“I really enjoyed the interview with Darin Steen of Fat Loss Lifestyle, but I am confused on what he meant by “do cardio in a fasted state, first thing in the morning”.    I have always heard how bad it is to do any form of exercise before you put anything in your system to start your metabolism for the day; your body will still think it’s starving and burn muscle rather than fat.  What should I do?

This is a great question, so I sent it to Darin and this is what he wrote. “First off, “we must get out on the table in the beginning that the reason why there is so much confusion on the topic of working out and losing fat while at least maintaining muscle (preferably gaining muscle) in a time efficient manner (4-6 hours per week) is because everyone is so different.

Two reasons why you should “do cardio in a fasted state, first thing in the morning” is;

* Your body does not have nearly as much fuel (glycogen and glucose) to supply energy for the session (cause you have not eaten carbs for about 12 hours.  Your body easily burns up all of the glycogen and glucose and then goes into the fat cells for the rest.
* The session is done, which leads to consistency.  Too many things come up when the session is planned for later in the day to interfere with consistency.

There are so many factors that determine when and how to do cardio & when and how much to eat to create 2- 3 lbs. of fat loss per week.  Losing fat slower or faster than that just does not work for the long term.  And for the long term is what we are looking for.  Cause I have seen so many people go “gung ho” and radically change their body in a short amount of time, only to see them a year later, sedentary and heavier than when they started.

If you lose at a slower rate, one will lose interest in the program and maybe not continue long term.  If you lose faster than that; either you are losing other things that you need (like muscle, water, anabolic hormones) or you are living a lopsided life spending too much time working out.

So now let me try to clear the confusion a little bit for you.  There is no one stop answer to this question.  But here it goes.  The best program that I have seen at losing fat that stays off forever is doing intense resistance training 2 or 3 days per week, and doing interval cardio training 2 or 3 days per week.

The #1 key for fat loss is something we call “carb cycling.”    In a nut shell “carb cycling” is eating more calories in the form of starchy carbs (brown / wild rice, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, whole wheat pasta) on days of intense resistance training, and eating only fibrous non-starch carbs (veggies, salads, green beans, apples, grape-fruits) on days of interval cardio performed first thing in the morning.

Now my mantra of “doing interval cardio first thing in the morning in a fasted state” applies to only those who are eating small meals often.  The key to not losing muscle is too make sure that you eat a small portion of protein right before you go to bed.  And if your metabolism is really running fast, consume a small amount of protein upon wakening up.

A few (3-4) egg whites and a tbls. of healthy fat (I use Udo’s oil) works well for me.  I consume the protein and the fat immediately upon wakening then start the cardio session within the next 30 minutes.

If my metabolism is running even faster, (my hunger levels are very high all the time even though I am eating protein and carbs combined together every 3 hours) then I might even wake up in the middle of the night to consume a small amount of cottage cheese or whey protein.

So, I hope this clears a little confusion about how to perform interval cardio first thing in the morning in a fasted state for fat loss.  Not only is interval cardio the best type of cardio to perform to lose the most amount of fat in the least amount of time, but it is proven to be the only form of cardio to actually strengthen the heart and lungs; which is incredibly important for longevity reasons.

If you want to start your own 12 week transformation with a Trainer of the Year, check out Darin’s Fat Loss Lifestyle.