Many people are shocked when they discover how huge the industry for wellness is around the world. On a global scale, people spent more than $4.9 trillion on wellness in 2019. In 2020, 5% of the entire world economy was devoted to the wellness industry!

On the other hand, there is a lot that you can do to improve your wellness without spending a dime! More people than ever before have heard about the idea of working out fasted. Although this can sound counterintuitive to some people, it provides a long list of benefits.

At the same time, working out fast does come with its challenges. It may not be the right approach for everyone. So what is working out fasted, and why might it be the right choice for you?

Read on to learn all about the benefits of working out fasted and how to know if you should try it!

What Is Working Out While Fasting?

Should you eat before you workout? Many people assume that the answer is yes.

After all, you use up energy while you are exercising. If you have not had a recent boost of energy caused by eating something, won’t that make it harder to exercise?

However, it is also worth thinking about how much energy the digestive process takes. If you are trying to digest food while you are also pushing the physical limits of your body, that can cause its own problems.

The basic idea of working out fast is that you avoid eating before your workout. Depending on your situation, you can increase how many hours you avoid eating before your next exercise session. Some people find that they get the best results if they haven’t eaten for 12 hours or even more before a workout.

This can be easier to accomplish than you might think. For one thing, people who use this strategy tend to work out in the morning before they have their first meal. That means that they will have gone 8 hours or more without eating while they are asleep.

If they do not eat for several hours before bed, that can be enough all by itself to help them achieve the desired 12 hours before working out. On the other hand, many people claim that they get all of the benefits they need by just avoiding eating for a couple of hours before they engage in strenuous exercise.

This is more than enough to make sure that you are not trying to digest food at the same time you are working out. But what are the benefits of working out while fasting?

Benefits of Working Out Fasted

When you eat, your blood sugar goes up as well as your insulin. This lowers the prevalence of human growth hormone in your system.

However, your body depends on human growth hormone to respond to strenuous exercise by growing bigger and stronger. If you have lower levels of human growth hormone while you are exercising, you might find that you do not get as much out of your routine as you are hoping.

On top of that, if you avoid eating before an exercise routine, you will also enjoy higher levels of testosterone in your system. Testosterone is another one of the biggest contributors to muscle growth in the human body.

Many people find that they do not get the results they want no matter how hard they work out. However, fasting while working out might be the right way to make sure that your body has the right hormones in its system. Without these, no amount of exercise will convert to muscle growth and development.

As we have discussed, working out fasted can also help your body focus on your exercise rather than on digestion. If you have ever felt sluggish or too full while exercising, that can be a strong indicator that you have been eating too recently.

Difficulties With Exercising Fasted

Of course, one of the main reasons that people struggle with exercising fasted is that they feel hungry while they are trying to work out. Many people try to fast for many hours before a workout only to find that they feel light-headed or distracted by hunger pangs.

However, you can often avoid this by working up to fasting longer and longer. You can start by fasting for only half an hour or an hour before your next exercise routine. Over time, you can build that up to 2 hours or more.

If you feel like the best time of day to work out for your case can be in the morning, you might even be able to experiment with 8 hours or more of fasting before your exercise sessions.

This can also allow you to enjoy the benefits of intermittent fasting. Some people believe that getting all of your calories and nutrition within a small time window in the day can help your body become or stay lean. You can also try a banana smoothie for belly fat to provide you with energy without giving you too many calories before a workout.

In the end, it does not have to be too difficult to start experimenting with these kinds of fitness and health strategies. By building up to them slowly, you can make things easier on yourself while getting to see if these strategies provide results for you at the same time.

Know if Working Out Fasted Is Right for You

Not everyone has even heard of the possibility of working out fasted. However, we hope that this article has helped you see why it might or might not be the right choice for you. Depending on your situation, experimenting with working out fasted might be the best way to help you enjoy huge increases in the results of your exercise routine.

To learn more about the latest information in health, fitness, and more, take a look at our other articles!