Five years ago the conventional wisdom was that any serious workout on an empty stomach was detrimental to your gains. Without food in your belly, your body would actually devour your muscles and you would never become strong. This sounded like quite the horror story to me and probably everyone else who heard it and so I believe most people accepted the idea at face value. This was despite the old “hack” about walking every morning in a fasted state. According to that conventional wisdom a brisk walk in the morning before breakfast would place your body in a de facto “fat burning zone” and the fat would melt off with minimal effects on your muscle.
Alright, look, I am not a nutritionist or a scientist who studied the effects of fasting. 95% of what I am learned about fasting has been done through YouTube videos (specifically Thomas DeLauer, who I consider the GOAT of all things fasted) and though I have applied them in my life and workouts I have not always had the results I expected and in no way formally tracked my progress. My approach has been in the classical “bro science” model and though this may not make for the most precise and informative blog perhaps just my experience will suffice in being interesting to someone who has been researching the lifestyle.
I have not had a single non fasted workout in about four years now. The claims which the fasted crowd makes is that fasting will do several things:
1) Increase energy
2) target fat loss
3) loss of MINIMAL muscle mass
These three points are the main short term fasted workout benefits. I am not talking about the long term fasted benefits which reads as though one discovered the fountain of youth. Typically I will stop eating around 10 pm at night, skip breakfast the next day, and then have my workout around lunchtime. Usually after this workout I break my fast with a protein shake mixed with creatine.
Do the benefits occur? Let’s go through each one:
Increased energy: the idea behind the increase in energy for a person in a fasted workout is that you are tricking your body into thinking you are in a near fight or flight situation. Your body, unaware that it is merely a routine workout, will shuffle some adrenaline to your limbs and allow for that “fasted edge” so many wonder at. Personally, I never felt this so strongly, but it could be that my body has merely become accustomed to it and no longer supplies this extra boost to me.
Fat loss: I can say that I believe the claims are true. Since beginning fasted workouts I have not gained so much weight, at least when I was also following a high protein/low carb diet. Besides the (around 16 hour fasted) workouts, I have also attempted several 48 hour workouts. Typically I will have a single workout on the first day and then coast/walk mostly on the second. On these longer fasts I have felt as though I lost more fat. I have also had friends who practice a once weekly 48 hour fast and have lost lots of weight.
Minimal Muscle Loss: I am definitely not Phil Heath, but I can report that during this time I have in fact put on muscle. Have I put on as much muscle as I would have without the fasting? The research says no, but unlike the conventional wisdom of a few years ago the loss should be very low.
My protocol has been a standard 8 hour window for eating. Between 1-9pm I have all my meals and calories. I follow a paleo diet most days and even on the days I do not I will still skip breakfast.
I hope this helps someone who is curious about trying fasting. It’s been overall quite pleasurable and fun for me.
SWF 
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