If you ask someone whether exercising on empty stomach is good or bad, you would get as many different replies as many people you question. Some say it’s bad, others say it’s good. Some leave it to a person’s body type while others say it is your own choice and makes no difference.
For ideal body measurements for women, many women have worked hard even on an empty stomach. If you ask me whether exercising on empty stomach is good or bad, I would say: it’s bad! But what is the base of my judgment? Read on.
What Happens During Exercise?
You would be in a better position to judge whether exercising on empty stomach burns more fats or not if you first thoroughly understand what actually goes on inside your body when you are exercising.
Exercising is a state of increased activity level for your muscles, and more activity means more energy need. The source of this energy is adenosine triphosphate (ATP) which comes mainly from glucose.
The source of this glucose is carbohydrates which we take in our food. If carbohydrates are not been supplied, as in the case of exercising on empty stomach, the body gets its ATP requirement fulfilled from protein and fats. Without this supply, the body gets exhausted very soon.
Does Exercising on Empty Stomach Maximize fat burning?
In the light of the above discussion, the answer would be an obvious yes! When your body is not getting the required fats from food, it would eventually the fats and protein of your body. So exercising on empty stomach does burn more fats.
Is Exercising on Empty Stomach Good or Bad?
The thing which is worth worrying about is that exercising on empty stomach does not lead to the burning of fats alone. It also burns your body protein, which generally is not our intention because it leads to a substantial reduction in our muscles’ mass.
Most of us want to keep our muscles in good shape while burning extra fats. Especially when you exercise in the morning with an empty stomach, you are even more vulnerable to reduction in muscles’ mass because it is a time of higher carbolic activity which leads to the break down of proteins into simpler amino acids, thus losing a lot of muscles’ mass which has a bad effect on health.
What to Do Then?
If you are not concerned about muscle loss and only value weight loss, then exercising on empty stomach is not bad for you. However, if you need to keep your muscles growing while losing some fats, you should eat something before exercising. However, overheating must be avoided before exercise. Moreover, if you are a keen bodybuilder, exercising on empty stomach is a sin for you.
In short, the experts and books that say that exercising on empty stomach helps you in weight loss are right. But they are not telling you the whole thing that you will also lose your muscles alongside. All your energy gets quickly drained out when there are no carbohydrates to utilize during exercise because they are a much quicker source of ATP than proteins.
One more thing that you need to know is that if you are not used to exercising on empty stomach, you may face a risk of acidity as has been reported by some people. So you are in a better position to judge what is better for you. My personal opinion is that whenever you decide to do something with your body, only do it after complete research as to what can be its side effects.
