Eating and exercise

The subject of whether exercising on an empty stomach gives you better results compared to eating before exercise is a subject of great debate amongst health and fitness experts. One of the theories is that exercising on an empty stomach will help you to burn fat.

You will burn fat if you exercise on an empty stomach - especially if you’re exercising at a low fat burning intensity - but if the lack of food means you’re low on energy then you’re less likely to be able to exercise for as long a period. It’s also likely that the intensity will drop off half way through the session.

The danger is that if you’re exercising on an empty stomach you’re also burn muscle mass as you’re body will need this for extra fuel is you’re training at a high intensity on an empty stomach.

Burning muscle mass for an athlete is very detrimental to performance and will achieve no results in terms of improving fitness and strength.

However, if you’re doing an early 30 minute jog at medium to low intensity and have had a large meal of protein and carbohydrate the night before, it’s likely that your muscles have stored enough glycogen to see fuel your exercise.

It really comes down to what works best for you and what type of exercise you are doing. I would only recommend exercising on an empty stomach if you suffer from nausea first thing in the morning at the thought of eating food and you have a slow digestion system. Otherwise, you will get more out of having a banana and a handful of nuts before a workout, which will kick start your metabolism and give you enough fuel to have a productive and effective exercise session.

It depends how quickly you digest your food and what type of food you eat as to how long you should leave it between eating and exercising. If you have a small carbohydrate and protein snack, then you can probably get away with 30mins to an hour for digestion but if you have had a large meal then you need two hours minimum for the food to digest properly otherwise your blood will be in your stomach whilst exercising and not in your limbs where it’s needed, leaving you feeling heavy legged and sluggish.