Best Zero Calorie Pre-Workout

Boost your fasted training results with a zero-calorie pre-workout stack

What’s your favorite pre-workout supplement?

Is it Fanta orange soda? A lemon cookie?

A literal spoonful of sugar?

After all, processed sugars do offer a reliable, fast-acting source of brain and body energy.

And isn’t the whole point of taking a pre-workout supplement to quickly energize and enhance exercise performance?

This seems to be the strategy taken by many overcaffeinated, sugar-sweet pre-workout supplement stacks.

However, long-term health and fitness aren’t sustained by short-term bursts of calorie-spiking energy.

No, the most effective pre-workout supplement works without relying on the short-sighted crutches of synthetic stimulants and artificial sweeteners.

Because, despite being calorie-free, synthetic stimulants/artificial sweeteners disrupt many of the metabolic advantages of exercising - namely exercising on an empty stomach (a.k.a. fasted training).

In this article, we not only explain how to convert your calories into lean, mean muscle mass...

...but we also provide a full analysis of the Best Zero Calorie Pre-Workout you can take without disrupting your exercise results, whether fasting or not.

The Beginner’s Guide on Calories and Exercise

Let’s start here: What are calories?

Technically, a calorie is a unit for measuring heat (energy). One calorie equals the amount of heat (energy) required to raise the temperature of one gram of water up one degree Celsius.

However, when we say we’re “burning calories” at the gym, we don’t mean that we’re trying to boil the water in our bodies.

Typically, in the context of exercise, burning calories means “burning fat.”

This is because, in dietary terms, a calorie measures the amount of energy that food produces in the body.

And if we consume an excessive amount of food calories, our body stores those calories as fat that we quite literally have to burn through physical activity—i.e., energy expenditure.

Conversely, when energy expenditure exceeds energy intake, we see a decrease in body mass that’s similarly comprised of body fat at 60-80%.

So, one of the most popular ways to “burn fat” is to simply reduce energy intake—i.e., eat less.

Except there’s one problem with this method: it’s not sustainable in the long run.

For one, food isn’t solely a source of caloric energy.

Food also sustains our health and fitness by supplying various essential nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, beneficial oils, antioxidants, and many more bio-active constituents required for a healthy metabolism.

We need more than caloric energy to sustain a healthy, active lifestyle. Yet, caloric excess may contribute towards metabolic dysregulation.

And so, with that in mind, keep reading to learn how to reorganize your calorie intake to serve your fitness and not your fatness.

The 3-Step Plan to Convert Calories into Lean Muscle Mass

When energy intake is lower than energy expenditure, fat mass decreases. This is the simple formula for cutting fat.

However, life isn’t always so simple, now is it? After all, if our energy intake is consistently lower than our energy expenditure, than, well, eventually we’ll run out of energy, won’t we?

And don’t we need energy to—oh, I don’t know—survive?!?

A more sustainable approach to achieving a more desirable body composition requires a more sophisticated plan. With that in mind, here is the three-step plan to burn more fat and build more muscle in less time without totally burning out:

1. Step One: Metabolic Energy Balance – The first step is all about quantity. To build a more fit physique, it’s more effective to establish a metabolic balance between energy intake and energy expenditure than it is to simply decrease energy intake.
2. Step Two: Intermittent Fasting – The second step is all about timing. By scheduling when to intake energy (feed) and when not to intake energy (fast), intermittent fasting can help encourage the body to use stored energy to fuel exercise and to convert food energy into fuel for anabolic muscle growth and repair.
3. Step Three: Take a Zero-Calorie Pre-Workout – To sustain heightened levels of exercise endurance and intensity while fasting, you’ll need a pre-workout supplement that boosts performance without breaking your fast.

Let’s take a closer look at each step.

Step One: Metabolic Energy Balance

The truth is the relationship between energy balance and body composition is much more complicated than the oversimplified prescription of “eat less to look sexy.”

While excessive energy intake (eating too much) is a common barrier to many peoples’ health and fitness goals, an effective, long-term strategy for maintaining a fit physique focuses less on simply “eating less” than it does on seeking metabolic energy balance.

• The basic components of energy balance include energy intake, energy expenditure, and energy storage. When energy intake equals energy expenditure, the body is in energy balance and body energy (typically measured as body weight) is stable.

In general, it’s better to achieve metabolic energy balance by increasing energy expenditure (exercise) than by reducing energy intake (food restrictions).

A fit, healthy physique isn’t maintained solely by food restrictions.

For one, by itself, decreasing calorie intake only has a limited, short-term influence on body composition, which explains the frustrating “yo-yo” effect of dieting that sees a harmfully cyclical loss and gain of weight over time.

Again, we need energy—not to mention nutrients. And if we fail to meet our bodies’ energy and nutrient demands, eventually we’ll exhaust ourselves and our cravings for energy-rich fats and sugars will bounce back with a vengeance, while our overall health gradually diminishes.

Instead, here’s what you should do: expend more energy through exercise to establish a healthier balance between energy expenditure and energy intake. Think in terms of “energy balance” rather than “calorie restrictions.”

As a result, your body’s metabolism will convert food energy more towards anabolic muscle growth and recovery than towards jiggly fat storage.

Step Two: Intermittent Fasting

Establishing a consistent circadian rhythm around a consistent schedule of sleeping, exercising, and eating may go a long way in optimizing your metabolism.

Sleeping at irregular bedtimes, exercising at inconsistent daytimes, eating at an unpredictable pace—this is fundamentally what it means to live in chaos. And chaos is an impossible foundation upon which to build a healthy, active lifestyle.One of the best ways to put your life (and, thus, your health) back in order is to adopt an intermittent fasting routine, which essentially involves prolonging the fasting intervals between scheduled mealtimes.

The emphasis on fasting is different from dieting in that you can consume as many calories and food types as you desire, so long as you do it within a specified time frame.

The point of intermittent fasting isn’t necessarily to limit daily calorie intake but rather to set limits on when to consume your daily calories.

Of course, you should limit yourself to a reasonable amount of caloric intake and nutrient-dense foods. However, the main point here is to re-center your circadian rhythm, your internal 24-hour physiological clock, around a more predictable spike in daily food energy.

Healthy metabolic regulation is strongly linked to a healthy circadian rhythm, which organizes our energy usage and storage around predictable, consistent sleeping, exercising, and eating schedules.

In their 2016 article “Fasting, Circadian Rhythms, and Time Restricted Feeding in Healthy Lifespan,” biologists Valter D. Longo and Satchidananda Panda linked the theory of “fasting physiology” to the circadian rhythm, suggesting that the fasting period serves as “a time for standby and repair so that the organism is fit and competent to harvest energy when food becomes available.”

In a natural environment, food sources aren’t as widespread and easily accessible as they are in our fast food-lined streets. Intermittent fasting mimics the natural eating patterns of the natural world.

However, when combined with exercise, intermittent fasting is exceptionally conducive to fat burning, as the fasting body turns to stored fat for energy fuel (ketogenesis) in the absence of food fuel, making intermittent fasting (or, specifically, fasted training) an effective tool for sculpting a desirable body composition.

Is it Safe to Exercise on an Empty Stomach?

For the most part, yes—so long as you’re still meeting your heightened energy demands with adequate caloric intake ideally immediately after exercising. Because the body risks muscle catabolism (breakdown) and cognitive impairment while in a fasted state, it’s best to work out in the morning, and then to follow that workout up with a muscle-nourishing breakfast and protein shake.Plus, clinical research has found morning exercise to be effective at influencing our daytime caloric intake:

• Research suggests that fasted training in the morning may not only increase fat oxidation (fat burning) but also decrease energy intake throughout the day, as early-morning exercise encourages the body to rely more on stored fat for daytime energy fuel.

Step Three: Take a Zero-Calorie Pre-Workout

The last step is the easiest: take a zero-calorie pre-workout supplement.

No doubt, exercising in a fasted state is a much more uncomfortable, difficult experience than exercising in a fed state.

While there are significant metabolic advantages to fasted training, there are also a couple compromises:

• Compromise #1: whereas fasted training encourages the mobilization of stored fat for energy fuel, eating before exercise may bolster exercise endurance.
• Compromise #2: despite the notable increases in anabolic growth factors that occur during the fasting period of intermittent fasting, fasting may exacerbate the usual protein breakdown that occurs while exercising.

The ideal pre-workout for fasted training bolsters endurance while protecting muscle tissue against the deleterious side effects of fasting.

And that’s exactly what the best zero calorie pre-workout supplement does by priming muscle tissue with all-natural, clean, green performance enhancers that work without breaking your fast.

Here are a few of the most effective pre-workout ingredients to look for in the Best Zero Calorie Pre-Workout you can take to maximize your muscle performance while incurring the metabolic benefits of fasted training.

Enjoy!

Top Zero-Calorie Pre-Workout Ingredients

1) Creatine

One of the most popular pre-workout supplements that gradually builds up in muscle tissue to support long-term muscle energy, growth, and recovery.

Few pre-workout supplements work quite as effectively or reliably as creatine, one of the most popular, well-known energy boosters for enhanced muscle performance.

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Uniquely, creatine is energy, meaning that it’s an organic compound that naturally concentrates in muscle tissue to fuel ATP energy production. Yet, unlike macronutrient food sources of caloric energy, creatine works as a calorie-free source of energy.

Which is to say: the body does not store excess creatine as fat.

Instead, a modest dose of creatine gradually builds up in the muscle when supplemented on a daily, consistent basis, resulting in a “pumped up” muscle-ready supply of cellular ATP energy to help you hit one more set, one more rep, one more lap, etc. in your workout with greater ease.

Both calorie-free and non-stimulatory, creatine promotes exercise energy and endurance without harmfully spiking blood pressure or blood sugar levels.

What’s most notable about creatine is how its efficacy matches its long-term safety.

• One clinical study on the effects of 4-week creatine supplementation combined with complex training on muscle damage and sport performance observed significant improvements in measures of strength and muscle health. The researcher’s conclusion: “creatine supplementation combined with complex training improved maximal muscular strength and reduced muscle damage during training.”

Best Zero-Calorie Creatine Supplement: Creapure® pH10

Creapure® pH10 is a pure, potent, and patented form of creatine that absorbs quickly and efficiently, reducing the build-up time to reach peak effect and the risk of gastric distress.

As a 99.5% pure creatine monohydrate supplement that’s pH-balanced to boost bioavailability, Creapure® requires a lower dosage than standard creatine forms to work, minimizing typical creatine bloating associated with high dosages of creatine supplementation.

2) L-Citrulline

Found in watermelon, L-citrulline is an effective pre-workout compound that converts to L-arginine, a nitric oxide (N.O.) booster for enhanced muscle circulation and power.

Dethroning L-arginine as the N.O. boosting king, L-citrulline is an ergogenic amino acid that converts to bioactive L-arginine once absorbed into the body.

Which means that, well, okay, so perhaps L-arginine is still the N.O. booster of interest here. However, the point is that supplementary L-citrulline works better as an L-arginine source than supplementary L-arginine itself, which fails to fully absorb into the body.

The N.O.-boosting bio-pathway of L-citrulline involves the following steps:

1. L-citrulline bypasses the liver to convert to L-arginine in the kidneys.
2. O. synthase converts L-arginine to bioactive nitric oxide (N.O.).
3. Nitric oxide stimulates cGMP, a signaling compound that promotes relaxation of vascular smooth muscle.

Unlike L-arginine, L-citrulline survives the digestive process to better deliver its N.O.-boosting bio-benefits to the body.

By boosting N.O., L-citrulline enhances blood flow throughout the body, increasing delivery of oxygen and nutrients to energy-demanding muscles. This action helps elevate performance for both aerobic and anaerobic exercise under both fasting and non-fasting conditions.

All biology jargon aside, what L-citrulline supplementation amounts to is better “muscle pumps”—that bulging, pumped-up feeling in the muscles that’s symptomatic of a great workout.

• In a clinical study on the combined effects of L-citrulline (CIT) + L-glutathione (GSH) on resistance exercise, a group of researchers observed that “supplementation of GSH + CIT during resistance training increased lean mass after 4 weeks of RT and was positively associated with muscle strength.”

Best Zero-Calorie L-Citrulline Supplement: Kyowa Quality® L-Citrulline

Over the past century, Kyowa Quality® has earned a name as a world leader in manufacturing amino acid supplements, and Kyowa Quality® L-Citrulline, an exceptionally clean and pure L-citrulline form, is no exception.

Manufactured using a plant-based fermentation process, Kyowa Quality® L-Citrulline isn’t only zero-calorie but a clean, vegan-friendly L-citrulline form that works even better than citrulline malate alone when paired with the next pre-workout ingredient.

3) L-Glutathione

Antioxidant enzyme that bolsters stress resistance against protein-damaging oxidative stress and strengthens immunity against exercise-related pathogens.

Exercise is stressful enough without fasting. We tear apart our muscle tissue while lifting big weights and trekking long distances with the hope of building bigger, stronger muscles in the long run.

However, before our muscles strengthen, we must endure a period of soreness and discomfort, of grabbing handrails to support our fatigued, wobbly-kneed steps up a flight of stairs, that intensely challenges our willpower to keep hitting the gym.

And during that period of soreness, the body’s immune system is potentially weakened, resulting in an “open window” opportunity for pathogens to infect the body.

Which is why we supplement L-glutathione, a pre-workout antioxidant that strengthens the body’s defenses against exercise-related oxidative stress and pathogen infection.

Whether or not the “open window” theory holds true, adding a powerful antioxidant to your pre-workout stack may significantly improve exercise performance and fitness health by lessening muscle fatigue and soreness.

In other words, L-glutathione supports tomorrow’s workout by reducing the muscle-draining effects of today’s workout.

• Both animal and human research found improvements in exercise-induced muscle fatigue with L-glutathione supplement, specifically noting improvements on muscular pH, fatty acid metabolism, blood lactate levels, and psychological fatigue. The researcher’s conclusion: “glutathione supplementation improved lipid metabolism and acidification in skeletal muscles during exercise, leading to less muscle fatigue.”

Best Zero-Calorie L-Glutathione Supplement: Setria®

Supplying a highly absorbable, bioavailable form of glutathione, Setria® is manufactured through a similar patented, plant-based fermentation process as Kyowa Quality® L-Citrulline, which acts complementary to Setria® L-Glutathione.

Taken together, Setria® and Kyowa Quality® L-Citrulline may further enhance L-citrulline’s N.O.-boosting potential, resulting in bigger muscle pumps and strength gains. The result is greater exercise intensity supported by a greater antioxidant safety net that protects against the muscle-damaging consequences of high-intensity training.

4) Beta-Alanine

Promotes exercise capacity and recovery by supporting fast-twitch muscle stamina and neutralizing muscle-damaging toxins.

Famous for triggering the “tingles,” the feeling of a million cold pinpricks poking your face, neck, and hands, Beta-Alanine is a hugely popular pre-workout ingredient taken to extend muscle stamina, namely fast-twitch muscle stamina.

As a non-essential amino acid that converts to carnosine, a dipeptide highly concentrated in fast-twitch muscle fibers, beta-alanine’s particularly great for anaerobic exercise and competition.

Think: sprinters, bodybuilders, gymnasts, etc.

Beta-alanine supplementation significantly elevates carnosine concentration in muscle tissue by up to 80%, where carnosine helps combat the accumulation of exercise-induced lactic acid.

When oxygen intake fails to keep up with the quick energy demands of anaerobic exercise, lactic acid production increases, resulting in heightened muscle fatigue and soreness. However, research suggests that heightened carnosine concentration in fast-twitch muscle fibers may help extend and enhance exercise performance.

• One study demonstrated that reductions in muscle mass and function may be countered by improving carnosine stores via beta-alanine supplementation, based on the findings that “beta-alanine supplementation increased exercise capacity and eliminated endurance exercise induced declines in executive function seen after recovery.”

Best Zero-Calorie Beta-Alanine Supplement: CarnoSyn®

A leader in beta-alanine supplementation and clinical research, CarnoSyn® is a world-renown beta-alanine brand backed by over 55 scientific studies. Not to mention that CarnoSyn® is the only beta-alanine with New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) status and a self-affirmed Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status.

Completing the creatine + citrulline + beta-alanine trifecta, CarnoSyn® paired with Creapure® and Kyowa Quality® L-Citrulline makes for a powerful, fasting-friendly pre-workout trio.

Don’t Forget Your Electrolytes!

One of the major disadvantages of fasted training: electrolyte-deficiency and dehydration.

While fasting, you can drink water without breaking your fast. In fact, it’s recommended to get adequate H2O intake, whether fasting or not, prior to exercise. However, the problem is that you need more than water to stay hydrated.

You also need electrolytes, namely the four basic electrolytes:

1. Magnesium
2. Potassium
3. Calcium
4. Sodium

Fortunately, these essential trace minerals come at zero caloric cost, and, thus, may be supplemented without breaking a fast. And one of the best electrolyte sources you can take to improve your workout hydration levels is Himalayan pink salt, a natural, unprocessed salt chunk that brings the electrolytes along with the good vibes.

OR learn more about its ingredients below...

Performance Lab Pre Supplement Facts

• Sodium (from Himalayan Pink Salt), 140 mg
• NutriGenesis® Iron+, 5 mg
• Setria® Performance Blend, 2,200 mg
  • L-Citrulline (Kyowa Quality®)
  • L-Glutathione (Setria®)
• Creapure® pH10 (83% Creatine), 1250 mg
• CarnoSyn® Beta-Alanine, 800 mg
• Maritime Pine Bark Extract (95% proanthocyanidins), 100 mg
• Himalayan Pink Salt, 350 mg

Quick Analysis

Performance Lab® Pre’s all-natural formula supercharges the body’s natural energy and endurance levels without relying on harmful stimulants or synthetics.

Many pre-workouts boast of having an excellent selection of performance enhancers, yet they too often sell themselves short by caking their formulas in performance-disruptive artificial additives and a heart-racing amount of caffeine.

Sure, artificial sweeteners do taste sweet without ramping up the calorie count, and, yes, stimulants do supply a reliable source of cognitive energy. However, the combined downsides of both may significantly disrupt your metabolism.

By eschewing stimulants and synthetics, Performance Lab® Pre not only acutely promotes exercise performance but long-term health and fitness as well.

Much of Pre’s success is thanks to the formula’s use of NutriCaps® capsules over artificially sweetened and chemically loaded powder.

Many inferior pre-workout stacks sweeten their formulas with GI-disruptive chemicals to mask their cheaply manufactured ingredients. It’s a double negative whammy: harmful artificial sweeteners disguise the poor taste of harmful, unnatural ingredients.

Billed as “zero calorie” formulas, these artificially sweetened pre-workouts unfortunately have warped our worldview to see something like “Arctic Blue Razz” as a legitimate, desirable flavor to throw in our bodies. Fortunately, Performance Lab® SPORT Pre is setting the record straight by showing that zero-calorie ergogenics that are clean, healthy, and all-natural do exist.

More important, Performance Lab® Pre is a clean, healthy, all-natural pre-workout that’s also noticeably effective at boosting fitness and exercise performance.

For a powerful boost on exercise performance that sustains the metabolic benefits of fasted training, add Performance Lab® Pre to your daily health and fitness stack!

Conclusion

Performance Lab® Pre is the Best Zero Calorie Pre-Workout

While fasted training is one of the most effective strategies for burning fat and building lean muscle mass, so are pre-workout supplements incredibly effective tools for maximizing your muscle capacity and exercise strength for optimal results.

Yet, due to their use of artificial sweeteners and synthetic formula designs that interfere with your metabolism, many pre-workout supplements derail the metabolic advantages of fasted training before the workout has even begun.

Not so with Performance Lab® Pre.

Performance Lab® Pre supplies only clean, potent, all-natural pre-workout ingredients in a 100% non-GMO, vegan-friendly, eco-friendly, and calorie-free formula.

Thanks to Performance Lab® Pre’s innovative beast-mode-in-a-bottle formula design that substitutes the chemical-loaded PWO powder with easy-to-absorb, digestible NutriCaps® capsules, this formula goes down easy without causing any fasting disruptions or metabolic disasters.

Other 'Zero-Calorie' pre-workouts lack quality

While many pre-workout supplements boast of being calorie-free, many of these same supplements drop the ball when it comes to ingredient and formula quality. Reminding us that calories aren’t the only things to be avoided when cutting fat or seeking a healthier physique.

By priming muscle tissue with cellular ATP energy and “muscle pumping” nitric oxide boosts, without any use of synthetic chemicals or cheap stimulants, Performance Lab® Pre easily qualifies as the best zero calorie pre-workout stack—whether your workouts consist of fasted or non-fasted training, aerobic or anaerobic exercise.

Taken daily, Performance Lab® Pre will have you looking like a marble-sculpted, hard-lined Greek statue in no time—minus all that indecent exposure stuff, let’s hope.

Ultimate Zero-Calorie Workout Stack

When you stack up multiple zero-calorie workout supplements, what do you get? Still zero calories! Well, zero calories in addition to even more strength and fitness gains, as well as heightened energy expenditure, endurance, fat loss, and more.

To create the Ultimate Zero-Calorie Workout Stack, stack Performance Lab® SPORT Pre with the following workout supplements: