Q: Should I exercise on an empty stomach in the morning so I burn more fat?
A: Conventional wisdom would suggest that exercising on an empty stomach would promote fat burning and weight loss due the your muscle glycogen (sugar) stores being depleted in the night as you slept. However, a study at the University of Padua in Italy found the opposite: physical activity after a light meal was best for losing body fat. The test subjects performed 36 minutes of exercise either fasted or after a light meal. Metabolism and subsequent fat-burning was higher in the fed group during and 12 hours after the exercise. This reinforces our message that you shouldn’t use exercise as a means to burn fat, but use it as a stimulus to boost your metabolism so that you burn more fat while you are resting and recovering throughout the rest of the day! Try consuming a light meal 30-60 minutes before your next training session to help boost your metabolism.
