Understanding how your body uses energy during exercise can help you make that decision
When your body burns energy, it has two sources of fuel: fat stored as triglycerides in fat tissues or carbohydrates stored as glycogen in muscles and liver. If you work out on an empty stomach, the body will draw on its fat reserves, and burn that for energy. If you’ve eaten recently, the body will burn the glycogen.
The body burns more fat reserves during exercise on an empty stomach and is able to maintain steady blood sugar levels when compared to exercise on a full stomach.
It would seem that exercise on an empty stomach would lead to greater weight loss. However, studies that examined and compared weight loss results in women who exercised on an empty stomach and those who exercised after a meal saw little difference between the two.
If weight loss is your goal, eating before or after seems to make little difference. But what leads to better performance: eating before or after a workout?
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