Hi, I am new here, and back to the gym. I was out of lifting for 2 years and gained a whole bunch of weight due to a knee injury. My question is when to eat in the morning, I get up at 5:00am, get to the gym at 8:30. Should I eat before or after my work-out? I have always had my protien shake after I got home. I read that if you eat before, you are just using the energy you eat before your work-out. Thanks.....Janis

250/227/170ish
SW CW GW

Another highly debatable topic. Most say cardio should be done first thing on an empty stomach. Problem for me is I always lift and do cardio, I finally just started to have something small prior to working out and think my workout has been better.
I'm sure there'll be other opinions.
Tammy

Hi Janis and welcome to LWL!

I'm with Tammy -- opinions are all over the place. Personally, I couldn't wait for something like 4 1/2 hours after I get up to eat (since you're probably not done until 9:30 or so?). I wouldn't have any energy to work out and I'd probably be ready to chew my own arm off. Plus a lot of what I've read talks about us wanting to keep our blood sugar levels fairly stable each day by eating at regular intervals and that seems like a pretty big gap between bedtime (or whenever you last eat) until 4 1/2 hours after you wake up.

I asked a trainer at my gym about this just yesterday -- how coincidental! -- and his opinion was if you're going to do cardio right away, then don't eat; otherwise, have something within a half hour of getting up. For what it's worth! It's probably going to come down to whatever works out best for you.

It is a looong time to eat, I agree. I have been having a very small protien shake 2 hours before I go. Then after doing the cardio, I am not hungry. But I was wondering if I should have a protien shake after the cardio and before lifting. Or just wait untill I am all done.

JANICE - Great for you getting back into the gym. I have also heard all kinds of "rules" about eating and lifting and whatever. I get up at 4:30, am at the gym at 5:30 for an hour and eat my breakfast (two eggs, WW toast, or cheese, sausage, whatever) at 7:00. I just can't eat and then work out and have never noticed a difference on days I follow this schedule or on the weekends when I eat breakfast and then hit the yoga workout about 90 minutes later. You have to find what works for you.

I'm not a morning person so I don't exercise in the morning but I eat before AND after my workout because if I don't eat before, then sometime during my workout I'll start feeling queasy and dizzy and yucky. If I don't eat after, then I'm starving.

I workout at various times of the day, so the empty stomach option is NOT an option. Like Nelie, the only times I've tried it, I became dizzy and naseous, not a good combo in the gym. I eat before and after workouts, and have occaisionally slurped a quick shake between lifting and cardio if I have to do them back to back.

Whatever works!

Mel

Yep, "whatever works" ... When I worked out at 5am I wouldn't eat till 7am when I came back... but if I work out later I definitely eat before and after, something light like oatmeal, an hour or so before going to workout whether it be weights or cardio...

I'm pretty much like SugarCube - I'm at the gym superearly in the AM (like try 4:15 or so, most weekdays) and have been working out on an empty stomach for years now with no ill effects. However, if I was working out later in the day, it'd probably be a whole different story...since I haven't 'done' protein shakes in a WHILE (just burnt out on them I suppose!) that's not an option for me at this point.

But hey, we're all different and we gotta do what works for US.

Personally I can't do ANY kind of exercise -- cardio or weights or anything -- without fuel. I don't like to eat less than 20 or 30 minutes beforehand, but I wouldn't make it past the first mile/set on a completely empty stomach. On the other hand, I know people who get queasy if they try to exercise within a few hours of eating. So, experiment and see what works best for you in terms of getting the most out of your workout without any ill effects.

The logic that you "shouldn't" have any food before working out in order to promote fat-burning never made sense to me, anyway. Technically that may be true -- that the ready fuel gets used before the stored fuel. However, it's your TOTAL calories in / calories out equation for the day that matters in weight loss. As long as you stay within your planned calorie level for the day, whether that food gets burned up sooner or later before fat is used to make up the difference doesn't matter.

Thanks for all your answers. I just wanted to know if there was some proven fact that eating before or after was better for you. Guess not. Thanks again, Janis