Work out on an empty stomach. Sense or nonsense?

Can I simply train on an empty stomach and actually increase my fat metabolism efficiently? We compared two training sessions. One workout before and once after breakfast. Here are the facts...

The idea of working out on an empty stomach

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It's actually explained relatively quickly. In the morning after a night's rest Our body is in a type of metabolism “basic state”. The blood sugar level is relatively low, which could of course be quickly changed by eating breakfast. Exercising on an empty stomach should have the exact opposite effect. Instead of adding carbohydrates, you want to train the body to expand fat metabolism by “withdrawing” carbohydrates. The lower availability of carbohydrates should virtually force the organism to burn more fat. But is that really possible?

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Fat metabolism when exercising after breakfast

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In our first training session, we completed a 60-minute run with the same load on the treadmill. Previously, on the basis of a spirometric performance diagnostics determines the ideal exercise intensity with maximum lipid metabolism activity. On this day, the last meal was about 2 hours before exercise. It can therefore be assumed that the carbohydrate stores were well filled and that the blood sugar level was relatively high. Fat oxidation was measured spirometrically during exercise.

At the beginning of the exercise, our muscles consumed approx. 130 g carbohydrates and approx. 12 g fats per hour. It can be seen that the proportion of lipid metabolism (orange curve) continued to increase over the course of exercise, as carbohydrates were constantly consumed with continuous exercise. The result was a slow but steady reduction in carbohydrate availability, which explains the steady increase in lipid metabolism.

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Lipid metabolism when exercising on an empty stomach

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In order to be able to make a comparison, the training was repeated on an empty stomach a week later. The conditions were exactly the same (same day, same time, same precharge). The only difference is that the last food intake took place the night before (12 hours before exercise). It can be assumed that carbohydrate availability was very low this time even at the start of the exercise. This was also immediately reflected in the measured data.

This time too, the proportion of lipid metabolism increased over time. However, was Lipid metabolism is significantly more involved right from the start, compared to training after a previous breakfast. On average, during this training on an empty stomach, there was a Twice as high fat burning instead of. Conversely, this fasting workout also consumed significantly less carbohydrates!

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The impact of fasting exercise on heart rate

Looking at the heart rate is also extremely exciting. The heart rate during maximum fat burning was very different in both training sessions. The average measured Heart rate was higher during fasting exercise compared to training after a previous breakfast. This can be explained by the fact that more oxygen must be converted during fat metabolism. The increased oxygen demand leads to increased respiration and heart rate.

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Conclusion: Exercising on an empty stomach leads to increased fat burning

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With this measurement, we were able to show that fasting training is actually effective fat metabolism training. If you want to train your fat metabolism, you can use this method and train on an empty stomach! However, it is important that you hit the ideal range during training! Anyone who trains too intensively on an empty stomach will inevitably use more carbohydrates and miss the training goal. Where the perfect intensity of fat burning is In the Twaiv app, we determine using algorithms, with which we calculate the individual physiological profile.

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