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People always squabble about how they should do their cardio to "burn fat." First thing in the morning on an empty stomach? After breakfast? An hour of low intensity walking? 20 minutes of sprint intervals? What? What should I do??!? A lot of people argue that low intensity steady-state cardio is best b/c your body burns fat at low intensities, and if you're fat, burning fat must be t3h w1n, right? Well, not necessarily:
Lyle Mcdonald said:The whole idea that low intensity steady state fasted cardio is best for fat loss comes from a couple of misunderstandings:
#1. That, because you burn the highest percentage of fat during low intensity exercise, this is best for fat loss. This is simple idiocy. 100% of 5 calories/minute is the same amount of fat as 50% of 10 cal/minute even if 50% is lower than 100% (In both cases you burned 5 cal/minute of fat). And your total deficit over 30 minutes is higher at the higher intensity even if the relative percentage of fat burned is higher in the first case. Stupid people got confused between relative and absolute amounts and a myth was born. Quite in fact, the highest amount of fat burned (in absolute terms, g/min) is at a higher intensity. As high as the lactate threshold in trained individuals.
Related to this some studies also support the idea that you don't burn any less fat consuming carbs during training than doing them fasted anyhow. You can only burn about 1 g/minute of carbs (4 cal/minute) from exogenous (outside the body) sources. If you're burning 10+ cal/min during activity but sipping a carb drink, you're still burning 6 cal/minute from endogenous (within the body) sources. And, if sipping that carb drink means you can maintain a higher intensity, you can burn more total calories than someone trying to do cardio with low blood sugar first thing in the morning.
#2. That what you burn during activity makes a difference in terms of total fat loss. If one had to burn fat during activity to lose fat than interval training (which some studies show to be more effective in terms of fat loss than steady state) wouldn't work. Yet it does. Why? Because what you burn during the activity itself is only a small part of the picture. How the exercise impacts on both total energy balance as well as fuel utilization is important here too. When you deplete muscle glycogen (with higher intensity activity), this impacts on whole body fat utilization for the rest of the day and studies often find that fat oxidation is higher post-higher intensity exercise for the rest of the day. So what's more important, burning a little bit more fat for 1 hour (which may not be true in the first place), or burning more fat for rest of the day after the workout?
That said, one situation where I think fasted morning cardio might make a difference is for very lean individuals (sub 10% for men) trying to get rid of the last bit of stubborn fat. Given that this represents 1/10 of 1% of everybody working out, this is an exception to be sure.
My take on fasted LISS, it's better than nothing for fat loss but not by much. Total calorie burn/what you burn after the workout/energy balance is going to play a much greater role in fat loss than burning a smidgen more fat by doing your cardio fasted at a pissant intensity first thing in the morning. You burn more calories and more total fat at higher intensities. For 99% of people (i.e. not competition bodybuilders near the end of prep), it's more important that they get their cardio than when they do it.

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help with the muscle loss issue. I think the most important thing is variety like with lifting. Don't get stuck doing the same shit or the body gets accustomed to it. Some days I do steady other days interval and different types of cardio exercises also.