should you exercies before you eat or after you eat

[Derp5150]

should you exercies before you eat or after you eat?

[Flatermuis]

read that totally wrong, so an edit: 

If you can, do it after you eat, so you have enough energy. It makes it more efficient. Though it depends on the kind of excercise too, I wouldn't eat before doing some very intense yoga for example. Also eat a bit after to help recovery.

[major310]

It depends, if you eat before, you will have energy to do it without food slowing you down. If you do it after all of the calories and protein will go to the targeted muscles you workout.

[Dominique]

If you are asking from the point of view of weight loss, it doesn’t matter much. See the "nutritional hierarchy of importance" at the very end of this article on nutrient timing.

In other words, there are no particular benefits (again, from a weight loss point of view) in exercising on an empty stomach (like, you would use energy stored in your fat cells as fuel, instead of the food you’ve just eaten).

If your exercising is going to be very demanding, you would want to eat something (primarily carbs, since they are your body’s preferred fuel for heavy work) beforehand, in order to get the most from it. If it’s a light activity like walking, eating beforehand is less important.

In the case of heavy resistance training (weight lifting), you would want to eat proteins after your workout. But you don’t have to do it right after (no matter what believers in the "metabolic window" myth say).

So in a nutshell, eat what you need to eat according to your goals whenever it is convenient for you. 

[USAF-Larry]

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@Derp5150 wrote:

should you exercies before you eat or after you eat?

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The simple answer is "Yes".  If you haven't eaten before you exercise, you will run out of energy and won't be able to maximize you exercise levels. After strenuous exercise, a low calorie snack feeds the muscles.

[tonyrosen]

Specifically, the only thing I watch out for in anything I eat "before" I work out are carbs. I don't want to eat many carbs within the workout window. I want my body to burn what it has stored. Otherwise, it doesn't matter 🙂

[Dominique]

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@tonyrosen wrote:

I don't want to eat many carbs within the workout window. I want my body to burn what it has stored.

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If you are eating at a 500 calories daily deficit, it doesn’t matter whether you eat your carbs during your "workout window" or outside of it: you will still lose some fat. Same if you are eating at a 500 calories surplus: you will gain some fat, regardless of when you eat your carbs. Energy balance prevails over nutrient timing.

OTOH, you will get the most out of your workout if you have enough carbs in your glycogen stores. Heavy exercise on empty stomach = sh*tty performance.

[lstromie]

Depends on what you are doing.  If I am doing exercises where I am going to end up on my stomach, I prefer less food and not drinking right beforehand because I feel nauseous otherwise.  I usually like to eat a half hour before a workout so things swishing around my stomach have time to settle.

[tonyrosen]

Not disagreeing. Of course, I've also been seen eating in the middle of a workout 🙂

[Stinkyfish97]

I personally cannot eat before a workout. I went to the gym after eating just recently and started have bad stomach cramps, I had to stop my routine. I could see where eating give you a boost to energy to help you work out longer and possibly harder. I am usually not hungry just after a workout, at least not for about an hour. 

Since I do my lifting before cardio eating during workout would not make much sense either. If I already get stomach cramps from eating well before a workout, especially the cardio, no need to cause further discomfort by eating before jumping on a treadmill.