This article is for those who are actively engaged in strength training and looking to utilize intermittent fasting to give more chance for the body to utilize fat as energy source rather than just carbohydrate energy. The application explained in this article may not be suitable for those who are not strength training for minimum of 2 times per week.
Before sharing information on how to utilize intermittent fasting, let’s talk about basic physiology of how our body utilize energy.
Two Ways of Energy Usage
To provide energy, majority of us have two ways. One is converting carbohydrate into energy. Second is fat that we stored into energy. When we eat food, our body store energy as glycogen into our liver and muscles. This rule does not change regardless of what diet you are following. Even with low carb diet, our liver can convert amino acids into glucose which can also be stored as glycogen in a process called gluconeogenesis. This process can also answer the question of how our body convert stored fat into energy. When our body is low in carbohydrate or glucose, then the hormone called glucagon get secreted by pancreas and utilize fat for our use.
Hormone Dictates Energy Source
So, when we are exercising, the first energy source that will be used by the body is glycogen, which is stored form of glucose. However, when you just consumed food, the insulin, secreted by the pancreas, will be high. When insulin level is high, our body is in storing mode rather than spending mode, which means our metabolism is slower. This is a reason why we don’t want to participate in any physical activities immediately after we consume food or beverages with calories. It is ideal to exercise 1-3 hours after the meal to decrease the insulin level and increase the glucagon level, so the body is ready to use the energy.
Importance of Warm Up
By understanding how our body utilize energy we can also appreciate the importance of warm up. Warm up, along with preparing our joints and muscles to move, has very important role of elevating our metabolic rate or how our body utilize energy we’ve stored with food we ate.
Generally, warm up is suggested to in a purpose of raising heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle temperature to signal the body that we will be needing more energy source. Steady state cardio, such as biking, walking on treadmill, elliptical for 10-15 minutes are ok, but does not usually elevate above criteria effectively. Instead, using method that involve push, pull, squat, lift and carry low to moderate intensity is more effective and able to prepare the body for higher intensity exercise.
Intermittent Fasting and Exercise
Intermittent fasting has been a fitness and nutrition topic for quite a while. However, this is usually explained for those who are not physically active and using nutrition only to improve their physique and fitness level. But is it useful for those who are physically active? Answer is “it depends”. It is depending on what your goal is. For those who are looking to improve fat utilization through diet and exercise, properly used intermittent fasting can add value.
When using intermittent fasting to train the body to utilize fat, long duration of intermittent fasting should be practiced on no lifting days or low intensity days. When performing, squat, deadlift, bench press and other high intensity exercises, the body will need proper fueling and may need to be eating 1-3 hours prior to the strength training and ideally 45-90 minutes after the training. Type of nutrients you will need are proteins and minerals. Carbohydrates are optional, however, if you are working on weight loss through diet and exercise, then you should avoid consuming carbohydrates.
When choosing the duration of intermittent fasting, choose something that you can handle and avoid skipping dinner. Reason, for not skipping dinner is because hunger may negatively impact our sleep assuming that we are in starvation. Putting exercise and sleep in perspective, duration for intermittent fasting for those who are regular with exercising are between 12-16 hours. So, if your last meal is at 7pm, you will be fasted until 7am for 12 hours and 11an for 16 hours fasting. Of course, the duration does not have to be exact so if you fall short or fasting became longer, don’t worry about it.
You may practice 24-hour intermittent fasting to promote fat metabolism, however, not on your lifting days. This is to keep the quality of performance during exercise.
Intermittent Fasting is Flexible
With intermittent fasting, only thing you should keep in mind is your recovery from your training to training. If you feel your recovery is slow, you may need to stop intermittent fasting and feed your body properly for ideal recovery. Remember intermittent fasting or any other nutrition plan is not designed to make you and your body suffer.
Think of intermittent fasting as way to train the body to utilize fat as a fuel. Majority of time we consume frequently with added sugar and overly processed food that body has no chance of utilizing fat as fuel. Therefore, the body does require to have some time to spend stored fat.
It is also very flexible. You can do intermittent fasting one day and off on the other day based on your schedule and comfort.
To become stronger and have better physique frequent adjustment is necessary because our body is constantly changing especially if you are regular with strength training. Make sure to use intermittent fasting wisely so that your body is recovering and getting stronger.
Kota Shimada
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