The media loves to make nutrition simple. Workout fasted and you burn more fat. If only it was this simple.
When it comes to the physiology of the body during exercise, nutrition is a complex topic. Researchers are still studying the different effects of nutrients, nutrient timing and supplements on exercise and exercise performance. This isn't to say that fat burning doesn't work (it does!) but it's not as simple as not eating carbohydrates before and during a workout.
There's a lot of debate about fasted training, training low, LCHF diets, keto and low carb. Unfortunately, with no middle ground, athletes tend to direct their energy and attention to what's most trendy and popular and for the past few years, carbohydrates have received a bad reputation from the media.
I am a proponent of carbohydrates in the diet. I feel strongly for nutrient timing (eating before/after workouts) and I believe that the use of sport nutrition is critical in optimizing health and performance for endurance athletes. But this doesn't mean that I prescribe eating all the carbohydrates, anytime and of any kind. But I am also a proponent of fat, protein, vitamins, minerals and water. In other words, fueling for sport performance is not black or white. If you sit on either end of the spectrum you could be sabotaging your performance and compromising your health.
I'd like to start off with some not so breaking news that often gets overlooked when it comes to fat burning.
- Through endurance training, you will increase fat oxidation by upregulating the enzymes of the fat oxidation pathways, increasing mitochondrial mass, increasing oxygen update and improving economy of movement.
- To become a better athlete (ex. faster, stronger, more powerful), your physiology needs to change. While some individuals may experience a performance boost because of an improvement in health, the diet or body composition, a race weight means nothing if you haven't done the work to significantly change your physiology and to arrive to the race in an optimal state of mental and physical health.
- Don't underestimate the importance of the relationship between your lactate threshold, economy of movement and VO2max. Having a lean or muscular body or performing workouts in a fasted state does not ensure that you are economic and able to quickly oxidize carbohydrates (without GI distress) to optimize performance.
- Carbohydrates are the primary fuel produce ATP (energy). But you also need to keep up with your hydration (water and sodium) needs in the face of sweat losses induced by intensity, duration and the environment.
- Don't rush the process. To truly change your physiology for performance, you have to continue to stress your body in different ways. Otherwise it gets comfortable and you no longer receive an adaptation. High intensity efforts and strength/power training are just as important as easy sessions, endurance sessions and recovery. And don't neglect skill and technique work. All of that training is for nothing if you can't hold good form under fatigue.
- You have to fuel and hydrate on race day. There's no beating the system here. If you want to perform (and have some fun doing so), you need to take in carbohydrates, sodium and fluids - in proper amounts, frequently and consistently during your long distance event. And to figure out the best fueling and hydration strategy, you have to develop confidence (and the ability to digest/absorb nutrition) through training. More so, consuming carbohydrates teaches your body how to store and utilize carbohydrates more efficiently which will reduce the risk for GI issues on race day (while promoting more efficient use of carbs to delay fatigue).
For many athletes, the strategies applied to become a better fat burner for metabolic efficiency or to burn more fat to change body composition are nothing more than a form of underfueling - which means you are not eating enough to get the results that you desire. Yet scenarios play out all the time as athletes try to apply the weight loss methods for the non-athlete population, assuming that eating less carbs = fat burning and weight loss.
Sadly, far too many athletes are using endurance training as compensation or punishment in order to look a certain way or to justify eating patterns. You don't need to ride your bike for 3 hours in a fasted state just to "earn" a bagel. And you don't need to punish your body with a high intensity workout just because you ate a cookie.
As a result, health is compromised, fitness improvements are slow to achieve (if at all) and all that training, time, energy, money and effort is for nothing come race day because the body is undernourished and overtrained.
With so much great research and science demonstrating a positive relationship with carbohydrates and performance, are your methods for weight loss and metabolic efficiency negatively impacting your health, performance and body composition?
Let's look into some of the reasons why fat burning is not all that it's cracked up to be.
