Morning workouts, breakfast before or after??

vzucco
vzucco Posts: 229
edited October 4 in Health and Weight Loss
I've heard it both ways, that you need to eat breakfast before your morning workout to give you energy and break your night's fast to get you ready to burn calories throughout the day. AND I've heard that eating before working out will burn what you just ate instead of your stored fat. So which is it?

What has worked for you?
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Replies

  • rodegghero
    rodegghero Posts: 212 Member
    I think just pick the time when you are hungry....
  • Jennyzfit
    Jennyzfit Posts: 175 Member
    definately eating breakfast about an hour before exercising and drinking some water works for me
  • Rogiefreida
    Rogiefreida Posts: 567 Member
    I eat afterwards, but only because I'm too zombie to eat before if I work out in the am. lol:laugh:
  • nadiB
    nadiB Posts: 283 Member
    I eat afterwards, but only because I'm too zombie to eat before if I work out in the am. lol:laugh:

    Hahaha me 2, I only wake up half way through :laugh:
  • kyrstensmom
    kyrstensmom Posts: 297 Member
    I eat after, but mostly because I get up and head straight to the gym. If I tried to eat that early it would probably make running miserable.
  • mea9
    mea9 Posts: 561 Member
    glass of milk before and breakfast after per my dr (I was confused too).
  • catwrangler
    catwrangler Posts: 918 Member
    Totally personal preference.
  • haley_b_87
    haley_b_87 Posts: 45
    If I ate before I would get sick during!
  • Sidesteal
    Sidesteal Posts: 5,510 Member
    I've heard it both ways, that you need to eat breakfast before your morning workout to give you energy and break your night's fast to get you ready to burn calories throughout the day. AND I've heard that eating before working out will burn what you just ate instead of your stored fat. So which is it?

    What has worked for you?

    You should see which method makes you feel the best and get the best workout in, and then do it that way.
  • runnermama81
    runnermama81 Posts: 388 Member
    glass of milk before and breakfast after per my dr (I was confused too).
    I like this idea!
  • deanmarino
    deanmarino Posts: 41 Member
    Here's my thoughts on morning workouts. I definitely work out and eat breakfast after my workout, never before. Hopefully you will find some good information here:

    www.teamzapthefat.com/morning-workouts/

    Regards.
  • vzucco
    vzucco Posts: 229
    I think just pick the time when you are hungry....

    I think if I did this, I'd wait til lunch. I am not a breakfast person at all, but force myself to eat something small because I know it helps in weight loss.
  • MyCoachNYLA
    MyCoachNYLA Posts: 158 Member
    I've heard it both ways, that you need to eat breakfast before your morning workout to give you energy and break your night's fast to get you ready to burn calories throughout the day. AND I've heard that eating before working out will burn what you just ate instead of your stored fat. So which is it?

    What has worked for you?

    The physiology on that is that if your goal is fat loss, cardio training before your meal is more likely to help support your body pulling from the fat cell. If you have blood sugar issues, I usually recommend my clients have a form of protein and fat 40 minutes prior to the cardio training to avoid a serious drop in blood sugar.

    If you are weight training, a meal before the session will support your plan.

    Also, executing cardio before dinner is another max way to help insure your are pulling from the fat cell.

    This is all assuming that you are not training anaerobically (beyond the 80-85% THR).

    Great question. Thanks for the post.
  • irisheyez718
    irisheyez718 Posts: 677 Member
    I eat before and after :-)
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    For the most part, I CAN'T eat before a workout. My workouts are generally pretty intense, and a high HR does not play well with my digestive system... so eating before a workout always leads to gut aches and sometimes worse.

    If I'm racing or have a particularly long cardio workout planned, I'll have something small about 30 minute before (half a PB&J, cliff bar, etc).

    But 99% of the time I have more than enough energy left over from dinner the night before to get me through my morning workouts.
  • vzucco
    vzucco Posts: 229
    If I ate before I would get sick during!

    Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of!
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    Both have worked for me. I now workout in the evenings on work days and in the mornings on weekends. I eat before the weekend workouts, but then I usually wait until at least 11 a.m. before working out. When I used to do a big workout (run) in the mornings I simply didn't have time to eat and wait for the food to digest so I didn't eat first. I only ran 3 miles each morning, but I never had a problem with energy.
  • engineman312
    engineman312 Posts: 3,450 Member
    today i had a nice big breakfast (diary is open, check it out). ate at about 9am, and i'm leaving now for my work out. but today is my day off, and don't have to rush.
  • nana_trina
    nana_trina Posts: 13
    I tried eating after for a while, but found I had more energy during the workout, if I ate before.
  • healthy4self
    healthy4self Posts: 198
    After! I would have no energy if I worked out before.
  • jlm962
    jlm962 Posts: 64
    I watched this one Dr Oz. He said the best time to workout is before breakfast. This is because you burn into fat stores after fasting all night. It makes sense to me! I have yet to start working out in the morning though. I'm working on it!
  • missamy1989
    missamy1989 Posts: 7
    If I ate before I would get sick during!

    I think i probably would too...I usually work out at about 11, after I drop my son off and done my facebooking, lol. x
  • vzucco
    vzucco Posts: 229
    You guys are so helpful! Thank you!

    I will probably have to work out around 5:30 AM (yikes) and I doubt I'll be hungry then. I'll try eating after and see what happens...
  • ryanfeltz
    ryanfeltz Posts: 126
    I eat after my morning walk..... otherwise i feel sort of ill the whole time.
  • vim_n_vigor
    vim_n_vigor Posts: 4,089 Member
    I eat after because I will get sick if I eat first.
  • misterscott
    misterscott Posts: 6 Member
    There is a line of thinking that exercising on an empty stomach first thing in the morning will burn more fat, but one recent study suggests this difference is marginal.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/04/health/04real.html

    As with most things diet related, you need to figure out what works best for you. Good luck!
  • kcmomof2
    kcmomof2 Posts: 457 Member
    I have to eat breakfast after my workout or I'll get sick. I don't have time to wait an hour (or even 15 minutes) after I eat to do my workout so I eat afterwards.
  • elzianne
    elzianne Posts: 52 Member
    I used to wait to eat until after my morning workout, but as I started to do more vigorous workouts & longer runs, I found it started to hurt my performance. I can't get myself out of bed early enough to eat and digest a full breakfast pre-workout, so I usually just grab a little snack (ex: banana, a protein shake, handful of almonds, or piece of toast) 20-30 minutes before then eat the rest of my breakfast after working out. I really feel like it gives me an extra little boost during my workouts. On days I don't have work and have a little extra time in the morning, I'll have a full breakfast 1 hour prior to working out.

    However, as many people said before, everyone is different! Experiment and see what works best for you!
  • foxtayle
    foxtayle Posts: 17 Member
    I eat afterwards because I'm usually moving around a lot in my workout and it just doesn't settle well with my stomach to be digesting while trying to exercise or run. If I'm really sleepy, I might have a few sips to a cup of regular, plain coffee. If it's later in the day, I tend not to eat at least an hour before working out.
  • joejccva71
    joejccva71 Posts: 2,985 Member
    There is a line of thinking that exercising on an empty stomach first thing in the morning will burn more fat, but one recent study suggests this difference is marginal.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/04/health/04real.html

    As with most things diet related, you need to figure out what works best for you. Good luck!

    Depends on how much bodyfat a person currently has whether fasted cardio or exercise is effective or not.
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