Should I exercise before or after I eat??

Question

I need to know because if I exercise I don't want to eat and then the exercise that I just did be worthless. If you answer please give an explanation.

Answer 1

Try both and see for yourself -
Many say that exercise AFTER eating causes cramps. . .

Answer 2

Swimming is a form of exercise as you know. So, take what you already know and apply it to exercise. Exercising on a full stomach will cause stomach distress, i.e., cramping or nausea. Neither is something you really want to achieve. When you consider the need to burn the calories and train the muscles into shape, you should think of doing your exercising in the morning, first thing, on an empty stomach. I know, you are thinking you will just die if you do that, but you will find that you get better, faster and continuing results from exercising early and eating later (keep it light, don't eat heavy and make yourself sick).

All of the reading I did suggested that if you exercise before eating, early in the day, your body will be burning the calories (fat) that it has stored, not burning what you have just eaten. Made sense to me, tried it and it worked for me. I'm 58, 5' 1", and weigh 104.

Good luck, don't get discouraged, and enjoy getting healthier day-by-day!! :)

Answer 3

I suggest exercising before and then waiting 40 minutes before eating a good well portioned carb/protein balanced meal. Surprisingly, this method doesn't increase your appetite, it actually supresses it. If you eat say a 1 cup serving of cereal with 1/2 cup skim milk, either a banana/apple/pear mixed in with plain yogurt (Activa plain is excellent) ... you just might find you are unable to finish it all. Honestly, I often don't finish all of what I eat after exercising...the water during and after the exercise session works to fill the hunger gap and thus your meal isn't huge.

Reason: Exercise, preferrably cardio and strengthening that gets the heart pumping, increases metabolism which in turn burns fat and tones muscle. The ideal mix of this is something that while you are doing it you are able to continue to talk with only a bit of windedness and your endurance should be sufficient to feel your heart pumping and be able to bring yourself to the burn stage (when your muscles begin to feel warm and have a burning sensation that isn't too uncomfortable and you can reach the stage where you have done what you need to and can't do one more) Having nothing but water for the 40 minute period after your exercise will continue to allow the metabolism to work and generate the results that the exercise is creating.

The meal at 40 minutes then fuels the body to continue working the metabolism rather than allowing it to slow down.

Snacking 2 hours later, then another small meal 2 hours after that etc, keeps your body working to burn fat and utilize the nutrition properly.

There is suggestion that the best time to exercise is between 4 and 5 pm as this is supposedly when your lungs are able to perform best, allowing for better oxygen flow through the blood, allowing for better breathing which allows for more stamina and stronger workout ability. I continue to do mine in the morning however usually shortly after waking. So far I have no reason to change that. Do what is best for you.

Good luck!

Answer 4

You should always exercise before eating. It makes no difference at what time you exercise, so long as you expend more calories when exercising than you take in when eating. If you burn 2000 calories daily and take in only 1900, you will lose weight. It really doesn't matter when you exercise. However, I say you should exercise before simply because exercising on a full stomach generally leads to nausea and vomiting, and other stomach complications, some which may have long-term effects if you constantly exercise after meals.

Answer 5

You can exercise during any of those times, but there are specific time periods when you should. You should exercise at least 30 minutes BEFORE you eat or 1 hour AFTER you eat. You need to have at least 30 minutes of rest pre-eating if you want to exercise before eating. But if you wanna work out after eating, then you should wait for 1 hour at least before exercising.

Also, if you work out BEFORE eating, you may eat a light snack to give you some energy during the activity.

Answer 6

Before

Answer 7

Exercise before eating. And then after eating exercise a little bit more. But dont move too much while exercising after eating.

Answer 8

Ok Katie, and everyone else, here is the deal - the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

You should wait two to three hours after eating a meal before you begin exercising.

If you are weight-training, it is good to consume a whey protein shake 30-45 minutes prior to your workout. The primary source of energy that your body uses during exercising is Branched Chair Amino Acids (BCAA)- whey protein has a high percentage of BCAA's.


Post Work out:
If your workout is 60 minutes long, wait 1/2 and hour before eating. If your workout is 1.25 hours or long, eat immediately after you finish your workout.

But, what should you eat? The objective to eating after your workout is to take advantage of the "sponge" effect of the muscles. After a workout your body will "over compensate" for the workout. You muscles will store more nutrients in the few hours after a workout than it could prior to your workout.

1/3 of your daily Caloric intake should be consumed during the 2.5 hours after your workout in the form of three small meals every 45 minutes. It is best to stay away from fat during this time because you want to consume foods that will digest quickly. You should be eating white rice, white pasta, white potatoes (simple carbs), but not fruit. Fruit does not have the same insulin effect as other simple carb and it will not replenish the muscles. You should also be eating a source of lean protein - lean meat, chicken, fish, milk, whey protein.



What I usually do is:
1> train for one to 1.5 hours
2> drink a whey protein shake with sugar in it right after training
3> make dinner 30-45 minutes later
4> drink a casien protien shake about one hour later. This also happens to be 30-60 minutes prior to going to bed. Casien and other slow-digesting proteins are great to consume prior to going to bed so your body uses the protein you consumed instead of tearing-up musle.

Answer 9

Before, definitely. You burn more fat on an empty stomach. That's why it's good to exercise first thing in the morning. Plus, for me, exercising makes me hungry and gives me an apetite! And besides, you'd probably get a cramp if you exercised after eating!

Answer 10

You want to eat before and after. About an hour before so you have the energy and after to replace the Nutrients that you lost while you were exercising

Answer 11

I've been wondering the same thing and experimenting a little too...I'm in the process of trying to lose weight and I'm eating before and after working out to see which one works better, but here's my theory...if you work out before you eat you won't want to eat as much when you're done working out because you'll be tired, thus suppressing your appetite. Unfortunately by doing so you also run the risk of munching snacks and eating later if you eat at the wrong time of day (especially at night; I've ate too early in the evening, worked out and wound up eating again late at night so be careful).

If you eat before you work out you can burn off those calories after you're done eating...the bad thing about working out after your done eating is you tend to be sluggish and not as energetic if you eat the wrong foods, like starches and junk food.

Personally I think I do better before I eat but that's a personal preference, just try a little of both and see which one you're more comfortable with...good luck!