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Rock-a-by baby in the tree top…
When we fall asleep at night, the endocrine system secretes important hormones to aid growth and development. These hormones are responsible for increasing fatty acid mobilization. Due to the extremely low intensity of activity during sleep our body can successfully use fat for fuel in order to replenish our energy stores and fuel the repair of our damaged tissues.
Wakey wakey!
Upon waking our body has low insulin levels and free fatty acids in the blood which creates a good environment for burning fat. Since cortisol levels are high in the morning we recommend fuelling your cardio workout with a protein supplement to prevent muscle breakdown and no carbohydrate to avoid an insulin spike which will hinder our fat burning potential. 10G of L-Glutamine and 5g BCAA (Branch Chain Amino Acids) along with a fat burning supplement will be sufficient, or 20g of whey protein in water if thats not available. Some people may prefer to go unfuelled, however I would not advocate this to someone who has a hard time gaining mass. To avoid going into a potentially catabolic environment we also recommend keeping the cardio sessions less than 45 minutes.
The main benefits of AM cardio are a metabolic boost in the morning and providing you keep it gentle, as lower intensity tends to favour fat as fuel, muscle loss should be minimal and fat loss should be high. After AM cardio our body becomes more sensitive to insulin in order to counterbalance the low insulin levels in our blood. This can also result in less carbohydrates being stored as fat later in the day.
Hungry lil fella?
After an AM steady state cardio workout we recommend a breakfast consisting of 50g of complex carbohydrates along with 40g of protein.