Exercise Before Breakfast Can Help Maximize Our Weight Loss Efforts

A lack of physical activities and poor health caused by this factor are the things that we all suffer from. We spend hours sitting at the tables in front of our computers, watching TV, waiting for something or someone, riding a bus or a train, and so on. We spend much more time motionless than we do moving, that is why even young people of our times have plenty of serious health conditions. Being overweight is one of the most common of those, and many of us start paying attention to the lifestyle and the necessity to exercise only when those extra pounds start appearing. Along with controlling our calorie consumption and daily food intake, exercising is one of the principal approaches to more effective weight management. What most of us usually do is doing some indoor exercises (power training, weight lifting, yoga, indoor cardiovascular exercises on a treadmill, etc.) or outdoor physical activities (jogging, cycling, swimming, hiking, and so on).

Many experts argue and try to find an answer to the question, what timing can be the best for exercising and maximizing the efficiency of physical activities for weight loss and weight gain prevention. Some of the most known modern time’s nutritionists and health care scientists are convinced that it can be the best solution to exercise either in the late afternoon between 3 pm and 4 pm, or do our daily physical activities 3-4 hours before going to bed. These days, the findings of a related study were published saying that actually by doing our routine exercise before breakfast we can achieve positive results and say goodbye to our extra pounds much easier. Those are the conclusions of a scientific team from the University of Northumbria published in January 2012 in an online issue of the British Journal of Nutrition. It is reported that by exercising before eating breakfast, we can burn up to 20 per cent more fat compared to exercising in the evening or in the afternoon.

The main objective of the research was to analyze our body response on various types of physical exercises in various time of the day. For that, the researchers invited 12 healthy volunteers, who mainly focused their physical activities on using treadmill for walking and jogging. Some were asked to do exercises in the early morning before the breakfast, some were exercising in the afternoon, before or after lunch, and some were exercising in the evening. They all were given the same diet and the same type of treat (chocolate milk, given usually 1-1.5 hours after the workout) to recover after each training session. After that, the participants were given a paste meal, and they were specifically asked to consume as much pasta as they want to feel full. The preliminary analysis has shown that morning exercising has visibly more effectiveness comparing to exercising in the afternoon. Therefore, further practical experiments were focused on analyzing the effects of exercising in the morning, either before or after the breakfast.

After collecting enough of data and analyzing it, the scientists came to the conclusion that those participants who were asked to exercise before having breakfast actually managed to achieve better progress and benefits from increased fat burning (about 20 per cent). In addition, doing exercise before breakfast was not linked with any increased calorie consumption during breakfast (as the researchers expected it to be). At the same time, eating breakfast before exercising was associated with less exercise efficiency. According to Dr. Emma Stevenson, one of the study leaders and an expert at the University of Northumbria, the findings of her research team should be considered “very important in helping to provide practical guidelines relating to food intake to individuals who are exercising to maximize fat mass loss.” However, both the researchers and the study reviewers underline that the findings were based on the results received from too small group of participants, and a larger number of participants should be involved in order to come up with more  realistic and scientifically valid conclusions.

Author Info: Hi! My name is Carla and I am a 5th year medical student at HYMS. I am interested in alternative medicine and I have done months researching the topic of herbal medicine. Besides, I like interviewing people and learning more about their experiences with one or another type of herbal treatments. I am willing to contribute to this site with my knowledge, and I would be happy to help you out to the best of my ability with any specific questions or problems related to alternative medicine.

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