Do you think it is harmful or helpful to exercise first thing in the morning on an empty stomach? From my understanding, if you eat right before a workout you’re more likely to exercise more efficiently, but you’re also mainly burning off that food for glycolysis instead of breaking down adipose fat. On the other hand, I’ve heard it is harmful to the metabolism to workout on an empty stomach. What are the effects of this on metabolism? Weight loss? Muscle building? Curious to hear what everyone has to say.
For weight loss, it doesn’t matter. Meal timing doesn’t significantly affect how much fat is burned; this comes down to the total calorie deficit. In your example, if you eat beforehand, your body might use the newly consumed food for energy, but then you’ll be eating less later in the day. Your body still needs energy later in the day, so that’s when it might dip into the fat stores. Overall if you need burn X calories throughout the day and only consume X-200 calories, your body will need to dip into your fat stores at some point to get the remaining 200 calories.
I dont know much about it scientifically/from a physiology standpoint but some of the most esteemed trainers I used to work with, who were also always doing physique shows, would do “fasted cardio” in the months leading up to their shows, which meant waking up at 6-7am every day and doing an hour of cardio before eating or going about their day. I think it would be great for weight loss and metabolism, especially if you had some sort of thermogenic pre workout before the session.
No need to ask us, this has been studied.
Idk which video but Jeff Nippard talks about it in one of his YouTube videos.
If I remember correctly, you do burn fat by working out fasted and sugar by working out after eating but your body balances these acute changes in the following hours so there is no significant difference. This assumes you don’t eat enough to mess up your exercise.
The, now defunct, “feeding window” only impacts you negatively if you fail to get BCAAs inside of something like 7 hours after serious exercise.
I don’t claim to understand how any of this works and I may be wrong but that’s the info I operate under.
“FASTED CARDIO” is what it’s called when using don’t eat prior and workout like first thing in the AM. I have found that it can affect people differently. I’ve done this before and while it kind of worked in terms of burning fat that I needed to target, I also needed to adapt to this or else I’d feel burned out and nauseous when working out. What I mean by this is- try to eat something very light in the AM before working out for a week so your body can get adapted to the changes then for the next week, try just not eating at all and working out but make sure you eat an hour or two after your workout.
There is no well founded answer except that it may or may not affect your performance. If it doesn’t, don’t worry about it.
Consuming an easy to consume and digest source of carbohydrates prior could be useful if you haven’t tried and your training hard.
Eating a meal afterward will most certainly help with recovery (although delaying eating does have an effect it’s VERY minor so it’s not crucial to eat immediately afterward).
This level of detail does add up however it’s a minor % compared to generally eating enough, getting adequate micronutrients, sleep etc etc.
I asked a trainer at my gym about this. She recommended a piece of buttered toast 15 minutes before a workout and at least 20g of protein within an hour after the workout is over. I feel like that gives me something to burn during the workout without getting a side stitch from a full stomach