Morning Workouts (eat before or after?)

[Jogger1234]

Should I be eating (breakfast, or snack) before or after my morning workout? Ive had some people tell me that if I dont eat before I go jogging, my metabolism is eating muscle not fat, Ive seen other information (when reading about HIIT for example) that says its best to stay on an empty stomach for workout.

Ill be doing cardio and weight training as soon as I get my optimum whey, melting point, and sesamin from bb.com, and after reading around these forums, and the net... I havent been able to find a conclusive answer to this question any help here would be much appreciated

[lifequest]

There is no conclusive answer, some people see great results buy not eating before morning cardio, other burnup all their muscle if they don’t eat. Personally when I did morning cardio I woke up rolled out of bed and started doing HIIT then downed a huge shake. This worked for me but that’s not to say it is the one and only way. Try both and see what happens.--LQ

[P01Shooter]

I'm with Lifequest on this one. I have no problem going and working out first thing in the morning without eating. Give me a caffeine pill, alcar, and l-tyrosine and I'm like a laser in the gym. This is followed by 2 scoops of ON with an apple, orange, or grapefruit. Then a half hour later I'm eating a full meal.

[Blackout]

It does not really matter. Although if you are always weight training on an empty stomach it will cost you lean mass gains over time. I would always eat before weight training. Before cardio you can eat 1.5 hours prior, or nothing if you want although that doesn't work for me.

[PickItUp]

If you want to eat before cardio, limit yourself to liquid nutrition.

Make sure not to consume much sugar. We want to keep insulin levels LOW!!!


If you decide NOT to eat prior to cardio, that is OK also...I did it before and had great results.

Nowadays, I prefer cardio on an empty stomach, but not first thing in the morning before eating anything. I get hungry every 2-3 hours. So I try to wait 2 hours after eating before performing any cardio. If I keep eating complex carbs that are low in sugar and low on the GI scale, I can simulate the EMPTY STOMACH conditions that are so popular these days for cardio.

The reason we keep the stomach empty is so that our insulin levels remain low (fat cannot burn when insulin is high) and also that our bodies have no energy to draw from other than stored energy.

I can create the same effect by eating the right foods. If your insulin stays low all day, then you are burining fat while sitting there, not just while performing cardio.

I am starting to learn that we do not do cardio to burn fat directly. We do cardio to create a greater need for Calories (increase metabolism). By incresing our metabolism...we can burn fat in our sleep!!!

Knowing that fat CANNOT burn while insulin levels are high...having a fast metabolism does you no good if your body is unable to burn fat because there is too much insulin floating around in your system all the time.

However, all of that being said...

Take two identical people (clones) and give them the same diet and set of exercises. Have one perform cardio first thing in the morning and have the other perform cardio mid day, and the one who does the cardio in the morning, will likely lose more fat.

The difference may not be worth it when you consider that the early morning clone will probably lose more muscle than the other clone. One must weigh the consequences with the benefits.