Morning workouts

[Wardrobe]

Hi all, just a quick question relating to the timing of working out your upper (or for that matter, your lower body). If you do it first thing in the morning before work, say 7am, should you eat before the workout, or after it, or should you wait until a little bit after the workout to eat in order to increase the fat burning benefits?

[winnie]

My understanding is that if you're trying to lose, don't eat before you work out.
If you're trying to gain, eat before you workout.

I've also heard that it only really matters for cardio and that it doesn't matter much for that.

Chris or Rhone would be the people to talk to on this one.

[Chris]

I guess the answer depends on your goals. But I never workout on an empty stomach... well cardio sometimes, but never weights. I like to eat about 1.5 hrs before a workout. This makes morning routines difficult, but a smoothie about 1 hr before could work. Then DEFINITELY, eat after!

[yakubu]

Originally Posted by Wardrobe

Hi all, just a quick question relating to the timing of working out your upper (or for that matter, your lower body). If you do it first thing in the morning before work, say 7am, should you eat before the workout, or after it, or should you wait until a little bit after the workout to eat in order to increase the fat burning benefits?

its best to do it on an empty stomach. if u have a meal b4 it u need to wait 90 mins before u work out so that wud mean eating at 5.30 which is inconvientient.

eat straight after ur workout. u must eat sometime in the hour after ur workout preferably straight after.
cardio is different though cos cardio is for fat burning. with cardio u have to wait hour hour after it b4 u eat

i dont see the problem with working out on an empty stomach. i find it fine, i have enough energy for it and its not too hard for me. bill phillips himself works out at 6am on an empty stomach

[winnie]

Originally Posted by yakubu

bill phillips himself works out at 6am on an empty stomach

Or at least he did in 1998. I'm just not sure that this is still the best idea. There has been debate over it on this board, and the advice from Bill is 10 years old.

[yakubu]

Originally Posted by winnie

Or at least he did in 1998. I'm just not sure that this is still the best idea. There has been debate over it on this board, and the advice from Bill is 10 years old.

it works for me

[bigthunder]

it works for me as well. I have plenty of energy for my morning workouts, regardless of whether it's cardio or heavy lifting.

[Marc]

Empty stomach AM works for me just fine! Best results that way.

[Kelly]

If you want to lose weight lift on a empty stomach, and as soon as you get done with the lifting eat. For cardio waite a hour after doing it then eat.

[winnie]

As a disclaimer to what I said above, I actually don't eat before I work out either. I was just pointing out that there may be room for debate.

[Wardrobe]

Awesome.... well thanks for the advice everyone! Much appreciated... always good to know what others (and Bill Phillips himself, even if it was 10 years ago) are doing!

[Rhone]

I do all my workouts first thing in the morning--on an empty stomach, partially because I simply don't have time (without cutting my sleep short) to get up an hour earlier just to eat first.

I have whey protein powder mixed with 8oz of milk immediately after my workout (for both weights and cardio), and I treat that as the protein portion of meal #1. I have yogurt as the carb portion about a half hour later (usually after my shower and right before I rush out the door). Again, due to the timing of my schedule and not being able to get up earlier without sacrificing sleep, I really can't wait a full hour after the workout before eating.

Personally, for the purpose of losing fat, I don't think it's very important to wait an hour after a workout before eating. Yeah, if you hold off on eating for an hour then you might burn more fat during that hour, but perhaps eating right after the workout might promote a faster metabolism and make up for it by burning more fat throughout the day. I suspect, given equal amounts of calories and equal cleanliness of those calories, eating right after a workout vs. waiting an hour probably ends up in roughly equal fat loss.

One part of what I do that I do think of as important, though, is getting the protein (together with the modest amount of carbs in the milk) immediately after the workout. I started doing that after reading this article.

[bluexj]

For me. I almost never workout in the morning. I have morning and always have. Even back in high school when I ran cross country I never performed well in the early morning. My workouts are much more effective in the late afternoon or evening. Sometimes because of family,meal times, job etc... I eat almost immediately after cardio, sometimes its and hour or more. I haven't noticed any difference either way I do it. I'm with Rhone and don't feel that it is super important to eat or not eat right after cardio.

While searching on this topic I came up with this. Some interesting reading: Eating Before And After Exercise