Anyone Else NOT Eat Breakfast Before Working Out ?

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  • ell_v131
    ell_v131 Posts: 349 Member
    Yep, no food for me before my 7am either. I want my body to burn fat, not to run on whatever is entering my bloodstream from my digestive system: ) I have breakfast about 20 minutes after workout, it's a protein shake and cereal with milk.

    It doesn't work like that. Your body won't burn extra fat just because you workout before eating. Let's say you burn 2000 calories a day. Now, let's say you workout early in the morning before eating, then eat 1500 calories for the day. Your body burns fat while you exercise, then runs off the food you eat and burns less fat the rest of the day. The result? You burned 500 calories of stored fat to make up the energy deficit. Now, alternately, you eat breakfast and then workout. You still eat 1500 calories for the day, but your body runs off the food during your workout, then burns more fat throughout the day to make up the energy deficit. The result? You burned 500 calories of stored fat.

    It's completely personal preference, neither way is right or wrong. I just don't want you thinking you're somehow burning more fat doing it one way or the other, because it doesn't work like that.

    Yeah I thought about this before, in vs out, it is the most logical way. On the other hand there is a lot written about hormone levels, insulin spikes, leptin production etc. Too much for me to remember and certainly not making sense of it all, But at some point the information that your body is in fat burning mode after sleeping - pretty much a fast - has stuck with me. Isn't that what intermittent fasting is based on? Prolonging the fat burning period and shortening the feeding window? I am not trying to IF, but I can see the simple effects of a short feeding window - much easier to stay within your calories if you only have 6 hours for it rather than 16. And there seems to be some logic to your body having to burn stores the remaining time. But my logic can be flawed.

    Anyways I wouldn't eat before a workout even if I didn't believe the above, as it's too early in the morning: )

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