If you follow a intermittent fasting dietyou might be wondering, “Does the fast break before training?” Let’s find out.
One of the advantages of intermittent fasting is its simplicity. You don’t count: no calories, no carbs, no grains of salt. All you do is look at the clock and then schedule your meals so that at regular intervals you don’t eat anything. The timing varies: some people skip meals for entire days, others fast for set hours each day, but the concept is the same:
- eat for a while
- Then, during your fasts, stop.
Inevitably, though, people have questions, especially when their fasting schedule contradicts other fitness-enhancing practices such as consuming enough protein or feeding your body adequate carbohydrates.
Or taking a supplement like Beachbody Performance Energize before a training session.
So let’s break it down: Does pre-workout break a fast? And if it does, how should you incorporate it into an intermittent fasting schedule?
What is a fast?
“Fasting, in its simplest definition, is abstaining from food or drink,” says Krista Maguire, RD. Water, natural tea, and black coffee are fine during a fast because they have zero calories. There is some debate diet colasbut technically no-calorie drinks don’t break the fast either. All the food is out.
“Fasting comes in many forms,” says Maguire. “Intermittent fasting (IF) can refer to certain days with little or no food or in the form of what we call time-restricted eating, going a certain number of hours without eating each day.”
Intermittent fasting, not surprisingly, usually leads to weight loss, mainly because over the course of a given week, you eat much less than usual. For example, on a 16:8 fast (fast for 16 hours, then eat all of your meals in the remaining eight-hour window), most people eat much less in the feeding window than they would during a day when they didn’t eat restricted in time. Over the course of weeks and months, you end up eating less than usual, and weight loss is the obvious result.
Proponents of IF claim that this approach confers benefits beyond what can be achieved simply by eating a little less at each meal. Some argue that long fasts improve our ability to access fat stores or improve our ability to remove sugars from the bloodstream. However, these larger claims remain speculative.
“In terms of heart health, blood sugar management, gut healthand other health benefits, the jury is still out,” says Maguire.
The main appeal of the diet is that it is relatively foolproof: don’t eat, lose weight. This is still good news, though. Some people looking to lose weight prefer an IF approach to the more standard practice, and the science suggests that both methods work.
Will Beachbody Performance Energize Break a Fast?
Technically, yes.
Beachbody Performance Energize it contains 20 calories per tablespoon, so having a serving, or even part of a serving, means you’re no longer fasting. That’s the short answer.
The longer answer, however, is a resounding yes, but…
Is breaking the fast really that bad? Not necessarily. As noted, most of the benefits of IF come from the fact that over time you eat less than usual, the other benefits are speculative.
“There’s not a lot of hard and fast data that shows that a certain number of calories during this fasting window will help or hinder any health benefits,” says Maguire.
Arguably, if you’re hungry from a long fast, a pre-workout drink before your gym session can give you the energy you need for a good workout. When fed with Beachbody Performance Energize oh snack before trainingyou’re setting yourself up to burn more calories than your pre-workout snack or supplement contains.
Plus, you’ll have the fuel and energy you need to lift more weight and possibly build more muscle. The net result is a much more productive session than you would have had if you hadn’t burned a few calories beforehand.*
However, if you really want to do IF by the book, be aware working at the beginning or end of a fasting window, so take a pre-workout supplement before – or a nutritional post-workout meal then do not break a fast that you prefer to prolong.
Alternatively, choose a training modality, such as walking or low intensity cardio — that relies less on stored carbohydrates and your performance won’t suffer during training.
Finally, you know that even some pros would probably slide a quick medium serving of Beachbody Performance Energize. “Some experts say that eating a low-calorie food or drink of less than 50 calories or so is fine during a fasting window as long as you don’t. increase blood sugar,” says Maguire.
Beachbody Energize performance ingredients that won’t break a fast
Some of the Beachbody Performance Energize ingredients they contain calories, mainly carbohydrates, and therefore break the fast: organic cane sugar is a carbohydrate, providing about four calories per gram.
But the other ingredients in Beachbody Performance Energize, incl beta-alanine, quercetinsilica, citric acidand others: they contain few or no calories.
Big picture: If your fitness goals are to lose fat, build muscle, and get healthy and strong, the small amount of calories in Beachbody Performance Energize should not deter you from taking it. In the long run, you could achieve these goals faster by fueling your body with a pre-workout supplement than by extending your fast by an extra hour or two. The pros far outweigh the cons.*
Finally, remember that it’s always a good idea to consult your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.