Fueling early morning workouts in my 40s

earlybirdlady

Has anyone been able to find a consensus in the research regarding fasted workouts?

As an early morning exerciser I never eat before I work out because I don’t have time to let my food settle before I get into it. Usually just make an electrolyte drink with some caffeine and that’s it.

This has been working for me, but I have been reading and hearing a lot lately about how women (especially in their 40s, like me) should not be doing fasted workouts and should ensure that they eat for best results. But then I see here that many people do fasted workouts with success.

What have you all heard about this and what are your thoughts? I want to focus on building and maintaining strength and muscle and want to make sure I’m setting myself up for success.

Retroguy2000

Define success.

Fasted or not makes no difference for weight loss.

IMO, better to be fueled so your workout can be as challenging as you want it to be.

earlybirdlady

Retroguy2000 wrote: »

Define success.

Fasted or not makes no difference for weight loss.

IMO, better to be fueled so your workout can be as challenging as you want it to be.

Good question. Success for me in this context is less about weight loss and more about building strength and muscle. So yes, I want to be able to do challenging workouts early in the morning without burning out for the rest of the day.

Thanks for your input!

AnnPT77

I haven't seen definitive research. I've seen people arguing both sides here, pretty passionately sometimes.

Personal experience (my own and reading what others say here) is that fasted workouts are great for some people and terrible for others, i.e., it's individual. I suspect that's true regardless of age, certainly if the age we're talking about is 40s. (Metabolism is stable until around 60; some other things could change individually earlier, maybe more from health and fitness history than age per se. I'm 68, if that matters in evaluating that opinion.)

Some people find that eating before a workout, particularly an intense one, causes digestive distress. Other people (of which I'm one) find that their energy level and performance are sub-par if they don't eat before working out.

If I work out in the morning, I usually eat a light breakfast within 20-30 minutes of starting the workout. My digestive system doesn't object. I can do about 20 minutes of moderate workout without eating and do OK, but anything longer ore more intense goes miserably if I don't eat. That's been true since I was in my 40s, which is when I started being routinely active. Later in the day, I'd usually have a snack before workout if my most recent meal was long-ish before.

I think those individual response aspects matter lots more than any theory, when it comes to what's best. I think it's fine for you to trust your own personal intuition and experience.

kbrown1527

I’m not in my 40s, however I have done the same research recently for myself. I find that I have the best success when my early workouts are fasted and fueled up with an electrolyte drink. I read a few articles about eating 30g protein first thing in the morning and I tried it and just felt sick.. I couldn’t deal with that full feeling in my stomach and it really slowed me down. I just started drinking liquid IV first thing in the morning and I love it. I get a stomach ache if I workout after I eat. Sometimes if I feel like I’m too hungry first thing in the morning I like to eat half a banana or a graham cracker with a little peanut butter just to satisfy my hunger a little bit and I don’t feel like it slows me down from feeling full, and save my larger meal for post workout.

For my evening workouts though I have to time it so that I wait a few hours after my last meal before exercising if it’s vigorous for the same reason. Just a slow walk I feel fine though.

Theoldguy1

How long are you working out and what is your workout? Most likely will make minimal if any performance difference if fasted or not fasted. Do what is comfortable and convenient for you.

earlybirdlady

This is all great input - I appreciate it! 4 days a week I have time for 30-minutes max, other days I can get in 45-60 minutes. I'm more focused on progress with strength workouts, so I may experiment with half banana or other carb source before and see if that helps and how it affects my stomach. I think I will stick to fasted cardio, because I have never been successful with eating before any type of cardio.

What a wealth of information here! Thanks!

nossmf

Totally individual. An old buddy from my military days preferred having a full and complete meal about a half hour before a workout, said it gave him energy; after his workout, he could wait hours before eating again. If I have anything other than water within an hour before, my stomach objects strongly during the workout; after a workout, I'm famished.

I've kept records of my weightlifting workouts for the last 15 years. Performance-wise, time of day seems to have a much larger impact for me than whether or not I ate beforehand; the meal timing only impacted how I felt during the workout, not how well I worked out.

Theoldguy1

earlybirdlady wrote: »

This is all great input - I appreciate it! 4 days a week I have time for 30-minutes max, other days I can get in 45-60 minutes. I'm more focused on progress with strength workouts, so I may experiment with half banana or other carb source before and see if that helps and how it affects my stomach. I think I will stick to fasted cardio, because I have never been successful with eating before any type of cardio.

What a wealth of information here! Thanks!

Nice. Given the type and length of your workouts, do whatever makes you feel the most comfortable. Answer may be different if you were doing 2+ hour cardio.

Good luck.

Retroguy2000

nossmf wrote: »

I've kept records of my weightlifting workouts for the last 15 years. Performance-wise, time of day seems to have a much larger impact for me than whether or not I ate beforehand; the meal timing only impacted how I felt during the workout, not how well I worked out.

Interesting. I'm wondering, if how you felt during the workout also meant a higher RPE, and you did the same volume, doesn't that mean you were working harder that day? And that might lead to a buildup of fatigue?