Table of contents:
- Morning exercise before breakfast can burn more fat
- Not everyone can exercise before breakfast
- Tips for safe exercise in the morning before breakfast
Breakfast and morning exercise are good activities to maintain health. But what often becomes a dilemma is: if our exercise schedule is in the morning, do we have to have breakfast first or exercise first?
Breakfast is indeed important to meet nutritional intake after the body does not eat food while sleeping. Then, to exercise, the body also needs calories to produce energy. However, if you exercise after breakfast, your body will have more calories to burn, but it takes time to digest food completely, so exercising immediately after eating is also not recommended.
This is why some experts recommend exercising in the morning before breakfast and on an empty stomach.
Morning exercise before breakfast can burn more fat
Several studies have shown that exercising before breakfast is safe to do. One of them is a study by Gonzalez in 2013 which showed that exercising before breakfast can burn 20% more body fat.
If you want to burn fat, your body must use food reserves in the form of fat in the body, not from the food we consume. Because basically, the body stores energy reserves in the form of fat, even when we haven't eaten.
By exercising before breakfast, more energy is burned because it is obtained from food reserves that are already in the body, from the intake you ate before.
In addition, the researchers also explained that exercising in the morning before breakfast will not make us want to eat more or starve throughout the day. In fact, this will make the morning exercise session more optimal.
When we exercise before eating, there is a change in the performance of the insulin hormone and growth hormone. By exercising before breakfast, we will help the body to adjust the production of the hormone insulin. After exercising and eating, the hormone insulin will work more sensitive. Insulin also helps absorb nutrients from food better and distribute them to the muscles and liver.
Growth hormone performance is also better when we exercise in the morning and haven't had breakfast. Growth hormone helps build muscle tissue, burn fat, and improve bone health and physical endurance. However, this effect will only be optimal if we have sufficient sleep at night.
Not everyone can exercise before breakfast
The fewer calories that are in your digestive system, the more fat is burned during exercise, because the body takes food reserves from the body. This is why if you want to burn fat and lose weight, morning exercise should be done before eating.
However, according to Freguson, CEO of Diet Free Life, as reported by HuffingtonPost, if your goal of exercising is to increase physical fitness, strength, and speed, then exercising without food intake will actually make it less effective, because the body still needs calories to be metabolized.
In diabetics, exercise before eating is also not recommended because diabetics often experience low blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia). So, if you have diabetes, it is advisable to have breakfast or eat a little snack before exercising.
Tips for safe exercise in the morning before breakfast
Both exercise and breakfast are habit-driven activities, so this method may not suit everyone. However, if you want to try exercising on an empty stomach, here are some tips that can be followed:
- Prepare yourself from the night before- Wake up in the morning is influenced by your biological clock and sleep time, so if you want to exercise in the morning, make sure you get enough sleep at night so that your body is ready for physical activity in the morning.
- Do sports that suit you - the type of exercise you can do as you wish or what you usually do. If you're just starting out, try moderate-intensity exercise such as a morning walk or jog.
- Get enough water - drink about half to one liter of mineral water or other sports drinks before and after exercise. It is recommended that you meet this fluid requirement 2 or 3 hours before exercise.
- Stop when you are tired and eat whenever you like - if you feel tired and feel a need for food or feel hungry, stop exercising to prevent a decrease in muscle mass.
- Get enough nutrition after exercise - this needs to be done within a maximum period of 45 minutes after you exercise, whether you have breakfast or not. But don't just consume carbohydrates, because it is protein consumption that must be increased.
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