I am starting my diet and exercise routine tomorrow and I was planning on starting off with a 20 minute cycle in the morning and one in the evening and I was just wondering whether its best to have breakfast then cycle or cycle then breakfast? Then in the evening, have dinner then cycle or cycle then dinner?

Thanks

Trial and error.

I personally can't eat right before exercise, especially in the morning...it makes me sick as a dog. Other people, though - no problems at all. I also have big problems exercising after dinner - both in how it makes my stomach feel and in regards to motivational problems (it is hard for me to get myself to do ANYTHING except reading after dinner, possibly some light cleaning, but thats it).

You need to experiment to see what works for your body - if one way isn't working, try another!

I agree with mandalinn82 about experimenting. When I first started exercising, I didn't eat before I did aerobics. Now, however, I do weight lifting and lots of cardio, and I eat a bit before and after I work out. If I don't eat before, I don't have the stamina to make it through what ends up being almost two hours at the gym. My pre-workout meal consists of two egg whites stuffed with hummus and an olive (protein, carb, good fat) or 1/2 c nonfat cottage cheese, 1/2 c blueberries and a couple of walnuts. I always exercise in the morning so I don't know what I'd do if I had to exercise at night.

I usually try to exercise before I eat in the a.m. I get up around 5:15 a.m., have coffee, get two of the kids off to school. Then I have about 45mins to an hour for exercise. If I'm starving I might eat something like 1/2 banana just to shut my growling stomach up but I usually try to wait. I like to sit down and enjoy my breakfast if I can! If I have to work or have to wait till later, I try to wait an hour or so after I've eaten before I exercise. Although today, I walked to the dog like right after the last bite of lunch! There is some school of thought that if you exercise on an empty stomach you're buring calories ON your body vs. if you exercise after eating you are burning calories IN your body. Don't know if this is true or not but I exercise either way! Good luck!

Jo

Technically, this is true. But think of it this way. If you burn X amount of calories with no food in your stomach, you burn them initially from your fat...but then anything you eat (the stuff that is -in- your body) doesn't get burned. If you burn X amount of calories with food in your stomach, you burn them initially from the food, but then whatever was burned is subtracted from what you ate that day and your body eats some of your fat to make up the deficit, so the net result is the same...the same X amount of calories of fat gone.

for a 20 minute session you could probably go either way

I run in the mornings and I usually dont eat, although I do drink 1/2 c juice in 1.5 c water. But this morning I pumped (breastmilk) first and that leaves me ravenous so I had 1/3 banana, & a few almonds. then I had full breakfast when I got done. If I do eat I eat something very small and light, but I dont like to start hungry

For me in the morning it has more to do with how long I am awake before I go. I have to be out the door in the first 30 minutes after waking up or I need to eat first.

When I used to workout at night, I would do light snack, then workout, then dinner.

I think you have to experiment and find what works best for you but I have read articles on the fat-burning benefits of doing a fasted cardio first thing in the morning. That's why I try to do 5-6 times a week. It's true that what you eat later then doesn't get burned off by your cardio, but at least you're burning fat when you exercise rather than the food you just consumed. The calories in the food you eat during the day will get burned off because you're active and moving around. You could find one of the articles I'm refering to by googling the key words "time for fat burning." I hope this helps!
Pam