Early lunch and late gym is key to weight loss
Exercising on an empty stomach in the evening is the best way to keep in shape, say researchers
THE secret to losing weight while working a 9-to-5 job is an early lunch, a hungry afternoon and a gym session in the evening, scientists have found.
Fasted cardio, or exercising on an empty stomach, is a weight-loss tool that some dieters employ before eating breakfast. However, most people prefer to work out in the evenings, and researchers have shown that adopting the tactic during the day before a post-shift workout burns 70 per cent more fat than if you eat before you exercise.
Individuals who had eaten lunch at 11:30am and then did not eat again for seven hours before exercising at 6:30pm were found to burn 7.7 grams of fat after a 30 minute bike ride.
Those who had another meal at 4:30pm and were therefore not hungry or in a fasted state were found to only burn off 4.5 grams.
Scientists from Nottingham Trent University recruited 16 people who followed a strict diet and exercise regime.
Every person had breakfast at 8:30am (Golden Syrup flavoured porridge, a cereal bar and strawberry yoghurt) and lunch at 11:30am (tuna-mayonnaise or chicken-mayonnaise sandwiches, ready salted crisps and a chocolate bar).
Half were then not allowed to eat before they went to the gym at 6:30pm and cycled for half an hour. The other half ate a meal at 4:30pm before the same workout at 6:30pm.
After finishing the half-hour cycle, participants ate a meal of pasta in a tomato sauce and were allowed to eat as much as they wanted until they felt “comfortably full and satisfied”.
Participants would do the experiment twice, once in the fasted state and once in the fed group. Data show that, on average, the fasted group ate about 100 calories more during the evening meal, but over the day had 443 fewer calories.
“We wanted to explore the impact of fasted exercise in the early evening, which we’d found was the most popular time for people to exercise during the week,” Tommy Slater, a sports science researcher in Nottingham Trent University’s School of Science and Technology, said.
“Fasting before evening exercise might benefit some elements of health due to increasing the amount of fat burned during exercise, or by reducing the number of calories that are eaten during the day. If done regularly it may improve the way the body deals with spikes in blood sugar after eating.”
The research, published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, did find, however, that seven food-free hours had some downsides as the fasted group performed worse in the exercise trial and also reported lower levels of pre-workout motivation, energy, readiness and enjoyment.
These mental hurdles may, Mr Slater said, “make it harder for some people to stick with it in the longer term”.
Dr David Clayton, an expert in nutrition and exercise physiology at Nottingham Trent University, added: “Combining exercise and fasting can be a potent way to increase the benefits of exercise, so we would like to assess this over a longer period of time and explore other ways we can make fasting easier and more convenient for people.”
“This study showed that fasting for seven hours prior to evening exercise may be an effective method of reducing net energy intake, while also increasing fat oxidation,” the researchers write in their paper.
“The chronic success of this intervention may, however, be compromised by elevations in appetite and reductions in voluntary performance, as well as reductions in the motivation to exercise and enjoyment.”