices are not recommended. Blindly following the trend may cause problems.

When I was preparing for the competition in 2019, my body fat was stuck at 18% and I couldn't get rid of it for almost a month. The coach gave me a plan to do aerobics on an empty stomach three times a week, without running or jumping. When I get up in the morning, I change my shoes and climb the stairs for 40 minutes, walking slowly two steps at a time. My heart rate is controlled at around 120. After climbing, I drink protein powder and have breakfast. The effect was really visible to the naked eye at that time. I lost 0.5% of my body fat every week. I felt refreshed all day long after exercising in the morning and did not delay my strength training in the afternoon. Since then, I have been quite fond of this method.

But I have also witnessed a girl in the same gym go through a big trap. In order to lose weight quickly for wedding photos, she ran for an hour on an empty stomach every morning and strictly controlled carbon dioxide. In half a month, she lost 5 kilograms of bench press weight and shrunk 1 centimeter in arm circumference. She went to the coach with a sad face and said that she had lost all the muscles she had worked so hard to train for more than half a year. There is also a former colleague of the same company. In order to speed up the progress of fat loss, he ran the 5-kilometer mini horse organized by the company without breakfast. After running 3 kilometers, he fainted on the side of the road. He cut his forehead and had two stitches. He was unable to wear glasses for half a month.

In fact, the advantages of fasting aerobics are very simple: after a night's sleep, the food eaten the previous day is basically completely digested, and there is not much glycogen reserve left in the body. When you move at this time, the body cannot prioritize burning glycogen for energy, and can only use more fat. Public experimental data shows that under the same exercise intensity, the proportion of fat energy supply in fasting aerobic exercise can reach 60%-70%, which is about 20% higher than that in postprandial aerobic exercise. For office workers who are stuck in the fat loss plateau and are nervous in the morning, it is indeed a very cost-effective choice - there is no need to make breakfast and other digestion in advance, and the time saved is enough to sleep for 20 minutes more.

But don’t be too harsh. The objections to fasting aerobics are completely valid. It’s not an exaggeration to say that many people complain about losing muscle. If you push the intensity too high, such as running so hard that you can’t even speak a sentence, or the time is stretched to more than an hour, after the glycogen is depleted, the body will not only burn fat, but also tear down muscle protein for energy. Especially for people who don’t like to eat protein, the rate of muscle loss may be faster than fat loss. By then, the weight will be lost, the meat will be loose, and the basal metabolism will also decrease, making it easier to rebound. Not to mention that people who have unstable blood sugar, or who stayed up until 2 or 3 o'clock the day before, have high cortisol and insufficient glycogen reserves. If you force yourself to do aerobics on an empty stomach at this time, you will feel dizzy and panic, or even faint from low blood sugar. There is no need to take this risk.

I have stepped into a similar trap before. I worked overtime until two o'clock the day before. I thought I was used to climbing stairs on an empty stomach. I pushed myself up and climbed for 20 minutes. At the end of the climb, my eyesight turned black. I held on to the handrail for ten minutes before I dared to walk down. I was groggy when I went to work that morning. Later I realized that doing aerobics on an empty stomach was purely a burden on the body when I didn't get enough rest the day before.

If you want to try this method, you don’t have to listen to so many messy rules on the Internet. Don’t eat too much or too much the night before, and drink light salt water when you wake up the next day. If you are afraid of losing muscles, drinking half a spoonful of protein powder will not destroy your fasting state. Choose low-intensity activities: brisk walking, slow cycling, climbing stairs. The time should be controlled within 30 minutes, and the heart rate should not exceed 130. To put it bluntly, you can still chat normally with others during exercise. If you try it once and feel nauseous, dizzy, and have no energy all morning, then don’t do it, it means that this method is not suitable for you. You can still lose weight by resting for an hour after breakfast and then exercising again. The extra fat is really worth it.

To be honest, fitness is a very personal matter. Is there any unified standard answer? Some people like to get up in the morning and walk twice on an empty stomach to start the day feeling refreshed. Some people feel that eating steamed buns and soy milk before running is the best way to do it. They don’t need to listen to others to say which one is more efficient and just try it on themselves. The method that allows you to persevere and still feel comfortable after finishing is the best.