I received this post from one of our SKFitLife Challengers and would like to share the answer with you, outside of the private group because I spent years not truly understanding what carried the weight of a boulder or that of a grain of sand.
Q: Just read this…“If you exercise before breakfast your body will burn the excess fat in your body as there is no food available to burn, making it the best time to burn off that belly fat.” Is this true?
A: Yes and no… When you workout in a “fasted” state (you may even see competitors say they are doing their fasted cardio), you will burn a little more fat…
Let’s take this back one more step… When we workout, we first burn the glycogen in our muscles (that is what carbs are converted to and just in case you didn’t know:
sugar = carbs = glucose = glycogen…
The body breaks down carbohydrate into glucose and can store it in the muscles and liver as glycogen. Bodies burn glycogen (carbs), then fat when exercising. Our muscles can only store so much glycogen (carbs) and the excess is then converted to fat… carbs don’t make us fat… too many of them do.
So, if you do cardio before you have eaten any food, you will deplete your glycogen stores faster therefore moving onto the fat burning faster. The time required to deplete your glycogen stores varies based on your level of intensity.
********************BUT********************
This extra burn is typically counteracted by our lack of energy to do the workout at the same intensity (which will actually burn more fat for a longer period of time throughout the day) along with possibly making us woooosy. Having breakfast means to literally “break” the “fast” that you have experienced while sleeping (and not eating for 8-12 hours).
“But wait! There is plenty of scientific evidence to back it up and that is what Arnold used to do!”
Sure, it is fine to do your cardio on an empty stomach and then refuel before weights, but that doesn’t work for everyone…
I like to group my weight training with my cardio so to say that I am going to do cardio on an empty stomach and then come back for weights with fuel in my tank is an option but that doesn’t really fit into my ideal schedule. Think about it… does that fit into yours?
I also NEED that bump in blood sugar when I first wake up to give my metabolism that nudge to get moving. And to tell you the truth, 9 mornings out of 10, my stomach IS WHAT wakes me! I am hungry from the start of my day.
Taking a look from a higher, more broad view…
Based on the studies I have read, and my own personal “FitLife philosophies,” I feel that
THE MOST VALUABLE BENEFIT OF DOING FASTED CARDIO IS:
The belief itself, that the fasted cardio is better.
This belief MAKES you get up and do it FIRST THING in order to take advantage of the fasted state. THIS is the REAL benefit…
More of a lifestyle-based benefit…
If you are trying to get your workout in before breakfast because you believe you will be burning more fat, well, the “BOULDER” here is that you got your workout in… the “GRAIN OF SAND” is that you did it in a fasted state.
This belief is improving your consistency… making sure you complete workout versus missing it because you saved it for later in the day… therefore resulting in more success in the end.
Chicken? Egg?
CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY!
As far as the scientific side of things… the amount is insignificant. I don’t even do fasted cardio when I am training for a competition nor have I ever coached my girls to do fasted cardio.
In my mental picture of fitness, I have grouped this with the extra calories you burn by drinking extra cold water (your body has to bring the temp up and you burn a few extra calories) and eating super spicy foods… it still doesn’t give you the go-ahead to eat an entire dish of Thai food just because it is spicy (yes, I have used this to justify my overeating at some point in my fitness journey).
So, there you have it!!! Eat your breakfast or don’t because this is a personal decision that YOU really need to figure out for yourself. Try experimenting! It is fun! Just make sure you are a good little scientist and keep a record of all of your experimental factors such as:
- How you feel when you wake up.
- How much sleep you are getting.
- How much water you are drinking.
- Your nutrition.
- How you feel when you are working out.
- The weights/reps/cardio results that you experience.
- Your energy levels throughout the day.
- And of course progress pics taken each week at most and every 4 weeks at least.
- Toss that pesky scale. Did you notice #1-8? Those are 8 factors that “outweigh” the reading on the scale.
