Something happens when you start noticing successful results with intermittent fasting (IF)...
You start to excessively micromanage your diet down to the micronutrient degree to ensure that you keep noticing positive results with intermittent fasting.
In other words, you get a little obsessed.
However, the downside to this sort of obsession is the rising self-doubt surrounding other healthy habits and fitness strategies that have previously worked just fine.
You start to wonder if, for example, eating certain vegetables interferes with your fasting results...
...or if you should discontinue taking certain health supplements for fear of disrupting your fasting metabolism.
You forget that the whole point of intermittent fasting isn’t to just succeed at fasting but to improve your health.
Though the metabolic benefits are complex and wide-ranging, don’t make intermittent fasting more complicated than it needs to be.
With that in mind, asking whether or not a pre-workout supplement breaks your fast isn’t as important as asking, “Does a pre-workout assist intermittent fasting in helping me achieve my health and fitness goals?”
The answer to this is, yes, with the Best Pre-Workout for Intermittent Fasting, you may take your intermittent fasting results to the next level.
And in this article, we not only explain how to get better IF results with a pre-workout but also what you should look for in an IF-friendly pre-workout stack.
The Beginner’s Guide on Fasting with a Pre-Workout
Let’s start here: What is a pre-workout supplement?
A pre-workout supplement is a supplement taken prior to working out. That's the short answer.
Below is a more complete answer.
A pre-workout is a performance enhancement supplement taken immediately prior to working out.
They are designed to improve various measures of exercise performance, including:
- Energy and Endurance
- Strength and Stamina
- N.O.-Boosted Muscle Pumps
- Stress Resistance
- Mental Focus and Intensity
Pre-workouts are special supplements designed to stimulate a workout-ready physiology for maximum performance on both aerobic and anaerobic exercise activities.
Likewise, intermittent fasting is a dieting strategy designed to supercharge your metabolic faculties to be more efficient at burning fat and building new muscle, making intermittent fasting and pre-workout supplementation a potentially synergistic combination.
So long as pre-workout supplements don’t interfere with the metabolic benefits of intermittent fasting, as many people fear they do.
But do they?
Before answering that, let's answer the question below.
Is It Okay to Exercise While Fasting?
Is it better to exercise in a fasted state or a well-fed state?
In other words, should you eat prior to working out or hit the gym on an empty stomach?
Well, it depends.
If you’re trying to burn MORE fat in LESS time, certainly fasted training, or fasted cardio, may help.
The theory behind fasted cardio that has taken the fitness community by storm lately is this: without food fuel readily available to convert to energy, the body resorts to stored fat for energy fuel.
This isn’t an unfounded theory. There is research that validates fasted cardio as an effective, efficient fat-burning strategy:
One study on the effects of fasted vs fed-state exercise on performance and post-exercise metabolism observed heightened fatty acid metabolism under fasting conditions, suggesting of “potential beneficial metabolic adaptations that fasted exercise may induce in peripheral tissues.”
However, in that same study, pre-working feeding was found to bolster prolonged aerobic performance, suggesting that a well-fed exercise may have an endurance advantage over the fasting exerciser.
Fasted cardio may improve metabolic energy expenditure and fat loss rates, yet research suggests this comes at the cost of exercise endurance and intensity.
Because prolonged absence of food intake reduces circulating blood sugar (glucose) levels, muscle glycogen levels drop, encouraging the body to rely more on fat to fuel your workout activity.
Yet, conversely, heightened glycogen levels correlate with heightened muscle endurance.
Likewise, glucose fuels willpower, or self-control, which is a core psychological factor in engaging and sustaining a high-intensity workout in the first place.
What this means then is that while, yes, exercising on an empty stomach is an effective fat-burning strategy, it also requires a significant amount of additional willpower to overcome the physiological and psychological barriers that come with low circulating glucose levels.
Which is why having fasting-friendly workout supplements is practically a necessity when it comes to exercise and intermittent fasting.
Why You Should Take a Pre-Workout While Fasting
First of all, whether fasting or not, if you’re working out, you should be taking a pre-workout supplement.
Granted, if you haven’t been taking a pre-workout all this time, there’s likely a good reason for it: many pre-workout supplements are full of artificial crap.
And much of that artificial crap may actually interfere with your intermittent fasting metabolism—not to mention many other aspects of your health and fitness.
However, a natural, effective pre-workout supplement, one that uses only all-natural ergogenics without any artificial additives, is worth the investment while intermittent fasting for a few reasons:
- Pre-workouts replenish muscle ATP cell energy for an additional boost on muscle strength, stamina, and endurance.
- Antioxidant and acid buffering pre-workout supplements help reduce the negative “endurance-killing” consequences of fasted training.
- Nitric oxide (N.O.) boosting pre-workouts may further improve muscle performance by increasing circulation and, thus, delivery of oxygen and nutrients to muscle tissue.
In other words, pre-workout supplements may help prime muscle performance via non-glucose pathways that protect exercise endurance without breaking the fast.
By combining a pre-workout with fasted training, you can burn MORE fat in LESS time while SAVING your workout performance from the endurance-diminishing aspects of fasting.
That sounds very much like a win-win-win.
The Fitness Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
Combined with exercise, intermittent fasting may have profoundly positive effects on exercise health and performance.
To name just a few fitness advantages of intermittent fasting, research has linked the following health benefits to fasting:
- Increased growth hormone secretion with exercise.
- Encouraged reliance on fat metabolism with resistance training.
- Better regulation of inflammatory response pathways.
- Improved insulin sensitivity.
- Enhanced neuroplasticity and cognitive health.
And more. Especially given the direct and indirect systems that overlap with these health systems.
Sustained by a healthy, whole-food diet and exercise, intermittent fasting may help keep the mind sharp and the body primed for high levels of daily productivity.
101 of Intermittent Fasting: Exercise in the Morning
Of course, to fast is to remain in a state of heightened stress and discomfort.
Eating is a form of comfort, after all. Hence why we “stress” eat when the going gets rough.
With that in mind, exercising first thing in the morning seems to be the best way to go.
Morning exercise appears to limit the daily discomforts of fasting, while also limiting your daily energy intake in general:
As one study has demonstrated, fasted training in the morning not only increases fat oxidation (fat burning) during exercise but also decreases 24-hour energy (food) intake, as the body remains primed to burn fat for energy throughout the remainder of the day. Based on these findings, the study’s researchers concluded that “Completing exercise in the morning in the fasted state may have implications for weight management.”
What to Look for in a Pre-Workout for Fasted Training
Not all pre-workout supplements are equal.
Some pre-workout stacks are better than others, and only one pre-workout supplement is the best.
With that in mind, if you want to improve your fasted training results, look for the following:
Low-to-Moderate Caffeine for Energy and Endurance
Many pre-workouts rely on high doses of caffeine for a quick energy hit, but excessive amounts can cause jitters and crashes.
Because stimulants tend to feel really good, many cheaper pre-workout supplement stacks tend to over-prioritize the stimulatory pathway to boosting energy. Often as a strategy to mask the otherwise ineffective qualities of their formulas.
Natural, effective pre-workout supplements, on the other hand, toss the high dose stimulants in favor of a research backed lower dose of caffeine. Studies suggest that low to moderate doses (3-6 mg/kg) of caffeine are equally effective, without all of the downsides of excessive consumption.
Even a moderate dose has been found to enhance performance in aerobic activities, sports, and exercises with high glycolytic demand by up to 8%.
These levels of caffeine in a pre-workout can deliver a clean, sustained boost of energy and focus, that supports both aerobic and anaerobic performance during fasted training without overstimulation.
L-Citrulline for Nitric Oxide (N.O.) Boost
L-Citrulline promotes nitric oxide (N.O.) production.
By relaxing the smooth muscle of blood vessels, N.O. helps increase circulation, thus promoting the sacred “muscle pump” desired by bodybuilders and aerobic athletes.
Aesthetically, the muscle pump looks great; however, practically speaking, the muscle pump also signals that adequate oxygen and nutrients are being delivered to muscle tissue.
For a long time, L-arginine was viewed as the best N.O. booster, given that this amino acid is a direct precursor to nitric oxide production.
However, orally supplemented L-arginine fails to sufficiently bypass digestion in the liver, which is why many exercisers have turned to L-citrulline, the precursor to L-arginine.
By bypassing digestion in the liver, L-citrulline supplements have a better survival rate than L-arginine. Once in the body, L-citrulline converts to L-arginine, which in turns promotes nitric oxide production for enhanced “muscle pump” activity.
As such, L-citrulline is easily the superior N.O. booster for enhanced muscle strength and endurance.
Best L-Citrulline for Intermittent Fasting: Kyowa Quality® L-Citrulline
Kyowa Quality® L-Citrulline is an ultra-pure L-citrulline form.
Kyowa Quality® L-Citrulline is one of the best N.O.boosters—if not the best—for natural exercise performance enhancement.
By naturally promoting blood flow to hard-working muscles, L-citrulline may help overcome the muscle-draining conditions of fasting for a longer, better workout.
L-Glutathione for Antioxidant Protection
When you’re training in a fasted state, your body is already under a bit of extra stress because you haven’t fueled up with food. Your body is in a fat-burning state, but that also puts your muscles in a more vulnerable position.
This means that while you’re burning fat and working out, your muscles are more susceptible to oxidative stress and free radical damage.
Enter glutathione.
Glutathione is one of the body’s most powerful antioxidants, often referred to as the "master antioxidant" because of its crucial role in neutralizing free radicals and reducing oxidative damage.
By neutralizing these free radicals, glutathione protects your muscle tissue, helping you push through your workout with more endurance and less fatigue. Plus, it helps speed up recovery so you’re not dragging the next day.
What really sets glutathione apart, though, is how it enhances your body's overall resilience during exercise. Unlike other antioxidants, glutathione actually works inside the cells where damage occurs, which means it’s offering direct protection to the muscles that are doing all the hard work. It’s like having an internal defense team fighting off muscle-damaging free radicals, so you can keep pushing without hitting the wall too early.
Himalayan Pink Salt for Electrolyte Replenishment
When you’re training in a fasted state, your body is working harder to maintain balance, especially when it comes to hydration and electrolyte levels.
As you sweat during your workout, you lose essential electrolytes like sodium, potassium, and magnesium, which are crucial for muscle function, nerve signaling, and maintaining hydration. If these electrolytes aren’t replenished, you can experience muscle cramps, fatigue, and a dip in performance.
That’s where Himalayan Pink Salt steps in as a natural and effective solution.
Himalayan Pink Salt is packed with trace minerals like magnesium, potassium, and calcium, in addition to sodium. These trace minerals help your body maintain its electrolyte balance, which is especially important when you’re pushing your limits in a fasted state.
Best Pre-Workout for Intermittent Fasting: Pre Lab Pro®
Pre Lab Pro® is a safe, natural, and well-tolerated pre-workout formula that supports healthy long-term training without breaking your daily fast.
Pre Lab Pro® boosts exercise performance and intermittent fasting results by including:
- Natural caffeine from Coffea robusta seeds, which is absorbed efficiently and offers a smoother, more gradual release than synthetic caffeine. The focus is on delivering a steady boost without the harsh spikes or crashes that can occur with higher doses.
- Glutathione to ensure that your muscles are not only performing at their best but are also well-protected during those intense, fasted sessions.
- Himalayan Pink Salt in Pre Lab Pro® helps to replenish sodium levels, ensuring that you stay properly hydrated throughout your workout.
- Kyowa Quality® L-Citrulline, which promotes nitric oxide production, improving blood flow, oxygen delivery, and muscle endurance without the need for glucose-based fuels.
- Beetroot powder, a natural source of nitrates to increase nitric oxide (NOx) levels, enhance blood flow, boost strength, and improve endurance. While beetroot contains calories, the amount in Pre Lab Pro® is minimal—so small that it won’t disrupt your fast.
Pre Lab Pro® powers your workouts and enhances fat-burning efficiency with a clean, fasting-friendly blend of all-natural, zero-calorie performance boosters.
Best Pre-Workout for Intermittent Fasting: Conclusion
Pre Lab Pro® is the Best Pre-Workout for Intermittent Fasting
The overarching goal of combining intermittent fasting and pre-workout supplements isn’t simply to sustain your fast but to improve your overall health and fitness.
Fortunately, Pre Lab Pro® does both.
Pre Lab Pro® packs a powerful punch without the messy, artificial ingredients.
Even if you’re not committed to an intermittent fasting regimen, avoiding artificial additives and synthetic compounds in your workout supplements is a smart move. Which is partly the reason why Performance Lab® Pre Lab Pro® isn’t only the best pre-workout for intermittent fasting, but the best pre-workout period.
All-natural ingredients, there’s nothing in this formula that your body dislikes. In fact, there’s much here that will make your body happy, and you can experience that bodily “happiness” in the forms of bigger muscle pumps and healthier strength gains with just your first serving of this stack.
Ultimate Workout Stack for Intermittent Fasting
Priming muscle performance is one aspect of IF-related performance enhancement.
However, there are plenty more workout supplements you can stack to further improve your exercise performance without disrupting your intermittent fasting results. In fact, these stacks may even work synergistically with fasted training.
We recommend stacking Pre Lab Pro® with the following fasting-friendly fitness supplements:
MCT Energy Oil
MCT oil is an excellent companion to fasted training because it provides quick, easily absorbed energy without breaking your fast. Here’s why it makes sense:
- Fast Energy Source: MCTs (medium-chain triglycerides) are rapidly converted into ketones, offering an immediate energy source for your brain and muscles, which can be particularly helpful during fasted training when your body’s glycogen stores are lower.
- Supports Fat Oxidation: MCT oil can enhance fat-burning by encouraging your body to use fat as fuel, which complements the goals of intermittent fasting and can further boost performance during your workout.
- Sustained Energy: By combining MCT oil’s quick energy with Pre Lab Pro’s steady caffeine and nitric oxide boosters, you’ll experience a more balanced and sustained energy release throughout your training session.
- Enhanced Focus: The mental clarity that MCT oil provides (through ketone production) can help you stay sharp and focused, which is a bonus when stacking it with the natural caffeine in Pre Lab Pro®.
Performance Lab® MCT supplies the two most effective MCTs (C8 + C10) for promoting nutritional ketosis and optimizing mitochondrial ATP energy expenditure.
Combined with exercise and intermittent fasting, MCTs can significantly enhance your fat-burning and energy expenditure potential. Additionally, these beneficial fats may help you curb your appetite cravings for greater weight management control and brainpower.
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