To eat first, or to run first?

I run 30-50 minutes every morning. I have seen a lot of conflicting information regarding eating breakfast/eating before you run...so my question:

 Do I eat breakfast before I run? 

OR

Do I run on an empty stomach and eat when I get home? 

 

The conflict is that some information says that you must eat within one hour of waking up or your damaging your metabolism, and other information says that if you eat before you do cardio you won't be burning fat...only the food that you just ate.

By the time I get up, get ready,run,come home and shower...it could be anywhere from1.5 to 3 hours after I woke up. But I don't want to make my running ineffective by eating beforehand.

Can anyone offer any enlightening advice on this?

Thanks! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

run on an empty stomach in the morning

I think its all about doing what works best for you. If you feel good running on empty, go ahead. If you feel better running after breakfast, do that. Perhaps eat half your breaky first than finish it afterwards?

As for burning the food you just ate...don't worry about it.  You can't burn fat without carbs, they go hand in hand.  Having the sugar in your blood is a good thing that way you don't have to take the energy from protein.

 Eating after exercise is always more important than before, so if you had to chose, eat after to replenish yourself.  It would be too much of a pain to wake up 1-2 hours before you run in the morning anyways!

 Hmm, I used to think that doing any kind of workout before breakfast was just a recipe for disaster, until Dr. Lonnie Lowery convinced me otherwise with his 100 Workouts From Ripped City article. That's very low impact cardio though, you're not supposed to work hard enough to break a sweat or get winded.

 I suspect that the running you're talking about is more vigorous than what the doctor prescribes in his article, which I think would mean that you're better off having some kind of breakfast before the workout.

 Lowery also wrote The King of Meals  - an analysis of why breakfast is important; I think you'll find that article a useful read when making the tradeoff.

 I think that if you don't feel like you can get in a proper breakfast before your workout, you could benefit from a dilute sports drink beforehand; spiking your insulin just a little bit would prevent the otherwise catabolic effects of high-impact fasted cardio.

 Also, what Splash said - though Bodyscience wasn't impressed with the overall effects of pre-breakfast cardio compared to the potential side effects, so I think that in the long run you'd be better off having some sort of brekkie before you run.

I have no problem running on an empty stomach, I rather prefer it, BUT I'm worried that I'm doing serious damage to my metabolism by not eating until several hours after I wake up.

When I ran regularly (I no longer do because of bad knees), I always made sure I had at least an English muffin or small bowl of oatmeal or other carb before heading out.  I just felt better when I ate a little something before hand.  However, my running partner never ate, would actually get sick to her stomach if she did, and would eat when she got home.  She was, and is, still very lean and in great shape.  I was, and am, lean and in good shape (although I do have to work much harder at it now at age 47 than I did at age 27 when I ran all the time ).  The bottom line I think is to do what feels best to you.

If you are exercising regularly and feeding your body at regular intervals and not doing anything crazy in the diet department, I honestly don't think it will hurt your metabolism to wait until you come home to have breakfast if that feels better to you.  As for performance, I think you are better off eating a little something so your body isn't trying to go full speed on an empty tank.  Just my personal opinion.

I always wake up super hungry and I run for about as long as you do, so I eat first and then give myself a 30 minute break before running. It works for me, and I pretty much burn everything I ate so I can eat a bit more later.

I think you will have to find out what works best for you. Personally, I have a mug or two of tea and then set off. On the longer runs (10+ Miles) I might take a couple of Bananas with me to eat during the run. I do make sure to eat sun after finishing the run, though.

like everyone else said. eat something small about a half about before u run. I suggest a cereal bar and a few sips of water. I know personally that if I eat a lot before run, I get major cramps and the end product is a bad run. But knowing in the back of your head that you had some carbs makes you feel like you have more energy.

then eat again after the run, atleast a half hour after to get rib of the lactic acid that was built up in your legs. (high protein and high carbs)

To my understanding, if you don't have fuel to burn your body will use whatever your body currently stores as source of fuel energy. The first one get to be used up is typically glycogen from your muscles. Unless you replenish your body right after the workout, you would be doing some regression on your muscle.

Remember that fat is burn in the fire of carb. Most people I talk to didn't eat prior to morning exercise is because they don't have time to wait until the food digested. An easy way to get around it is by drinking protein shakes or energy drink. A little gulp of those goes a long way.

Personally, if I over ate the night before especially with lots of carbohydrate high food, I would be ok to get up and go in the morning for exercise. Otherwise, I would get winded quick and have less energy to really put in a 100% effort into my workout. The way I see it, if I have enough energy - be it from having to eat first before exercise - is more important. Why? I burn more calories if I can focus and do my exercise properly. I count the food I eat as part of breakfast in the morning, so I wont blow my calorie budget for the day. 

i can't run with very much on my stomach, so i prefer to eat after i run. plus, i've read lots that says you should re-fuel after you run to replenish your body. i know others who eat before they run, they are just very choosy about what they eat. if you feel that you must eat, try healthy lite snacks like yogurt or a half a bagel or maybe kashi cereal. i don't believe i am actually hurting my body by running without eating  - that's based on how my body feels when i'm doing it.

It all depends on your goal for the run.  If you want to be able to exercise at your highest potential, you will need carbs pre-loaded in your muscles (either from breakfast or dinner the night before).

Back when I was a collegiate cyclist, I would often do morning cycling workouts without eating beforehand.  About 70-90 minutes into the workout, I would start eating energy bars/gels.

The goal and impact of those workouts was to train my "fat engine", allowing my body to get used to burning stored fat (a much larger source of energy than stored carbs) at higher intensities, so that I could save the carbs for high-intensity efforts late in a race (keep in mind that races lasted 3 hours or more).

These workouts are not something that we did for very long.  It generally took about 6-10 days at the beginning of each season to get our bodies re-tuned to burn fat for the majority of our workouts.  However, keep in mind that we were elite athletes and also very grumpy during those workouts.

Now that I'm working out for fitness only, I always try to get at least 400 calories in pre-run, or I don't have an effective workout.  Focus on ingesting easily digestible stuff, like sports drinks, cereal, or energy bars, and you'll have the blood sugar kick you need to get the most from your workout. 

I would say do what works bet for you.  I run on empty in the morning.  Last year while training for a half marathon everyone told me I had to eat before the run.  I tried it and ended up with stomach pain, diarrhea, etc.  Not pretty!  For me running on empty works best.  But others find that toast and peanut butter or banana and peanut butter is what is needed before a run. 

So....I'm not ruining my metabolism if I wake up and go running, and don't eat anything til 2-3 hours after I wake up?

 

And I'm not NOT burning fat if I eat before hand? I guess it was my understanding that if you eat before hand, you'll just burn up what you just ate, not fat..

 Sorry...I just want to be very clear on all this, I'm very worried that I'm either messing with my metabolism, or that I'm not burning fat on my workouts.

My doctor, trainer and nutritionist all say that you should never do high intensity cardio on a totally empty stomach (i.e. when you first wake up).  I, too, run in the mornings.  So, I get up about 30 minutes before I'm scheduled to run, eat a slice of toast with jam, run, and then make sure I get about 200 calories (combination of carbs AND protein) within 45 minutes of finishing.

i dont eat before my mornung workout, but thats just me

your body is always going to burn carbs first (stored as glycogen) because it's the most readily available source of fuel. If I'm not mistaken, to burn fat, you have to burn your glycogen stores first -- and someone who knows more about fitness physiology please feel free to correct me here if I am wrong --. If you are running for fitness and not to attain competitive levels of performance, I personally would not worry too much about it and would do what feels best to my body. Calories in equals calories out equals a fit and healthy body in a nutshell. You can make yourself seriously nuts over this stuff if you let yourself worry about making everything perfect -- no criticism intended. If you are eating well, exercising regularly, and I am assuming you are not a competitive athlete which is a whole different animal, then I think you are fine.

Just what paularuck says above. That is to my understanding as well. Besides, how can your body use the food you just ate as energy if the food is being digested and absorbed by your body while you are in the middle of your workout? I don't think food digestion and absorption is that instant ;)

If you are ok with no food prior to your exercise, with no fainting or hunger pang that you are suppressing, then I guess it's ok. However, probably better if you DO eat something within 1 hour of your workout. When you sleep you practically fasting for that 6-8 hours of sleep. Your body was using the glycogen reserve while to zz to keep your body going. In the morning you probably won't have much glycogen left. A glass of milk or a banana post workout will surely not going to derail your goal.

dont stress about what youre burning.  you will burn what your body needs to burn to do the work, carbs, fat, protein, whatever.  but exercise increases your metabolism, meaning you will burn more fat throughout the day.  calories in and calories out is the basic deal of weight loss.  dont try to stay within the "fat burning zone" because you burn more calories by going faster and for longer.  it's just the percentage of what your body is burning for that time

 just do your workout how youre comfortable in doing it.  even if you dont eat before your run...exercise is better than no exercise!

I can't eat for at least an hour after eating. The reason: heartburn!!

So that may be a factor for you; if it is, you'll know it. :-(

(banana burps are the worse)