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Workout on an EMPTY stomach or after EATING?

KittyVida
KittyVida Posts: 29 Member
I was having this debate with a male friend. After much research I learned that it is best for MEN to workout on empty while WOMEN should eat a little something. Our bodies process differently. But in the end, you should do what you best perform by.

So the question is: Which have you been doing and why do you prefer it?
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Replies

  • teetertatertango
    teetertatertango Posts: 229 Member
    As long as I've eaten at least one meal sometime during the day, I'm usually OK even if it's been several hours.

    I have to be careful if I exercise too much in the morning before breakfast (can get nauseous or dizzy), but if I eat too much and then exercise I also get nauseous so it's just tricky for me to do intense workouts at that time.
  • mdonsbach
    mdonsbach Posts: 102 Member
    For me my routine is eating my normal lunch then immediately going out for my 1 hour 3.5 mile walk. Then when I get home I normally just have a granola bar or something small before going for another walk/jog.

    2 days ago I had some lasagna then probably 2 hours later when to work out and I felt like I was going to throw it up when I was done.

  • Ha, I just answered a similar topic so I'll adapt it, first short and sweet: if you are just working out to put another workout in and not maxing out, it should be OK if you are relatively healthy in all other aspects. But if you are trying to do maximum effort/lifts, I'd say don't exercise fasted, have some food in you a few hours ago, male or female.

    If you aren't doing the max you could be lifting then (what one considers "heavy" varies), or you don't lift with very much intensity, or many lifts at a time, or you don't do very much weight compared to your body size (you aren't using all that much energy compared to your size and available energy), you are probably fine. But going fasted you can run out of easily available energy on intense heavy lifting quickly...and you can start to crash a bit when your blood sugar drops enough.

    I can usually get away with a few heavy sets and be fine too, or if I dont push the lifts hard I'm also OK with a full workout. But when I try doing max weight sets I'm not typically as strong fasted, and once I tried doing all full weight heavy leg day on an empty stomach, it hit me hard. The last exercise I was doing was about 1,180lbs on the leg press machine for 3 sets of 10 (lots of anaerobically generated power in a short time), felt fine, then suddenly walking away from the machine, wham...lightheaded, felt like I almost fainted, had to lay on the floor for a while. Never happened before or again (after that I'm always eating something relatively close to a heavy weight workout) and no, no health issues ever. I've also seen similar situations happen to others. In this case I probably used up so much energy my blood sugar dropped.

    Just look at the olympians and their patterns. They don't go fasted for best performance. But to get a non maximal regular training session in with no health problems? Maybe OK, but I try not to.


    Exactly what he said. Awesome way of explaining it man.
  • Kelbelb75
    Kelbelb75 Posts: 90 Member
    Done it both ways, prefer empty. Otherwise I suffer reflux.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
    I wake up in the morning, take care of the animals, eat breakfast and then move on with my day. I don't have a set exercise time but I guess my answer is not on an empty stomach since it will always be following some meal time.
    I don't get up from a meal and immediately launch into a workout. I'm not interested in doing things on an empty stomach though.
  • Marcelbaril
    Marcelbaril Posts: 17 Member
    For me the important thing is to make sure that I exercise whatever the time. Since I exercise outsite, I time myself with the weather. I prefer after eating when possible to facilitate digestion.
  • vixtris
    vixtris Posts: 688 Member
    I workout in the morning but I have to have something small to eat before I exercise. I've tried fasted cardio, it really sucks. I eat 150 calories before my workout, usually old fashioned oats, or something balanced in macros.
  • valerialeek
    valerialeek Posts: 65 Member
    I usually get home after work, eat and workout. I do strength training at home