Is it better for weight loss to exercise before eating or after eating? Which does you most good?
I have been doing some calorie control/exercise to lose a little chub. I have done a 5:2lite thing for several years anyway which I just enjoy, essentially just missing dinner on a Mon/Thurs.
A couple of 5k runs during the week has had me noticing that on a run on a Tuesday morning I am slower and it is much more effort than on a day where I have had a normal meal the night before.
I am in the sedate category here, around a 27-28min average for 5k whereas today (post fast) I was about 31min.
So.. what say ye hive mind, more running on empty?
🙂
Depends if you're a man or a woman apparently.
Is it better for weight loss to exercise before eating or after eating? Which does you most good?
Depends on loads of things IMO.
Exercising fasted or fully fuelled does different things. Fasted (ie before breakfast) exercises your fat burning pathways and IME really improves endurance. On the other hand, going an hour after a meal and fully carbed up gives me lots more power, I can do much more work and then exercise my type II muscle fibres more.
For me, both can result in weight loss. I'd say fasted for endurance, fuelled for speed. I like to do both. If I am out for a 90 min local blast, I'll go fuelled. A 4 hour long ride, fasted.
EDIT just seen you are talking about running. I can only run really slowly when fasted. But lately I can sustain it more than I used to be able to. I can currently do about 7.45 pace with fuel, but maybe 8.45 fasted.
Fasted (ie before breakfast) exercises your fat burning pathways and IME really improves endurance.
False - As far as I've read you won't have burnt all the 'carbs' stored in your muscles and liver completely in your sleep.
The fuel your body looks to use is more a function of intensity than a function of what you've just eaten / not eaten.
As far as I've read you won't have burnt all the 'carbs' stored in your muscles and liver completely in your sleep.
It's about insulin, not glycogen stores. I've read (somewhere) that insulin promotes glycogen metabolism and inhibits lipolysis. So it makes you use more 'carbs' and hence less fat. And this effect continues after insulin levels have dropped to normal. Some say 4 hours, some say even longer - hence it being best before breakfast.
So when fasted riding you still have glycogen stores but you are burning fat more readily than if you have been eating, therefore exercising fat burning pathways and becoming more 'fat adapted'.
It probably varies depending on the individual. It certainly feels very different when I ride fasted to when I ride fuelled. I think I am genetically and habitually used to running on carbs. If you are the opposite and have always been fat adapted, you probably won't notice a lot of difference.
Interesting stuff guys cheers.
I definitely prefer the feeling of exercise when I have energy stores to burn! It felt like jogging through treacle this morning.
Going to do some more research on this, would be great to know what effect the varying types are having.
FWIW I train / commute most weekday mornings for 1-2 hours on no more than a cup of coffee. I'm not fat.
A 4 hour long ride, fasted.
I'd die a horrible death.
Maybe the op could try eating lesd all the time than tbis fasting nonsense.
Its very simple - calorie deficit = weight loss. thats it.
Ah annagallis I am following a calorie controlled diet also, I just enjoy the fast days and how I feel the next morning. Thanks for suggesting and answer to a different question though, good ol stw.
My question was on the differing effect of exercising with low energy stores versus normal exercise.
Eating post exercise triggers the glycogen load part of your body but and the biggest but is you can only lying store so much the rest gets kept as fat. So knowing what your eating and expending is important too.
Well if you want to exercise fasted you should do it on your recovery rides at a low effort. Use food before during and after hard training rides focus on protein after, maybe do that for a block of four days or so that will deplete your glycogen stores then if you want to ride fasted do it on recovery rides, these rides will have very little training effect though and I am dubious they will help you shed more weight or shift lard compared to just riding your bike more and eating less unless you are training for massive numbers of hours a week.
If your focus is on weight loss and you are not already lean just do as much high inte sity riding as you can, which will need to be supported by carbs before and during and recover with high protein and low carbs. If you ride fasted you risk doung junk, slow miles for no benefit
For a 30 minute run I doubt it matters much. There's still debate over the benefits of fasted training but generally those benefits (if correct) are to make you a more efficient endurance athlete, not to lose weight.
27-31 minutes of exercise ain't going burn much, whether fast or not.
Double your distance at least (build up slowly mind if you haven't gone that far before)
Good luck
Cheers Rosey, appreciate we are not talking marathon training, just maintaining a 500 - 750 kcal deficit and getting some regular exercise in. Way too little time in my life to get more in at the mo. 🙂
A 4 hour long ride, fasted.
I'd die a horrible death.
Fasted rides should be done gently of course (you probably won't have the choice) but not too easy. What I'd call zone 2 which is just before you start to breathe hard enough to affect normal conversation. Try talking to yourself if you are on your own - it's a great image too.
And you should only do it for 90 mins at most, then start eating carbs if you are going longer. I use the 45 minute rule which says that if you start fasted and then don't take on carbs in the first 45 mins it encourages fat burning for the rest of the ride. I often do a 4 hour ride this way. It makes me feel much stronger from an endurance perspective.
Running tho - no idea. I didn't know it was possible to run at a low enough intensity, but that might be because it's always hard work when I run 🙂
The thing is though - rebuilding muscle after intense exercise also uses up lots of calories. So you may be better off fuelling up then running hard and burning more calories that way. There's more than one way to loose fat. I think that the most significant thing about fasted riding is the increase in endurance, rather than fat loss (for me at least).
Don't agree with one of the comments about low carb meals after training. You've got a about a 1 hour window after a training session where your body is primed for replenishing all of the stored glycogen in your muscles and liver. Getting carbs and protein after training is really important to be able to train again successfully the next day.
Carbs also help your body uptake the protein for repair.
Carbs also help your body uptake the protein for repair.
Agree with chilled76 there. I did high intensity workouts on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and yesterday, and on yesterday's effort I felt properly tired. Ate relatively high amount of carbs and weighed less this morning.
Ideally (I think) it's just enough carbs to repair and grow your muscles after exercise. But if you've not done enough exercise or your glycogen stores are full, the excess makes you fatter.
Don't agree with one of the comments about low carb meals after training. You've got a about a 1 hour window after a training session where your body is primed for replenishing all of the stored glycogen in your muscles and liver. Getting carbs and protein after training is really important to be able to train again successfully the next day.
It is if you are training the next day but I saw an interview with the team sky nutritionist recently where he talked about avoiding carbs when you are doing a low intensity workout and making it periodic to fit in with your training cycles to drop mass. I accept that this is of no importance to most of us here or the op.
avoiding carbs when you are doing a low intensity workout
Yeah - for low intensity that makes sense. Cos you'd be simply burning fat and not need to replace much glycogen or repair tissue.
Yeh agreed. For zone 2 then lower carb recovery is fine as you shouldn't need to restock glycogen if you've kept it under vt threshold properly.
Carb cycling to match needs is in my opinion the way forward. I've dropped 5kg in 6 weeks doing just that myself.
Just watched that vid - it says basically what I've been doing, which is nice to know. Unfortunately I don't have a regular structure, so I just go by feel - I'll have more carbs if I feel particuarly achey and tired.
Might try increased protein supplementation though - a protein shake is dead satisfying if nothing else.
