Fasted Morning Training page

[TriGirl]

So I often do my morning workouts (swim, bike or run) in a fasted state since I find it very difficult to train right after I have eaten, but also because I believe it makes the body better at handling using fat for fuel. On the days where I wake up and feel hungry before my workout I will normally eat a banana and some protein to beat off the hunger. Anyhow I was wondering if I should eat a couple of teaspoons of coconut oil instead? Wouldn't that still make the body work as if it was in a carbohydrate fasted state and therefore very quickly go into fat burning mode?

[Diana Renata]

Great question! I'm curious what folks have to say about this as I do AM fasted workouts as well.

[sakura_girl]

Coconut oil does NOT help with the body through a glycogen-depleted state. At least for weight lifting, which is more anaerobic than simple cardio. Personal experience

[Chrish2891]

The only time I workout in a fasted state is when I'm trying to lose some body fat and its usually just a fast walk. I will use BCAAs so that I don't lose any muscle mass while training. If your doing aerobic training I would think that the coconut oil might help, especially with some protein. I would avoid any resistance or sprint training like sakura_girl said.

[TriGirl]

Hi everyone,
I guess it's not so much for the energy that I would eat the coconut oil, more mentally to get past the hungry feeling. I never do intensity workouts in the morning (except swimming, but somehow that feels different) since I wan't to have fresh legs and enough energy. But the easy workouts of 60-90 minutes without speed work etc are somewhat easy to do in the morning, and could be used to get the body more used to using fat as fuel. I just really hate going out feeling hungry. Does that make sense?

[missblue]

I do fasted workouts and also sometimes bulletproof coffee with coconut oil--I find I like both but do feel a little more mentally fortified for working out with the fat in me about an hour ahead of time.

[TriGirl]

Just read through that thread on the bulletproof coffee, will definitely be trying that when I'm done with the whole 30 - until then I am loading up on coconut oil. Missblue thats exactly how I feel about the mental part of training, so do you think that eating only fat before the workout will have the same effect on training the body to use fat as fuel as doing it completely fasted?

[LolaLola]

I'd also love to know the answer. A few times that I've been a bit hungry before going to the gym I've had a coffee with coconut milk & that has done the trick in getting rid of the hunger & seemingly helps gives enough energy for an aerobic 30-45 minutes training. Whether I'm burning the fat in the coconut milk in preference to my own fat - I don't know.

[Analog6]

Great question! I'm curious what folks have to say about this as I do AM fasted workouts as well.

Me too, I always do my swimming on an empty tum.

[feren6]

I also train fasted, and take 12g BCAAs preworkout via Leangains recommendation. But I'd recommend experimenting with different things to see what works best for you. Try the coconut oil and see how that affects your mood. IMO a banana causes a huge insulin spike for me so I'd leave that out, but some protein pre-workout could help a bit.