I've seen on many occasions people say that you burn the same amount of fat/calories during morning cardio on an empty stomach as you do during any other time of day so I figured, lets see how this is determined.....
I will start off:
I am a FIRM believer that morning cardio on an empty stomach is MUCH more effective for burning fat than cardio after consuming a meal or cardio later in the day.
Here's why....This is from a website source sixpacknow.com
Early in the morning before you eat, your levels of muscle and liver glycogen (stored carbohydrates) are low. If you eat dinner at 7 p.m. and you eat breakfast at 7 a.m., that's 12 hours without food. During this 12-hour overnight fast, your levels of glycogen slowly decline to provide glucose for various bodily functions that go on even while you sleep. As a result, you wake up in the morning with depleted glycogen and lower blood sugar - the optimum environment for burning fat instead of carbohydrate. How much more fat you'll burn is uncertain, but some studies have suggested that up to 300% more fat is burned when cardio is done in a fasted, glycogen-depleted state.
So how exactly does this work? It's quite simple, really. Carbohydrate (glycogen) is your body's primary and preferred energy source. When your primary fuel source is in short supply, this forces your body to tap into its secondary or reserve energy source; body fat. If you do cardio immediately after eating a meal, you'll still burn fat, but you'll burn less of it because you'll be burning off the carbohydrates you ate first. You always burn a combination of fat and carbohydrate for fuel, but depending on when you exercise, you can burn a greater proportion of fat relative to carbohydrate.
The second benefit you'll get from early morning cardio sessions is what I call the "after burn" effect. When you do a cardio session in the morning, you not only burn fat during the session, but you also continue to burn fat at an accelerated rate after the workout. Why? Because an intense session of cardiovascular exercise can keep your metabolism elevated for hours after the session is over. If you do cardio at night, you will still burn fat during the session, so you definitely benefit from it. However, night time cardio fails to take advantage of the "after burn" effect because your metabolism drops like a ton of bricks as soon as you go to sleep. While you sleep, your metabolic rate is slower than any other time of the day.
Let's hear what everyone else thinks about this topic.
I will start off:
I am a FIRM believer that morning cardio on an empty stomach is MUCH more effective for burning fat than cardio after consuming a meal or cardio later in the day.
Here's why....This is from a website source sixpacknow.com
Early in the morning before you eat, your levels of muscle and liver glycogen (stored carbohydrates) are low. If you eat dinner at 7 p.m. and you eat breakfast at 7 a.m., that's 12 hours without food. During this 12-hour overnight fast, your levels of glycogen slowly decline to provide glucose for various bodily functions that go on even while you sleep. As a result, you wake up in the morning with depleted glycogen and lower blood sugar - the optimum environment for burning fat instead of carbohydrate. How much more fat you'll burn is uncertain, but some studies have suggested that up to 300% more fat is burned when cardio is done in a fasted, glycogen-depleted state.
So how exactly does this work? It's quite simple, really. Carbohydrate (glycogen) is your body's primary and preferred energy source. When your primary fuel source is in short supply, this forces your body to tap into its secondary or reserve energy source; body fat. If you do cardio immediately after eating a meal, you'll still burn fat, but you'll burn less of it because you'll be burning off the carbohydrates you ate first. You always burn a combination of fat and carbohydrate for fuel, but depending on when you exercise, you can burn a greater proportion of fat relative to carbohydrate.
The second benefit you'll get from early morning cardio sessions is what I call the "after burn" effect. When you do a cardio session in the morning, you not only burn fat during the session, but you also continue to burn fat at an accelerated rate after the workout. Why? Because an intense session of cardiovascular exercise can keep your metabolism elevated for hours after the session is over. If you do cardio at night, you will still burn fat during the session, so you definitely benefit from it. However, night time cardio fails to take advantage of the "after burn" effect because your metabolism drops like a ton of bricks as soon as you go to sleep. While you sleep, your metabolic rate is slower than any other time of the day.
Let's hear what everyone else thinks about this topic.
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) and just to highlight how lazy I really am, I actually have a cross-trainer by my bed but, I only ever use it in the evenings!