Is Fasted Exercise The Secret to Faster Fat Loss?

Today I would like to give you an important secret. It has to do with fasting and exercise which is something I talk about in a few of my books. When I say a few of my books I mean of course my For Dummies books. Yes I am an “author” and yes I am very famous in these respects. But I am going to have to ask that you remain seated.

Why Fasted Exercise?

Fasted exercise is one of the best ways to get certain flabby parts of your body that are not wanted to sort of just wither away. It is very effective and I would like to walk you through a couple of ways to do it. How does that sound?

The first thing you should know is fasted exercise is a compound stress which that is when you take one stress (exercise) and add it to another (fasting). It is not for everyone. For example I would not have my grandmother do it. She is 84 and on the precipice of Life Everlasting. So I would say to her, Granny no!

Now on the other hand if you are generally fit and healthy and not decrepit, fasted exercise can be the boost you need to break through a weight loss plateau. A plateau is a sticky point, it’s a term we fitness professionals tend to use. There are other benefits as well, my little rabbit. Such as increased neurogenesis, which what that means is new brain cells are being born.

So when you know that fasted exercise works as a compound stress then you know it is not some magic thing but rather a practical mechanism for controlling calories and increasing lipolysis. Which lipolysis is just a sort of technical way of saying how it helps to burn fat.

Now obviously you do not want to rush into fasted exercise as you do not want to rush into anything. This is where people get confused, which is common. I have never known anybody to get so confused as people do, and especially about fasting and even more especially about exercise.

But here is the thing. If you are starting something new, which means something you have never done before, well you start at a level that is challenging but doable. You do not try to swim across the Atlantic before you can doggy paddle, even. Nor would you attempt a marathon after thirty years of gluttony and sin. So neither do you do all your exercise fasted or start with that high of an intensity.

OK, now let us explore our options.

Fasted Brisk Walking

Fasted brisk walking the place to start and where most of your fasted exercise should be done, especially if you look anything like that guy or maybe even something worse. A fasted brisk walk is wonderful and perfect and very good for getting rid of body fat. The intensity is not too high and so you can ease your way into it.

The best times for a fasted brisk walk are first thing in the morning, for anywhere between twenty minutes to an hour, or right after an intense workout, but before your post workout nutrition. Post workout nutrition is just a sort of technical way of saying whatever you eat after your workout.

If you do nothing but start walking in a fasted state you will lose weight and not feel too terrible doing it. Remember also that walking is very healthy and especially for the heart muscle so you should really be doing it anyway.

Fasted Strength Training

Fasted strength training is good for a cut because nothing is better at getting you to hold onto muscle when calories are being dropped. Yes you can have protein and that is fine and good but protein without strength training is pointless, like so how is for example owning a cat.

Do not however expect to gain a lot of strength or muscle from fasted strength training unless you compensate for the lack of calories somehow. Now this can be a decent way to spur new muscle growth if you do (compensate), because fasted intense exercise has shown promise at increasing insulin and muscle sensitivity, a little bit.

But really if the goal is to lose body fat the occasional fasted heavy lifting session is a nice thing. I would say do it earlier rather than later in the day however as you will have more strength sooner in a fast than not. That is what you would call a pretty obvious statement.

Fasted Metabolic Conditioning

Now here is my favorite way of working out fasted.

So what I like is to do a quick metabolic complex (10 – 15 minutes) in the morning and then follow that up with a brisk walk. After that I will have myself a little, delicious amount of protein or something of that kind. And then later I will strength train if it happens to be called for.

Depending on my goal I will either up my calories or I won’t. Usually, which means most of the time, I am focused on staying lean, so I will not up my calories in order to compensate.

The metabolic workout in the morning blunts hunger a little bit. Complexes, which I give you some examples of just below, are very fat-burning by design, so combining them with being fasted and then walking briskly is a formula that works wonders for fat loss.

Which the way I like to imagine it is the intense complex drives fatty acids into the blood stream and the brisk walk then summons them off to Bliss Eternal. Isn’t that nice?

OK, here are some examples of workouts you can try fasted. 

Just watch the video this one is too hard to explain.

Double swing, double clean, double snatch, see-saw press, front squat. Cycle through as many times as you can without putting the bells down. See how many cycles you can get in 10-15 minutes.

1-5 snatch ladder with one arm swings imbedded in every rung. Great for building grip strength and higher snatch numbers.

Conclusion

Fasted exercise works because it is a method of calorie control and a pretty good one. It can blunt hunger and increase fat burning a good amount. What I like is a quick, intense metabolic complex (10-15 minutes) in the morning, followed by a fasted brisk walk. A complex is just a sort of technical way of saying a circuit of exercises.

OK, well that’s the end of this post.

You probably have questions, so go ahead and post a comment if you do.

Strong ON!

– Pat

PS – You  might also enjoy my Inner Circle because I have plan in there that can help you lose up to 10lbs in 14 days! It uses fasting and exercise, just like I talked about.