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Fasted training vs epoc training. Why do crazy people like me and other forms of life train/hunt on an empty stomach? Carry on reading to find out why.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to losing body fat. The first approach, the one that I use is training on an empty stomach. Fasted training allows you to use body fat to fuel your workout.

The other approach is to eat 30-60 minutes before the workout and use energy from food to workout intensely known as epoc training. The idea is that you will be able to workout more intensely and focus on burning more calories hours after the workout. Let me be clear, both approaches work, but let me analyse both approaches for you and show you why my method comes up trumps.

Fasted Training

As stated earlier and in previous posts, I do all my workouts on an empty stomach. The advantage of this method is you can start burning body fat straight away as this is the only energy source available, and this is what you want to burn right, your on this site because you want to burn fat I am guessing.

Eating before you workout means you have to first burn the food energy consumed before even using your fat stores. It also releases insulin, which puts you in storage mode instead of fat burning mode that you want to be in. Critics of fasted training claim you will burn muscle if you train on an empty stomach, so if you have this paranoia, consider investing in some BCAA and take them half an hour before you train. You can read a post about the BCAA benefits here. 

EPOC Training

Seems like a no brainer to train in a fasted state now, but mainstream conventional wisdom has people fooled into thinking that if you train in this way, you will lose muscle. Do you really think your body is that stupid, to use muscle, a hard earned resource to fuel your workout first. You can show me all the scientific facts in the world to support this theory, but the fact is me and others have used fasted training and not seen a inch of muscle lost in fact gained muscle, and lots of fat burned in the process. Like I said you can still burn fat this way using epoc training, by working out intensely and burning more calories after the workout.

Putting Both Of Them Together? Fasted Training and Epoc Training

I can personally testify that you can train on an empty stomach and do epoc training, as can many other, that this is in fact possible. The group who say you should eat before a workout; claim that if you do not eat, you simply wont have the energy to perform epoc training. On the surface this seems logical, but you must realise our bodies are built for survival. I can personally admit to working out this whole summer, close to 6 days a week, using fasted training, workout usually going into 90 minutes, sometimes more, and working out intensely and giving my all in every single session. So what gives?

So Why Can I Train Harder?

It comes down to the sympathetic nervous system. Ori Hafmekler explains it best.

“When fasting, a primal survival mechanism known as the fight-or-flight reaction to stress is triggered, maximizing your body’s capacity for generating energy, being alert, resisting fatigue and resisting stress. The survival mode is primarily controlled by a part of the autonomic nervous system known as the sympathetic nervous system, or SNS. When it’s in gear, the body is in its most energy-producing phase, and that’s when the most energy comes from fat burning.”

This makes perfect sense all you have to do is look at early human beings, or even humans today that live in hunter-gatherer societies. When hungry are you going to say they didn’t have the energy to hunt intensely? I highly doubt they grabbed a protein shake and some oatmeal and said to the prey hey wait an hour, I need some food energy, and also have to wait for it to partially digest before I can hunt you. Be realistic guys.

Their prey would have laughed and run off. Eating before working out interrupts this. Ori further explains:

“If you do eat a breakfast of, say, bagel, cereal, egg and bacon, you’ll most likely shut down this energy-producing system. The SNS and its fight-or-flight mechanism will be substantially suppressed, and your morning meal will trigger an antagonistic part of the autonomic nervous system known as the para sympathetic nervous system, or PSNS. The PSNS will make you sleepy, slow and less resistant to fatigue and stress. Instead of spending energy and burning fat, your body will be more geared toward storing energy and gaining fat.”

To sum up, I will admit there are more than 1 way to skin a cat, sorry PETA, so yes you can lose fat by eating first. But in a day and age where, people want faster results, wouldn’t you rather take advantage of both of these philosophies, join the sensible way of training and get fab fast, lose fat fast.

Start combining fasted training and epoc training now to lose fat fast.