Today I would like to talk about exercise. While the type of exercise, the intensity and duration is important with respect to weight loss, the time of the exercise is equally as important – if not more so.
Timing your workout can be crucial. There are specific times during the day during which your body burns fat most efficiently. It has to do with your eating cycle - or more accurately with your body’s digestive cycle.
The body burns much more fat when you exercise on a relatively empty stomach – contrary to many claims out there to the contrary. The longer you wait to exercise after a meal the more fat you will burn. Is that truth or myth?
A university researcher studied the effects of exercising on a full versus an empty stomach. A group of women participated in 2 exercise studies. In one they exercised twice before meals and in the other, after meals. Evidence showed that when the subjects exercised on an empty stomach (before meals), blood glucose levels were lower in the periods following meals and during the night, than the when they exercised on a full stomach (after meals).
The study suggested that exercising before meals can help to regulate blood glucose levels almost as well as 2 popular glucose-lowering drugs. (1)
To take it one step further, since this type of exercise method lowers blood glucose, lower amounts of glucose may translate to decreases in body fat. Remember excess glucose in the blood (from carbohydrate) may be stored as fat.
This study, it seems, supports the widely popular theory that the best time to exercise for fat loss, is on an empty stomach. A theory which many claim is only a myth.
Just something to think about.
John
Reference:
1. http://www.umich.edu/~urecord/0506/Nov21_05/06.shtml, “Exercise nearly as successful as drugs at lowering blood sugar”, retrieved 6 July 2006 from
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