Burn more Fat Doing Cardio on an empty stomach?


The Claim: Cardio on an empty stomach in the morning causes you to burn more fat than glycogen

Answer: FACTOID

After an overnight fast (sleeping) you will be burning a higher percentage of fact vs glycogen simply because you haven’t eaten in a while. By the time you wake up your body will have burned a significant amount of the glycogen stored in your liver and will be relying on an increasing amount of fat for fuel.

Doing cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach doesn’t make your body burn any more calories than it would have at any other point of the day. Also it doesn’t really change the amount of fat that would be used for that particular exercise.

The time of day is not what determines the fuel used for an activity, the intensity does.

For example, while you are asleep your body burns a high percentage of fat. On the other hand a sprint intervals require predominantly glycogen for fuel.

The time of day of your cardio workout is irrelevant to fat burning as your total calories in vs out will determine if you can reduce your fat stores.

John

Posted by johnbarban in cardio

6 Responses to “Burn more Fat Doing Cardio on an empty stomach?”

  1. adam cloet Says:

    Totally… only reason I still do it in morning is I get it out of the way, and I feel it “wakes” me up, gets the blood flowing.. kind of a natural energy booster.

  2. hulaggrl Says:

    So if i were to eat a banana for instance before i go to the gym to do cardio it would make no difference then if i were to do cardio on a empty stomach? So if i wanted to i could eat something small and be fine?

  3. johnbarban Says:

    hulagrrl,

    You can eat whatever you want whenever you want…if you’re goal is weight loss all that matters is that you’re consistently eating below your total calories burned for the day.

    JB

  4. Erik Ledin Says:

    Good post. I wonder if this myth will EVER die. It’s far too deeply ingrained as truth in our industry.

  5. johnbarban Says:

    Ledin,

    It’s never gonna go away for most people, but every now and then we might catch a few people with their eyes open who finally see the light.

    JB

  6. Cardio & ESE Says:

    [...] Entries9 burn more fat doing cardio on an empty stomach | JohnBarban.com Reply With Quote     + Reply to Thread « Stomach [...]

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