Question: Is it better to eat before exercise to give you energy or better to use your stored fat as energy? Does it depend on the workout you are performing? Cardio or Resistance Training

Is it better to eat before exercise to give you energy or better to use your stored fat as energy? Does it depend on the workout you are performing? Cardio or Resistance Training

This question was asked by one of our Facebook Fans and it is a good question that I think deserves some attention.

There seems to be a common line of thinking among fitness enthusiasts that if you exercise on an empty stomach in the morning then your body will burn more fat because you have less food in your body to provide energy. While this might seem logical I can not find much proof or research that this line of thinking is true.

Oh, I wish it were as simple as having a little switch on your body to turn on and off the fat burning mode. The problem is that using the time frame of a single workout to gauge the amount of fat you will burn does not reveal the big picture of what’s happening.

The truth is your body doesn’t burn food, it doesn’t burn fat, protein, or carbs either. Your body burns glycogen through a complex cellular process (I’ll save the details of the process for a future article). This means that in order to provide your body with energy, glycogen has to be immediately available for it to use. This typically comes from glycogen stored in the muscle. If you are excising continuously for an extended period of time then your body has to seek the glycogen it needs from protein in the muscle, liver, or fat in the body.

Unfortunately you can’t choose where it comes from. During resistance training your glycogen gets partially replenished in the muscle between sets. This prepares the body for the next round of physical exertion.  Proper nutrition after your workout will also enhance recovery.

The food you eat before exercise isn’t really going to have time to fully digest and be available for the body to use unless you are taking in very simple sugars. What you should consider is how you feel when exercising on empty stomach. If it leaves you feeling depleted or unable to exercise as hard then I would say go ahead and have some food or a small meal before you exercise. Being able to exercise at full strength is going to enable you to get more benefit from each workout by lifting more weight, exercising longer, using a higher resistance level, etc.

One double blind research study concluded that injesting an energy drink before your workout did improve performance specifically during resistance training due to a hormone response by the body. The ingredients in the workout drink contributing to the increased performance consisted of taurine, caffeine, and glucuronolactone. It should be noted that this study consisted of a small sample size of 8 experienced well-trained individuals. (Hoffman et al., 2008)

So how do you get the glycogen to come from stored body fat so you can shed the pounds? It really comes down to the big picture perspective of taking out more energy (Calories) than you are putting in your body. If over the course of a day or week you are burning more than you are taking in then your body will have to start getting that glycogen from somewhere. The answer is of course, fat stores! One of the reasons your body stores fat is so it available to utilize when you are not taking in enough Calories to meet the body’s demands.

This makes resistance training very important because it helps maintain your muscle. After all, your body is smart enough to know that it needs those muscles in the future for resistance training sessions.

References:

Hoffman, J.; Ratamess, N; Ross, R.; Shanklin, M.; Kang, J. & Faigenbaum, A. (2008). Effect of a Pre-Exercise Energy Supplement on the Acute Hormonal Response to Resistance Exercise. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 22(3) 874-882

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