Would I lose more fat if I exercised while in autophagy?
That's the question that came to me.
If you don't know, autophagy is a process that your body begins when in a fasted state. It's similar to what your body goes through when you work out. You break the muscles down and they build themselves up stronger. +Autophagy +Fasting +Catabolism +Anabolism
It's similar with autophagy, except now we're talking about it on a cellular level. In a fasted state (I've read it begins about the 16 hour mark but I want to do more research to be more confident in that belief), and after all the readily available fuel has been consumed from your blood, muscles, and liver, your cells begin to eat themselves for fuel. Sounds horrible but it's really beneficial. Autophagy causes your cells to process all the detritus that is hanging on them (not a scientific explanation but that's how I understand it). Getting rid of this junk (by eating it) allows the cells to operate more efficiently and healthily. Autophagy is the reason lab mice that are starved to live longer than their fully fed counterparts.
What I read is that autophagy is triggered after all the carbohydrate fuel has been consumed from your body The liver is the last to be tapped at around the 16 hour mark.
I know, I know, it's not that simple. What I'm talking about here is a basic body at rest, like I am for most of the day. Intense exercisers alters this equation all over the place. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm a sedentary person whose not going to be changing dramatically in the foreseeable future, meaning I know I should be doing more, meaning I want to be doing more, but meaning I know I have no plans to be doing more. Autophagy seems a reasonable way to increase my health at this point in my life.
Fasting for health and reducing calories for weight loss are two separate issues. A person can fast for 18 hours day (as I'm doing) but still eat enough calories for weight maintenance or even weight gain. From what I understand so far, that person would still see some cellular health benefits from autophagy, even if they never lost (or even gained) a pound.
It seems to me that if the body is depleted of carbohydrates enough to trigger autophagy, any exercise done at this point should be burning mostly fat.
Again, I know it's not that simple. The body requires hormones to convert fat into usable energy. What if the fasting has also triggered metabolic suppression? That's a question I haven't researched too much yet but from what I've read intermittent fasting doesn't trigger metabolic suppression. From my personal experience, fasting doesn't seem to trigger reduced energy until after the 21st hour. (I'm basing this on one 24-hour fast last Friday. Something I'm making a weekly practice for the time being so I'll have more "data" in the future.) +Hydrolysis +Lipolysis
So would exercising while my body is in autophagy burn mostly calories from fat? Seems like an obvious yes, but I'm not an expert.
The exercise I'm talking about here is moving my daily walk into the 16th to 18th hour of my fast. I'm not talking about high intensity exercise. I'm not interested in doing that right now and I don't think I'd want to do it towards the end of my fast when my body is slowly starting to shut down (probably). +Walking
Would a 2 mile walk at hour 16 of my daily 18-hour fast help me burn off my fat quicker than if I walk (like I normally do) later in the day when I'm in my feeding window?
I'm a sedentary 43 year old man, five foot ten, and 209 pounds, so you can see why losing fat is at the front of my mind. +Moobs
At the time I'm writing this, I'm approaching hour 18 of my fast. Do I eat or do I go for a walk? Even if my theory is incorrect, there's no harm in walking, I'll be doing it anyway later. It seems that there's no downside (other than a little hunger) and a possible desirable upside. I'll take those odds! Heading out for a walk now and I'll do the research on this question later.
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