Study: men/women - when to eat - before/after exercising

lynseya83
lynseya83 Posts: 84 Member
edited November 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
Hello,

Did anyone catch the programme on BBC2 the other day 'trust me i'm a doctor'?

One of the conclusions of a (fairly small) study that was completed was that to lose body fat, men should exercise before eating, and women should exercise after eating.
The figures it came to were:
Men: Men who exercised before eating burned up to 8% more fat
Women:
women burned 22% more fat if they exercised after eating a meal

The reasoning behind it was that men have larger muscles and carbohydrates is their preferred fuel where as women's bodies are programmed to burn fat to conserve carbohydrate

Has anyone heard anything like this before? It looks very interesting! And 22% is a large uplift in fat burning!

Replies

  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    edited January 2016
    I read something about this the other day but it was secondhand info so I've not seen the actual study. A couple of mangled thoughts:

    - If I had to eat before I exercised, I would exercise less. I get up at 5 something to exercise. Eating beforehand for cardio would have me up at 4 or earlier because I can't eat and then jump/run around without feeling like death. (Lifting wouldn't be an issue. I've started eating oatmeal between sets to save time. Yes, I workout at home so there will be no gym memes featuring pictures of me eating oatmea in the squat rackl.) Getting up at 4 would mean going to bed around 8, which would cut into family and couple time and that's a no go. So burning 22% more fat due to eating beforehand doesn't matter to me.

    - I don't totally understand how this 22% more fat being burned plays out over the whole day. Does that mean that while you're exercising you burn 22% more fat? Over the course of the day you burn 22% more fat? Wouldn't that depend on how much you're eating? This is like when I read something about how you don't gain fat in the immediate post-lifting time period and I always think, well what about a few hours later if I've eaten over my maintenance calories? Does it matter that I didn't gain fat at 7 a.m. if I ended up gaining it at some other time during the day?
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    8% and 22% of what?

    The proportion of an already small number?
  • explosivedonut
    explosivedonut Posts: 419 Member
    MeanderingMammal wrote: »
    8% and 22% of what?

    The proportion of an already small number?

    Yeah, eating pre/during/post makes essentially no difference unless you are already in the top .01% of the world.
  • lynseya83
    lynseya83 Posts: 84 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    I read something about this the other day but it was secondhand info so I've not seen the actual study. A couple of mangled thoughts:

    - If I had to eat before I exercised, I would exercise less. I get up at 5 something to exercise. Eating beforehand for cardio would have me up at 4 or earlier because I can't eat and then jump/run around without feeling like death. (Lifting wouldn't be an issue. I've started eating oatmeal between sets to save time. Yes, I workout at home so there will be no gym memes featuring pictures of me eating oatmea in the squat rackl.) Getting up at 4 would mean going to bed around 8, which would cut into family and couple time and that's a no go. So burning 22% more fat due to eating beforehand doesn't matter to me.

    - I don't totally understand how this 22% more fat being burned plays out over the whole day. Does that mean that while you're exercising you burn 22% more fat? Over the course of the day you burn 22% more fat? Wouldn't that depend on how much you're eating? This is like when I read something about how you don't gain fat in the immediate post-lifting time period and I always think, well what about a few hours later if I've eaten over my maintenance calories? Does it matter that I didn't gain fat at 7 a.m. if I ended up gaining it at some other time during the day?

    I know what you mean! I always do strength training at the end of the day, right before i go to bed. For this i could eat before.... but it would be extra eating! So overall probably not helpful for fat loss!
    A couple of days a week i fit in a 30min interval session in at work on my lunch hour. usually eat my lunch after it! Although could do so before if really made any difference!
  • lynseya83
    lynseya83 Posts: 84 Member
    MeanderingMammal wrote: »
    8% and 22% of what?

    The proportion of an already small number?


    i know! it was a fitness class worth by the looks of it although the initial study was completed by 2 people to get initial info! Im going to try and find more out about it as it looks quite interesting!
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,337 Member
    I have not seen the study, but just off the top of my head it seems that there would be a bunch of confounding factors that would make a study like this difficult to do, much less, to use as proof of a causal connection. The percentages look significant, but without a context so we know what the percentage is taken from, it makes it difficult to say if this is worth paying attention to.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    MeanderingMammal wrote: »
    8% and 22% of what?

    The proportion of an already small number?

    Ah, yes. I completely left that out but it's a big question.
  • lynseya83
    lynseya83 Posts: 84 Member
    edited January 2016
    this is the info can find on the study..... http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4glyLcrhgqQtPGQYM11l1YJ/the-big-experiment-how-can-i-get-my-body-to-burn-more-fat-without-doing-more-exercise
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    lynseya83 wrote: »
    MeanderingMammal wrote: »
    8% and 22% of what?

    The proportion of an already small number?


    i know! it was a fitness class worth by the looks of it although the initial study was completed by 2 people to get initial info! Im going to try and find more out about it as it looks quite interesting!

    My point is, when training the fuel comes from a range of sources, the proportions do vary when training in different ways. The proportion of the energy consumed that comes from fat is already quite small, so 8% of an already small number is negligible.
  • hamlet1222
    hamlet1222 Posts: 459 Member
    There seem to be dozens of little tweaks you can do regarding what you eat and when, but it'd be a huge effort implementing all of them. Much easier to just have a simple daily calorie goal. I like to be fully carbed-up before working out (workouts so much more enjoyable), so won't be worry about this 8% less fat I'm not burning.
  • Sumiblue
    Sumiblue Posts: 1,597 Member
    I workout fasted 5x week and have lost a lot of fat. Works for me.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories