You may be part of the once craze, now factual, way of losing fat – intermittent fasting. Maybe you are just starting, or you are just interested in spiking your energy levels a little. Whatever your reasons, you may have come to the question, does pre workout break a fast?
The answer to this question isn’t as simple as a yes or no. It really does depend on each individual person and what their goals are with fasting.
Today, I’m discussing pre-workout in detail, whether it breaks your fast, and if Intermittent Fasting is effective!
What Is Pre Workout?
A pre-workout is a drink you take before a workout to give you the extra energy boost to complete that workout successfully.
This drink sounds perfect if you have to get up with an empty stomach to go and do fasted cardio. The tricky part is the ingredients list on the back of that store-bought pre-workout.
They typically contain a combination of amino acids, caffeine, and other ingredients like B-vitamins.
While the ingredients will vary from product to product, most pre-workouts will have some type of stimulant like caffeine.This is because stimulants help to improve alertness, focus, and energy.
What is The Purpose Of Fasting?
Fasting is the abstention from food and drink for a set period. Usually, people will do this for religious reasons but more recently, people have been fasting for other purposes such as weight loss or cleansing.
The main purpose of fasting is to give your digestive system a break. When you fast, your body does not need to worry about digesting food, which can allow it to focus on other things such as healing or repair.
Benefits of Fasting
There are many potential benefits to fasting, such as:
- weight loss
- improved mental clarity
- decreased inflammation
- improved blood sugar levels
- decrease levels of inflammation
- may be beneficial to heart health
- may boost metabolism
Different Fasting Methods
- Intermittent fasting is a method fitness enthusiasts use to lose fat faster. Fasting is a way to get your body to use fat as energy but to get here; your body needs a period of no food or drinks (except water) to push the body into fat metabolism.
- Modified fasting is another method where you consume very few calories on fasting days, usually between 500-600. This is a less extreme version of fasting and is more manageable for some people.
- The 16/8 Method is the most popular fasting method. This involves fasting for 16 hours and eating only during an 8-hour window. For example, you would fast from 8 pm to 12 pm the next day.
- The 5:2 Diet is where you eat 500-600 calories on two fasting days and eat normally the other five days. Other methods include the 24-hour fast, the 36-hour fast, and the Warrior Diet.
- Alternate day fasting is when you eat normally one day and then fast the next day. This can be done by either not eating anything or only eating 500 calories on fasting days.
How to start fasting
If you’re new to fasting, start with shorter fasts, such as the 12-hour or 16-hour fasts. Once your body gets used to fasting, you can try longer fasts, such as 24 hours, 36 hours, or even 48 hours.
If you want to start fasting but don’t know where to begin, here are a few tips:
-Set a goal. What do you want to achieve by fasting?
-Start with shorter fasts and work your way up to longer ones.
-Choose the fasting method that best suits your lifestyle and goals.
-Stay hydrated. Drink plenty of water or unsweetened herbal tea.
-Avoid sugary drinks, alcoholic beverages, and fruit juices.
-Listen to your body. Don’t push yourself too hard. If you’re feeling weak or fatigued, break your fast and eat something.
Experiment with different fasting methods and find the one that works best for you.
Does A Pre-Workout Break A Fast?
A pre-workout can break a fast if you consume it during your fasting period.
The ingredients are vast, but most pre-workouts have sugar and proprietary blends, which spikes your insulin level, causing your body to come out of the fasted state you wish to be in for the fat loss goal.
Fasting has many rules and is usually straightforward to follow. However, these rules sometimes have blurry lines when it comes to the supplements you can take and should avoid while in a fasted state.
Which Ingredients In Pre-Workout Is Bad During Fasting?
You might find a pre-workout that has less than ten calories per serving. Ten is the maximum calories you can consume to stay in your fasted state.
There might be other ingredients in your store-bought pre-workout that can ruin your fast. Here are the most common elements you will find in a pre-workout.
Bad ingredients for fasting:
- Sugar or artificial sweeteners
- Amino Acid blends
- Macronutrients
Suitable ingredients for fasting:
- Caffeine
- Creatine
- Citrulline Malate
- Beta-alanine
Sugar And Artificial Sweeteners Will Break A Fast
Pre-workout manufacturers usually add sugar or artificial sweeteners to hide the bad taste of the other ingredients.
The sugar also helps with the increased energy pre-workout aims to achieve. The problem is, even though sweeteners have low calories or sometimes none, it is debated that they will, same as sugar, take you out of a fasted state immediately when you ingest them.
Apart from taking you out of a fast, the artificial sweetener can harm your health and overall gut biome, so it is better to exclude them altogether.
Amino Acids Can Break A Fast
Pre-workouts you buy almost always have a BCAA blend. The reason behind this is that BCAAs are the building blocks for your muscles.
While training, it is beneficial to send these through the pumping blood to your muscles.
Some amino acids are proteinogenic, meaning it is the building blocks of protein, in other words, building protein.
Thus, these will influence protein synthesis in the body and send signals to your brain that you have eaten something, bringing you out of a fast.
Because the BCAAs in pre-workouts are usually blended, and some companies don’t state exactly which amino acids and how many of each are present, you might have a blend of a few proteinogenic ones and not know it.
Macronutrients Will Break A Fast
As we know, anything with a calorie index of more than ten calories per serving will bring you out of a fast.
Macronutrients (carbs, proteins, and fats) have calories. Thus, any pre-workout with either whey in, fats, or carbs will break your fast.
Caffeine Will Not Break A Fast
Some will tell you that the best pre-workout you can take is black coffee or espresso. No calories are present in caffeine, and it won’t trigger your body to think it has gotten food.
Caffeine is available in any black version of coffee, green tea, or caffeine pills.
Apart from energy, caffeine also has many other benefits.
- Antioxidant
- Increase endurance
- Decrease appetite
- Burn fat faster
- Enhanced focus
Creatine Will Not Break A Fast
Creatine is in many pre-workouts you can buy. The calorie content is zero and does not influence your insulin levels, meaning your fast will be safe.
It helps with increased energy and strength and can be present in a pre-workout for people training while fasting.
Citrulline Malate Will Not Break A Fast
Citrulline Malate is a great ingredient to have in a pre-workout. It expands the blood vessels, letting more blood pump through the veins, thus getting sufficient oxygen levels to the extremities and muscles. It is called a vasodilator.
Best of all – citrulline malate has zero calories and won’t interfere with your fasting period but will assist you immensely with your workout in a fasted state.
Beta-Alanine Will Not Break A Fast
The tingling feeling you get from a pre-workout is the cause of the beta-alanine in it. It increases your muscle-building capacity by boosting the carnosine levels in your body.
Carnosine is present in the heart, brain, and many other body parts and helps reduce free-radicals roaming around in the body.
Best Pre-Workout To Take For Fasting
The best pre-workout to take during fasted training would be one you make yourself. Making your at-home pre-workout will set your mind at ease about what the ingredients are, that they will certainly not influence your fasted state, and you can add more of your favorites.
The most basic homemade pre-workout:
- Beta-alanine
- Citrulline Malate
- Caffeine
Even though this pre-workout doesn’t taste like anything (no sweeteners or flavoring), it will do the job of a pre-workout and not interfere with your fast.
You can also add creatine to the mix if you want it.
FAQs
Will Lemon Water Break A Fast?
Lemon water doesn’t increase your insulin levels and will not take you out of the fasted state.
Taking lemon water will help you go deeper into a fasted state by boosting your immune system and increasing your digestion.
Does The Amount Of Caffeine In Pre-Workout Matter?
The caffeine in pre-workouts is usually fast-acting compared to caffeine in coffee. The grams of caffeine will also be higher in pre-workout to give you the kick you need.
Start with 150g and go up slowly to a maximum of 400g. If you are not used to caffeine, a 400g index might make you feel jittery.
Can You Take A Pre-Workout Every Day?
Taking a pre-workout every day is not such a good idea. Your body will build up a tolerance, and you might feel that you need more and more to feel it working.
Instead, substitute it or only take it on workout days you think you cannot go without it.
What Can You Use Instead Of A Pre-Workout When Doing Intermittent Fasting?
If you want to ditch the pre-workout, try black coffee or green tea as a caffeine alternative. You can also add BCAAs (branched-chain amino acids) to your water to help with muscle retention and endurance.
Conclusion
Suppose you still want to take your favorite pre-workout with all its calories and BCAAs and fast, then you will have to schedule your workout when you are allowed to take it.
To reap the benefits of fasting, you will either still to black coffee or don’t fast at all. Fasted workouts have many benefits, and it would be a shame not to experience them.