Exercising *before* eating breakfast?

Artemisia

Artemisia

New member
I bought these books called the Body Sculpting Bible to help me, and in there it said that if you exercise in the morning, before breakfast (only drinking some water was ok) you will burn 300% more.
They said you burn that much more as your body isn't trying to burn what you just consumed, as you haven't consumed anything yet, and that you will burn straight from your fat storage instead.

Some of my friends were really skeptic about this and my sister (who is very supportive to begin with) said it wasn't healthy.
So before I change my routine, I'd like to hear more about this.
Is it ok? Is it not unhealthy?
What would you recommend?

I am going to change my routine from pm to am anyway, as I think it'll make me sleep better, cause after my work-out I'm very energetic and can't sleep.
 
It's not bad for you unless you are starving yourself. Fasted AM cardio is considered ideal, it's a typical way for people to lose their very last pounds of body fat if nothing else is working. At the end of the day though, what matters most is whether you are in a caloric deficit or surplus..if you are in a deficit you will lose weight in the long-term, if you are in a surplus you will gain it. Therefore I should emphasize there is not a huge difference between AM and PM cardio, but sometimes the little differences add up.
 
The 300% figure is complete BS. You're not going to burn appreciably more by exercising on an empty stomach. Exercise when it works best for you - if that's first thing in the morning, that's great. If you need to eat something first, that's good, too.

It doesn't really matter all that much, especially at this stage.
 
From personal experience:
Working out on an empty stomach: I feel like I'm burning more fat and I think there is SOME truth to more fat burning on an empty stomach. With that said, i feel really weak when I work out on an empty stomach and thus can't push myself to the max

Working our right after a meal: bad idea...i felt nauseous and sluggish

Working out with something small in tummy: When there is something small in my stomach I work out the best...so for example an apple, or even an hr after breakfast. IMO this is ideal.

Hope this helped :)
 
Thanks everyone.

I'm going to take Sunshyne's advice and eat a light breakfast an hour before as I think I'll feel really weak if I do it on an empty stomach.
 
whenever i work out lately...it has either been on an empty stomach, or with something very small eaten about an hour before like sunshyne said...or sometimes i drink some juice or whatever, just to give me a little bit of energy.

i read somewhere that you shouldn't eat anything for about an hour after your work out, because your body is still burning calories during that time...you want your body to get the most out of your work out. after that, have a nice lunch or something.

i'm not sure if this works yet, but it makes me feel like it's working better...so it helps me stay motivated.
 
I wouldn't worry that much about whether or not your body is still burning calories. Either you're burning more than you take in or you're not. The main difference has more to do with body composition, but even then the timing has a pretty minor impact. To quote Alan Aragon:

# The first law of nutrient timing is: hitting your daily macronutrient targets is FAR more important than nutrient timing.
# The second law of nutrient timing is: hitting your daily macronutrient targets is FAR more important than nutrient timing.
Click to expand...

Or in other words, it matters a lot more what you eat than when you eat it. If you ever get down to 15% body fat and want to lose more... then maybe you should worry about efficiency. Otherwise, just do whatever works best for you!
 
Good Luck! Gotta go...
 
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