Fasted training: ?

[glepore]

I was an espresso and go guy for many years. No food prior. I still don't eat much if at all before a 2 hr ride, but I do consume 60-90g of carb an hour (malto/fructose in my water) and feel much better overall.

[dsimon]

Nope just trying to lower the Blood sugars apparently Im borderline high in the Glucose and was gonna go back to the military days it didn't kill me then and I didn't have high glucose then either(and I ate way worse back then as well). thank you for everyone's input.

[tagx]

I've been doing fasted zone 2 rides, at most 2 hrs in length with the goal of burning fat and training my fat metabolism. It seems to be going decently and I've gotten better at it.
I wouldn't want to be fasted for anything above zone 2 though.

[Likes2ridefar]

I commuted for around 10 years fasting by accident. I didn’t bring any water and typically had coffee before and ate at work. It was about 40’ one way. As a result to this day I struggle to consume enough water the first two hours and never feel the need for food unless it’s greater than 2 hours. I can’t say it’s been beneficial and is more likely to dig me into a hole on longer rides.

[meyatt]

Even if you woke up and rode / worked out it's not exactly fasted. Your body still stores enough glycogen from the evening before in order to workout for 1-1.5 hours.

This type of ride can help create a caloric deficit (since you're not layering carbohydrates pre or during the ride) but generally they are not intended to be high-intensity sessions, they'll just be Z1-Z2 rides.

That all said as others have pointed out, if performance is the goal, you want your carbohydrates. There's no sense in going out there and trying to hammer VO2 on am empty stomach, both your performance and adaptations will suffer.

[aaronffs]

related question: what do you all eat before early morning (hour long) hammer fests?

[zap]

Originally Posted by aaronffs

related question: what do you all eat before early morning (hour long) hammer fests?

Toast with peanut butter. Small bowl of Oatmeal as well when ride is scheduled to be 80+ miles.

Egg McMuffin with bacon works too.

[Likes2ridefar]

I eat homemade steel cut oats with various fruit in it, agave syrup, maybe cinnamon or other seasonings, and a monster dollop of peanut or almond butter.

Edit! I see for an hour…for that duration just a banana or similar and then a sports drink mix in a bottle. Was thinking longer.

[Tandem Rider]

I ride almost every morning right after waking up, no food needed, just a cup of coffee, dress and roll. I eat food when I get back, an hour isn't long enough for me to process anything I eat into energy anyway. Plus, there is no possibility of my keeping any food down if I decided to do an interval or VO ride immediately after eating, no matter the time of day, I need at least a couple of hours of digestion first. How do you guys ride like that right after eating?

[Derosid]

I think a lot of this discussion depends where you are in life. If you are under 30 and doing some serious workouts then pre-loading makes a lot of sense. When I was racing in high school we always ate something before starting long training rides, and had a sports drink in the bottle (no energy bars back in the ’70’s).

However, now that I have moved into the “vintage” category of rider my metabolism and fueling needs have changed. Over the past 15 years I have converted to intermittent fasting (IF), with a 12-16 hour gap in eating overnight from the time I finish dinner to the time I eat breakfast. I made the change because of the emerging literature that showed how IF can help with insulin levels, glucose levels, and cholesterol metabolism. I’m a professor of neuroscience but by no means an excercise physiologist, but I can read the primary literature and sort out the data by myself or with the help of colleagues. At first using IF took effort, but now it has become my normal state, and I’m not really hungry until late morning anyway.

I also try and eat “keto light”. I did see remarkable results (weight loss, cholesterol) when trying a strict keto diet, but I enjoy beer, pizza, and pasta too much to go the whole 9 yards with keto. So I try and minimize sugar and simple carbs as much as possible, especially early in the day, but I don’t get religious about it.

With that as a background, I find that exercising while fasting is no more difficult than exercising while eating; it depends if you have gotten used to it. Most of us have enough energy stores to workout without pre-loading, even after an overnight fast. I have found that if I can wait about 2 hrs after exercising before eating, I do seem to burn more calories for that post-workout period.

But I think the caveat here is that the total work load has to be reasonable. If we think of the total effort as effort x time, then a long Zone 2 ride should be fine for fasted excercise, as would a short but intense workout with intervals or with weights. But when you get high effort with long time, you would benefit from pre-loading. The bonk is real!

This is just my opinion, and I’m not saying my strategy is correct or even optimal. We all have different physiologies and are in different stages of life. But if you are interested in trying fasted exercising, I haven’t noticed any deficits in energy later in the day or in muscle loss. As always, Your Mileage May Vary!

[zap]

Originally Posted by Tandem Rider

Plus, there is no possibility of my keeping any food down if I decided to do an interval or VO ride immediately after eating, no matter the time of day, I need at least a couple of hours of digestion first. How do you guys ride like that right after eating?

Morning club rides are on weekends. I get up 2 hours before departure, eat (not a lot) and ummmmm......take care of some business. I chill at the beginning of these long rides. After an hour I'm pushing at the front, etc.

Intervals & weekday local wc rides........I need time to digest.

[dmitrik4]

Originally Posted by .RJ

This.

You should have enough stored glycogen to get through 2 hours of steady/easy riding. So it wont hurt anything, and unless you're training to ride under-fueled (ultras, bikepacking, etc) you wont gain anything either.

This.

Something like a 2hr Z2 ride, I might eat a snack before I start and might have a banana or something halfway through. But it's a short ride and no worries. But something like a 4+ hour ride? I'm stocked on protein/fat to start, then eating from the jump. I used to pooh-pooh fueling, but have completely come around on that; if I want to get strong I need to ride strong, which != just finishing.

A ride with a lot of 3+ work? I'm well-fueled before the start and most calories are liquid.

[edgerat]

The video that ultimately convinced me to stop fasted training. In my experience I was one of the people that would get sick after a hard effort fasted.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efmW1i_zoXY&t=2478s