Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Does exercising on an empty stomach burn more fat?


I have many morning clients that have learned their lesson in terms of not eating anything before a training session.

They hit a wall much sooner in their session which, in effect, is a waste of their precious money and time.

They end up feeling dizzy or nauseous because blood sugar levels are so low in the morning much less add a hard workout on top of that.

They don't build lean body mass as easily because they can't lift as much or work as hard.

I love how people spend so much time debating the "how to burn more fat debate". It's simple as hell. If you feel like you need to grunt or whine and you're sweating, chances are you're burning the butter. But if you don't have any fuel in your body to rev up your engine high enough to grunt and sweat, then less fat burning will happen.

ANAHAD O'CONNOR from The New York Times dug around a little bit deeper to answer this question.

Here's an excerpt from the June 27th article

After reviewing years of research on the subject, a report published this year in Strength and Conditioning Journal concluded that the body burns roughly the same amount of fat regardless of whether you eat before a workout. But you’re likely to lose muscle by exercising in a depleted state, the report found, and without fuel to aid the workout, exercise intensity and overall calorie burn will be reduced.

But the simple question is, would you want to race a car that has an empty fuel tank?

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