My two cents worth... I exercise (cardio and lift) about an hour and a half after eating a small meal. I can't exercise on a full stomach, nor on a completely empty one without feeling ill. In cardio, after 10 minutes, the body reaches a 'steady state' and uses both glucose and fatty acids in the bloodstream for energy. It doesn't burn more fat than glucose or vice versa than you are programmed for. The number of calories you burn is determined by the length of time you do the cardio. Weight lifting itself doesn't burn a huge number of calories. The benefits of lifting are different than cardio. However, in both kinds of exercise, your metabolism is increased and you continue to burn calories at an accelerated rate for a while longer (some sources say 8 hours and others say 24 hours).
The absolute best time to workout is when you can.
I usually exercise in the morning, and I have to have breakfast before I exercise otherwise my BSL goes down. Its not a huge one (and I have a banana afterwords) but I can't exercise on an empty stomach.
If you can wait, great! If it means you won't do the exercise at all, ignore it. Its better to exercise after eating, than to not exercise at all.
Exercise to burn more fat instead of carbohydrate depends on the type of exercise you do instead of whether you eat right before you exercise or not. You will burn more fat doing low intensity cardio exercise and burn more carbohydrate doing higher intensity cardio exercise. So walking 3 miles instead of running 3 miles will burn more fat.
If you are only concerned with body fat percentage, the best way is to lift weight and increase lean muscle mass and will in turn decrease body fat.
northernbelle , 01-27-2006 07:30 PM
