In the early stages of exploring IF and wondered what people do that are also actively working out (cardio/running) frequently in the early AM (prior to 7am).
I guess I’ve been programmed to think that it’s super important to eat immediately after a workout (for me, something healthy + high in protein). I typically burn 900+ calories during my morning workouts, so wondering if it’s safe/healthy to then wait 4-5 hours to eat something (if my 16:8 window was 12-8pm).
Also, do you risk losing muscle along with fat by doing so? Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!
Idk about losing muscle, but anecdotally, I’ve done lots of workouts in a fasted state (long hikes, 5k runs, etc.) and didn’t have any health issues. Now, maybe I’m not working out as hard as you, so you should probably consult a doctor if you’re concerned about safety, but I think the idea we need to eat immediately after working out is just what you said: programming.
Yeah a lot of people will concern themselves with protein intake immediately after a workout and then forget about it for the rest of the day. Which means that their protein intake looks like 30-50 g post workout, and then maybe another 30-50g throughout the entire day. This results in an insufficient protein intake for most active people.
Exercising in the morning and then eating nothing until later in the day will likely result in more muscle protein breakdown than if you had eaten post-workout. However, ensuring adequate daily protein intake over the course of the later hours of the day will actually result in greater muscle protein synthesis than if you had eaten post-workout but failed to ingest an adequate amount of protein through the day (rendering the “increased” levels of MPB negligible, depending on total energy intake as well, of course).
More simply:
adequate daily protein intake with fasting > inadequate daily protein intake without fasting