Sugar after fasting-cardio in morning?

[BodyMachine]

Curious, would it be advisable to eat something with sugar in it, say tbls honey, after doing a fasting-cardio session upon waking up? I want to make sure to kill any catabolic process in my body hence why I would think sugar would be ok, but not sure.

[Montague]

I prefer BCAA’s during any type of training for anti-catabolism.

Sugar certainly has its place in training.
It can be very beneficial during and/or immediately following resistance work.
But, a lot depends on what kind of diet you're following, your goals, as well as your individual genetics/response.

I'm a much bigger fan of healthy fats over carbs for their benefits.
Since you’re doing fasted cardio, I’m presuming fat loss is your goal.
Many people have good luck getting lean on moderate-high fat/very low carb diets.

[tbombz]

how often do you eat protein during the day? you should be eating it at the very least every 5 hours. if youve been asleep for 8 hours (or more) then the first thing you should do upon waking is drink a big glass of water and eat your first protein meal of the day. as long as that first meal doesnt contain any more than a few grams of carbohydrates hidden in your protein/vegetables, then it should not hinder the fat loss process of your morning cardio. over time, because of increased muscle retention due to the introduction of protein before the cardio, you will actually be leaner. so its a superior way, not just for muscle mass but for fat loss as well.


now, on to the idea of sugars after exercise

if your on a fat loss diet and looking to preserve yoru muscle mass, the first priority is protein. once youve met your protein requirements  (about 1 gram per pound of lean bodyweight spread out pretty evenly over 3 or more meals) there is no benefit to eating any more protein.  after physical activity your body will be in a depleted state and energy hungry. by ingesting sugars, one causes its body to release a vast array of hormones and various messengers that signal the muscle cells to start growing.  also, because sugars cause spike in certain "fat storeage" hormones (like insulin for one), the body takes this as a signal that it can loosen up its "grip" on the fat burning machinery in the body.... so once the sugar clears the blood stream and the storeage/growth hormones do too, then the muscles are primed to burn through fat stores more efficiently. 

[Montague]

Don't listen to dizzy.
He's only got one working meniscus.







 

[BodyMachine]

Thanks guys.

Yeah fat loss (while maintaining muscle obviously) is my goal at the moment. I'm still in the "bulk" phase; kind of been for the past 2 years since currently a natty. But alas, I have put on a bit more fat then I wanted on my mid section and ass, hence why I'm trying to add in some "safe" cardio; by safe I mean doing Tabata sprints, all other forms of cardio seemed to shred me of muscle. FYI I eat 30-40grams protein every 3 hours 5-6 times a day, sometimes only 4 times when I have no appetite.

That said, I consume about 3-4 servings of Gatorade power (which contains about 39-52 grams of fast carbs) after weight trianing, which I dont mind. However, it's the morning fasting cardio that I was unsure of if I should consume a small amount of simple sugar or not. From the sounds of it from the two of you, it seems I should not but rather stick to BCAA's and/or protein powder only. Please let me know if my understanding is incorrect.

I tend to sleep till 11am (10-12h sleep), so I knew I was fairly depleted from fasting during sleep. Hence the whole reason I added a touch of honey today was because I honestly felt catabolic after my Tabata run. But if protein/BCAAs are enough then great, certainly don't want to hinder my fat loss.

Rant: being natural honestly sucks in my opinion, so many factors will melt muscle off (for me anyway). If I don't get enough sleep for a few days, boom, muscle loss. Not enough food because its not accessible, boom, muscle loss. Trained a bit too much in the gym, boom musle loss. Maybe I'm overly paranoid, but I worked damn hard over the years and the slow gains + potential to loose muscle if all varibles aren't "right", drives me nuts. End Rant  

[tbombz]

Don't listen to dizzy.
He's only got one working meniscus.

BASTARD 

Thanks guys.

Yeah fat lose (while maintaining muscle obviously) is my goal at the moment. I'm still in the "bulk" phase; kind of been for the past 2 years since currently a natty. But alas, I have put on a bit more fat then I wanted on my mid section and ass, hence why I'm trying to add in some "safe" cardio; by safe I mean doing Tabata sprints, all other forms of cardio seemed to shred me of muscle. FYI I eat 30-40grams protein every 3 hours 5-6 times a day, sometimes only 4 times when I have no appetite.

That said, I consume about 3-4 servings of Gatorade power (which contains about 39-52 grams of fast carbs) after weight trianing, which I dont mind. However, it's the morning fasting cardio that I was unsure of if I should consume a small amount of simple sugar or not. From the sounds of it from the two of you, it seems I should not but rather stick to BCAA's and/or protein powder only. Please let me know if my understanding is incorrect.

I tend to sleep till 11am (10-12h sleep), so I knew I was fairly depleted from fasting during sleep. Hence the whole reason I added a touch of honey today was because I honestly felt catabolic after my Tabata run. But if protein/BCAAs are enough then great, certainly don't want to hinder my fat loss.

Rant: being natural honestly sucks in my opinion, so many factors will melt muscle off (for me anyway). If I don't get enough sleep for a few days, boom, muscle loss. Not enough food because its not accessible, boom, muscle loss. Trained a bit too much in the gym, boom musle loss. Maybe I'm overly paranoid, but I worked damn hard over the years and the slow gains + potential to loose muscle if all varibles aren't "right", drives me nuts. End Rant  

you sleep for way too long to do your cardio before eating dude!!! ur eating up just as much muscle as ou are fat!

[BodyMachine]

i figure it's all relative. if i go to bed at 1am wake up at 11, that 10h sleep. whats the diff if i got up at 8am and went to bed at 10pm? unless of course u are saying 10-11h sleep itself is too much?

Also, I figured that since Tabata is only 4 min long, I'd be ok as far a muscle loss as I had whey protein immediately, what do you think? (fyi I usually include BCAA's but I figured 2 scoops of whey has enough BCAAs).

I am willing to change to make this more "correct", just teach me  . Admittedly, cardio is not my area of expertise, I omitted it for 3 years (kept in decent bf range too until recently when I started eating more).

[tbombz]

i think that after 10 hours of sleep(10 hours of not eating) the first thing you should do is eat meal #1 for the day.


the benefits of doing cardio in the morning are due to a lack of insulin and nutrients in the blood for the body to use instead of body fat.

 eating a protein meal before cardio wont make the cardio any less effective for burning fat, not short term, and especially not long term(as i already pointed out, it should actually be better for fat loss long term due to increased muscle retention.


one thing to understand is that digestion, absorbtion, and utilization is a long process that doesnt happen within seconds or minutes, but hours.  if you eat a chicken breast and some veggies 20 mins before doing your tabata (or any other type of cardio), that meal still wont even have begun to enter your blood stream , nor effect any metabolic hormones.

[BodyMachine]

one thing to understand is that digestion, absorbtion, and utilization is a long process that doesnt happen within seconds or minutes, but hours.  if you eat a chicken breast and some veggies 20 mins before doing your tabata (or any other type of cardio), that meal still wont even have begun to enter your blood stream , nor effect any metabolic hormones.

true, but fast acting carbs like dextrose, honey, etc, would start right away no?

No doubt I will change it up to make sure I get say 8h sleep, drink my protein, and then do my cardio. F*ck, I wonder what kind of losses I incurred yesterday.

btw thx Tbombz

[tbombz]

true, but fast acting carbs like dextrose, honey, etc, would start right away no?

No doubt I will change it up to make sure I get say 8h sleep, drink my protein, and then do my cardio. F*ck, I wonder what kind of losses I incurred yesterday.

btw thx Tbombz

your right, processed carbs, and certain natural carbs lilke fruits, do get broken down and absorbed very quickly.

ur wlecome