Discussion: Cardio without food?

[BangWhosNxt]

Just recently I had a friend tell me that he was going for runs in the morning before breakfast.
I had told him that it was harming him more than helping him. Then, just this morning I had the same discussion with my brother. He replied back with, "that's how we did it in the Army".

So I tried to explain to him that I thought that was more for training purposes rather than nutritional benefits. He went on to say that everything that he had to eat was a balanced meal and that people would reach their normal body weight thru these types of diets. Some would gain weight or lose weight depending on if they were fat or skinny.

Just wanted to get some feed back on what you guys thought of this. He seems to think that every type of military uses this routine.

 

[Rowan11088]

My (probably ignorant) two cents:

While running in the morning before eating without a doubt burns mostly fat and a fair amount of it, that's about all it accomplishes, plus it will catabolize muscle tissue. You won't be able to run nearly as far/fast as you could with some good carbs in you, so your cardio won't benefit as much. Cortisol levels will spike, so you'll be digesting your muscles until you eat. So unless your only, singular goal is weight loss, I wouldn't do it. Even if you're aiming to lose weight, doing better quality runs after eating will still burn tons of fat, plus preserve muscles for ****bolic purposes.

 

[BangWhosNxt]

I wouldn't call your "two cents" ignorant at all.

I'm thinking along those same lines as well.

I just wonder why the military, of all people, would have this type of work-out routine when logically thinking they would want their soldiers in optimal shape.

 

[noobloser]

I just wonder why the military, of all people, would have this type of work-out routine when logically thinking they would want their soldiers in optimal shape.

It's probably more of a way to get them out of bed and active as quickly as possible instead of being lazy and tired in the morning than it is to keep them in optimal shape.

My grandfather is a Captain in the Navy as a physician and he's always talking about crazy studies the AF does on their troops. Everything from diets/exercise to how long it takes a person's body to die after they've given up their will to live. I'm sure they have a great reason for it, even if we don't understand it.

 

[xynd]

run/walk in the morning without eating great for loosing weight =)

 

[Ian Coe]

It's probably more of a way to get them out of bed and active as quickly as possible instead of being lazy and tired in the morning than it is to keep them in optimal shape.

My grandfather is a Captain in the Navy as a physician and he's always talking about crazy studies the AF does on their troops. Everything from diets/exercise to how long it takes a person's body to die after they've given up their will to live. I'm sure they have a great reason for it, even if we don't understand it.

LOL

That worries me about how they would create the conditions for the lack of will to live study



I personally have added morning runs into my regime since christmas.

I take some coffee and about 15-25g of whey and do either sprints, LSD on the rower or a fast hard 3-5 miler.

I weigh more then I used to but my fitness is up (and I feel more awake all day...well...I have naps instead of going out at lunch anyway :redface.
That however is because I eat like a fat boy who hasn't eaten for a week when I get back.

While I do feel a lot more energetic if I run mid day/afternoon when I've eaten, that doesn't tie in well with if I want to train at night.

 

[mustang]

From what i've learned people who are trying to achieve lower body fat percentage usually run in the morning before meals as it is the best way to go straight to fat burning however consequently it may also burn a small amount of muscle as well which is not exactly desireable however to the body building types it works well.

 

[T_Money_]

The main reason they do that kinda stuff in the military is for "sport specific conditioning" if you will. When you're fighting a war, you won't be able to wake up, eat a good breakfast, stretch, warm up, and then go running for your life when the enemy attacks. Going from sleeping to hardcore work puts a ton of stress on the body so they want soldiers to get somewhat used to it so they don't make the mistakes that would be associated w/ said stress.

 

[Torka]

While running in the morning before eating without a doubt burns mostly fat and a fair amount of it, that's about all it accomplishes, plus it will catabolize muscle tissue.

In everyone or just people who already have a low body fat percentage?

I don't want to challenge any conventional wisdom here, but it just seems fucking retarded that a body with plenty of fat storage to draw on would go straight to eating muscle. Nothing I've ever seen has led me to believe the human ****bolism is that poorly designed.

 

[erco]

In everyone or just people who already have a low body fat percentage?

I don't want to challenge any conventional wisdom here, but it just seems fucking retarded that a body with plenty of fat storage to draw on would go straight to eating muscle. Nothing I've ever seen has led me to believe the human ****bolism is that poorly designed.

It's called cortisol.

Muscle is, ****bolically speaking, expensive to maintain. In times of stress (no food, moderate energy expenditure), your body will do it's best to take what it's got and make it last as long as possible. That means, it'll store energy as fat and use muscle to keep you going. Makes perfect sense if you think about it.

 

[mustang]

Well when you are running in the morning after just waking up your bodies glycogen levels are gone so when you are running your body will use whatever it has available for fuel... in higher percentage body fat people it will use up much much more fat than muscle but lower body fat percentage would be using more muscle than you would particularly like.

 

[JinKazama]

dont burn away your muscle

eat first

 

[T.J.T]

It's called cortisol.

Muscle is, ****bolically speaking, expensive to maintain. In times of stress (no food, moderate energy expenditure), your body will do it's best to take what it's got and make it last as long as possible. That means, it'll store energy as fat and use muscle to keep you going. Makes perfect sense if you think about it.

+1

sucks, but true.

Another reason why the "do not eat, or Eat less" diets were so bad, your body would store fat, and burn all your muscle. im sure you would lose weight, but you have the wrong "mass" left in your body, fat.

 

[sanyo89]

This has helped me a lot

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?t=366419

 

[Torka]

It's called cortisol.

Muscle is, ****bolically speaking, expensive to maintain. In times of stress (no food, moderate energy expenditure), your body will do it's best to take what it's got and make it last as long as possible. That means, it'll store energy as fat and use muscle to keep you going. Makes perfect sense if you think about it.

I believe you, but I think it's a damned stupid way for the body to operate. 12 hours without food is not starvation and is no cause for the body to get scared and start eating itself up.

 

[T_Money_]

I believe you, but I think it's a damned stupid way for the body to operate. 12 hours without food is not starvation and is no cause for the body to get scared and start eating itself up.

You're not going to see any significant "damage" to your hypertrophy unless you make this into a routine. One day isn't going to do shit. Now if you always do this, you will see losses. and for good reason, your body is pissed that it has to use all your muscles when they aren't getting fueled. So what would the logical and efficient thing be to do? Have less muscle of course. As far as your body is concerned, you're clearly not dying from the lion or whatever is chasing you to make you work so hard, so why not balance out the equation. It's not stupid at all.

 

[T_Money_]

I believe you, but I think it's a damned stupid way for the body to operate. 12 hours without food is not starvation and is no cause for the body to get scared and start eating itself up.

You're not going to see any significant "damage" to your hypertrophy unless you make this into a routine. One day isn't going to do shit. Now if you always do this, you will see losses. and for good reason, your body is pissed that it has to use all your muscles when they aren't getting fueled. So what would the logical and efficient thing be to do? Have less muscle of course. As far as your body is concerned, you're clearly not dying from the lion or whatever is chasing you to make you work so hard, so why not balance out the equation. It's not stupid at all.

 

[B-Ma$e]

I wouldn't call your "two cents" ignorant at all.

I'm thinking along those same lines as well.

I just wonder why the military, of all people, would have this type of work-out routine when logically thinking they would want their soldiers in optimal shape.

Probably a mental thing more than anything else. I know for me I hate running on an empty stomach, because I feel like I have no fuel. In terms of non-military people running to train, from what I've read running on a full or empty stomach doesn't make much of a difference. After all, what's more important than the calories you burn during the run is the boost in your ****bolism, which will allow you to burn more calories throughout the day. Given this, I've heard that it is good to run in the morning after breakfast to jump-start your ****bolism, and also to eat right after a run to prevent undesired muscular breakdown.

 

[OhTheHumanity]

In the army, we always do PT first thing in the morning, whether it was a rucksack march, circuit training, running, or putting in some rounds on the obstacle course. I personally prefer to run before eating because it eliminates the tendency to get a cramp in my side early into the run.

Army wise, it might just make sense to do it first thing in the morning so that the troops can get a shower/shave in right after and be fresh and clean for the day.

 

[Brent Schermerhorn]

The ONLY reason the military would do this is to get in a "PT" session before the work day starts so not to burn up "man-hours" doing things like exercising.
Would be such a nice world though if they had us in mind when they scheduled those types of things LOL