Workout on an empty stomach?

mpr755

I *am* trying to lose weight but would like to minimize muscle breakdown.

I've heard some say that working out first thing in the morning on an empty stomach forces your body to burn fat. I've heard others say that will actually burn muscle tissue and that you should definately have some carbs in your stomach to burn.

Anyone have definitive proof or experience?

Cipher

I've heard in order for this to be successful, you must maintain an aerobic state during your workout. (It should be a relatively low stress ride with your heart rate roughly 120 ~ 135 bpm).

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Lasalles

A good way to burn fat is to hit the road and do some long Ks regularly.Im going through the same thing now,and its bloody hard work.I normally have 1 piece of toast before a ride if its first thing in the morning and if its a long one take a museli bar or something similar and eat half way.

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2LAP

The key to weight loss is to eat less energy than you use. Use about 3500 calories more than you eat and you will lose roughly a pound of body fat.

Remembering this, riding on an empty stomache is a bad idea because it limits calorie use because...
1. reduced time to fatigue at any intensity.
2. reduced exercise intensity.
3. reduced recovery between sessions.

Factors 1 to 3 result in lower energy expendature in a single session or over a number of days. This is not the situation you want to encourage.

Lasalles advice is good because he is telling you to do a large volume of exercise (hence a large energy expendature) and by eating before and on the ride you will not fatigue.

Cipers advice isn't so correct. At low intensities the energy expendature is also low, at high intensities energy expendature is high. To maximise the energy expendature in any given session go as fast as you can for the whole session; if you exercise for 10 minutes you'll have to go very hard and if you exercise for many hours the intensity you can maintain will be quite low.

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mpr755

This makes sense, especially given that while my early season goal is to climb like a goat (hence the weight loss) my late season goal is to do my first century. Getting a lot of time in the saddle will pay off double.

Of course, here in New York, my riding will be of the indoor sort.

I have to admit I was hoping for some rapid weight loss ... not healthy, I know.

Cipher

I'll correct and re-state my position per his original post. Riding on an empty stomach first thing in the morning is not the optimal way to maximize the conversion of fat into energy. But if you were intent on doing so, I would still recommend a low intensity (65% of your VO2 max.) workout which one would not want to maintain for any length of time. (1/2 ~ 1 hr. tops).


A better approach, as others stated would be to eat something before you go out. (Whole grain toast, bagels, yogurt and maybe a cup of coffee etc).

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mpr755

I may actually put this into practice as anyway for the occasional morning recovery ride ... if that keeps keeps me from burning lean mass, then it's definately info I can use. :-)

limerickman

The equation to losing weight to is expend more energy than you consume : assuming of course that you want to lose weight.

However, the fact that you train on a relatively empty stomach doesn't mean that you will lose weight because you're expending
energy (food) that isn't there trough eating little or nothing before
your cycle.
It's not advisable to train without having sufficient fuel in the first place and it's recommended that you should eat within two hours
of doing a training session.
You should eat and digest your food before commencing a session.
What you need to do is try to measure your calorie intake on a daily basis - and then you've got to develop a training program whereby you can expend more energy than you consume on a daily basis.
In this controlled way, you will be able to lose weight.

Lasalles

Another bad thing about training on an empty stomach is you burn out faster.Ive done it before and apart from getting the really hungry feeling,i was also lightheaded and felt very flat.

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limerickman

your absolutely right about this :
(Like the Mr.T image !)

mpr755

Can't argue with that ... are there simple reliable ways to estimate calories burned per session?

2LAP

Affraid not! There are some other threads specficaly on this topic though. Might be worth you checking them out.

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ric_stern/RST

the only reliable ways to ascertain energy expenditure is either in the lab looking at calorimetry VO2, and/or looking at a power meter (as power x time = workdone)

ric

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Roadie_scum

Riding on an empty stomach can result in increased lipolysis at certain exercise intensities. This is different to the question of weight loss, but is relevant if you are doing base miles. 2LAP, factors 1-3 apply if you don't eat properly having started, and certainly the reduced intensity would be a concern if intensity was the goal of your session. BUT if you are doing purely aerobic work, it makes sense to not eat in the first hour of exercise, then eat a lot on an ongoing basis to make sure you don't get glycogen deplete. This can actually reduce the risk of glycogen depletion, because you the increased lipolysis means that you end up burning less glycogen for the session, despite not having replenished it in the first hour. Don't worry about any of this stuff though if you're primary goal is weight loss and YOU only have an hour or two a day to train...