But Jillian says....

I do all my exercises on an empty stomach. I do morning exercises first thing and then evening exercises before dinner. (lunch is at 11 am). I have actually found that if I try to eat before I exercise- then I get sick to my stomach. The only time I have been successful at eating and doing exercise is when I do my long runs.

So I really think it's a personal choice and depends on the person.

If you are going to train fasted then yes it is a good idea to have a little something. Could be as small as 5g bcaa and 5g maltodextrin mixed in water. Or the bcaa in a shot of juice. Whatever. Even Martin from leangains suggests such. I think he just mentions bcaa in water.

Can you please expand on BCAA? What does that acronym stand for exactly?

I worked out (cardio only, 35 mins on the elliptical) on an empty stomach for the first time last Friday morning at 5:30 a.m. and felt like I was going to puke. Water was sloshing in my stomach, I had no energy, and when I was done I noticed my calorie burn was about 25-30% LOWER than what it usually is doing the same workout in the afternoon or evening. I generally workout in the evenings after work, and on the weekends I do two-a-days but always after having eaten (and then digested for at least an hour), and for me, that seems to work much better. Everyone is different though.

I recently read about research suggesting that early a.m. workouts done before eating are more effective in producing the desired effects of fighting diabetes/ insulin resistance.

I do both - sort of.... I walk the dog first thing, fasted. Granted, it's no ironman workout, but it's how we've started our day since I've had my dog. Figure we both have to earn breakfast. BUT - my hard core workouts are about 3 hours later. If I didn't have something early, I wouldn't make it that long, never mind have the energy to go hard. I'm starved halfway through the walk!

I saw that. I have worked out on an empty stomach before and felt like collapsing. I almost passed out, but I think that was mostly because it was very hot outside.

i noticed that if i walk on an empty stomach, the shin splints kick in after about 10 minutes. If i walk after a meal, i can do 3+ miles pain free....

I'm in the military, too. Back in training, you'd wake up, have morning formation, and go out to the PT fields, THEN you would eat. After breakfast, there was an hour where the only rule was no heavy PT and no running. After that hour, you'd run everywhere and go to lunch, followed by another hour-long restricted period. In the evenings, we'd often go to eat, get that hour of no running, and have PT or some kind of physical activity later in the evening. Generally, we believed that was to help us keep our food down because we would eat and drink a LOT with each meal. But those light periods were still active. You just couldn't do "heavy" exercise. The Obstacle Course is not considered heavy exercise. Marching miles to the next training event is not considered running. And, outside those three, hour-long blocks, you ran everywhere and could be doing anything.

Even when I was in my technical school, where we had a more 9-to-5 schedule, we'd get up, do PT (sometimes for multiple hours) and only eat after we were done. Eating properly the previous day (and consistently, overall) was usually more beneficial than having something right before. I came out of there in the best shape of my life. So I don't think you're going to hurt yourself going on an empty stomach.

Since then, morning PT workouts have pretty much always been on an empty stomach, except for maybe a LITTLE water or coffee when it's cold (I don't like sounding like a water bed when I run). I also exercise after work and in the late evenings. For those two, I try not to eat too close to exercising, but I do find that I prefer not to be completely empty. So I sometimes have a snack an hour out- just enough to keep the stomach from grumbling when I'm trying to focus. If I'm still feeling good from the previous full-on meal, I don't add anything.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/554481-when-does-the-body-start-to-use-muscle-tissue-for-energy/

Oooh I must find Jillian on Facebook

I'm generally hungry in the morning so I eat before a workout. My HRM watch records less calories burned on my regular walk when I leave the house without eating.

fasted exercise is a thing. A very legit thing.

Jillian is right, I find that my workout videos at home burn less than half the calories than working out at the gym, because the intensity is lower. So I can workout at home no problem, but if I go to the gym in the morning and take a class I get lightheaded and run out of steam towards the end of the class.

I've been following 16/8 intermittent fasting and I end-up training on an empty stomach too. I honestly haven't noticed a dip in energy with my workouts. I'll supplement with a serving of BCAA's in-between sets.

Why doesn't Jillian say something useful to women like, "don't spit, swallow."