What is the benefit of exercise before breakfast?

It is an alternative for early risers or people who have to work later: they can exercise before breakfast. According to a study, this is supposed to burn excess fat remarkably quickly and effectively. But is that really true? Is exercise before breakfast advisable?

What the study found out

Actually, it sounds quite logical: after the nightly sleep phase, the carbohydrate reserves in the body are primarily used up. The physical exertion in the early morning finally leads to the remaining glycogen being used up. For the organism to continue to perform, the body has to fall back on the fat reserves. That’s exactly how it is, and that’s why the study caused a sensation worldwide.

The newest findings on exercise before breakfast

• Exercise before breakfast primarily mobilizes the free fatty acids in the muscles. The unloved fat reserves around the belly, hips, and legs, on the other hand, remain almost untouched.

• When losing weight, it is not a question of how much fat you burn, but how much energy you consume in total. The rule of thumb is: you can only lose weight if you consume more calories than you eat.

• Besides, performance is significantly lower when exercising on an empty stomach. Also, the risk of hypoglycemia increases. There is a risk of dizziness and coordination suffers.

• After an intense workout, hunger is often so great that you eat a lot. This ruins all efforts to lose weight.

It is more important to move at all

In other words: If you want to lose weight, you don’t have to get out of bed early in the morning. Much more critical, as the 2010 British study showed, is that you exercise regularly. It is infinitely more challenging to lose weight when you are not moving. However, even opponents do not want to completely demonize exercise before breakfast. Typical early risers who exercise several times a week can have a fasting session every seven to ten days. This trains the fat metabolism. However, if you are prone to hypoglycemia, you should eat an overripe banana and drink a glass of water or fruit juice spritzer beforehand. And if you want to know what the best breakfast is, you should take a look here.