Originally Posted by
markwill
Interesting. The concern I have is assessing exactly what "works". For example, yes I can handle the eating pattern (16:8) just fine and don't really want to change that. But when I ride or workout for training purposes, I always plan for the mid-afternoon or later since I have the option to do so and I then have eaten/drunk.
By comparison, the early morning start - and that silly mountain thing that early too! - is "unproven". I guess I could go out and ride early and see how I fare, but I'm not sure it is accurate, in my case, to say "it ain't broken", simply because I tend not to ride early and on an empty stomach. I don't plan to go crazy on the ride, but I want to push pretty hard and I'm not convinced that doing so without food or drink is a good move, even if I hold back a bit.
I appreciate the perspective.
If you aren't used to fasted rides, and especially intense fasted rides, do not try to start them now, its a slow and painful process, go back to the beginning of this thread where I detailed how I went about it. Also, I wouldn't consider eating breakfast a change in diet really. Your body, pysiologically isn't on a 16:8 schedule, it doesn't know the difference really. It uses more fat metabolism when its glycogen stores are getting low and slows that down when glycogen stores are high and/or there is food in the system, whether that occurs after 16 hours or 12 or 8 hours.