How long do you wait to exercise...

twooliver

after a meal? Are you intentional to exercise before or after eating and does it matter?

thanks!

Mindful_Trent

Honestly? It's going to depend on what you ate and what type of exercise you're doing. If it was a pretty light meal (nothing "heavy" that's going to slosh around in my tummy or give me heartburn) then I can workout right away. If it's going to be a lighter workout, then I can usually workout right after eating. But, if I'm planning on really pushing myself or I either ate way too much, or something really heavy, then I try to wait a little while before working out (maybe an hour?).

patio1313

I usually work out pretty soon after eating dinner. The only reason I want to eat AFTER my dinner is to try and get my glucose levels down before I have to test them (I am Type 2 Diabetic)

otherwise I don't think that it matters when you exercise as long as you DO exercise

Lyadeia

I normally wait about 1-2 hours after eating to workout simply because right after I eat, I tend to feel nauseated when I exercise. Other than that, there's no real "science" as to why I personally choose to wait that long.

I never workout on an empty stomach either, because even though you will hear all the time that fasted cardio burns more fat, it also makes you more tired and lethargic and tends to catabolize muscle if you aren't strength training enough. At least that's my personal experience.

I don't think there's going to be one right answer to your question. Just do what's best for you. Listen to your body and make the right decision for you.

missy1970eb

i prefer to do it b4 eating as otherwise i get hungy afterwards

amelie21

Hi, I usually wait about an hour aswell - just till most of my dinner is digested because I can get a much better workout if Im not full. Im not sure what the answer id from a nutritional / weightloss point of view though. Id like to find out?

david081

Doesn't bother me - today I ran 4 miles, then stopped for breakfast (sandwich and yoghurt + apple) on a mountain top, before running another 7 miles, and felt fine...

Mo120

I workout every morning after breakfast. I eat something like 1/4 cup of oatmeal and a boiled egg, and I can workout 30 minutes after I'm done eating. If you eat more than that, I suggest that you wait longer since it doesn't feel as good to workout with a full stomach :-) Test it out and you'll see what works best for you.

gatorflyer

I think it kind of depends on you. Some people get nauseus after eating when they exercise, so that would advocate waiting a couple of hours. A lot pf people say that its better to exercise first. Depending on how much you exercise, it could make you really hungry afterwards, so that might be an argument for eating after you exercise, dependent of course on how late you exercise cuz you don't want to be eating really late. I tend to do alot of my exercising at lunch, and in that case, I wait until afterwards to eat.

fteale

I usually just have a cup of tea before exercise, but if I am not going running until after 10am, I have a bowl of cereal no closer than 45 mins before.

AnnaPixie

I usually exercise before eating. I mean cardio exercise. Walking is different, I can walk almost straight away. If I eat before cardio, and I tested this again last week, I find I'm sluggish and verging on indigestion. That was after waiting 90 minutes too! I guess i'm not used to it.

You gotta just figure what works best for you.

Good luck :flowerforyou:

gmaanneliese

I perfer to excercise before eating. I feel like my body is concentrating on burning fat, not digesting food. Plus, when I excercise, I often don't feel hungry. So I eat less. Also, I don't like the feeling of the food moving around when I'm excercising.

I have read a post on here, that went into great detail about the scientific benefit to excercising on an empty stomach. Something to do with glucose levels. Anyway, most people do what fits their lifestyle best.