Is fasted cardio for you?

I often see people doing fasted cardio and have actually done it a few times myself. Not intentionally though, I have found myself stuck for time and just gone to workout (simply because I had no time to let my breakfast go down before it,I think we've all been there) But truth is, I love breakfast. I love getting up, thinking about what I want (always oats) and eating breakfast. I'm usually reaaaal hungry in the morning and heading to the gym on an empty stomach can leave me feeling weak and dizzy. I tend to avoid it, but it seems to work for a lot of people. 

There have been various studies into fasted cardio, a lot of research has actually indicated we burn 20% more fat in the fasted state. It does make sense, depleted glycogen stores and low insulin levels mean your body metabolizes fat as fuel. When we eat, we release insulin, which suppresses fat metabolism. So not eating breakfast leads to a higher fat burn.Competitors or fitness models may want to use this to lower their body fat relatively quickly. However, there is bad news which comes with this, when you sleep your body also breaks down Amino acids (essential for building proteins) into glucose, so potentially when we do fasted cardio we're using fat and Amino acids as fuel. Not ideal if you want to build muscle! 
When you wake up, your body contains high concentrations of the stress hormone Cortisol, now this hormone tells the body to break down molecules for energy, therefore..you don't wanna be in this fasted state for too long, as it can lead to the breakdown of muscle. Research shows that training before fueling up leads to muscle breakdown. not good. As you probably know, exercise in itself is not the crazy calorie burner, we burn more calories throughout the day, after working out. Another downside to fasted cardio is that even though it teaches our body to utilize fat stores for energy, it doesn't lead to a larger calorie burn throughout the day. In fact, eating before a workout in some studies has been proven to be more efficient over a 24 hour period for burning calories. 

There's also this issue with energy, for me I feel completely lethargic without some fuel in me! my workouts are simply not as good. I don't come out of the gym satisfied, and I usually come out feeling a little nauseous.

If you want to burn fat my advice would be to eat well throughout the day, you don't need to fasted cardio to get rid of extra fat. It's about calories in VS calories out, just eat well and exercise. If you don't like fasted cardio there's no need to do it! alternatively, if you enjoy it and it fits in with your lifestyle then that's fine too, but be aware of the possible side effects concerned with muscle growth. The kinda cardio I love to do is HIIT, it's quick, fun and ramps up the calorie burn throughout the day! Proven to burn a lot more calories than slow and steady cardio, it's pretty nifty.