Beautiful Virgin Islands

Sunday, Sep 21, 2025

Exercising before breakfast burns more fat, study says

Skipping the meal before exercise also made the men's muscles more responsive to insulin, which controls high blood sugars, thus reducing the risk for diabetes and heart disease.
Should you eat before or after exercise in the morning? The debate has raged for years.

The eat-first camp says food before exercise boosts blood sugars, giving the body fuel to increase the intensity and length of a workout. It also keeps you from being fatigued or dizzy.

The eat-after camp says you burn more fat if you fast before exercise.

A small UK study published Friday supports the latter point of view: In 30 obese or overweight men, those who exercised before breakfast burned twice the fat as men who ate breakfast before they worked out.

That's because exercising with no fuel forces the body to turn to stored carbs, and when those are quickly gone, to fat cells.

Unfortunately the eat-after group didn't lose more weight than the eat-before group during the six weeks of the study, but it did have "profound and positive" effects on the health of the group that fasted, researchers said.

Skipping the meal before exercise made the men's muscles more responsive to insulin, which controls high blood sugars, thus reducing the risk for diabetes and heart disease.

"The group who exercised before breakfast increased their ability to respond to insulin, which is all the more remarkable given that both exercise groups lost a similar amount of weight and both gained a similar amount of fitness," said exercise physiologist Javier Gonzalez, an associate professor in the department for health at the University of Bath, in a statement.

"The only difference was the timing of the food intake," Gonzalez added.

A 2017 study from the University of Bath, also co-authored by Gonzalez, looked at 10 men and found the same results -- because of lower blood sugar levels after fasting, the men burned more fat.

However, this time the men burned more calories if they ate breakfast first.

A 2010 study found similar results, this time in a group of 28 healthy, physically active men. One group did no exercise. Two other groups were put through grueling morning exercise of running and cycling four times a week; one group ate before exercise and the other after.

It's likely no surprise that the group who didn't exercise gained weight. But contrary to the 2017 study the group who ate breakfast before exercise also gained weight. It was the group who exercised on water and an empty stomach that maintained their weight, lost fat, and kept their blood sugars in good shape.

What's the takeaway? Obviously science needs to look at this a lot harder, with much larger study groups. But based on the science in these studies, it does seem exercising before eating may be good for your overall health, even if it doesn't always whittle your waistline.

If you do choose to work out on an empty stomach, keep these tips from the US Figure Skating Association in mind to keep your muscle tissue from breaking down:

Use the four R's of recovery: rehydrate, replenish, repair and reinforce.

Do that by drinking water or sports drinks.

Within 15 to 30 minutes, eat a meal with a 4:1 carb to high quality protein ratio.

Some good choices are fruit and low-fat Greek yogurt, trail mix, or a banana with peanut butter.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
EU Set to Bar Big Tech from New Financial Data Access Scheme
China Bans Livestreaming and AI in Religion Amid Crackdown on Shaolin Temple Scandal
Documents Reveal Mandelson Failed to Declare Epstein-Funded Flights as MP in 2003
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Harris Memoir Sparks Backlash from Democrats for Blunt Critiques in ‘107 Days’
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Japan’s ‘Death-Tainted’ Homes Gain Appeal as Prices Soar in Tokyo
Massive Attack Withdraws from Spotify Over Daniel Ek’s €600M Defence-AI Investment
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders Third Lethal Strike on Drug-Trafficking Vessel as U.S. Expands Maritime Counter-Narcotics Operations
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
Why Google Search Is Fading and AI Is Taking Its Place
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Federal Judge Dismisses Trump’s Fifteen-Billion-Dollar Suit Against New York Times, Orders Refile
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
DeepSeek Claims R1 Model Trained for only $294,000, Sparking Global Debate Over China’s AI Capabilities
SoftBank Vision Fund to Cut Nearly Twenty Percent of Staff in Bold AI Strategy Shift
Intel’s Next-Gen Manufacturing Gets a Lifeline from Nvidia’s Strategic $5B Deal
Erika Kirk Elected CEO of Turning Point USA After Husband Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
×