Last week a new client asked me a great question “When is the best time to workout?” He had read somewhere it’s best to workout first thing in the morning before you’ve eaten anything to burn the most amount of fat. I thought you’d appreciate the answer.

It is true that when you workout in the morning you burn more fat, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Early morning workouts do indeed use primarily fat as a fuel source, but it’s the fat in your blood stream not your adipose tissue (love handles). Your blood has plenty of fat floating around (eg. Cholesterol) at any given time. This floating blood fat doesn’t necessarily change into the jiggly bits around your belly or hips. Fat in your blood can be utilized as energy, transformed into essential hormones, and many other necessary body functions. What dictates if your body transforms the fat in your blood into fat in your butt or love handles is calories in versus calories out. If you burn more calories than you take in you’ll lose weight and you’ll use the fat in your blood for energy. If you take in more calories than you burn off than the extra blood fat will get stored in your adipose tissue (evil jiggly bits). It’s also true if you have extra carbs or protein in your blood it also gets stored as fat in all of your favorite trouble areas. Of course your metabolism and genetics play a role too, but that’s another conversation.

Personally I hate early morning workouts because I have absolutely no energy. I fatigue much more quickly and I just don’t have the same endurance. And that’s the major downside of exercising on a empty stomach. You have no energy (blood sugar/glucose) in your system and the fat in your bloodstream isn’t very efficient at supplying energy right away. You also run the possibility of getting hypoglycemia. That’s a technical way of saying low blood sugar which can lead to lightheadedness, nausea, vomiting, excessive sweating. You’ll turn white as a ghost and feel like complete crap. The lower energy can result in less total calories being burned because you’ll have less energy to workout intensely enough.

One thing I do like about early morning workouts, is that once it’s done I’m free for the rest of the day. A lot of things can sidetrack your workout when you exercise later in the day. So from a lifestyle standpoint it’s better to workout in the AM to guarantee you get in your workouts before you get wiped at work, the kids need to go to practice, etc. And a lot of our clients feel completely energized for the rest of the day with a workout first thing in the morning.

Mentally I’m most awake as soon as I wake up (which is why I’m emailing you at an ungodly hour in the morning), but physically I get the best strength workout a little later in the morning between 9-11AM a few hours after my breakfast. Then I’ll walk/run through the city (Yep I live in Philly) later in the evening for my cardio (who said you have to exercise all at once). But I’m a freak because I own a gym and I can sneak in a workout whenever I want. The most important thing isn’t when you workout it’s simply that you get in your workout. So stop overthinking it and just make sure to get in your workout.

Exercising later in the day when you’ve had something to eat burns primarily blood sugar/glucose or more commonly carbs. You’ll have more energy so you can workout more intensely and burn more calories in less time. So from a time efficiency standpoint it’s better to workout later in the day and some of you aren’t crazy like me and waking up at 4AM. I’m a big fan of hitting it hard and get back to work as quickly as possible so later workouts fit best for my lifestyle.

What matters most isn’t whether you use fat or blood sugars as a fuel source, but how many calories you burn in total and how many calories you take in. So it doesn’t matter if you run for 40 minutes and burn 400 calories in the morning or in the afternoon it’s total calories burned and how many you take in that matters

So use the whole burn more fat with early morning workouts with a grain of salt. Just get in your workout when it fits your busy life.

Author Bio: http://www.personaltrainerincherryhill.com Kevin Hensel is Cherry Hill’s Leading Fitness Expert. He has helped over 768 Cherry Hill, NJ residents achieve their health and fitness goals since 1996. You could be our next Marlton Personal Trainer success story. For other related article visit http://www.personaltrainerincherryhill.com/category/blog/lose-the-weight/

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
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