better to eat before/after working out in the morning?

If you wake up and work out, is it better to eat before or after? I feel like if I eat before then I'm just burning the food I just ate and not stored fat in my body. Any help rocks.

If you work out in the morning, you really need to eat something....it has probably been more than 12 hours since your last meal so your blood sugar is really low. You need to fuel for your workout!! It doesn't take a lot of calories, maybe 100 or so, and you should also make sure you drink some water beforehand.

Your brain really does not like to have low blood sugar and it will burn things you don't want it to burn (like lean muscle mass and organ tissue, not stored fat, that's the last to go) if you don't give it some ready fuel.

Read Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook for some practical advice for fueling your active lifestyle....it's a great resource and full of great tips.

I echo all of abqunancyt's advice and will add just a little more.  I've heard from a lot of reliable athletic resources that if you work out in the morning, you need a little tiny something to eat to start to fuel up that metabolism as well as not burn muscle.  For me, I eat either a granola bar, piece of fruit, or a few bites of yogurt about 15 min. before I go run which seems to be perfect, and with no stomach cramps.  Then I can eat a little more after the run to keep my metabolism going and get the amount of food I need.