Intermittent Fasting Morning Workout Schedule

Working Out Your Timing

Optimizing your training timing within your intermittent fasting will depend on various factors, among others:

• When is your preferred time for exercising?
• What is your current or expected intermittent fasting schedule?
• What type of sports do you practice?
• How well do you perform on an empty stomach and is there room for adaptability?

We will dive into more details down below, but here is a summary table to help you optimize your training along with your intermittent fasting schedule. It details when each type of workout can be performed:

When talking about a fasted workout, you need to give your body time to adapt. If you are new to intermittent fasting or experimenting longer fasts, it is best to adapt to this new fasting routine first and incorporate workouts in a fasted state afterward. Similarly, if you are trying new sports or higher difficulty levels for your workouts, it is recommended to practice those first in a fed state before adding the fast to the equation. In short, dont do too much too soon.

Intermittent Fasting For Weight Loss

Is intermittent fasting an effective way to lose weight?

Absolutely.

Is it more effective than other regular calorie-restriction?

Probably not.

Fasting might offer a few unique health benefits, but most people use intermittent fasting to lose weight. In a 1999 survey, some 14% of Americans reported using fasting to lose weight.24 Since then, fasting and intermittent fasting have become increasingly popular. The number is likely higher today.

To lose weight and body fat, you must burn more calories than you eat.25 Every single diet that results in weight loss does so by creating a negative calorie balance: you eat fewer calories than you expend.

Many weight loss methods do so by changing your behavior.26 You lose weight simply by eating less, but keeping it off requires a lifestyle change. If you go back to your old habits, youll eventually regain the weight.

Intermittent fasting is such a method.

When you limit your eating to only a few hours a day, or a couple of days a week, you make it harder for yourself to overeat.

Most people trying to lose weight do not keep exact track of their caloric intake.

Lets face it, weighing everything you eat and counting calories is a hassle. Not to mention trying to track how many calories you burn.

The weight loss is still the result of a calorie deficit, of course, but intermittent fasting makes it happen without any effort from you.

Intermittent fasting offers a couple of hormonal advantages compared to regular dieting.

Here’s An Example Of What I’d Eat In A Day During My Weight Loss Phase

• Pre-workout snack: Toasted Ezekiel bread with one tablespoon of peanut butter, a sliced banana on top, sprinkled with chia seeds and a little honey.
• Breakfast: Egg white omelette with pico, spinach, and turkey bacon or turkey sausage, with an avocado on top.
• Lunch: I’d usually pre-pack a protein smoothie or have burger and avocado.
• Dinner: I do shrimp, chicken, or steak with broccoli and avocado. Sometimes I switch out the broccoli with asparagus, sweet potatoes, or corn. But I tried to keep it easy and consistent.
• Snacks: Paleo chocolate chip cookies from my local Fresh Kitchen or some Skinny Pop popcorn.

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Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting has cellular and hormonal benefits. When we fast, certain hormones skyrocket. Human growth hormone is the main hormone thats affected via intermittent fasting. HGH has muscle-building and fat-burning properties. Insulin sensitivity and circulating insulin levels also drop. When youre in a fasted state, your body makes changes to genes that effect longevity.

Research has also shown that fasting for certain periods may result in increased fat burning even when daily calories are the same versus typical dieting.

Aside from the health and fat-burning benefits, youll experience getting leaner and being able to maintain it easier. Since youre cramming all of your calories into a shorter eating window, youll experience a feeling of fullness. You can finally be full while eating for fat loss!

In addition to that, because youll have more calories available for your eating window, youll be able to fit in more fun, cheat foods than on a typical diet. Imagine being able to eat ice cream or pizza every day while getting ripped!

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Jasminko Ibrakovic

What Are The Negative Effects Of Intermittent Fasting

In my own experimentation with Intermittent Fasting since 2014, I have found very few negative side effects with Intermittent Fasting.

The biggest concern most people have is that Intermittent Fasting will lead to lower energy, focus, and the holy crap I am hungry feeling during the fasting period and ruin them.

People are concerned that they will spend all morning being miserable because they havent consumed any food, and thus will be miserable at work and ineffective at whatever task it is they are working on.

The following are my thoughts and experiences, and your results may vary:

Yes, the initial transition from EATING ALL THE TIME, to intermittent fasting MIGHT be a bit of a jolt to your system it was for me.

However, once I got through the transition after a few days, my body quickly adapted and learned to function just as well only eating a few times a day.

Although I fast for 16 hours per day with no issues, the following might help assuage your fears that skipping breakfast will cause your body to eat itself and your brain to implode:

After 48-hours of fasting in a recent study , cognitive performance, activity, sleep, and mood are not adversely affected in healthy humans by two days of calorie-deprivation. Youll be fasting for far less time than that.

So why do I feel grouchy and lethargic when I skip breakfast?

If you eat breakfast every morning, your body expects to wake up and eat food.

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Schedule #: Alternate Day Fasting

With alternate day fasting you eat every other day.

What it involves

You eat normally one day. The next day, you dont eat. Repeat.

People who benefit

This is an advanced fasting schedule that works best for people who have already mastered fasting one or two days a week.

As with schedule #6, its ideal for people whose lifestyles reinforce the fasting schedule. Think of hospital medical professionals who work 12-24 hour shifts. For them, it might be easier and even preferable to not eat during their shift.

If you try it:

• Practice fasting for shorter periods, first. Again, this is an advanced practice. Before trying alternate day fasting, experiment with fasting once or twice a week.
• Plan for when you will break your fast. Make sure youve got food at the ready.
• Be flexible. If you break the fast early, you didnt screw up. Try to learn from it and move on. Also, try not to compensate for mistakes by fasting even harder. For example, if you eat dinner on a fasting day, dont skip a meal on your eating day in order to make up for it.
• Take time off from fasting when your life gets busy. ADF doesnt pair well with hard training, excessive life stress, or even someones monthly menstrual cycle.

The Science Of Fasted Workouts

The body relies on three key energy sources to fuel a workout the three macronutrients carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.

Carbohydrates are quickly broken down into glucose, the bodys preferred energy source. Glucose travels through the blood and is stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver. It provides a rapid supply of energy and is essential fofr high intensity activities.

The key for fasted workouts is that glycogen reserves are in relatively short supply. After an overnight fast, glycogen stores are significantly reduced. With less of this carbohydrate energy available, the body responds by burning more fat.

And heres proof. A number of recent studies showed that fasted state exercise increases fat burning both during and after exercise when compared to exercise after food. After a 29-day Ramadan fast, those who had exercised on an empty stomach reduced their body fat percentage more than those who had exercised after food, despite the same calorie intake. Exercising on an empty stomach has also been linked to improvements in VO2 max the gold standard for measuring aerobic fitness and cycling performance.

Hey presto, skipping breakfast equals super fat burning workout. Not so, err fast.

Despite the science has shown badge of approval, there are a number of consequences to working out on an empty stomach which you should consider.

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Watch Out For The Side Effects Of Intermittent Fasting

Your sex, stress level, and age can increase the chances of IF side effects like insomnia, fatigue, and poor recovery. This is especially true for intense fasting schedules like alternate day fasting.

Side effect #1: Intense fasting can disrupt sex hormones.

If estrogen is your dominant sex hormone , you may be more sensitive to energy intake than someone who has testosterone as their dominant sex hormone . Piling on too many stressorsextreme exercise coupled with extreme dieting, for examplecan lead to a cascade of problems, including:

• mood disorders and mental health problems
• thinking and memory problems

In Dr. Scott-Dixons case, too-frequent fasting combined with too-heavy training as well as general life stress and an anxious temperament resulted in estrogen, progesterone, DHEA, LH, FSH, and cortisol levels that were effectively zero. I was in my mid-30s and menopausal, she says. Ive seen this situation in many of my female clientssome as young as their mid-20s.

As a result, most women will want to gravitate toward the gentler forms of IF and be careful about how they pair those options with a fitness program.

Side effect #2: IF is a stressor, which can make you feel run down.

If someones under a lot of pressure, a gentler form of fasting is probably best. If you attempt an advanced fasting schedule such as ADF, youll want to give your body plenty of TLC on your fasting daysand schedule exercise for your eating days.

Meal Plan Template #3 3 Meals A Day When Working Out In The Evening/night

Meal One:

0.5-2 cupped handfuls of carbohydrates

1-2 fistfuls of vegetables

1-2 thumbs of fat

Pre-Workout

2 scoops of branched-chain amino acids with 16-24 ounces of water, or 20-40 grams of whey protein. For added muscle gains, include carbohydrate protocol in Workout Nutrition section of the book.

Meal Three/Post Workout

Super shake . If you want to see more on how to make super shakes, you can check out my blog here.

You could also follow the protocols in the Workout Nutrition section in the book.

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Intermittent Fasting And Strength Training: The Ultimate Guide

Intermittent fasting is a popular pattern of eating. Millions of people use it to lose weight, improve their overall health, simplify everyday life, and even live longer.

What is intermittent fasting? Does it work, is it safe, and how do you do it? And can you build muscle while doing it?

If youre looking for answers to those questions, youll find answers to them and many more in this article.

Lets get into it!

Key points:

• Intermittent fasting is a pattern of eating involving alternating periods of eating with periods of fasting. Its not so much about what you eat but when you eat.
• There are several popular ways to do intermittent fasting, with none being inherently superior.
• Intermittent fasting is a proven and effective way to lose weight.
• Fasting regularly offers many health benefits, although most of these are attributed to weight loss.
• You can maintain and build muscle while doing intermittent fasting, although the jury is out on whether its as effective as a traditional meal pattern.
• An intermittent fasting diet is generally safe, although it might be best to consult your doctor if youre pregnant or diabetic.

Which Method Is Best Intermittent Fasting Or Regular Calorie Restriction

The method you like the best!

Its as simple as that. If you prefer eating your meals spread out over the day, thats your way to go. If intermittent fasting fits your schedule and allows you to stick to your diet better, go for it.

Regular calorie restriction and intermittent fasting are equally effective for weight and fat loss. Overall, the hormonal benefits you get from fasting dont seem to sway the outcome over time.313233 For example, a recent one-year long study found that participants who ate their meals at a certain time lost similar amounts of weight and body mass as those who ate at any time.34

For pure weight loss, calories trump everything.

Intermittent fasting might help you keep more of your hard-earned lean mass while losing weight. Thats a huge benefit. The keyword here is might, though. We dont have enough evidence yet to say for sure. In any case, nothing suggests that regular fasting makes you lose more muscle than traditional dieting. If anything, its the opposite.

One significant benefit of intermittent fasting is that you feel less hungry than when youre on a regular diet.35 Or at least you might be able to handle it better. Instead of feeling hungry all the time, youre able to fill your stomach during your eating window and still lose weight.

In summary, intermittent fasting is an effective way to lose weight. While it might not be more effective than simply eating less, it helps you do so without counting calories.

Read more:

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Intermittent Fasting Morning Workout And Schedule

If youre looking for the best workouts to do in the morning with intermittent fasting, you came to the right place. Ill share various exercises in this article with a sample of intermittent fasting morning workout schedules. These exercises will burn more calories, boost stamina and muscular endurance and help you develop a better body shape over time.

Youre Fasting Should You Work Out

• You may burn more fat.
• If fasting long term, you could slow down your metabolism.
• You might not perform as well during workouts.
• You may lose muscle mass or only be able to maintain, not build, muscle.

If youre set to try IF while continuing your exercise routine, there are some things you can do to make your workout effective.

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Intermittent Fasting And Schedule For Working Out In The Morning

Wake up: 7am take Kino OCTANE pre-workout to give me a boost.

Workout: 7:30-8:30

Apple: 12pm

First meal: 2pm

Obviously, you can adapt this fasted training schedule to your lifestyle and the time you wake up. If you wake up at 11am, dont break your fast with a meal or fruit, until at-least 3pm.

Heres another important point to make! Research is clear, that setting more calories and carbs for the evening leads to improved fat loss and muscle retention on the diet.

I am a firm believer in saving more calories and food in the evening, regardless of when you train! Now, if you want to be very cautious, you can do fasted training BCAA supplementation. You would take two doses of 10g of branch chain amino acids around training. Ive used this strategy very effectively.

For example, one dose about 10 minutes before fasted training. And a second dose 1-2 hours after your workout. This will elevate protein synthesis.

That said, if youre hitting your calories/macros each day and building strength in the gym, you likely already have everything you possibly need on the protein side.

Stressing over post workout nutrition, meal timing and BCAAs is missing the absolute point! Its about making your nutrition extremely enjoyable and making progress in the gym. If you need a kick in the butt before your workout, is best bet. If youre worried about breaking down too much protein and muscle, then BCAAs can help But dont stress about the small stuff.

The 16/8 Or 14/10 Method

16/8 – eating times from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm

14/10 – eating times from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm

This is probably the most common approach to intermittent fasting. It may be the easiest, and here is why.

While youre sleeping, youre not eating so you may as well utilise this time and bake it into your intermittent fasting routine. Eat an early dinner and begin your fast and then break it in the morning, traditionally with break-fast. But heres why this may not work for your morning routine.

After fasting for 16 or 14 hours, you may not have the energy storage to complete a successful workout early in the morning. Its hard to rework the fasting times unless youre prepared to have dinner at like 4:00 pm then you could eat before your workout. We recommend investigating the following methods of intermittent fasting as they are more suited to morning workouts.

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Theres Really No Getting Around This So Well Just Come Out And Say It

Depending on the intermittent fasting schedule you follow, your exercise performance will most likely sufferat least for a while.

The good news: You dont need to stop working out. You need only find your sweet spotthat magical place where youre working out just enough and fasting just enough to meet your goals.

In this chapter, well give you a road map that can lead you to that place. Youll learn:

• How to organize your IF schedule around your workouts

May Help Prevent Cancer

Cancer is characterized by uncontrolled growth of cells.

Fasting has been shown to have several beneficial effects on metabolism that may lead to reduced risk of cancer.

Promising evidence from animal studies indicates that intermittent fasting or diets that mimic fasting may help prevent cancer. Research in humans has led to similar findings, although more studies are needed (

However, more research in humans is needed.

SUMMARY

Studies in animals suggest that intermittent fasting may be protective against neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers disease.

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