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Re: Fueling early morning workouts [jonmhicks] [ In reply to ]
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So I read this article: https://www.strongerbyscience.com/metabolic-adaptation/

which is more for weightlifters trying to cut for a bodybuilding competition but still is interesting. To briefly summarize a portion of it, our bodies want to conserve their fat stores, which is one reason shedding body fat is hard. As a dieter loses weight, the body becomes more efficient at using its energy stores. This is unfortunate for the dieter but biologically it is very adaptive.

Different topic: one time i went scuba diving in Belize and it was totally dope but i was super nervous because you are in the water breathing through a tube and you can't just get off the ride whenever you want. I spent the whole time swimming around and around and around rather than floating and hanging out just to keep my mind off the claustrophobia. The upshot was that because of my activity level, i used up all my oxygen way faster than everyone else and had to surface early and head back to the boat.

What if the way we feel while exercising fasted (i.e., higher RPE, lower heart rate, just "feels harder") isn't actually about lack of fuel at all but rather is a result of our body signaling to our brain that there is nothing in the stomach, nothing coming down the pipeline, and it would really rather that the brain not use the body's hard-earned energy reserves on something unless it is really important? In other words, that it does not want you to be like me using up all my oxygen just swimming around.

The body doesn't know that there are not sabre tooth tigers stalking us in the streets of our towns. It does not know that food is always in the fridge rather than potentially a ten mile hike to go gather. But what it does have is a central nervous and endocrine system that it can use to communicate and guide your behavior. Unlike me scubaing (where i had to keep manually checking the oxygen level in the tank) the body can check the tank for you.

if this is true, then fueling (unless of course you're gonna go hard for a long time) doesn't matter in and of itself. All that you'd have to do is get some calories into your stomach to convince the body to give you the green light.

thoughts on this? I am thinking about testing this by just eating random shit before early morning workouts (celery, two tablespoons of butter, etc.) and see what happens. If I'm right, any workouts should feel the same no matter what, provided they are short / easy enough to complete on stored reserves.
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