Exercising on an empty stomach may be able to burn fat faster but there are processes your body goes through to achieve this.
Exercising your body is good for your health and aids in weight loss. However, does exercising on an empty stomach burn more fat at a faster rate?
When you exercise after a period of fasting, your body falls back on some backup mechanisms to ensure your body has enough fuel to sustain you during your workout.
When exercising on an empty stomach, your body will first draw fuel from the sugar store. This is not stored sugar.
When the available sugar store has been used up, your body will turn its focus to stored fats or muscle protein. It’s not as scary as it sounds. Your stored fat will be turned into sugar, which helps fuel your workout. The same process happens to the protein taken from your muscles.
It is because of this process that the theory of burning more fat at a faster rate started. There are researches on healthy young men regarding this. One research found that stored fat are used faster during aerobic activities when done on an empty stomach. This is due to the reaction of the body towards low insulin levels that happens during a fasting period.
Another study found that exercising on an empty stomach produces changes your metabolism so that your body is able to use insulin more effectively. This could prevent or delay diabetes.
Yet there are no conclusions on whether exercising on an empty stomach can enable you to lose weight faster as studies on these are few.
There was a study that observed 19 young men who exercised during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan when people fast from sunrise to sunset. While everyone did lose weight but those who exercised more lost just slightly more weight and body fat.
William Kormos, the editor in chief of Harvard Men’s Health Watch suggest that one should not be thinking too much about working out on an empty and simply focus on your regular exercise routine.
