Cardio on an emtpy stomach

wulfsburg

Hello.

On the days where I choose to do ab work and cardio, I have considered doing it on an empty stomach.

This would be 1-2 times a week for 1 hour in spin class.

Is this a good or bad idea?

Also, how accurate are those bikes for calories burned?

JenMc14

I typically do not eat before I workout because I work out first thing in the am. I don't eat because I don't like running/working out on a full stomach, and I like to try to save my calories for one bigger breakfast or two middle of the road breakfasts, and I feel like I end up with way more calories if I eat first. That being said, that's what works for me. There are days when I wake up absolutely ravenous or feel weak, so I'll eat something or make a protein shake. I don't necessarily think there's any benefit to fasted cardio, it depends on how you feel. I'm usually fine without eating. That being said, spinning is insanely taxing. I'm not doing anything near that level of intensity, so you'll likely need to experiment. If you don't mind eating before hand, I'd probably eat something small before doing something insane like spinning.

Some machines are more accurate than others, I usually look at the machine burn and use an online calculator/database or two and average the burn.