Explanations Needed!

Options
STurbs33
STurbs33 Posts: 134 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
My boyfriend and I just got into a huge debate. He doesn't believe in eating back exercise calories. He thinks that if he wakes up in the morning for a run, the calories he's burned there come from the day before. He starts at negative calories for the day b running and is burning "fat reserves", meaning the fat that is on his body. I'm trying to explain that it doesn't matter if he eats them back or not, because he's already in a deficit for the day. He understood that to an extent, but I'm not understanding his whole "fat reserves" idea and I don't necessarily agree with him. If someone could explain this, refuting what he is saying or not, it would be lovely.

Also, this isn't really about whether eating back exercise calories is a good or bad thing. I don't want this to turn into that debate. I just want his idea about running in the morning in order to burn fat reserves on his body to be clarified or refuted.

Replies

  • sullymanjohn
    sullymanjohn Posts: 101
    Options
    You are in fact BOTH correct! Running in the morning causes the body to immediately pull from "the reserves", but eating back those calories can cause a metabolism jump and help aid in digestion, adding an approximate 20% increase in resting calorie burn throughout the day!!
  • withervein
    withervein Posts: 224 Member
    Options
    I would just like to mention that the body doesn't have a reset button at midnight. You can exercise before eating, after eating, in the morning, afternoon or evening and it's still an energy expenditure.

    The boost that you may get by running first thing in the morning is probably not significant enough that you're going to show a measurable difference (all other factors being exactly the same) from your twin doing the same workout at 3 p.m.
  • STurbs33
    STurbs33 Posts: 134 Member
    Options
    I would just like to mention that the body doesn't have a reset button at midnight. You can exercise before eating, after eating, in the morning, afternoon or evening and it's still an energy expenditure.

    The boost that you may get by running first thing in the morning is probably not significant enough that you're going to show a measurable difference (all other factors being exactly the same) from your twin doing the same workout at 3 p.m.

    That's what I was trying to explain to him, but I was not able to do this in an efficient way. Thank you for the short and sweet explanation.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Options
    My boyfriend and I just got into a huge debate. He doesn't believe in eating back exercise calories. He thinks that if he wakes up in the morning for a run, the calories he's burned there come from the day before. He starts at negative calories for the day b running and is burning "fat reserves", meaning the fat that is on his body. I'm trying to explain that it doesn't matter if he eats them back or not, because he's already in a deficit for the day. He understood that to an extent, but I'm not understanding his whole "fat reserves" idea and I don't necessarily agree with him. If someone could explain this, refuting what he is saying or not, it would be lovely.

    Also, this isn't really about whether eating back exercise calories is a good or bad thing. I don't want this to turn into that debate. I just want his idea about running in the morning in order to burn fat reserves on his body to be clarified or refuted.

    Your boyfriend is repeating what we like to call "broscience". If you exercise when glycogen stores are low, it is possible that you might burn a slightly higher percentage of fat for fuel (I say "possible" because there are a number of variables involved and there can be different responses under different conditions). However, even if that does happen, your body adjusts during the day by burning less fat--so that after 24 hours, total fat oxidation and ratio of fat/carb utilization is the same.

    So, bottom line--it makes no difference. It is equally likely that the lack of readily available fuel on board will decrease the quality of the workout (because of lack of carbs available), so you lose out in that way as well.

    Working out in a fasted state might have some benefits for advanced bodybuilders, but for the average person, it has no enhanced effect on fat loss. As a rule, morning workouts will be higher quality if there is some readily available blood glucose to get you going (but even that is not a hard/fast guideline, since, again, there is a lot of variability to how much glucose/glycogen is available in the morning).

    Working out in the morning also does not enhance metabolism any more than working out at any other time during the day.

    This is the trivia that impedes peoples' progress more than helps. Some of these things might affect elite athletes, but the other 95% of the population needs to just watch what they eat and work out.

Categories