Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

well.blogs.nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 88 posts

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#11

Post by bumbledraven »

robchez wrote: post #8
sliverstorm wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'fast' is a terrible word, IMHO. Denying yourself food for a handful of hours is not the same as denying yourself food for several days, and yet both are considered fasting. How long were the fasts you took? I am curious because my lifts suffer when I have not eaten breakfast, and I'm pretty sure it's because of the exhausted feeling in my muscles, which I attribute to the lack of food.

denying yourself food for days is starving not fasting HaHa. I fast every day, 16-19 hrs at a time. I train completely for strength rather than endurance, so lift super heavy for 4-5. Max 2-3 sets. If you are going for muscle endurance (8reps+) then some food prior to training.

How close to your workout is your eating window? I was doing 23/1 intermittent fasting and my coach told me it would interfere with my strength training. I'm also training for strength/max lifts, not endurance.

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#13

Post by robchez »

bumbledraven wrote: post #11
robchez wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

denying yourself food for days is starving not fasting HaHa. I fast every day, 16-19 hrs at a time. I train completely for strength rather than endurance, so lift super heavy for 4-5. Max 2-3 sets. If you are going for muscle endurance (8reps+) then some food prior to training.

How close to your workout is your eating window? I was doing 23/1 intermittent fasting and my coach told me it would interfere with my strength training. I'm also training for strength/max lifts, not endurance.

Straight after. I will train, have a shower then eat. My window is generally 4-8 hours depending how full I get.

I have seen only improvement in my lifts since I started this regimen. Lost some serious bodyfat % whilst gained muscle.

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#14

Post by brandnewlow »

robchez wrote: post #2

This is hardly amazing to anyone who fasts regularly. I saw increases in all my major lifts when I train fasted and eat plenty of good fat (60% of total kcal). I would love to get a hold of the full study for a better look at it. Edit: Reading this article a bit closer, and taking to look at the study, it is clear that the author has some serious bias against the idea that a high-fat diet with fasted training will be…

Links to where I can read more about this "fast training" stuff? never heard of it.

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#15

Post by Evgeny »

brandnewlow wrote: post #14
robchez wrote: post #2

This is hardly amazing to anyone who fasts regularly. I saw increases in all my major lifts when I train fasted and eat plenty of good fat (60% of total kcal). I would love to get a hold of the full study for a better look at it. Edit: Reading this article a bit closer, and taking to look at the study, it is clear that the author has some serious bias against the idea that a high-fat diet with fasted training will be…

Links to where I can read more about this "fast training" stuff? never heard of it.

I have recently discovered http://www.leangains.com/ and it has some really good information (in my opinion).

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#16

Post by dave1619 »

robchez wrote: post #10
dave1619 wrote: post #9

Wow, this is amazing. I'd love to try it out, but I'm not sure what I can do in the morning before breakfast. Maybe stationary bicycle. Anybody exercising before breakfast? What kind of exercise are you doing?

jump on the stationary bike and go at a slow pace (60-65% max heartrate). I have seen this work wonders on countless people.

Sounds good. I bought the full article and I'm even more convinced about exercising before breakfast.

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#17

Post by jamesbritt »

dreaming wrote: post #12

Presumably I can get similar benefits for exercising just before dinner? Morning exercise is about the last thing I want to do...

"Morning exercise is about the last thing I want to do..."

It's almost the last thing I want to do. The last thing I want to do is exercise after I've started my day. I simply never do it.

Good to hear about eating after exercising, too, since I have to go running first thing when I get up. If I first have coffee or eat breakfast I lose all my "go running!" magic power due to the mysterious hypnotic beams emanating from my laptop.

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#18

Post by StavrosK »

I saw a comment on reddit the other day, which I don't remember exactly, but it said (paraphrasing):

"In the morning (when waking up after a night's sleep), your reserves are depleted so exercising before you eat will burn fat (no, you won't burn muscle)."

It seems to me that the commenter knew about this effect just fine.

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#19

Post by tomjen3 »

sliverstorm wrote: post #6
robchez wrote: post #2

This is hardly amazing to anyone who fasts regularly. I saw increases in all my major lifts when I train fasted and eat plenty of good fat (60% of total kcal). I would love to get a hold of the full study for a better look at it. Edit: Reading this article a bit closer, and taking to look at the study, it is clear that the author has some serious bias against the idea that a high-fat diet with fasted training will be…

'fast' is a terrible word, IMHO. Denying yourself food for a handful of hours is not the same as denying yourself food for several days, and yet both are considered fasting. How long were the fasts you took? I am curious because my lifts suffer when I have not eaten breakfast, and I'm pretty sure it's because of the exhausted feeling in my muscles, which I attribute to the lack of food.

By the same token we should not call running 5km running, since it is different from running a marathon.

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#20

Post by chime »

dave1619 wrote: post #9

Wow, this is amazing. I'd love to try it out, but I'm not sure what I can do in the morning before breakfast. Maybe stationary bicycle. Anybody exercising before breakfast? What kind of exercise are you doing?

Get a good elliptical. It will work out your entire body (unlike stationary bikes) and not hurt in case you have knee problems (like treadmills). Put the elliptical in front of TV if you like and do 30-45mins every other day. I was 193lbs in August. I'm 174lbs now. Though I'd say I'm more of an exception because I gain/lose weight really fast. Nevertheless, I highly recommend a good elliptical - both my wife and I love the one we got.
Post reply on HN