The FastDay Forum

Good morning!

I'm not sure if this has been answered somewhere. I am fasting today (had to move my day from yesterday.) I will have breakfast and dinner. I will also be doing my C25K training after work. I have not exercised often on fast days and when I did it was early in the day. In this case, I will not have eaten for about 10 hours, but will be eating afterwards.

I'm wondering if I should have a little something before I go - maybe a banana or a yogurt?

I'd love to do this in the morning, but it's too dark here, since we set our clocks ahead this weekend.

Thanks!

Hi cblasz, I guess it depends on how fat-adapted you are. In my experience, when I first started fasting & exercising together, I used to "hit the wall" at just over the hour mark - these days because my body is better at burning fat, I find I can ride at a good pace for around 2 hours and still feel fine without eating anything - why don't you see how you go? If you decide not to eat, then exercising will help you get to ketosis sooner, which is a good thing. But it's not a disaster if you need to eat either. Good luck!

I'm planning on going for a run late afternoon on this fast day and will try to go without eating beforehand. I think it should be ok if I don't overdo it and hopefully ketosis will kick in and gobble up some fat.

Thank you for your responses! I brought a banana with me, but ended up not feeling like I needed it. I did my training and did just fine! I wasn't even starving afterwards, but I did eat dinner when I got home!

This WOE is amazing!

Hi! This WOE is, indeed, amazing. Glad to hear it went well and you didn't need the banana. I would just add that each day is different, and there may be days when you do need to eat a little. I usually don't, but I remember a couple of times when I had to stop early. No big deal, though. Good luck!

Good to hear you were totally okay.
I usually keep an apple or a banana with me when I exercise on fast days, but I've never needed it.

I'm glad you went for it, cblasz. I don't always feel great exercising on a fast day, but then again, I don't always feel great exercising on non-fast days. I never really know the reason, but clearly its more complicated than how many calories I've had recently.

Because exercising can increase your appetite, I think it's not a bad idea to do exercise shortly before your planned meal on a fast day (as you've done). Having said that… sometimes exercising closer to your last meal (e.g., in the morning after a non-fast day) is helpful.

I always exercise in the evening before my fasting meal. Mainly because the gym I use is the schools gym and not available till the evening. I sometimes feel as if I have hit a wall, but weirdly enough its on my non-fasting days this happens. I think its because on a fast day I have already switched into fat burning mode, but on normal days I struggle to do the switch in the middle of exercising.