Feerlessfood's Blog

Many people have a mistaken belief that by waking up and exercising first thing in the morning on an empty stomach will make them burn “up to 50% more fat” than if they had eaten a light meal.  This is not true.  I used to believe this myself and toiled through horrible morning cardio sessions with nothing in my stomach and feeling useless.  In my research, speaking with dietitians, other personal trainers, and researching the subject, I have found that you may only really burn an extra 1-2 calories as hour.  Unfortunately, many misinformed or, honestly, bad, personal trainers and web sites will tell you this is the key for weight loss.  Here are a few reasons why exercising in this fasted state is not beneficial and in fact harmful:

• Exercise requires energy.  Energy comes from food. Your workout will be weak and if performance is your goal, you will not be functioning at your optimum and therefore have essentially just wasted the workout
• Your blood glucose is likely to drop faster than it would otherwise, resulting in a reduction in muscle function and so you won’t get good results.
• Your body will convert protein into energy for your muscles. And, since protein required for muscles production and maintenence, as you reduce the amount of protein by exercising, after the workout your muscles won’t be able to repair themselves well, and so you can get injured more easily.
• You run the risk of dehydration and from this, muscle cramps etc.
• As for lifting weights, weight training is one of the best ways to burn calories and consequently lose weight, because the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. So, despite what most people think, starving yourself is the least effective way to lose weight, especially if you want the results to last.
• You may be so starved after the workout that instead of having a regular healthy breakfast, you will eat way more than you had planned.  However, after a workout you do indeed need to get food as quickly as possible, but you want to get good food in the right ratios.  Plus, you don’t want to miss meals later in the day because you ate too much earlier.

This all being said, I discovered a great new meal for me to eat before morning workouts that won’t weigh me down too much or make me feel uncomfortable.  I whipped up a heaping 1/2 cup of oatmeal (not instant), a scoop of chocolate protein powder, and a banana.  Popped it in the microwave and it came out great!

Quick preworkout breakfast- Oatmeal, protein powder, banana

I also wanted to mention quickly the importance of rest days.  It’s important to take at least 1-2 a week and listen to your body when it tells you it needs one.  I used to either forgo this day, or have it strictly planned for a specific day like a Sunday.  Now I just listen to my body and when my body says it needs to rest, I let it. 

I usually have a hard time letting myself eat on these days, however, so I wanted to show a post of a healthy meal I made and ate.  And it didn’t kill me, nor had I gained 100 lbs. when I woke the next morning!

Leftover chicken and a sweet potato with an egg on it

I wanted to make sure I got some healthy fats in so I put an egg on my sweet potato!  It wasn’t bad, it tasted like….an egg on a sweet potato….

And here are some delicious ingredients I had fore a Candy Cane protein shake!

Candy Cane Protein shake ingredients