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The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

well.blogs.nytimes.com

51–60 of 88 posts

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#51
post #19

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.

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

By your token we are constantly fasting, except in the couple of seconds where food is moving through our throat.

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#52
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?

Burpee's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burpee_(exercise)

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#53
post #37
post #34

While this is interesting research, I hope they would use their time to focus on how to get these benefits without the exercise part. It's pretty clear at this point that no matter what people will not exercise, no matter how many times we hear about how smart it is. Imagine the shear number of people that would help.

As hackermom said above, "exercise" doesn't have to be some boring gym workout; cycling or running to work is exercise too, and makes for a far more awesome commute (if you live within 10 miles of work).

Yes. Also I find short and intensive freeweight exercise to be much more bearable than endless cardio.

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#54
post #34

While this is interesting research, I hope they would use their time to focus on how to get these benefits without the exercise part. It's pretty clear at this point that no matter what people will not exercise, no matter how many times we hear about how smart it is. Imagine the shear number of people that would help.

If you forced those people to do exercise say 10 times, many of them would start to like it.

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#55
post #53
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As hackermom said above, "exercise" doesn't have to be some boring gym workout; cycling or running to work is exercise too, and makes for a far more awesome commute (if you live within 10 miles of work).

Yes. Also I find short and intensive freeweight exercise to be much more bearable than endless cardio.

But that doesn't burn as many calories does it?

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#56
post #45
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only as long as you need to wait to feel comfortable eating. With weight training I usually drink a post workout shake high in carbs and protein then within the hour eat a well rounded meal.

>>Only as long as you need to wait to feel comfortable eating. Could you please elaborate a little bit? It sounds a little vague to me.

Trying to eat right after very strenuous exercise can leave many people with a queasy feeling. If those same people wait 15-30 minutes prior to eating they can avoid the sick feeling.

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#57

I've dropped 20kg (44lb) since august, and I have found that eating well has a much much greater effect than exercise does. I've kept track daily of both weight and key tasks: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ArDlY2B14P1IdFA2NElD... It's pretty easy to see the exercise has died down to just enough to keep metabalism up, but the weight loss has been very steady. There's been no difference for me between pre-bre…

Interesting spreadsheet and congratulation on your dietary improvements!

Exercise doesn't really help you with losing weight, but it helps you with losing fat and/or gaining muscle.

In the last few months I've exercised a lot and ate a lot. I've gained around 7kg of mostly muscles.

I don't know whether losing weight is a useful goal at all. Aiming to lose body fat while keeping lean body weight (=muscles, bones, everything that isn't fat) seems much more sane to me.

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#58
post #47
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Only as long as you need to wait to feel comfortable eating. Could you please elaborate a little bit? It sounds a little vague to me.

Some people can eat something immediately after exercising, some can't. When I run in the morning I usually rest for a few minutes to cool down, take a shower and then have breakfast. But you can eat immediately after you finished exercising if you feel like it.

If the theory is right it's better to wait longer, as it takes time for your body to re-stock the glycogen reserves. So you are still burning fat after you finished exercising.

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#59
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?

If you're going to do bike riding why not use a real bike outside? I hate sitting on stationary bikes and will give up quickly. If you go a planned route on a real bike that requires much less (or zero) willpower to finish it. And it's much more fun too.

Re: The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

#60
post #46
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?

Try squats. They are simple, they roughly correspond in energy expenditure to not-so-fast running, they do not put too much blow on joints. Squats were used by Soviet marathon runners for training in winter, when it is too cold outside to run. They squatted for hours. One my squat is approximately 2.5 second. 5 minutes amounts to 120 squats. 30 minutes - 720. I think you'll appreciate the power of 720 squats. ;) Squa…

You can also squat with weights. I've started in April and am doing 120kg now. Consult `Starting Strength' for that.

Running isn't too bad either. Go barefoot or with something like Vibram FiveFingers if you care about your joints at all.

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