Submitted by Stolenfromreddit in proED

There seems to be two methods of timing when it comes to exercising:

  1. Exercise while hungry/almost-hungry because it will make your body use fat since it is out of glycogen.

  2. Exercise a few hours after eating because your body will have more energy to exercise thus yielding better performance and ultimately more calories burned.

Which method do you do?

I always figured method 2 is better from a calories in vs calories out view. Assuming you eat the same amount of calories regardless of when you exercise, method 2 would burn more calories making a larger deficit than method 1.

Method 1, however, does make sense, but I hear there is a limit to how much fat can be converted to energy, and then the rest will be muscle.

I personally prefer to exercise 2-3 hours after lunch or an hour before dinner. I find that exercising lowers my appetite for about an hour after I'm done, so I'll eat less for dinner if I exercised directly before.

Your opinions/views, and when do you exercise?

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Cup_And_Saucer wrote

I usually exercise hungry because it serves as a reminder of why I'm working out, but also because then I know my body isnt cheating and burning food instead of fat which I'm 99.99% sure isn't a real thing.

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VengefulBodied wrote

I usually exercise right when I get home from work (around 12/1 pm). I don't eat breakfast, I drink water and monster whites and sometimes a diet Coke. I was getting up early and working out but I think the afternoon works better after I've been fasting because it prevents me from being hungry until night time. Also I hate working out when I've eaten, it makes me feel grosser. I think for me exercising on an empty stomach means that I'm forcing my body to burn off itself, and I think after you workout your metabolism stays higher so when I do eat later hopefully my body is processing it better.

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MHC wrote

I eat a light breakfast. Maybe I'll shake a sports drink.

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