Hi. Losing weight was a challenge. but I managed to lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks by following this method: “the2weekdietnow. com” (search it on the internet)
Bottom line imo educate yourself re what the pros say but in the end listen to your body and do what it is telling you.
1
A study involving 30 people. You could probably find 30 people who took ivermectin and didn't get Covid or, better yet, die from Ivermectin. Seriously, I'm not contesting the possible link between exercise on an empty tummy and fat burn but what I do object to is the NYT joining the trend of reporting, sometimes trumpeting, health benefits of ...name any study of a tiny number of people. Other, future studies will yield other results about the "best way to." People get confused, they become skeptical, even hostile to the science, and they come to distrust medical research when in fact it's the reporting they should distrust.
2
The problem with these articles is that they are based on one small study that represents a small portion of the population and are not generalizable. Reviews of topics like these benefit from many studies under different conditions and in larger populations. Total clickbait.
1
We seem to be trained to only work when we feel good. This works, I can testify. The hardest part was getting going when you feel low energy because you haven't eaten - and resisting the conditioned response to eat something to change your current state.
Ironically, this led me to spending a little more time on warmup - which once complete, I would feel energized and workout well, whatever I happen to be doing.
- 50 lbs since last May, 53 and I feel like I am 33.
This is why I am so irritated by advertisements for food supplements that purport to "fuel" a workout.
The average American stores 1,500-2000 calories of glucose as glycogen and, literally, tens of thousands of calories as fat, and if you are unable to access those stores, the problem is not a lack of a pre-workout meal.
It's like saying that you need to put gas in your car every time you drive around the block.
1
The fat that needs to be reduced is not the fat in muscle but abdominal fat.
This fat is metabolically active and does all the bad things, such as insulin resistance, that are listed in this article.
What was mentioned briefly as a benefit of exercising without a caloric load was a decreased abdominal girth which is actually more important than weight loss.
To me that is the best reason for exercising slightly hungry.
Yeah, but if I go for a run in the mornings on an empty stomach, I feel miserable during the run and don't perform as well compared to eating and then going out several hours afterward. There is something to be said about being more likely to engage in an activity if it is a positive experience vs avoidance if you feel bad while doing it.
2
The results are because we are still animals intended to wake, hunt for food and then eat it.
1
All of us reading this article about exercise and weight loss, and objecting to the fact that, once again, a study in the 21st century features men only, must do all we can to encourage the girls and young women in our lives to study STEM. There’s no guarantee they won’t face the sexism (and ageism) that many women scientists face but at least they’ll be in the room. When I read the study was done on men, I stopped reading. I couldn’t care less if it doesn’t at least try to extrapolate how such exercise habits could affect women as well as men. The comments, though, are more elucidating: if one does any kind of strenuous exercise, then eating beforehand usually makes the workout uncomfortable. Sitting here now with a big wake-up cappuccino - mostly coffee - and then working out, Works for me, and I’m no scientist.
4
@TurandotNeverSleeps I feel fine if I workout in the am with only coffee and a small bit of cream. I stop eating around 6pm the prior night. Have coffee in the am and my yoga and aerobics/light weights classes are at 10 and 11. I eat a regular sized lunch at 1pm. I've never felt better doing this 3-4 days a week. Firm believer it's due to better insulin. I've gained muscle and lost inches and weight.
So how does this affect the study that showed optimal results for those who exercised in the afternoon?
Eat a good breakfast. Exercise all day. Skip lunch, except for a few snacks when necessary: nuts, dried fruit. Visceral fat will melt away.
2
Thomas Buddenbrook’s doctor gave him the same advice over a century ago — take a walk before breakfast. He failed to heed this wise counsel and (spoiler alert!) died in middle age.
2
The title needed to be rewritten as "Not eating before you exercise.." as opposed to "Eating after You Exercise." The study doesn't show that eating after you exercise helps, only that not eating before you exercise helps.
10
Seriously? You couldn't find women for this first attempt?
9
The sample size was small. The authors were looking for a homogeous sample to give them the best chance of detecting an effect, rather than spending time and money and then failing to reject the null hypothesis.
1
Interesting results though disappointing to see most studies like this are still done with only men. Why?
8
For me, it's a matter of comfort. I don't like to feel stuff sloshing around in my stomach when I'm upside down on the gym floor or bending in half to touch my toes, so I either eat nothing or I eat a small mandarin orange before working out.
10
I am the same way. I tend to exercise in the evening, after work and before dinner. My last meal would have been lunch 4-5 hours prior and that’s just the way I like it! I physically don’t feel well exercising if my stomach isn’t mostly empty. “Exercise” for me is running and HIIT weight circuits.
2
They didn't really make any conclusions or hypotheses about the benefits of eating after a workout. The conclusions are about the effects of NOT eating BEFORE a workout. It's not the same thing, NYT.
16
@Ashley Correct, in essence. But the title of the article is not totally wrong. The confusion results from its ambiguity. "Eating after..." may mean two different things. One is, doing some eating after...even when you have eaten before or not. The other is the one intended by Gretchen Reynolds is, move the eating you usually like to do before to after, "eating" then meaning all of your morning eating, not some additional eating, ec...If you're in the flow of the debate, the initiated, the insiders to the issue, like the author and most of her readers, you get it. If not and you play the innocent outsider, the linguistic ambiguity remains actual.
This illustrates the challenge of writing. What is clear and obvious in the specialized and knowleddgeable writer's mind is not instantly clear to a lay reader. The job of editing is for an outside reader to spot the sentences, phrases or expressions where the meaning is shapr and clear in the writer's mind, but its expression in the writer's words still unclear to a non-expert, uninitiated, ordinary mind. This seems like a trivial game, chasing air bubbles, but in fact it is a fundamental issue of communication through language. All of Plate's dialogues rest on discussing theis fundamental issue: What is it that you mean, EXACTLY?
@Ashley Correct, in essence. But the title of the article is not totally wrong. The confusion results from its ambiguity. "Eating after..." may mean two different things. One is, doing some eating after...even when you have eaten before or not. The other is the one intended by Gretchen Reynolds is, move the eating you usually like to do before to after, "eating" then meaning all of your morning eating, not some additional eating, ec...If you're in the flow of the debate, the initiated, the insiders to the issue, like the author and most of her readers, you get it. If not and you play the innocent outsider, the linguistic ambiguity remains actual.
This illustrates the challenge of writing. What is clear and obvious in the specialized and knowleddgeable writer's mind is not instantly clear to a lay reader. The job of editing is for an outside reader to spot the sentences, phrases or expressions where the meaning is sharp and clear in the writer's mind, but its expression in the writer's words still unclear to a non-expert, uninitiated, ordinary mind, or a pretended one.
This seems like a trivial dispute, chasing air bubbles, but in fact it is a fundamental issue of communication through language. All of Plato's dialogues rest on discussing this fundamental issue: What is it that you mean, EXACTLY?
When will WOMEN be the first group. Not an after thought. Who is finding these projects ?
22
Why can't the full reference to the article being discussed be provided?
8
The best exercise is being honest with yourself.
And by that perfect measure I'm in perfect health.
No sweat or ADVIL required.
So, no difference in actual weight loss, with "results" relating only to study of fat burns during the exercise (fasted or not), and apparently no study of fat burns after exercise (when the fasted exercises would be replenished their glycogen stores but the non-fasted exercises would be fueling their normal lives with depleted glycogen stores). This is not a well-designed study to prove anything.
3
It depends on the outdoor temperature, wind velocity, and overall comfort level being out there. During summer in Las Vegas I choose to walk before breakfast to avoid hot sun. In winter I eat first; waiting until the outside temperature warms up a little.
By the way, I ordered a whole body vibration workout machine for conditioning. It should help me on the hard outdoor situations.
Sadly a sample size of 30 doesn't augur for high confidence.
Also was the study double-blind?
These things matter!
5
In my annual cleanse wake up drink glass of water. Then consume first calories of 1300 calorie day generally smoothie and ginger tea. Yoga one hour. Breakfast 500 calories. Hike/Run/Bike exercise outside for 1-3 hours...short break for 1/2 cup nuts and berries. More hiking biking. Lunch soup. No bread. No sweets. Water. Continue hiking. Late afternoon sauna then ice water plunge several times to jump start immune system. Eat dinner THEN weight lift for 40 minutes to burn dinner. Get massage. Sleep like a rock...do it again the next day for 2 weeks. Timing is everything. Less food more exercise.
3
@wedge1 Yeah, this is not sensible or healthful, even if it is only for 2 weeks.
3
Yep 6 or 8 am yoga practice always on an empty stomach
2
Wonder why so many studies start with studying men, then eventually, maybe study women?
please reverse the order for a change. Thank you.
20
@CC
My understanding was that in this study they attempted to eliminate the hormonal effects of menstrual cycle on their study. Therefore, it was simpler to do all male study.
1
@Joseph Men have hormones too. It's normal for women to have a menstrual cycle. Why treat it like a "deviation" from normality? It's only a deviation if you hold men to be the standard. Women are just as "normal" and natural as men. Anyway, scientific old habits die hard, just like any other habit.
1
They could have used women who are past the age of menopause. Simple!
1
Use the word men in the title - they were the only ones studied.
12
This study was performed on “12 sedentary men.”
8
@Trisha
12 Sedentary Men
Reginald Rose’s modern day sequel to 12 Angry Men, in which 11 guys try to convince the 12th that everything worth having can be delivered or experienced in one’s living room without leaving the couch. The 12th guy attempts to persuade the others to venture outside but finally loses the thread while googling cat videos.
6
ill save you the read: fasted cardio works.
7
30 SEDENTARY, OVERWEIGHT MEN are the subjects in this study.
No women in this study.
No participants with normal body weight
Gretchen Reynolds presents the weakest experimental science as fascinating to the readership of the NYTimes. She gets quotes from the study's authors, eager to promote their flimsy findings and generalize to the whole world. The reality is that this is very preliminary science, with limited generalizability to the vast majority of readers.
The NYTimes would do well to hire some actual scientists to curate what articles merit attention and how articles are promoted.
20
Misleading headline.
12
Study after study after boring study...just eat less, way less and weigh less. End of story.
7
Really bad headline. It should have been "Exercising BEFORE eating..."
14
Look at the study - once again, only men participated. And obese men at that. And once again, the picture attached to the article is a woman. Shame on you, NYT.
11
this article's headline -- Eating After You Exercise May Provide Added Fat-Burning Benefits -- is a bit misleading. after all, it's not the post-exercise feast which benefits people, it's the stay-hungry workout.
as a runner, i've always wondered if the benefit of long-distance running is not so much the accumulated mileage, but instead the miles that happen after an hour or so on the road, when all the easily available sugars and fats are gone and the body starts feeding upon itself.
5
I have been consistently exercising in a fasted state in the early morning since the last time the NYT told me it was best for weight loss. I exercise from 5:30 to 7:00 and then get ready for work. My question is for the serious intermittent fasters -- I can make it until 10 am on black coffee but then I need to eat something -- there is no way I could make it until noon or 1:00 without getty dizzy and lightheaded from low blood sugar. How do you make that work?
@Tracy First, make sure that you have no underlying health issues so get a checkup wth your PCP.
Most people eat three meals daily. The goal is to move one of those meals closer to the time of the other meal. It doesn't matter whether you move your breakfast towards lunchtime, lunch towards either breakfast or dinnertime, or dinner towards lunchtime. When you get down to two meals daily, then try to bring them closer in time until you have your preferred eating window. Most people can handle a 16:8 hour schedule. You might try to shorten your eating window to 18:6 or even 20:4. Remember, 7 to 9 hours of your fasting window includes sleep.
Some additinal things:
1. No snacking!
2. Minimize alcohol consumption. The body preferentially uses alcohol first, glucose second and ketones (the breakdown fuel of fatty acids) third. That's because the liver considers alcohol to be a worse toxin than glucose which is wose than ketones.
3. Try to keep your insulin levels as low as possible by minimizing carbohydrate consumption and choosing those carbs that are high in fiber and/or nutrients (e.g. green leafy or cruciferous vegetables). Replacing excess carbs with high quality proteins (e.g. eggs, fish) and good fats (olive oil, butter) should remove that crashing feeling that you get around 10:00.
4. Finally, as much as you can afford, choose organic, non-GMO, pasture-raised, grass-finished and/or non-stored in plastic (non-heated in plastic) as possible.
Good luck!
11
@Tracy One last thing, consider a small amount of cream (or half/half; not skim or lo fat milk) without any sweetener in your cofee to get you through the hump.
7
Without breakfast before pickle ball, I'd feel nauseous on the court and might even faint. I eat two hours before start time and while I don't lose weight, I do stay conscious and upright.
4
Women respond differently than men. This study only had male participants. NYT is misleading their audience, they do it al the time on these articles.
7
@Nancy
Nobody in the study lost weight either.
After exercise on an empty stomach or in a generally low fuel state, glycogen is completely depleted. Glycogen is a synthesized carbohydrate and is metabolically expensive to produce, you don't gt back as much energy as it takes to make it. After exercise the first priority of the body is to replete glycogen. If you wait an hour or two before consuming any carbohydrate, fat stores will be used to generate the new glycogen. This will result in the maximum depletion of fat.
4
Anecdotally I started doing the 7 minute workout from NYTimes a few years ago and found that when I did it before breakfast on an empty stomach it was easier and I did more reps across all exercises. Doing it before lunch was worse and doing it around 2pm was worst; doing it before breakfast I get most done and feel better the whole day.
Worth noting that when I then joined a boot camp class on Sunday mornings, the first time I did that on an empty stomach I felt like I was having a heart attack about 40 minutes in. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy when I said I was doing it on an empty stomach. So, there are limits!
5
I lost the most weight in the shortest time while training to be an Officer in the United States Navy in OCS. We did our PT (Physical Training) from 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM or 7:30 AM five days a week. We ate an hour or so after completing PT. The point is that it is possible to do a boot camp level of physical training before eating. It helps to be a whippersnapper, of course. Youth is nature’s greatest tonic. It also helps to have a Marine Corps. Drill Instructor motivating your silly gluteus maximus off the dirt alongside the track. Perhaps it is youth coupled with just a bit of madness that makes it work. Regardless, we can do a lot more than we realize in extreme environments with the right mix of courage, perseverance, and fear. Did I keep off all that weight? Nope. The civilized world that freed me from those Drill Instructors turned me into an overstuffed, overworked, corporate drone like most everyone else. I am in my mid-forties and wondering how possible it may be for me now to get back to those balmy dark hours before sunrise when a man on a track reached for his limit. Losing excess weight would be a nice, if secondary, benefit of feeling really alive again.
7
Did the researchers define the minimum fasting duration (hours) required to achieve the observed result?
8
Thank you. Note: The carbs right after the workout have long been known to build more muscle as otherwise the brain’s demand for glucose converts muscle to glucose.
The article does not mention that benefit. But coaches have often had at least an apple of half a banana within 10-15 minutes of completion of training.
My grandfather coached his share of national champions in the field events. He had them rest for 10-15 minutes immediately after training. They should feel better and with more energy than they did when they started training. If not, they had over trained and workouts would be less intense.
2
This article is simply old news
Consider this: how long does it take to digest food or drink into energy? Put food into my stomach before the workout and what happens? Psychological satisfaction but the body's resources actually go preferentially to the digestion process, not to maintaining a high rate of exercise at the muscular level.
Long-term athletes know from experience that the best method is to live off the accumulated protein structure of the body during exercise, then eat an easily digestible protein based meal (preferably a whey protein drink) to flood the musculature.
4
While this approach may work in a laboratory setting, as noted by other commenters, a "real world" bike bike ride (when you can see your mph pace on your computer) may be much different. The article mentions "moderate pace", with no explanation. Whose moderate pace? How consistent-any measurements? Stationary biking with a power meter (measuring the number of watts produced) is an excellent approach to measure consistency. These used to be rather expensive (thousands of dollars), but they're now a few hundred dollars.
Finally, don't try this empty stomach approach with lap swimming (e.g. Masters workouts at pace with multiple strokes), especially in a lap pool with appropriately low water temperature. After a few 100m repeats (following a 500-1000m warmup), you'll be finished!
@Kenarmy
This is an article about a study. Most of the answers to your questions can be found by reading the study. There's a link in the article.
It’s all very well, except that I have no energy to exercise on an empty stomach - or if I do, I risk losing consciousness from depleting what energy I do have, or injuring myself in other ways (eg exertion headaches, flu-like symptoms)
Like the three bears, the hardest part about exercising for me has been to find just the right time - neither hungry, nor too full.
12
Here we go again, another "miracle aid" to help lose weight.
Next yr a report will probably come out refuting this one and state its better to gorge before you run.
Better still, a report will come out stating that people who read columns like this will lose more weight than people who don't.
Let's go over it again, gang, imo, what history has taught us.
While one can tailor the regime to their needs there is no miracle cure for weight loss.
Less calories in then needed will result in weight loss.
Some form of Weight Watchers whether being a member or doing it on our own is the best method for the great majority of people.
Period.
3
@Paul Doesn't sound like a "miracle aid"
if you're actually EXERCISING before your first meal. Exercise is no miracle aid. I have been running consistently 7 miles/day sometimes 7 days/week, all before a meal (I don't eat b-fast, only lunch and dinner), for 4 years. I've lost and kept off 50 lbs., and it's no "miracle aid." It's consistent daily running (or exercise). Yes, you're correct in that I burn off more than I take in, but I take issue with your saying that exercise is a 'miracle aid' for weight loss. It's a huge component of it.
11
@Paul says: "Next yr a report will probably come out refuting this one and state its better to gorge before you run."
That's what happens when the NYT reports studies with ten participants in each group.
2
@Paul
Speak for yourself. I was glad to have this information.
4
Nothing new. This has been reported years ago and a method I still use today. When I need to lose extra pounds, I will ride in the morning for an hour, three times a week. For longer rides, I will have a decent meal and snacks along the way, with only water to drink.
4
This NYT article uses the term "cyclists" to describe test subjects in what was actually a weight-loss experiment.
I have no doubt that unfit, overweight test subjects would lose more weight by only eating after exercise rather than beforehand. After all, their goal is to lose weight; not ride a bike for fitness.
Real fitness-oriented "cyclists" would be unwise to ever follow this "skip breakfast" methodology. Heading out on 50 or 100 mile bike ride on an empty stomach is simply an invitation to quickly "bonk".
For a real cyclist, it is important to commence a long-distance ride with immediately available energy reserves such as breakfast.
I would suggest that the NYT editors correct this article to identify the test subjects not as "cyclists" but as obese volunteers seeking to lose weight.
13
@George Agree with @George regarding cyclists doing a long and hard group ride but fasted training does have a place in the cyclist's training regimen. Andy Hampsten, the only American winner of the Giro used this technique in the early season to lose the weight he had put on over the winter.
5
@George I agree and this premise also holds for those who are going to lift or who are working to increase speed or duration of their run. It takes longer to metabolize fat into calories than if you have a carb meal before exercise. No carbs, you get gassed faster - you just can't produce enough calories to maintain a hard workout. Of course, the quality and quantity of carbs count - oatmeal is better than a cinnamon roll, but pre-workout carbs are the way to go
@George
I agree with you that on any long ride I would be crazy not to put some fuel in the tank, but this experiment was looking at TRAINING, not long distance rides. There is a difference.
Training on an empty stomach has long been used to burn off excess fat, especially in the body building world.
3
This might work for light aerobics such as a sedentary person would start with and for riding a stationary bike in a gym. As personal trainer I would recommend eating before weight lifting, outdoor cardio that will take you any distance from your home or gym, or strenuous sessions if you’re already in shape. I’ve seen people puke and get light headed when they exercise without eating and you don’t want that to happen in a distant place or where you can’t control your environment
5
@Cary Agreed. It is important to understand that everything having to do with physiology is curvilinear; you can have too much, too little, or just right in everything.
If you exercise demands energy faster than your mitochondria can cleave ATP from free fatty acids during gluconeogenesis then hypoglycemia is generally likely to ensue. Subsequently exercise performance degrades and calorie consumption slows.
The conversion of FFAs in the bloodstream to ATP in the Kreb cycle requires at least four extra steps thus slowing down the delivery of fuel to the muscle; this is why the body’s preferred fuel source is carbohydrates. Fat as a substrate source is best left to lower intensity exercise because to process it in the energy cycle takes longer.
Nevertheless, the research can’t be ignored but it’s interpretation must be tempered by certain physiological realities. So yes try it and note how you do; maybe LESS breakfast works better for you than none at all. This is what I recommend to my clients as it undercuts the sense of “starvation” for many and “primes” the body to supplement the low caloric intake with FFAs in the bloodstream and intra muscular fat stores.
2
They should have done 15 men and 15 women. Or 30 men and 30 women. Stop doing studies about men only. It ignores 49.6 percent of the population.
21
@carhy they would have probably had to do 30+30 and may not have had the funding. It’s a small pilot that may eventually get funding for more populations. There are plenty of studies among women too this just isn’t one of them (I studied ex sci in grad school). Men and women have different muscle composition so the results may not apply to women, it also may not apply to people who are not sedentary.
4
"they recruited 30 overweight, sedentary men. (They plan to do a follow-up study with women.)"
Wake me when this study is conducted with a good cross section of humans, TYVM. The time for all-male studies on health concerns and issues that are not limited to the male body has long since passed!
18
Doesn't matter. What matters is total energy expended vs total injury taken in at the end of the day. Your body is always burning fat and storing fat. What matters is at the end of the day if you have stored more than you have burned or vice versa.
1
Quite true. When I used to row competitively, decades back, we had to be in our boat and training by 6am. All I had was a cup of coffee. Then a full day's work and a heavy aerobic and weights workout six hours after lunch. I was in great shape. That's also when we discovered HIIT before it became fashionable a few years ago.
The opposite helps explain this model as well. On off days, I felt sluggish after the same meals I had on rowing days but no workouts. It adds up. I did not have the forethought to eliminate a meal or cut back...
7
If you eat before you exercise the energy goes into your bloodstream and some of it is used, but while you are
digesting food, my understanding is that you are definitely
not burning fat.
But if you eat right after you exercise you are going to be
hungrier and eat more too. These kinds of studies need
to really be done carefully because for most of my life
I have seen waffling and conflicting studies mostly funded
by some industry or another defending their products and
markets.
I don't believe any of it ... I rather try to be aware of the ideas
out there, and see if any of then feel right to me, then perhaps
test it out carefully. I think the main problem may be that
our bodies are programmed to hoard nutrition so we do not
starve, because starving was a danger thousands of years ago.
Many times exercise suppresses appetite after exercise instead of increasing it. Of course, whether or not it does is dependent on type and length of the exercise bout, i.e. what energy pathway is used. Also, it matters what the subject’s predisposition—or lack thereof— to glucose handling, for example. There are so many considerations beyond this article and gender is just one of them.
4
@Bruce Yes, you feel hungrier; whether you eat more is under your control. The finding is not at all new, and I found that exercise-first worked better for me years before it was an official finding.
2
Read Dr. Jason Fung for the benefits of fasting. When I run in a fasted state I feel like a greyhound! Try it you'll like it.
4
I don't understand that glycogen storage and depletion isn't mentioned here. For the exercise regimes used in these studies, the metabolism of those who fasted in the two hours before morning exercise should have switched over to glycogen use, and the exercise regimes would not have typically depleted their glycogen storage. Fat metabolism would not have really kicked in unless these indviduals were on really low carbohydrated diets with little glycogen storage.
3
@Paul from Oakland
aren't you talking about ketones ... the product of fat metabolism, not glycogen with is sugar and energy stored in the blood?
1
@Bruce I think he’s saying the subjects would primarily be drawing from glycogen (carbohydrate) stored in the muscle to increase blood sugar and fuel the workout, since they hadn’t eaten a meal beforehand.
A percentage of their fuel would be coming from fat stores, but carbs need to be burned along with the fat; once you’re out of glycogen fat is burned via ketosis (where your breath smells like acetone)...and you hit the proverbial wall if you happen tone around mile 18 of a marathon...not fun!
I’ve found that for me nothing is so effective for weight loss as intermittent fasting. By following such a regimen it turns out that much of the time I am in a fasted state when I work out. My workouts always go great and do not seem hindered by the fasting - now this article implies the fasted workouts might even be more helpful than not. This is putting to rest any fears I had that I could be hurting myself.
15
Both scientifically and through substantial anecdotal experience, the amount of exercise (wonderful for general fitness and body toning) that's required to lose any appreciable fat is so ridiculously high that it's entirely moot. Lose fat by dieting, gain fitness and associated health benefits by working out. Any commercial enterprise "selling" blubber loss via exercise is a con job, that's no doubt going to "throw in" a strict diet regimen to avoid well-deserved lawsuits.
5
Should sports drinks w sugar be avoided during 1-2 hrs of cycling/jogging?
I make my own 20 oz drink w a pinch of salt, grated ginger and 4oz of OJ.
Does the sugar in it keeps the insulin production going and prevents fat from getting used in the exercise?
There are sugar-free sports drinks but they taste bad.
3
I believe this study was skewed by the participants. Not just because they were overweight and probably had an overabundance of fat to shed but because they had been sedentary. Whenever someone starts exercising they usually show dramatic improvements at first. For other people that do exercise, even occasionally, I don't believe they would show much difference in fat burning by exercising in the morning this way. But they would if they exercised continuously and vigorously in the morning for over two hours.
This was the consensus that I read many times from studies of runners. A person would not use up their glycogen reserves until they ran two hours in a fasted state. After that, the body would begin burning fat in earnest, as well as small amounts of protein and tissue (muscle and tendon).
But any exercise, particularly HIIT ones, will burn some fat, along with the gylcogen, even when we don't fast.
8
10 subjects per group? Seems a bit small to be drawing general conclusions.
4
@Kat It wasn't 10 subjects per group.It was worse: one group had 12 participants and two groups had 8 participants. The problem is not the study but the way in which the Times reported it. The sample size means that the study is only exploratory (not reported by the Times). The participants were overweight/obese (the sedentary variable was based on self reporting). However, the Times headline emphasized the sedentary nature of the participants. The article itself generalized the findings to everyone. The breakfast was a carbohydrate breakfast consumed two hours before exercising and results may be different with different breakfasts and time intervals.
The Times also did not provide the title of the study in the print version (something it often omits).
This is another example of a small and suggestive study with limitations being turned by the media into something much greater than what it is,
3
However...there are other studies out there that contradict...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21411835
1
The true news here is there exists a zero calorie placebo shake that fools people to think they are drinking a regular drink. Please elaborate.
71
Yes, but doing so as a fit individual will incinerate hard earned muscle as well.
5
Great news for those who exercise fist thing in the morning (after stretching and meditation for me). That means the first thing I do, five or six times a week, not only feels right but is right. It takes some getting used to for those who don't exercise first thing but it's worth every cleansing breath.
9
@A Goldstein
Trouble is, if you really exercise hard in the morning, your body will cool down and tire such that a nap will be needed in a few hours. If you have a job that allows that, great. If not, morning exercise is inefficient.
2
Note to fit active people: this study involves "overweight sedentary men." This is not applicable to people who are fit and lean. Working out on an empty stomach will often lead to headache, dizziness, even fainting (hitting your head on a sharp object?). Optimal exercise require fuel (food). Each of use has different requirements.
7
@Tom I'm fit and active, run ultras. I never get dizzy running fasted.
10
@Tom. I’m very fit and active and workout up to an hour and sometimes longer without eating prior in the morning. I’ve never gotten dizzy, headaches or felt any other ill effects. Might just be you.
7
The plural of anecdote is not data. But in counterpoint to the replies who say “it’s just you”, I am a fit woman who exercises mostly in the evenings, and I get dizzy, lightheaded, and feel nauseous if I try to commute in the morning (walk 8-10 blocks at a moderate pace) before breakfast. There is no way exercising on an empty stomach is healthy for *EVERYONE*.
As a competitive runner, I never eat before a race nor a training session
While I usually don’t feel hungry after, I do eat both carbs and protein within an hour
11
I think there is a bigger take-away here. Of the lean and healthier, fit and more active people I know, most of them don't eat their first meal till they have been up and around for a few hours. Outside of a cup of coffee, tea, or some liquid based (not a protein shake) fast breaker - they dont do a true meal till at least two hours after rising. I go for at least 3.
I think it has been a huge factor in maintaining my "fighting weight" thru out my life. At 55+ I'm as lean muscled and "metabolically fit" as I was in my 30's. Eating before activity be it the work day, or exercise - has never struck me as a smart approach. As such I never adopted the prescription of so many "experts" to fuel-up to start the day or a rigorous activity. (yes, a breakfast is important for children, but it need not be immediately upon waking.)
Decades of paying attention to food intake, of course the whats, but also the when in relation to my activities has provided me a great "feel" for how my body functions. I still eat my main, largest meal at dinner, contrary to most dietary advice and it has never caused me to gain excess weight. Due to my work schedules, but also by recognizing my body's timing - I've trended to being a late afternoon exerciser.
I discovered early it was absolutely critical I figure out my true nutritional needs, but also with my body's energy cycles, by reading the cues it was giving me. IMO, its absolutely essential to fitness and weight control. Learn your body!
5
@Boregard
Ah, but you prove the old adage that everyone is different, which is what I took from this article.
Myself, I do follow that "norm". I eat within an hour of rising, have my workout an hour or so later, and then mid-morning or so, eat my 'second' breakfast, which I follow with a late-ish lunch (1PM or so). Then I am good until dinner, which is often a big salad with added veg, olives, pickles, sometimes cheese(s), and as often as I can find them or pick them, nice bitter greens. Fruits whenever I want based on what's seasonally available or what I put up in the freezer.
If I didn't eat breakfast, though, I wouldn't get too far out the door. Same with my wife, although she simply gets by on even less calories overall, which kills me, especially as she's the ranked athlete. I am not :)
5
What I have also noticed, as I have a very stable eating pattern is that whatever the quantity of food I eat for breakfast it does not impacts my appetite for the rest of the day : I eat the same and no difference in hunger.
So I chose to eat only a portion of low-fat Greek yogurt instead of a full breakfast
@Boregard I have absolutely same results at same age. This fasting/exercise creates a routine that feels so right for my body.
“To look into those issues, they recruited 30 overweight, sedentary men.”
Where are the ACTUAL studies on women? I’m surprised there is even a “plan to study women later” parenthetical note in this article. Not holding my breath on that plan...
28
@Misplaced Modifier as a 52 year old woman who has had 5 stubborn lbs clinging to me for dear life, I can tell you that exercising in the morning on an empty stomach (and doing the 16:8 fast) has changed my body (thanks to my Peloton bike as well!). I have so much more energy than I thought possible so workouts are invigorating. Try it!
40
Too right. This study needs more women. It needs a lot, lot more people. Observations on 30 people?! Useless
5
@Misplaced Modifier The NYTimes reports on early-stage studies, of which this is one. Early stage studies are best thought of as “is there enough of an interesting outcome to justify getting / spending grant funding on a bigger, more definitive, thus more expensive future study.”
You wouldn’t test a hypothesis with a 5,000 person multi-year placebo controlled study if you didn’t already have some smaller studies indicating that there might actually be a new finding to cone from such expensive research. And in fact, because of the nature of probability and randomness, there is a bigger chance that results gathered in small studies are due purely to chance and randomness, and don’t ultimately hold up when you use larger studies in more “real world” circumstances.
Using only one gender at earlier stages is a way to control for a big swath of physiological differences. I agree I’d like to see more studies done on women, but the reason they do it is for more clarity in the early stages in order to get the next round of funding.
7
This is news? I don’t exercise regularly, but I was taught years ago to workout on a mostly empty stomach. That way you burn body fat and not the food you just ate. At most, I’ll have about 8ozs of a protein shake before an AM workout to have enough energy to get through it. Otherwise, I eat enough the night before to power me through a morning workout.
3
One question this leaves unanswered: does coffee in the morning count as "food?" I would have great difficulty doing anything after rising without caffeine, generally with a little milk but no sugar, and sometimes that's all I eat until the afternoon. So would either coffee & milk or coffee black be acceptable as "working out on an empty stomach?"
13
I think the idea is that the calories you use to fuel the exercise come from your body stores rather than from whatever you took in. So if you drink 5 cal of black coffee, or 60 cal of coffee with skim milk, but exercise beyond 5 or 60 calories' worth, you're good to go. That said, in my own experience, it's easiest to manage if you stick with black coffee.
8
@Chris NYC I'm not a dietician, I can only speak from my own experience. I am much like you, I am useless without a dose of caffeine in the AM. I have gotten into the habit of downing a cup of coffee with a dose of almond milk and then going for a run. A quick Google search will tell you that a cup of black coffee only has about 1-5 calories, so I think it's less about an empty stomach and more about not consuming too many calories. Suffice it to say, even with the milk I think you're okay!
9
@Chris NYC
This is till an unknown issue. Some "experts" claim that anything demanding digestion (adding even a dollop of milk certainly triggers it) is to be deemed food. Some say that the black coffee has a minimal digestive impact, so its given a free pass. But no milk, or milk alternatives.
I would suggest you do some personal experimenting. Refraining from the coffee for more then a few days, so to reset your body to its lack, and see how how it feels. But the key is going past the withdrawal period. One day or two is not enough.
Also know that caffeine is processed differently by different people. It can take, and this is an average of those properly studied as to their caffeine sensitivity - from 25 to 60 mins for the effects to kick in.
And some people, like me, are very caffeine tolerant and rarely feel a buzz at all. It can take up to 4 back to back cups for me to begin to feel even slightly caffeinated. Buzzed.
Studies have shown that a great deal of the alleged quick coffee buzz is 100% psychosomatic. Derived from the mere act of the ritual of preparing, or fetching that first cup.
3
The gym classes that I attend 5 times weekly are boot camp style and require stamina and endurance. I always eat a light breakfast but If I do not eat enough calories, I feel fatigued and light headed, almost faint. I need food to fuel my workout. I am slim and toned at 68 years old and able to keep up with those who are decades younger. I will never go to a class on an empty stomach. Period.
28
@Sharon Salzberg
Your physiology is different than the sedentary overweight men in the study referenced in this article. You likely do not have large amounts of fat to break down for energy so you have to eat before burning calories with exercise in order to exercise at your maximum potential. The people in the study have many pounds of extra fat which is stored energy they can burn during exercise. In addition, it is likely healthy for obese people to skip meals now and then. Lastly, I would venture to guess they did not exercise nearly as intensely as you do. The conclusion of the article is that obese people may lose more weight if they do not eat before exercise. This conclusion is not relevant to a slim and toned 68 year old who can keep up with those decades younger i.e. we should not compare apples to oranges.
33
@isabella
FYI “This study looked primarily at insulin sensitivity, though, and not other aspects of exercise and metabolism, including weight loss.” As the article said, the men who fasted had slimmed their waistlines but did not lose weight per se.
1
@Sharon Salzberg
Ever notice that soldiers in boot camp don't get that luxury of having b'fast? Ever wonder why? Its basically adaptive training under stressful conditions. You can go without that meal...if you train to go without it. Like soldiers.
Sorry, that need to eat is truly in your head. Try to wean yourself off that meal.
Also, 5x's a week of the same workout? Not necessary. In fact, its why you think you need that meal to fuel-up. You're likely overdoing it. Do the boot camp 3/4 days, then do something completely different for 1/2 days.
No athlete does the same style workout that often. What are you training for, that you're training - at 68 - 5'xs a week?
6
Is the fat burning on an empty stomach the same if someone does cardio or strength training?
4
The full circle of understanding - all in mere eight years.
//well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/does-exercising-on-an-empty-stomach-burn-more-fat/
7
there are few things I do absolutely EVERY time I exercise but one is that I NEVER eat before a workout. just dosent feel right and never has. if I eat within even 6 hours that too much. and it makes sense; its as ridiculous as "multi-tasking". when I exercise I want my body concentrating on one thing; working out. I dont want it "distracted" digesting food while ignoring the task at hand; working out. one thing at a time. focus. theres no need for noise in my ears, conversations, a mirror or a tv in front of me. just weights or a bar or a ball or my jump rope. nothing else is needed.
but i do dispute the idea of getting up early to work out before breakfast. my rhythms dont like it, need it or want it. I can do my intermittent fasting fine, just dont workout til evening or late afternoon when my body wants too. I'm just sooooooo beyond tired people trying to invent even dumber reasons to get up early and do it "first thing in the morning". please. let me use the bathroom and brush my teeth for gods sakes. more puritanical irrelevant nonsense. I;ll work out when I have time and my body tells me its time, not some clock.
13
@sam Take it easy, Sam. I exercise 6 days/week -- running, strength training and boot camp -- at 5:30 am, on an empty stomach. I listen to music or a podcast to pass the time. That works for me, keeps me consistent, aligns with my work hours, and just makes me feel good.
You don't have to do what I do. You keep doing what works for you. But please don't assume that my choice -- or anyone else's -- to do something different amounts to an inherent judgment. It doesn't. And please extend me the courtesy of not disparaging my approach as "dumb" or "puritanical nonsense."
8
Getting up early to exercise before breakfast and work is the really hard part. Solving the various crises in the world would be a piece of cake, if I could only get up early in the morning.
25
I think the trick is not to be hungry when you exercise, if you are ,a small snack one hour before
It takes me a long time to digest a meal before exercise,and I digest really fast afterwards,it would be interesting to read research into digesting food after exercise
2
I always felt better riding on less food. Where I live is hilly and I would burn through at least 800 cals/hour for 2 hours. Eating after also lets you better manage how much to eat. In cycling, eating enough is a big an issue as trying to diet. Portion control is not easy.
2
All this stuff reminds me. I need to start exercising first thing in the morning. It's an amazing feeling and instantly gets you out of this tub-of-lard self image. Enough pumpkin pie. More exercise!
9
Most cyclists already know this and any good trainer should too. I do fasted morning training (12-14hr fast) and perform quite well during my HIIT sessions and road rides. Dropped 15lbs in 3 weeks most of it fat. Really surprised fasted training is not more widely adopted in the fitness world.
This was nothing more than click bait.
@Snarky
If you're actually training on the road with no breakfast and no nutrition on the bike for your road rides, that is pretty amazing, but I don't think most professional cyclist, or even amateur cyclists, are burning through too many miles with no nutrition because you can't do it day after day unless you are a pro rider and your job is to ride a bike.
And even then, they are taking in nutrition on the bike because everyone does.
Except you apparently. You should contact someone to record your rides, food intake, and all that, because you are apparently superhuman.
14
@DKM
I agree with you re Snarky. He/she is clearly not typical of serious cyclists, or is riding very short distances.
@DKM, @DD
Snarky is right and you both are being demeaning. It is, in fact, a kind of training used at many levels of cycling, for many years. “FTS” or “training low” - typically not for everyday (or race day), but effective at weight loss in particula
This is very old research known to people in the know. When the stored glucose in muscles and liver is already spent, only available energy source is fat. The same thing happens for an overnight fast of 12-14 hours. By the morning most stored glucose is spent and body learns to rely on fat for energy when you wake up.
One word of caution. Fat to energy conversion is slow so don't do a very fast run or hard cycling! You will crash! This in marathon runs is the classic "wall" at about mile 18-20 when you don't eat.
12
@Jaque The point, of course, is that this is a general-circulation newspaper and most of us are NOT "people in the know." I found the article interesting and would like to try it, but I had one question -- does a cup of coffee after rising count as "eating?"
2
@Chris NYC
Coffee or tea without sugar or milk has no calorie! So it is not eating.
2
This recommendation would apply ONLY to people who are overweight, whose primary exercise motivation is to burn fat. Those who are reasonably athletic and looking to increase their endurance or cardiovascular fitness should eat a snack before workouts.
27
@RSSF Not from my experience. I don't eat breakfast and workout around noon (1 hr of weights or 45 min zone 2 or HIIT for 20 min.). Nowadays I am also back to 1/2 hour of zone 2 first thing in the morning. No problems with completing any of this, but probably because I'm mostly fat-adapted. My intake of carbs is usually less than 50 g per day (a banana or a nice salad).
I'm 55 and I feel great doing this pretty much daily!
“excess fat can contribute to insulin resistance, high blood sugar levels and increased risks for Type 2 diabetes and other metabolic conditions.”
My. That’s a very depressing description of “body positive.”
2
Cyclists call this "bonk" training. In the state of exercising on an empty stomach, when you have otherwise run out of "gas". This is not a new concept.
5
@Lorenzo
Better to eat properly and carry a gel. Bonking can hurt, particularly if there's a truck coming and you're in lala land.
8
@DKM
you may want to be careful about these words for a non-US English speaking audience.
Bonking may occasionally hurt, but most of us think that it well worth it.
:-)
3
@TheSceptic
Ah, but on a bicycle? Now that is a feat indeed.
Duh.
If you eat before you work out, you’re burning only what is in your stomach. If there’s nothing there, you body burns what fat you have - literally why we have a fat storage.
6
Though the author mentions that this is a study solely on men and that the researchers have promised to do another study on women, why not go ahead and mention the PROGRESSIVE RESEARCH THAT HAS BEEN DONE ON WOMEN's NUTRITION ALREADY RECENTLY? Specifically, take a look at Dr. Stacey Sims' work - seen here in an easily digestible Ted Talk: Women are Not Small Men https://www.ted.com/talks/stacy_sims_women_are_not_small_men_a_paradigm_shift_in_the_science_of_nutrition
Come on NYT. It's not enough to gesture. Represent the full picture, please.
15
I can barely make it from my bedroom to my kitchen on an empty stomach in the morning without feeling faint and nauseated. The thought of working out feeling that way sounds just awful. Looking forward to the study on women.
18
Change the headline. This is about exercising in a fasted state, not about eating after exercise.
115
I usually exercise in the morning and eat afterwards and haven't found that it makes any difference in my weight control. In the end I usually find it comes down to diet, but my attitude is that everyone is different and one should experiment until they find what works for them.
3
@catee Agree ... I think the message I am taking from all of these comments is that empty/full, morning/evening are completely individual choices based on biology, perception, and in some cases, expediency. I am a pretty dedicated early morning, empty stomach exerciser up to a limit (about a 12 mile run), after which I really need to eat something or I'm wrecked for the rest of the day. That works for me, but I make no claim that it would work for anyone else.
3
I normally go for a 6 hour bike ride here in Seattle. I used to go on an empty stomach and noticed at a certain point going up a hill, I would run out of steam to the point of wondering if I needed to get off and sit down. So, I listened to the bike professionals who all said to eat something first and I noticed I had a much better ride with better times and no feeling of ready to black out at any minute. Regardless, I lost 11 pounds through the summer (my KETO neighbors still look the same) while eating a package of chocolate croissants on the road trip along with brie, olives, nuts, etc.
If I wait another 20 years, doctors will be back to telling me to eat piles of pancakes before a ride:)
13
Its at that hill-climbing point of blacking-out when you need to crack open the first of as many beers as is necessary to reach the summit.
4
I'm fortunate enough to have a flexible work schedule, most days. I eat breakfast, work for 4 hours or so, then work out / shower / have lunch. Then I work another 5-6 hours and have dinner. I think working out before lunch, rather than before breakfast, is ideal. Energy is up, there is less chance of injury (especially when power lifting), and the work day is broken up into manageable chunks. I wish everyone could have this kind of flexibility at work.
57
Study of one: I can only get through a 45 minute tempo run fasted. If I run having eaten, say, two hours earlier, I bonk. I don’t know why. But I do know the only time I don’t bonk is fasted.
1
The companion piece to this article is the one in today's edition on Intermittent Fasting. Check the comments and you'll find me singing the praises of I.F. and how to make that work for you.
Exercise on an empty stomach + intermittent fasting = synergistic benefits that turbo-charge how your body performs.
Your body needs energy to perform. If its primary source has been depleted (glycogen in blood and muscle), it will search for a secondary source. That secondary source is body fat.
19
@Sarasota Blues Been doing this for about two years now- no food after 7 pm, then weights in the morning (no breakfast - just a cauppccino)and cardio or more weights for an hour around noon. Lunch at least an hour or two later. (Those in the know will understand this post-exercise eating restriction, especially with protein.) I am 53 and have physique of 35 year old (according to others who see me in the sauna etc.), I feel great and will never exercise on a full stomach if I can help it. It begins to feel like a wrong thing to do after a while. I have never felt that fasting restricts my performance, but then again, I exercise to stay healthy and vibrant, not to compete as an imaginary olympian or marathoner.
1
Surprised Gretchen didn't mention body of evidence that shows that the body lowers metabolism when it hasn't had food in a long time.
The advice here would seem to run counter to that. In other words suggesting that overweight people start exercising on an empty stomach is a slippery slope because many will not eat for a long enough length of time before exercise so that their body goes into "starvation mode" and dramatically reduces their metabolism as a defense mechanism against starvation.
Ultimately burning less calories than if they had eaten many small meals before exercise.
1
@Julie Starvation mode will also cause the body to burn muscle instead of fat.
Recognize there's several potential (positive) body adaptations from the fasted cycling in this study, but can someone help me understand this specific piece:
"The riders all had burned about the same number of calories while pedaling, but more of those calories came from fat when the men did not eat first."
If someone consumes a carbohydrate & protein based shake prior to cycling and someone else cycles on an empty stomach, wouldn't we *expect* the second person to burn more calories from fat?
Beyond that, is it possible the fasted group's base metabolic rate throughout the remainder of the day would burn more calories from the recently ingested protein/carb shake while the breakfast before exercising group, with their now empty stomachs, may burn more calories from fat through BMR and non-exercise activities?
2
And how do I get the energy to perform well in a 90-minute tennis match?
Empty stomach? No way. I have a fruit-filled smoothie 90-minutes before playing.
11
@Citizen, NYC Or you could have somebody fool you by giving you a fake shake, in which case you probably do just fine.
4
@Citizen, NYC , you make a good point, but I think the article is saying if you want to burn fat (not win a match), don't eat first. If your focus is on performance, definitely keep drinking your smoothies!
If you are a commuter cyclist like me who doesn't need to win a race on the way to work, this might be more helpful.
5
@Citizen, NYC As muslim I fast for 16 hours at times, then play a 90 min. game of soccer. You may take it any way you want, but I can tell I play better and with lots more energy. Try it once. You might be actually shocked at your performance. In my 50's.
Eating AFTER heavy early morning work (pick & shovel variety) avoids heartburn and keeps one healthy all day. You can't do heavy work on a full stomach. And should not try!
12
When will women be the first group to be studied? Probably when the scientists doing the study are led by women. It would be nice, though, for women to be studied simultaneous or miraculously first!
172
@Quinn & Lee
It's not just arbitrary. When studying women - unless the cohort is huge - you have to control for the hormonal cycle or else your results will be meaningless. Typically, doing a study on 50 women will take more than twice as much time and money as doing the exact same study on 50 men.
In a world of limited budgets, therefore, the typical approach is to start with men, and then move on to women if you get promising results. It's difficult to justify starting with women if it means you can do half as much research.
There's undoubtedly sexism in science, but it does a disservice to everyone to ignore the greater costs associated with doing small-numbers studies with women.
51
What you see as rational here, I still see as sexist or at least likely to produce gender disparate results. Some benefits (or harm) may be more pronounced in women than in men, and in particular things that are more beneficial to women are likely to go undiscovered with this approach. I doubt “it didn’t produce statistically significant results in men/white men/male mice, but let’s try it in women/black men/female mice” is a winning argument for further funding. I can only hope that we aren’t leaving too much on the table beyond what we must already be leaving behind: a chance to better understand women’s health and contrast it with men’s health under various conditions.
Leaving much of/half of the population out is so frustrating. How can we just continue to say, well, it’s practical? I’ll bet we can agree on something, though. I’m sure you wouldn’t oppose more funding for such studies; a country that spends so much on healthcare could certainly stand to do more health research.
17
@Chloe Amiana
There are definitely arguments against it, mostly the one that you mention: if you only study men first, you may miss things that are significant in women but not in men. This is a risk has to be weighed against the fact that doing such research on women is much more expensive, meaning you can do much less research overall if you do it on women, which in turn means you risk missing something that is significant for both men and women because you simply didn't have the money to look into it.
I don't know why you brought race into it, which seems lazy and does a disservice to the rest of your comment.
I certainly don't oppose more funding for science generally, though I'm not convinced that small number studies like this one are particularly good uses of that funding, whether performed on men or on women.
8
Muscles use glucose to produce ATP to "recharge" the muscle (extend it in preparation for retraction). When circulating glucose in blood level goes down it is replaced by catabolizing Glycogen, a 3D polymer of glucose found in the liver. This glycogen need to be replaced and apparently gluconeogenesis is one of the primary methods in the absence of food (fasting). Catabolizing fat to produce glucose. After 8 hours of sleep the stomach is empty and the amount of glucose resulting from food is negligible so stands to reason that exercise in a fasting state will directly affect stores of fat
10
Why only men? And is the same study being conducted now with women subjects?
2
@jo
Small-numbers studies usually start with men because you don't have to control for the hormonal cycle. It typically costs more than twice as much to do small-numbers research on women, because tracking the hormonal cycle is expensive and difficult.
Typically, for this reason, most studies start with men, and then include women only if the results of the male study are promising. This isn't ideal, but if you can do twice as many studies when you use men, it can be difficult to justify starting with women.
9
For an athlete or a person working to improve health, the reasons are not complex at all.
If you eat before exercise, your body will use the calories in your gut preferentially to using bodyfat for fuel.
Eating before workout reduces the anabolic drive to about half the effect of a workout done on an empty stomach.
It is far better to exercise on empty stomach, obtaining energy from the sources already stored in the body, then consume a high quality whey protein drink immediately after the exercise.
References:
Proeyen K, et al. Beneficial metabolic adaptations due to endurance exercise training in the fasted state. JAppl Physiol. 2011 January; 110(1):236-245.
Colgan, Michael, Book of Fat Loss, Science Books, 2017
2
@Svirchev
"Exercise" is too broad a term.
Weightlifting on an empty stomach, yes.
A long bike ride at pace or in the hills -- there's no way you should do that on an empty stomach.
2
I stopped reading at this point: "To look into those issues, they recruited 30"
No need to finish the sentence. I now know this is a typically useless "Move" article based on a study with a sample size so small that its contribution to scientific knowledge is closer to meaningless than significant. As I've written before in these comments sections, articles like this are actively harmful to science journalism. And to science. Would you please stop?
9
@Locho
Agreed. All Move and Health articles should be reviewed by a doctor prior to publication.
1
@Locho If you understood the statistics of experimental design (and the economics of human subject experiments), you would understand why leading scientists around the world keep performing such experiments and why the Times keeps reporting the results.
4
@Locho
You are clearly not familiar with statistical methods. There are formulas and procedures that adjust for small sample sizes, and the results of these studies are useful.
3
(They plan to do a follow-up study with women.)
How many NYTimes studies will continue to leave out half the population? It is a disgrace.
7
@Researcher It's not a NYTimes study, it's a Univeristy of Bath study. NYT is simply reporting on it.
12
although I certainly believe the study, i wonder how their results might interact with the idea of needing to be well feed for maximum gym performance when lifting weights? I suppose what being suggested by this study is akin to the weight lifters conventional wisdom around "cutting" phases while what I'm thinking about is more in line with the "bulking" phase.
3
@Jason
There is a website called leangains that has extensive information on fasted weight training.
1
I can relate to this on a personal level. I run or cycle regularly and try to avoid eating for at least two hours beforehand. I tend to feel better during the course and more invigorated after. I also “pre-hydrate” with plenty of water. I didn’t learn that from a personal trainer, so much as a tour in the Army Infantry.
29
Well, I am a woman, not the studied men that are presumed to stand in for the entire human race. But the amount of exercise I get commuting to work (in NYC, so walk-subway-walk) is usually more than I can do on an empty stomach without getting lightheaded. But sure, middle aged men are perfectly adequate representation.
68
@SarahT I can certainly relate to your comments. I'm a middle aged woman, BMI around 20 or less, and I exercise 4-6 days per week, moderate intensity. I am typically ravenous when I wake up so skipping breakfast is not an option. I don't like to bonk. Perhaps exercising on an empty stomach is something I need to gradually work up to.
A younger male friend of mine who typically eats later in the day and works out in the morning mentioned a study (which I don't have a reference for) that said women of normal weight should not try to follow this program, which is essentially intermittent fasting.
It will be nice to hear about the study results for women. Why don't most researchers begin the first leg of their studies with women anyway (rhetorical question...)?
11
I’m a woman and I love working out in a fasted state. (And also doing my walk-subway-walk commute before breakfast.) I believe I’ve heard this referred to as “fat-adapted”: once you get used to using your body’s fat stores for energy, it’s not challenging at all. I also no longer get lightheaded from not eating, which is nice. Obviously this is a study of one, so ymmv.
7
@Purple GIrl
"Why don't most researchers begin the first leg of their studies with women anyway (rhetorical question...)?"
The parentheses suggests you may not be interested, but on the off-chance:
The reason is that doing studies on small numbers of women is much more expensive than doing research on small numbers of men, because you have to control for the hormonal cycle or your results will be meaningless. For this reason, typically it costs at least twice as much to do small-numbers studies on women as it does on men. Confronted with the choice between doing half as much research on women or twice as much on men, most researchers choose to do research on men first, then proceed to women only if the results of the male study are promising.
There are valid objections to this approach, but to imply it's simply the product of sexism is irresponsible and inaccurate.
17
Interesting study. But the title, "Eating After You Exercise May Provide Added Fat-Burning Benefits," is misleading. Your point is about not eating before exercise and you say nothing about the influence of eating afterward.
As others here have said, the benefits of not eating before exercise are widely known in the cycling world. So the only reason I read the article was because of the emphasis on eating afterward. That is a component of the study, but if it's not your point, the title is clickbait.
133
WidzDietz, the quickly eating some carbs within 10-15 minutes after exercise was key to their building muscle rather than cannibalizing it to provide glucose for the brain.
The article seems to imply it was for randomization but it definitely brought better results for the fasters. Before exercise eating rarely would it be needed to consumed carbs. Afterwards, and fairly quickly, much better.
"One exercise group also downed a vanilla-flavored shake two hours before their ride (with no other breakfast) while the other group swallowed a similar-tasting placebo drink, containing water, flavoring and no calories. In other words, the placebo group rode on an empty stomach, but did not know it."
I find it very hard to believe that people couldn't differentiate between a (presumably) milk-based shake and a water-based shake. Unless even the caloried shake was water-based. In which case, that sounds awful.
15
Exactly what I was thinking! If it were so easy to be fooled into thinking non-food is food, there’d be no obesity problem. Ha ha. So much for ruling out the placebo effect.
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It’s been well understood in the cycling world for many years or even decades that fasted morning rides help us accelerate weight loss.
I’ll drop from 195 to 185 in a couple months with 3-4 early rides a week lasting about an hour.
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This comes from the department of no surprise to anyone who actually exercises. Of course you burn more fat if you exercise without a readier store of easy calories to feed your muscles. Your body prioritizes what it burns based on what it's got. No ready sugars, time to burn fat. Those goo packs they sell aren't made of easily-absorbed sugars for nothing.
What also matters is your exertion level. Fats don't convert quickly, so you can't power higher intensity workouts (at least not most people) with them, which is why well-trained marathoners still bonk later in the race when they run out of glycogen and their bodies switch to more fat. As for the leap to its being better for people's health or caloric burn, I doubt it. Burning fat during hard workouts makes them feel a LOT harder, which would likely reduce duration. As anyone who looks around at their fellow persons can easily deduce, there's no free ride, and burning off the excess means being uncomfortable, and getting comfortable with that for the long term. Either that, or don't put it in in the first place.
Much more interesting here is the effects on insulin for those for whom it's an issue.
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@heavy sweater
I was literally going to write the exact same first sentence.
Here we go again. This just in a study has come out that doing yoga while running a marathon with one hand tied behind your back will help you lose more weight than if you don't do it.
The bottom line is less calories in, more weight loss with some simple type of weight watchers program, formal or informal is by far the best way to lose weight.
Don't complicate it. If you are looking for miracle cures like this method or any other method you are more likely using it as a defense mechanism not to do the hard work of eating less.
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@Paul Yeah, well, dismissing studies that actually offer useful information is not helpful either. Who knows what effect this might have on actual humans. Or on skinny people with Syndrome X (genetic or premature-birth-related metabolic disturbances.) I'm a former trainer, and I didn't know that workouts on an empty stomach are tolerated just as well as ones when someone has eaten. Some of my clients used to hate eating breakfast. I would work stolidly to get them to eat breakfast. Now trainers know that recommending a moderate workout instead could be just as beneficial.
Especially if the results are proven out in women, too, this is a useful study that could help people who are in Edge City in terms of pre-diabetes (tens of million of Americans.)
Don't knock stuff just because YOU don't need a modest metabolic edge like the one described in this article. You cannot know whose life it might change, lengthen, or save.
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@Paul I don't understand. What's so complicated. Exercise is good, and exercise before a meal is even better. Simple. And your comment sounds similar to naysayers of scientific studies on other issues, eg climate change, relaxation techniques, cigarette smoking.
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@Peter Harris thank you for your reply. Typical defense mechanism of intellectualization. Again, bottom line less calories in, more weight loss. It is as simple as that. Yes you can fine tune it but if you do complicate it, most of the time you are using it as a defense not to lose weight I have learned in my life.
1
Curious to know what may have been the age groups of the sedentary men in the control group and in the placebo group, because that is also a major factor to consider in this type of study. All in all, a very insightful study and I actually plan to try it myself during the holidays.
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What was the duration of their exercise? I wouldn't want to do a 50 mile ride on empty.
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@br Thanks for the question. The people exercised for 30 mins in the first week, and this build up to 50 mins per session by week 6. I agree, you would struggle to do more than 90 minutes fasted, at a reasonable intensity.
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I disagree. I think you could do 50 or 90 minutes of intensive exercise just fine on an empty stomach.
A well fed human has about 3 days store of glycogen in their liver which will supply adequate glucose to the bloodstream.
So many people feel that if they are “hungry”, whatever that means objectively, they must eat. This is some sort of societal construct on the lines of “three square meals.”
Besides portion control, dieters would do well to practice delaying eating upon experiencing hunger. It’s not going to kill you.
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@Javier Gonzalez
Am I correct in my reading of the study that this applies only to sedentary men who are overweight or obese, and not to lean individuals? The overall message makes sense to me but would you expect to find something different with normal body-weight men?
2