exercising first thing in the morning

bungaro79

hi all,
have heard differing views from friends on whether you should exercise first thing in the morning before breakfast the logic being that it would burn fat reserves. so can the people in the know here give me their opinions on that and whether its actually true or should you eat something first?!
cheers!

Doolee

Hi,

I can second that motion on exercising first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. My personal trainer told me to do so and its been working well with fat burning because as you said, the energy you use comes from the fat you have and not from the energy in the food you would have eaten. I was recommended to do half hour or 45mins of cardio, eg walking uphill etc or on a treadmill as an incline. Works for me!
Good luck!

corkcomp

i exercise very early in the morning, I dont do it because it burns more fat though, more like I have an hour or two when I would be watching sky news in bed! some people dont perform to full potential first thing though so it depends on the individual

InKonspikuou2

First thing in the morning on an empty stomach is grand if you are doing cardio. But if you are doing weights you would be better of eating some carbs for energy.

Chet Zar

Doolee wrote: »

Hi,

I can second that motion on exercising first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. My personal trainer told me to do so and its been working well with fat burning because as you said, the energy you use comes from the fat you have and not from the energy in the food you would have eaten. I was recommended to do half hour or 45mins of cardio, eg walking uphill etc or on a treadmill as an incline. Works for me!
Good luck!

InKonspikuou2 wrote: »

First thing in the morning on an empty stomach is grand if you are doing cardio. But if you are doing weights you would be better of eating some carbs for energy.

There are some misconceptions about this, and the jury is still out on whether it makes a difference when it comes to fat loss. Just because you haven't eaten doesn't mean you have no energy to burn and so your body turns to fat loss - the average person will actually have more than enough stored energy to dip into, so saying that 'the energy you use comes from the at you have' is not entirely true.

Focus on how it's gonna work for you - if you can go and train on an empty stomach no bother then go for it.

InKonspikuou2

Chet Zar wrote: »

There are some misconceptions about this, and the jury is still out on whether it makes a difference when it comes to fat loss. Just because you haven't eaten doesn't mean you have no energy to burn and so your body turns to fat loss - the average person will actually have more than enough stored energy to dip into, so saying that 'the energy you use comes from the at you have' is not entirely true.

Focus on how it's gonna work for you - if you can go and train on an empty stomach no bother then go for it.

You will have energy but very little of it would be from carbs. The livers carb store is practically depleted by morning. Of course it depends on when the last meal was ate and how much sleep the person had. You burn around 100 calories an hour sleeping. So by morning it will be mostly energy that has been converted from protein which is needed for muscle performance, production and maintenance. So if you go lift weights on that you will also reduce glucose levels quicker and not gain much results.

Regarding cardio it would be wise to eat first thing in the morning. And then wait about 2 hours or so before doing cardio. This way you at least plug what may be a calorie deficit when you wake up. That is what i normally do. Of course if you do cardio upon waking and eat afterwards and don't pay attention to ketosis you can set a pattern and chances are you will burn fat. But you will also burn protein.

The Davestator

Your body cannot burn fat without carbs so if you're on a low carb diet, you may need some carbs before a workout (especially an intense weights one)

Saying that, a normal diet should be enough energy to do a decent workout in the am - very important to eat straight away though so bring some protein & carbs with you.

bungaro79

thanks for the replies!

i eat a mixed healthy diet really and have really cut out all the crap and what i usually have in the mornings these days is a juice made from a good mix of fruit and veg (love my new juicer!). all i was thinking about doing was about 30 mins on my bike and then have my juice straight away after