Maximizing Your Work-Out: Better on an Empty Stomach?

If you work out on an empty stomach, you may actually burn more fat.  European researchers found that cyclists who trained without eating burned significantly more fat than their counterparts who ate beforehand.   

When you exercise, your body and muscles get the energy from carbohydrates that you consumed before; however, if you haven’t eaten before, exercising your body will burn fat instead.  Athletes like Lance Armstrong and Michael Phelps consume huge amounts of food before race because, lucky for them, they don’t have much fat to burn.   

In a study published in April, researchers at the University of Birmingham and elsewhere assigned seven people to cycle three days a week, followed by an intense session an hour later without eating.  Another seven people followed the same regime, without the instruction to fast. 

Though members of the group that didn't eat performed worse on the intensive training, they burned a higher proportion of fat to carbohydrates than the group that ate. The results were published by Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine.

 When you exercise without eating first, fat is broken down more quickly in the muscle. Scientists say that exercising after fasting means that your adrenaline is high and your insulin is low, which are favorable conditions for your body to break down additional fatty acids.   

 It is important to realize that there are some pitfalls to this method.  If you are hungry while exercising, you might get dizzy, so you have to be careful.  Also some say that you might eat more after you are done with exercise because you are more hungry than usual.  So you have to watch for that and make sure not to overeat after your workout.  

This method certainly required discipline but can deliver good results!