Breaking Down Breakfast Timing
Breakfast is said to be the most important meal of the day so shouldn’t that settle the debate of whether or not to work out before or after breakfast. Not necessarily as working out before or after breakfast, each has its benefits. The best time to workout is fully dependent on the goals in mind and pattern of eating one can commit to.
First, decide which is best for you: to do this you must determine your goals. Eating breakfast before a workout would be considered a traditional way of training and enhances muscle growth. Eating breakfast after a workout would be considered a new way of training and enhances fat loss.
As for the pattern of eating, eating breakfast after a workout would fall into fasted training. Fasted training often falls into the eating pattern of intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting has its benefits as an eating pattern — it’s not a diet as what you eat in that time frame has no restrictions — majorly because you’re only allowed to eat as much as you can in a specific time frame.
If you don’t have the self-control to wait to eat after a workout, perhaps intermittent fasting isn’t for you, that’s okay because there are plenty of other eating patterns like eating breakfast before a workout.
Eating Breakfast Before A Workout
Eating breakfast before a workout properly fuels the body to exercise but also to recover. Performance of a workout is often affected by what it’s fueled by, therefore eating a healthy breakfast or even light snack can make all the difference. Plus when you eat breakfast before a workout you have the potential to have more energy and less injury as your body won’t be fatigued.
Try to finish breakfast an hour before a workout to allow time for the food to digest and to be used as fuel. Usually, a well-rounded breakfast contains protein and carbs which is primarily what you want to use to fuel a good workout and promote muscle growth. Avoid fat as the fat will be slower to digest and may affect insulin levels.
Even if you eat breakfast and wait roughly three hours or more your body may return to a fasted state and you can workout while achieving some benefits of eating breakfast after a workout. If you prefer to workout with high intensity then always eat breakfast before. Also by eating before you are likely to not overeat after working out or get distracted during the workout.
If you don’t want to eat a big meal but still want to fuel up beforehand try to eat egg whites, yogurt, a bagel, or fresh fruit before a workout.
Eating Breakfast After A Workout
Eating breakfast after a workout is becoming increasingly popular for the various benefits it has. Working out on an empty stomach allows the body to rely on stored energy, glycogen and fat, to fuel the movement. This stored energy can be accessed because during sleep insulin levels lower which allows the body to use more fat sources during exercise.
People often do fasted cardio as it is said to improve fat burning, but if someone is not upkeeping on nutrition sometimes the body can be depleted from glycogen which can result in loss of muscle tissue being used for energy. Muscle being used as energy defeats the purpose of a workout which is why low-intensity workouts are good to do while fasted as it is less likely to trigger the body in to using the muscle.
Though many want to lose fat, keeping muscle should also be a priority. Proper food fuels the body during exercise but even more when it comes to recovering. You should always eat after a workout if you chose to not eat before. But after a workout breakfast shouldn’t be breakfast tacos or cereal, it should be something that’ll leave you feeling satisfied with carbs and protein as a major component to help prevent muscle breakdown, increase growth and recovery.
Perhaps try to eat oatmeal, an omelet, protein shake, or avocado toast after a workout.
Also, remember to focus on water intake regardless of when you eat breakfast. If you don’t consume H2O your metabolism won’t function properly which is important when burning fat or building muscle. Though working out and eating after you wake up has benefits, eating breakfast before working out does too — sometimes the early bird doesn’t always get the worm so don’t skip breakfast every time.
