DOES IT ACTUALLY WORK?

Fasted workouts for max gains

For a dedicated gym enthusiast like myself – think six morning spin sessions a week, fuelled by an espresso and a banana – and someone who likes to try new trends, it’s perhaps surprising that, despite research regularly hailing the health benefits of fasted workouts, I’ve never given them a try. My reliance on caffeine and carbs to get me going had left me unconvinced. Until now. At a size 10 with an athletic 20% body fat, I’m in good shape – but I’m not at the peak I reached last year for the Women’s Health transformation challenge, when my stats read size eight and 14%. With research published by the American Physiological Society revealing that working out prebreakfast uses stored fat – rather than that bowl of granola – to fuel metabolism, plus Northumbria University saying that fasted workouts can help you burn up to 20% more body fat than post-breakfast training (with no appetite increase), I decided it was time to take the empty-bellied plunge. The principle is simple: fast overnight and don’t eat or drink before you work out. ‘People respond differently to low blood glucose conditions,’ says sports dietitian Rick Miller*. ‘So it’s best to start off with low-intensity activity. Although many individuals are able to continue their normal training under fasted conditions, it can take time to adapt.’ To go a little easy on myself, I swapped my six usual workouts for four spin classes at Psycle and, with two extra rest days a week, I was pretty excited about the prospect of losing more body fat with less effort. I didn’t find myself lacking energy when I trained first thing at 7am – but my 10am Saturday sessions were a different story. I was starving and found myself regularly (and surreptitiously) turning down the resistance. And it’s not just me. According to a small study in the British Journal Of Sports Medicine, fasted runners are less likely to be able to run as far or as fast as those who have fuelled up beforehand. What’s more? ‘There’s a chance of muscle loss if you don’t consume enough protein during the rest of the day, due to the catabolic (muscle breakdown) effect of training under fasted conditions,’ says Miller. Thank God, then,