It’s time for another week of under-over-rated topics for us to discuss. If you haven’t checked out the previous ones, you can do so here. This is simply an opportunity for me to discuss topics surrounding nutrition, fitness and health and rate them accordingly (my personal opinion). I feel like working in the fitness Branche and different gyms (conventional gym, functional fitness gym, CrossFit gym) for the past 10 years has given me good insight to most of these topics.
If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past 2 years or so, you probably have heard of fasted cardio, but does it actually work or not? How many of you have ever heard or read something about carbs being bad? But are they? And of course, if your shirt is drenched in sweat that indicates having a good workout, right?
These are the topics we will be discussing today.
Fasted cardio to burn more fat
Over the past year I have personally experimented with intermittent fasting, with that came the inevitable scenario of doing fasted cardio. So, what is fasted cardio? It’s basically doing your regular low intensity workout, like a zone 2 training run, without eating beforehand. This works best if you do it at the end of your fasting window, anywhere from 12-18 hours of not eating. At this point your body has had enough time to reset your blood sugar level, which will allow you to use fat as your primary energy source.
Having gone through this myself, I definitely recommend this to people who are looking to lose weight and especially those who live a busy lifestyle. The science behind it makes sense and from personal experience, it works. Now, should you be doing heavy weightlifting sessions while fasting? You definitely could, but you might not get the best result. Fasted cardio, as the name says, is designed for cardio.
Final thoughts: I recommend trying this out if you are looking to lose weight and fat, especially while living a busy lifestyle, or even if you feel like you have plateaued.
Verdict: Underrated
Carbs are bad
Carbs are bad for who? The person that sits down at their desk all day long? The professional athlete that workout 4-6 hours a day? The person that lives a regular lifestyle and works out an hour a day, 4 days a week? Who are we talking about right here, because all of these people live very differently lifestyles?
Your body’ primary fuel source are carbohydrates. This means, whenever your heart rate goes up your body starts to turn to carbohydrates. If your body is in more of a passive state it will turn to fat as a slow fuel source.
It’s true that carbs haven’t been around as long as protein/fat sources, this is the primary reason why a lot of people now a days tell you that carbs are bad. Because our ancestors didn’t eat the same carb sources, we shouldn’t either. I agree with this statement to a certain extend…. but the fact is, carbs fuel your body for high intensity workouts and make your muscles recover a lot faster. Saying carbs are bad in general is too broad of a statement, which is why I think it is overrated.
Final verdict: Overrated
Sweating indicates a good workout
Pretend you’re living in warm and sunny Australia. You’re casually riding your bike through the city on a 40+ degrees day. You will probably end up sweating quite a bit, does this mean you got a good workout in? you moved, but it wasn’t at a workout level. You get what I am trying to say here.
Sweating is simply a way for your body too cool down, whether that was caused by a workout or something else. Another example here, when you’re ill your body will start sweating to get rid of the bug you caught. Does that mean you got a good workout in? Obviously not.
Some people sweat a lot and faster than others, that’s just the way it is. Just because I sweat more than you don’t mean my workout intensity was better.
Final thoughts: This statement is too broad. There’s no real measurement here. Sweating is just a way to cool down the body.
Final verdict: Overrated
6 nutrition rules to follow, part 2
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Not a method I like to try, need some fuel to burn off, I’ve never tried it, unless you could include running in the morning before break fast, I’ve done that many of times.
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Your body has plenty of fuel stored in your body to burn throughout these training sessions. That’s how people can fast for ridiculous amount of days in a row
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