Episode 34: Should You Eat or Fast Before Exercise?
Cut The Fat Weight Loss Podcast
Ray Hinish And Blythe Wagner
4.7 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2011
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
To eat or not to eat before exercise...that is the question. Should we exercise on an empty stomach? Should we eat before exercise to provide the energy needed to get a good workout?
Those on the "exercise while fasted" side of the argument suggest that exercising while fasted allows you to burn fat as soon as you start exercising. They suggest that if you exercise after eating then the body will have to burn the calories from the food you recently consumed before it will be able to burn away the gut and butt.
The other group thinks that fasting before exercise is nonsense. They believe that having a snack shortly before exercise will provide the energy needed to have a meaningful and effective workout. They argue that a calorie is a calorie and it doesn't matter if it's eaten before exercise or three hours later.
Both arguments seem logical. So who's right?
Admittedly we are some time away from being able to answer this question definitively, and when all is said and done I imagine that the final answer will be, "It depends". With that said, a recent study does add support in favor of the "exercise while fasted" argument.
In this study researchers fed subjects a high calorie/high fat diet to induce insulin resistance and weight gain. The subjects were assigned to one of three groups:
* Group 1: Control Group - Did Not Exercise * Group 2: Fasted Group - Did not eat before or during exercise * Group 3: Carb Group - Fed Carbohydrates before and during exercise
At the end of the study, the researchers unveiled some interesting insights. The fasted exercise group did not gain significant weight during the course of the study despite consuming 30% more calories than they needed and a diet composed of 50% fat.
The control group gained 3 kgs (6.6 lbs) and the carbohydrate group gained 1.4 kgs (3.08 lbs). They all ate similar diets and burned similar numbers of calories.
What Does It All Mean?
As I have suggested in past posts, exercise should be judged by how
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey guys, it's Dr. Ray Highness, and I'd like to welcome you to the Cut The Fat Podcast. |
| 0:28.1 | Now, before I get started today, I did want to take a moment to thank you guys for your patience. |
| 0:32.1 | Because I know it's been a while since we got in here to podcast, and Blythe and I definitely plan on getting back together. |
| 0:38.1 | We're working out the bugs with some of the Skype podcasting software, and once it's all worked out, |
| 0:45.1 | and we can make sure that we bring you a good quality, sounding podcast, we will definitely get in there and start recording some new podcast for you guys. |
| 0:53.1 | Alright, but until then, you're stuck with me all by my loonsome. |
| 0:56.1 | So today, what I wanted to talk about is I want to answer the question, should you eat before exercise, or should you fast before exercise? |
| 1:06.1 | Because I know a lot of people have this question, which is better? |
| 1:11.1 | Well, you know, the camp is kind of split up into two groups, right? |
| 1:16.1 | We've got the one group that says exercising while fasted is the only way to fly. |
| 1:23.1 | And the reason he's actually quite logical, they say that if you're fasting, if you haven't eaten anything before you exercise, |
| 1:31.1 | then you allow your body to access the stored fat, rather than having to digest and absorb those calories, |
| 1:38.1 | and then burn through those calories that you just consumed before your body begins to access the gut and the butt fat, if you know what I mean. |
| 1:46.1 | So, you know, that argument makes good sense. |
| 1:49.1 | But then you've got the other group, and the other group thinks that fasting before exercise is total and utter nonsense. |
| 1:58.1 | They believe that if you fast before you exercise, you're not going to have the energy that you need to be able to kind of go out there and have a really good quality workout. |
| 2:08.1 | They believe, in fact, that having a snack shortly before exercise will provide the energy that you need to have a meaningful and effective workout. |
| 2:19.1 | They argue that, you know what, a calorie is a calorie, and it doesn't matter if it's eaten before exercise or three hours later. |
| 2:27.1 | You know, if you put the calories in your body, they're going to have to be burned at one point or another, doesn't matter when you consume them. |
| 2:35.1 | So, both arguments seem logical. They both seem to have kind of a quality stance about them. |
| 2:43.1 | Now, admittedly, we are some time away from being able to really answer this question definitively. |
| 2:50.1 | And when all is said and done, I imagine that the final answer will be, it depends. |
... |
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