Once upon a time, I genuinely thought I would burn more calories if I trained fasted. Bullshit. A daily calorie intake is a daily calorie intake. So whether you’re having those 1800/ 2000 calories or however many calories you are on after a session or some of those before, it genuinely doesn’t make a difference to how much fat you drop. What you eat or whether you eat at all is down to you and your preference. Some clients have said to me they prefer to train their early mornings fasted because eating makes them feel sick during the session. Or it would mean waking up even earlier before their 6am session to eat and digest, which just isn’t doable for some. I repeat: a calorie intake is a calorie intake so DON’T train fasted IF you genuinely think you’re going to burn more calories.
Many years ago I used to weight train fasted. For me personally, I managed to do it, but only up to a point. If it was an early morning 6am session, then I could get away with it. I would jump out of bed, gym clothes on, down two glasses of a water and a coffee and I was good to go. As I became more experienced, the heavier I was lifting, I started to feel weak, dizzy, fatigued and I knew if I wanted to get better, I would have to fuel myself properly. Plus, I knew I wanted to feel good in a session. It is the worst feeling when you feel sick or faint because your blood sugar is low, so I knew I needed to start thinking about eating more around my training sessions, in order to get the most benefit out of them.
EXPERIMENTATION
In the early stages of my fitness career, I started to trial eating different foods to have before and after training. Especially if you’re someone who feels like they’re not getting the most out of your sessions, or you feel ill or just not your best during, then maybe you too need to start thinking about your nutrition and tackling a bit of experimentation. These are a few of my trials and errors:
Ø Eating lunch at 1pm and then training at 6pm: This is when I knew that I needed to start thinking about an eating window. Not only would I feel hungry during the session, but eating lunch at 1pm and training at 6pm with nothing in between, brought on great feelings of fatigue. Anton would often ask me when I last ate and he would tell me that it was important to have something just before training so I wouldn’t feel this way.
Ø Light snacks: I trialled this for a while and I quite like it. I even found I would get hungry around the same time that I was due for one. My snacks included any one of the following: a banana, a protein cookie/bar/flapjack.
Ø Meals: I do this mostly now to be honest and this works great for me, even now. My favourite time to train is around 11am so as long as I’ve had a meal within 3 hours, I’m good with just a coffee or a pre-workout drink beforehand. Now if a gap is more than 3 hours then I will have a snack eg banana or protein bar with a pre-workout drink and then a big meal afterwards.
Ø Sweets (high sugars/high carbs) I felt like a true bodybuilder when I started doing this. As I would head into the gym I would eat either 6 Chewits or maybe 6 or so big marshmallows and the high sugar/high carb content gave me some good fuel. Sometimes, downing them during a session! The weirdest thing I ever saw in the gym once was a big meathead who during his rest period would have a teaspoon of honey LOL. No - I didn’t go this far.
Ø Bagel and jam - similar to the above, the high sugar/high carb content in these foods was great tying me over until after training.
LEARNING FROM MY MISTAKES
Gone are the days where I nearly vomited because I ate too close or not at all before training, another reason why I will never go back to fasted training ever again. Once, I made the biggest mistake of having a few protein brownies (that I made myself) just before training. The issue was, they were incredibly low carb, so having so much protein just before, my belly became so bloated I felt like a balloon and it was incredibly uncomfortable to train. Two other mistakes I have learnt from was training with a hangover AND training dehydrated. Trust me, I well and truly learnt from these mistakes. Gone are my partying days as my lifestyle is very different now but when I was first starting out I don’t know why I even thought training on zero sleep and X amount of cocktails was a good idea. I felt sick and headachy and dizzy for the full hour and my performance was shocking. The same goes for dehydration. Too many times I have had clients that have said they feel sick and have got a headache during a session and when I’ve asked what they’ve eaten and they’ve eaten within a good window, as soon as I’ve asked about water intake they’ve admitted to maybe having a few glasses which is not enough.
BEFORE WE CLOSE THIS WINDOW
Don’t get me wrong, if you’re someone who enjoys and finds it better to train fasted than keep doing what you’re doing, I’m not trying to sway you, but ensure you are fully hydrated before you begin. Do it fasted because you prefer it, NOT BECAUSE you think you’re going to burn more calories and lose fat quicker, because you won’t. From experience, I’m only explaining why I learnt to have an eating window; to fuel effectively, to optimise my performance and to ensure I felt good in a session. So if you want to feel good, then just eat that god damn bagel!
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