Caffeine experiment and finals

[MalleusMaleficarum]

I posted in my workout log about my caffeine experiment:

So I've been fiddling with conditioning hard lately and I noticed I've been neither gaining nor losing weight despite effectively doing an assload of cardio several times a week that I wasn't doing before. Looking back, I see that what happens is that I do cardio, then I feel HELLA hungry and pretty much eat to make up for it.

 

I'm starting to strongly suspect just based on how my body feels that this hunger right after the gym is precisely when I should avoid feeding myself. I'm kicking post workout nutrition in the balls to see if it results in weight loss - BUT, I'm not doing it retardedly. I'm trying to apply the biochemistry I've learned.

 

So I've read up on fasted cardio and it seems like a great idea, so what I'm thinking to do is to wake up, do my training fasted, then have a postworkout drink of a little bit of milk with pretty substantial amounts of cocoa powder in it, then eat nothing until the next meal of the day, which I will hate myself into making moderate sized.

 

The idea is that caffeine stimulates adrenaline release, which ultimately should cause the body to mobilize and burn its stored resources. I'm hoping that if I work up a good post exercise hunger and then hit it with caffeine instead, it should cause my body to eat itself. What I'm hoping to experience is first a powerful post-workout hunger, then caffeine, then the hunger magically goes away because my body is now eating stored blubber.

 

Tomorrow I'll do my first proof of concept trial run and report back.

 

Edit: Both Mark's Daily Apple and the Hodgetwins seem to affirm the concept. They say it causes HGH release and isn't really muscle wasting at all. I'd post the Hodgetwins video but they just swore a lot and sounded like idiots without saying anything Mark's Daily Apple didn't say first.

 

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/post-workout-fasting/

 

I guess I'll just have to see what happens. Either it will work or I'll lose all my gainz. Either way I'll know for sure when I'm done.

 

I've been doing this for about 3 days now and while I can't say I've had visible results, it's been successful in that postworkout caffeine instantly kills postworkout hunger, all of it, for hours and hours. I consider that a huge woot. Well, that's not really true - after fasted cardio, then caffeine and then more fasting, I look damned skinny. Just gotta make sure I don't replace it at the dinner table.

 

Woot #2 is that I don't feel like my final exams this week will be suicide. I've spent every waking moment in the last two weeks on preparation just to reach this point where I feel like I might survive. Med school is definitely not like undergrad.

[Legato]

Are you at all concerned about cortisol and its protein catabolism? Or having long-term cortisol excretion, which can lead to fat deposition? Cortisol can be helpful in that it upregulates gluconeogenesis, but it will break down muscle to do so. I've seen caffeine used before a fasted workout because it supposedly leads to mobilization of free fatty acids, but its effect on performance is dubious.  I wrote a cited version of how it works here, if you want some research to look at.

 

The MarksDailyApple guest writer says in the second paragraph that carbs aren't necessary from protein synthesis after a workout, and that may be true, but it sure isn't the most efficient way to build muscle. hGH requires insulin to perform optimally, plus the cells need insulin to tell them to pull amino acids in from the blood stream. At least, that's what my physiology book tells me. 

 

Anyway, I'm excited to read more! 

 

Good luck on your finals. You will crush them!

[MalleusMaleficarum]

If I was the type to need to worry about catabolism I wouldn't be on a weight loss quest. However, those are valid points. I guess I'll just have to try it and see what happens. I'm not afraid to lose my gainz if I end up knowing what works and what doesn't.

 

As for finals, thanks. Hope you're right.