The TRUTH About Empty Stomach Cardio

I never weight train on an empty stomach but find I have excellent cardio workouts when performed this way. I don’t think there is any harm eating a small protein based meal prior to high intensity cardio, but I feel eating a meal with carbs prior to low/moderate intensity cardio to be a bit of a waste of time.

Sue

I always have oatmeal with yoghurt and blueberries about an hour and a half before my workout. It gives me extra stamina to be able to actually do the workout!!

Joel,

I tried empty stomach workouts once (I don’t do as much “cardio” as weight training). I would always feel nauseaus and didn’t get a very good workout. I seldom got through all of my sets before I had to stop so I didn’t throw up in a public gym.

Now I usually eat 1-1 1/2 hours before my workout and they are MUCH better. I finish all of my sets and feel great coming out. I’ve had to keep increasing my weights that sometimes it’s tough to remember what weight I’m on that week. I suppose there could be worse problems ;)

Great advice, though. My mom and sister do empty stomach stuff, and I’m trying to get them off the habit. I think this article would be a great place to start. Thanks for the great tips, as always!

~DK

Hi Joel,

I hear what you’re saying but I have always done empty stomach cardio, either metabolic resistance or HIIT. I’m up at 5.25 am to start my work out at 5.45am and the thought of getting up 30 minutes earlier and eating just does not do it for me! If you feel your energy levels are okay doing your cardio (because it’s what you’re used to), is it ok to continue with this pattern, or are you actually saying there is a physiological disadvantage to not eating other than lower energy levels?

Great post – it’s amazing just how many of my buddies workout on an empty stomach.

Thanks for the heads up!

I find that I feel better with my workouts when I have something to eat even just a protein bar or toast with jam if I’m not hungry in the morning. I also last through the whole session of the routine. I certainly believe that having something to eat before a cardio or resistance training is the way to go.

Hi Joel, I work out 3 mornings a week getting up at 4:20 and hitting gym by 4:50 (takes 10 min to drive there). I’ve found that if I try to eat anything I am really nauseous during my workout. The chocolate whey protein is a very yucky flavor to have around when you are working really hard. I don’t notice any performance hit, but again, I’ve never really eaten before i work out so who knows? I have to be back home by 6am to get my family’s day going. and the thought of gettign up even earlier to eat something doesn’t sound good either. thoughts?

PS – question – does the cheat day have to be sandwiched between two night’s sleep? or is it any 24 hour period and could be 6pm Friday to 6pm Saturday?? Thx!

Thank you for this article. I have done both and have been confused about what to eat before a workout. Lately, I have been eating a bowlful of berries & walnuts before a workout. Is this a sufficient before workout meal?

I totally agree wt u man. I’m gonna stop doing my cardio wt an empty stomach deffinetly

I am up at 0400 hrs in the morning I am unable to have breakfast this early. I hit the gym at 0500 hrs and train on an empty stomach. I do not feel week but tend to have enough energy to go through 1.30 to 2 hours of training. Is this going to effect me in the future. I do 1 hour cardio ( running 30 min and cross trainer (30min ) + 30 min to 1 hour weight training. I also need your recomendation for nutrition or suppliment I need. Take into account I had a triple by pass about 1 and a half year ago.

Hey Joel,
Interesting, the debate rages on! I’m wondering – if you get up early in the morning and don’t really have time to digest food for 30 minutes before starting, would it be acceptable (or even optimal) just to have 1/2 serve of Surge of similar prior to beginning?? (assuming of course, your stomach doesn’t mind training with that “empty” feeling which mine doesn’t).

Oh by the way I’m referring to a weights training session, not cardio. Thanks!

Ok. I guess what your saying makes sense. I’ll have my whey prior to my morning training both cardio and weights. Would bcaa’s do the trick as well? Lisa from Australia

on occasion i’ll get up early in the morning and drink a strong cup of coffe or black tea and then immediately drive to the gym 2 miles away and do cardio; sometimes continuous moderate and other times intense intervals. no weighlifting. i manage fine but i am very hungry after it , so i always bring a protein/carb shake with me and i consume it at the gym. i have read a lot of research over the years that says that fat loss is greater when cardio is done in the morning first thing with at least 200 mg. of caffeine. i don’t get it. are they lying? only once i saw a study that said the opposite. as a personal trainer i have been encouraging my clients to do so. now, i wonder if i’ve been wrong.

Thanks for your information on this. Your post is interesting as it goes against what I have been taught by my personal trainer. His gym professes that you should perform cardio (not weights) at least 2 hours after eating (not sooner) and you shouldn’t eat for at least an hour after a cardio workout (not weights). Co-incidentally, I have been working out for years in the early morning and then having breakfast about an hour after my workout, after my shower etc. and have not noticed any issues with lack of energy. So now I am confused!

I agree that eating – even a little something – in the morning is a more efficient way to work out. I have tried both ways and found I’m way more productive if I’ve had a bit to eat first.

I’ve always been one of those people who had a terrible time eating first thing in the morning. I’d rather have coffee… Now I have a few hard boiled eggs or a small bowl of raw oatmeal with milk with a wee bit of sugar or berries. Works great.

Here’s the situation, 2 months ago, I used to weigh 172 lbs, Been exercising and eating right.. 2 Months later, I did my weigh-in. It read 188 lbs.. I was shocked and sadden. I’ve been doing over 30,000 steps a day from power walking everyday outside, but I cannot seem to pass under 180 as of now. I’m trying to reach down to 150 lbs… Is there a way to break this plateau? Will muscle milk break the plateau? I may end up boosting my daily power walks to 75,000 steps a day, 6 days a week at seems.. Please respond, thanks.

Oh i totally agree that one has to eat before any kind of cardio… whether its morning or evening. I tend to work out in the evenings and i do need that burst of energy to have a really optimal work out… else its really useless spending the time at the gym cos you are not achieving anything.

Joel,
Thanks for the information. I ride my bike to work, and often do not eat at home before I leave. That would now explain why I am dying before I get to work on those days I don’t eat! I will now make sure to get up early enough to get at least a light meal in before I hit the road.

Thanks

Would be great if you could link to the available research – until then this post is as much a theory as empty-stomach-cardio is.

I was told that though you should not workout on an empty stomach, you should not work out right after eating either. Is this correct? And if it is, how long should you wait after eating a regular size meal? Because I work out at night. I don’t have time to work out in the mornings.

Hi Joel,

Thanks for the post. Actually, the one an only time i managed to have more of a six-pack, was when i did my cardio before breakfast, but i have to confess, it made me have a miserable start of the da every morning that i hit the gym. Now i gained some weight (hopefully muscle ) and try to get back to the abs -thing, but i don’t work out first thing in the morning, but seemingly keep on the same fat-percentage level…and leaves me a bit confused after reading your advice. (Either i do cardio after workout or extra on seperate days…
Peter from the Netherlands

I just started your program and am only on my second day! Obviously I can’t eat carbs this week so is it still ok when on a low carb week and what is the best thing I should eat! I do know if I have nothing my workout is rubbish! Any advice welcome!
Cheers Nicki

I’d like to see the studies, all the studies. Is it possible that whether one should eat or not depends on the type of cardio ones is doing? Anyways, when I exercise in the a.m., usually 5 to 5:30, I don’t eat first.

My sons will not run or work out when they have eaten because they don’t want to throw up. My son learned in training that if you ate before you worked out hard you would throw up your food. I try to have whey protein with some fruit but nothing really heavy. Usually if I am going to do cardio I can’t eat very much at all. But with resistant training it is easier for me to a little protein before and after a good work out.

When I played sport (Rugby with 45 min halves), I always felt that playing fasted felt a lot better…..until the second half :-(. So I did feel energy loss after a while and had to hydrate and carb up a bit at half time. But if I do ‘fasted’ morning cardio, it doesn’t last more than 15-20 min (HIIT or Tabatas) so I feel energetic and light and at the end when I am absolutely drained, I have a protein shake/meal and am rejuvenated. A lot of times, I also feel that when I do fasted cardio, I feel ‘hotter’ than usual throughout the day and especially hungry. But overall, I notice more a decrease in performance if I am dehydrated, than if I am hungry or that my stomach is empty. As far as lifting weights goes, If I eat, even a little before lifting weights, I have to wait at LEAST an hours or I’ll go to the gym feeling sluggish. In the past, I have tried MAKING myself get used to eating a half hour before a weight lifting session and found that I could only take protein shakes or risk feeling sick and slow. I also tried to drink a protein shake before morning cardio, and the sloshing in my stomach was too much to take. I believe that dehydration has a lot more to do with how performance is negatively affected by fasted morning cardio.

But if fasted morning cardio is worse, than why bother getting up early to do cardio (unless it only fits into your schedule that way)? If you wake up and eat/have a protein shake, it makes it almost like any other time of day (unless you’re arguing that eating after an 8 hour fast sleeping pre-workout as opposed to a 3-4 hour fast between meals is the defining factor). I think that now, after reading this article, I would be more apt to just do my cardio at the end of the day, if fasted morning cardio is not all that effective. That way, I don’t have to worry about the eating(weighing down of food in the belly)/sloshing problem (the slosh ofI a tasty protein shake while working out) because I will have already eaten, don’t have to wake up early, and I will have the same fat loss effects.

Am I understanding your contention? Are you still advocating morning cardo as the best for fat burning–just not fasted? Or are you more so pointing out that regardless of the time of day or length of a fast, that cardio is best done after having eaten for fat burning AND performance sake?

On a side not: I’m loving cheat your way thin–I’m starting week 3 and jeans are already a bit looser!!!!

I had been doing morning fasted cardio but not anymore! It makes TOTAL sense to eat a little first and maintain energy needed to sustain cardio rather than be a complete mess trying to just finish 20 minutes without passing out. Good advice, thanks so much for this post!!

I Agree and it makes 100% sense what your article states. The type of Cardio that I do fasted is more like a brisk walk for 30 minutes or so first thing in the morning. Definitely not high intensity and no weights involved. I would crash very quickly if I attempted to do much more while fasted. I also save fasting Cardio for plateaus or when I’m down to those last couple bits of fat.
Great article and thank you for sharing.

Finally! This makes great sense, I have become tired of hearing(reading) about working out w/o eating first it always seemed to me that that would make your body want to start fat even more. Thanks for the validation.

Hi Joel, I do 3 to 4 cardio sessions per week and 2 resistance training workouts in the morning, and a further 2 resistance training workouts in the evening. With the morning sessions I have found that both my concentration and performance is noticeably improved if I have a light protein based snack such as whey beforehand. However if I eat a larger carbohydrate based breakfast beforehand I feel sluggish and lazy unless I wait 2.5 to 3 hours prior to working out. Interestingly if I eat a carbohydrate breakfast before working out in the morning I feel compelled to eat significantly more during the day, and especially have difficulty avoiding sugar and processed carbs. Any thoughts?

I feel for you, all that hard work and not getting the results you hoped. It’s frustrating. Hang in there – maybe Joel’s cheat your way thin program will be that plateau breaker. That is my hope as well! Good luck to you.@Michael Powell -

Im 50/50 on this… i can see why lacking energy from food can lead to less energetic workouts but didnt our ancestors (cavemen) wake up to the prospect of having to hunt for food? ie. fasted state cardio. isn’t that how our bodies are designed function?

Both make sense to me. Personally i would struggle to eat upon waking and then train 30-60 minutes later… but have more energy and focus later in the day. So i guess its personal preference and what works best for you

What I heard was doing only cardio on empty stomach, e.g. jogging without breakfast first thing in the morning. I kind of felt slimmer at the waist line, though it may be psychological though. This article will reenforce the truth and I will stop upholding the “burning fat faster on empty stomach” theory eventually.

I never train weights on an empty stomach, but quite often I do my cardio on an empty stomach. I will have a glass of water with lemon juice (or green tea) when I wake and hit the bike.

Ive been training for about 3 years and i gotta say my training section never fales on an empty stomach. Day or night. But everybody is different.
Also the info is muchly appreciated. Thanx

I used to do cardio on an empty stomach back in the day several years ago. Now I always try to get a little something in my stomach before doing cardio. I currently do three weight training sessions per week and two cardio sessions. On my cardio days I generally get up around 5:00 and I’m at the gym by 5:45 or so. I don’t have a big meal, usually just a half or full scoop of whey protein with a serving of BCAA powder mixed in. I go from the gym straight to work where I will have a meal when I get to work between 7:30 and 8:00. So if I don’t get something in my stomach after I get up and before going to the gym I would be up for between 2 1/2 to 3 hours before eating anything which is way to long for me. I think my cardio sessions are better by eating a little bit before hand because I am not starving and feeling my stomach growl the whole time.

I like to do wieghts or cardio about 1hr to 1 1/2 hrs after a snack. Seem to have more energy,especially if I have some protein.

I am useless with out a meal inside me. I have seen it in running mags saying that at least one run a week should be done on an empty stomach. But if I tried I ended up walking home. I usually get to the gym at 10am so I always have a small snack, often sitting in the carpark. If I don’t I soon feel sick and have very heavy limbs.
So I am glad it is all nothing but a myth.

Joel, it makes sense to eat “something” to get yourself going. Don’t know about the supplements, or anything that would load you down, but say yoghurt with cottage cheese and fresh fruit what might qualify for a smoothie, If I understand the correct food values, its a low carb that provides a spurt of energy with some protein to provide some strength to last out the cardio. A way to prime the pump, as it were.

When reading this was just having black coffee, green tea and some water while preparing for some overnight fasted cardio! ha thanks for that

Great insight – I agree, doing workouts on an empty stomach is too distracting and hard. However, I find that having a stomach that is too full can also keep me from doing a good workout – especially when it comes to cardio workouts.

Hi Joel!

I see your point in recommending people to eat something before workout to improve their performance during workout – but I would not go as far as to recommend complex carbohydrates and protein as PRE-workout nutrition.

Why would you want to consume protein BEFORE a workout? The body does not have a higher protein turnover before workout, only afterwards, for regenerative reasons. Carbohydrates would be the right thing to ingest before a workout, but I recommend simple carbohydrates (fruit) instead of complex carbohydrates. They are a lot easier to digest and do not draw the power off the workout.

As for working out on empty stomach, I can absolutely and wholeheartedly recommend it (and thereby swim against the stream). I never feel better than on empty stomach, as my whole body is aggressive and tuned for energy output rather than occupied with digestion, which is the absolute opposite of what I’d like to achieve. Feeling nauseous is probably a symptom of change, but in the long run, working out on emtpy stomach works out just fine.

But this is a tough question between the high- and low-frequency-feeders. I admit being one of the latter and feel better doing so.

Regards,
Simon

@karen –
or you can eat a grannola bar. maybe a powerbar. thats what i do , and it seems to be ok.

Hi – what if I am on a low carb day – what must I eat?

hi joel, yep that’s what i read to, that cardio first thing when you get up is supposed to be good, well i tried it a couple of times and i just could barely get myself going, let alone keep myself going. i gave it few tries and it just was’nt for me and it didn’t work. i do better after i eat something and then let it digest and then go work out. thanks dennis

@Michael Powell –

Michael–to lose weight:
1. Start counting your calories–80% of results
2. Start resistance training (weights)–15% of results
3. stop the cardio LIE! (low intensity exercise). Do sprint training instead.

I have lost 80 pounds (yes-eighty) but realise it is mostly calories in that makes people fat.

I think it’s more psychological than of practical benefit to have a meal before working out early in the morning. The rise in blood sugar pumps your adrenaline up to think you have more energy. This positive mental response is important for intensity because a large part of it is mind-muscle connection. However, you body has plenty of stored glycogen to use to get through a workout. If you have a glass of water (and sure, have some whey), you should be set to go and have enough energy to get a cardio workout in

Sure, if you’re going to go heavy on the weights, have something to eat or else your body will go into a catabolic zone real fast. However, if you’re just doing cardio, you’ll find that your energy levels go up after a few minutes as your body starts mobilizing fat stores and tapping into glycogen…you just have to ‘wake’ your body up…

As for more energy during your workout…sure, you’ll have it. However, the extra calories beforehand will cancel out the extra calories you burn during your workout (unless, once again, you’re going for muscle work and growth…then eat before).

In the end, do what works best for you

I have trained for over three decades without eating prior, and never suffered any issues from doing so. Being the energy used is from the night prior I am able to push as hard and as long as needed, void of any detrimental effects.

I generally always train on an empty stomach. It just works for me, if I do eat something before a workout, I will give it half an hour or so before I do anything but it always repeats on me and is very unpleasant.

There is proven fact clinical research that proves empty stpmach cardio burns more fat. I have always dont cardio this way and it works.
“A study carried out at Kansas State University (Wilcox, Harford & Wedel Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise, 17:2, 1985), indicates that a kilogram of fat will be oxidized sooner when exercising in the fasted condition in the morning than when doing the same exercise in the afternoon. By measuring respiratory gas exchange, caloric expenditure, and carbohydrate and fatty acid metabolism, these researchers showed that the mass of fat burned during aerobic exercise amounts to 67% of the total energy expenditure achieved when the same exercise is done later in the day or in the fed state.”

Hi Joel, I usually do my HIIT – Empty Stomach. But your logic does sounds good, let me try it, will keep you posted of results.

Best Regards,

Sumeet