Can you run in the morning on an empty stomach? If you understand these 3 questions, you will understand
Updated on: 58-0-0 0:0:0

Even among the runners, it is the "morning runners" who are even more admirable.

There are many benefits of morning jogging, but there are also many controversies, especially around the issue of "morning jogging on an empty stomach", which can often cause a "fight".

Is a morning jog on an empty stomach the best way to lose weight? Can it also improve stamina? The answer on the Internet is confusing, who is right?

Below, let's take a look at how about morning jogging on an empty stomach from 3 aspects.

Is a morning jog on an empty stomach the best way to lose weight?

Running on an empty stomach does speed up fat burning! Many runners who want to lose weight also decide to go for a morning run on an empty stomach.

From a microscopic point of view, fat burning is divided into two processes: lipid breakdown and fat oxidation.

Researchers from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom conducted a study on fasting aerobic training. They divided the subjects into groups A and B, with group A receiving 1 hours of aerobic exercise on an empty stomach and group B receiving 0 hours of aerobic exercise after eating. In the end, participants in group A burned more fat than participants in group B. Researchers believe that when doing fasting aerobic training, the body does not have excess carbohydrates for energy supply, so more fat is burned to fuel the body.

The principle of fasting aerobic training is obvious: when fasting, the insulin level is relatively low, and due to the lack of carbohydrate intake, the body mobilizes more fat to provide the energy needed for exercise.

Therefore, it is true that running on an empty stomach can make fat burning more efficient, but it does not mean that running on an empty stomach is the best way to lose weight, and even if you run on an empty stomach every day, you may not necessarily be able to lose weight.

For what reason?

We have said that in order to lose weight, theoretically, it is necessary to ensure that you consume calories every day < consume calories. But very few people really pay attention to "heat".

▲ Photo via frequency.fitness

And "calories" can be digitized, what you eat, how many calories you eat, how many calories you consume during exercise, if you don't even have a basic concept, then weight loss is undoubtedly equivalent to "a blind man touching an elephant".

In other words, the amount of food does not equate to the calories you eat, but it is actually the calories that ultimately determine the changes and results of your body.

Although the longer you run, the more calories you burn, jogging on an empty stomach isn't the only option if you're just trying to lose fat.

In fact, as long as you can achieve the goal of burning more calories than insuming calories every day, then all exercise is fine.

Overall, running on an empty stomach does speed up fat burning! But it is only accelerated to a certain extent, and for those who have extreme weight loss needs, it can be tried appropriately.

And there are some people who blindly try to go for a morning jog on an empty stomach and only put themselves in a dangerous situation. For example, the following people are very discouraged from running on an empty stomach:

People with known cardiovascular disease, including cardiac, peripheral or cerebral vascular disease

People with known lung disease, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, interplasmic lung disease, or cystic fibrosis

Presence of a known surrogating disorder

People who experience shortness of breath, dizziness, or fainting symptoms at rest or light activity

People with orthopnea or paroxysmal dyspnea

Can a morning jog on an empty stomach improve endurance?

Many people feel that people are more likely to feel tired on an empty stomach, so running in this state will sharpen people's will and improve their endurance.

But this is not just the wishful thinking of these people.

On an empty stomach, glycogen deficiency will greatly limit your running performance. As we often joke about, if you don't have enough to eat, you don't have the strength to work.

The same goes for running, fasting affects the duration and intensity of your workouts, and only targeted, high-intensity, consistent training can improve your running performance. Although there are many high-level athletes nowadays, they will use fasting morning jogging as a training method.

Although this can help athletes learn to stay in a low glycogen state for longer, there is no substantial evidence that this kind of training is a good way to improve running endurance, and conversely, if you always run on an empty stomach, it can affect your health.

So if you really want to improve your running endurance, you might as well use a different approach to combine long-distance jogging exercises with interval training, as well as improve running efficiency and increase strength training, all of which can help you improve your running endurance.

Muscle loss caused by fasting morning jogging?

Let's not talk about whether this statement is correct or not.

In fact, some morning runners, they don't particularly care about the loss of muscles, because they just love to run, just want to run, as long as they run every day, they will be extremely happy, purely to enjoy the quiet of the morning and the tranquility of birds and flowers.

We're down to business now.

In order to find out whether running on an empty stomach will lead to muscle loss, we must first understand how muscle loss occurs.

The human body has three major nutrients, sugars (carbohydrates), fats, and proteins.

▲ Photo via muscleandperformance.com

The main function of sugar is to provide heat energy, and about 70% of the energy required by the human body is provided by sugar. In addition, sugar is also an important substance that makes up tissues and protects liver function.

In addition to providing calories to the human body, fat also plays a role in regulating physiological functions and protecting our internal organs.

Protein is the most important component of all cells and tissues in the human body, and participates in every process of cell life activities. As a result, our bodies don't consume a lot of protein unless it's a last resort.

In muscle, protein is also one of the most important components, which can account for 35%. Therefore, when the protein is broken down, the muscles naturally disappear with it. The cause of protein breakdown is usually due to insufficient caloric intake or calorie consumption from exercise. (But this is extremely difficult to happen)

When people are in an empty state, because after a night of consumption, by the morning, the body's glycogen reserves have been almost depleted, at this time, due to the lack of energy supply of sugar, in order to maintain the normal activity of the body, our body will consume fat and protein to provide the required energy, so it will also consume muscle.

There is also a theory that when we first wake up, our cortisol levels are at their peak, and if we don't eat breakfast, cortisol will only remain high, and running in this state can lead to muscle loss. Because the main role of cortisol is to break down proteins and inhibit protein synthesis.

This is not entirely true.

First of all, whether you have an empty stomach or not, long-term aerobic exercise will consume muscle, but this kind of muscle consumption is not as exaggerated as everyone thinks.

Due to the operating mechanism of the three major energy supply systems of the human body (phosphogen system, glycolysis system, aerobic oxidation system) and the fact that muscle is the most dense cell, our body does not use muscle cells as the main source of energy, and the part of muscle consumed only reduces some of the energy burden.

In addition, there is another concept to mention here, which is the concentration of blood glucose in the blood (blood sugar can simply be understood as glucose in the blood).

It is often thought that running on an empty stomach carries the risk of hypoglycemia. Once the blood sugar is low, the human body will do whatever it takes to maintain the blood sugar concentration to ensure that the brain, nervous system, heart and other important organs carry out basic life activities. At this time, our body will speed up the breakdown of muscle and fat to save blood sugar. Among them, Lipolysis Divination Majority, and when you are hungry for a long time, fat will account for a large proportion of energy at this time.

But this so-called low does not mean that it is unsafe, in fact, sugar is stored in the muscles and liver in the form of glycogen, which mainly maintains a relatively constant blood sugar level, and the main role of muscle glycogen is to provide energy during physical exercise. At night, our insulin levels and liver glycogen levels drop, but we still have glycogen in our muscles when we wake up in the morning.

Most morning runners don't run for more than an hour, so only long periods of aerobic exercise break down muscles to fuel the body, such as marathons, long distance cycling, swimming, etc. So, most of the time, your run is over before the risk of muscle loss increases.

To sum up, for friends who want to run to lose weight, if you just go out for a 5-0 km run and will not feel uncomfortable, then it is okay to run in the morning on an empty stomach. However, for those with hypoglycemia or cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, it is still recommended to eat some food before going out for a run.

Well, having said so much, it can be seen that morning jogging on an empty stomach still varies from person to person, and everyone must not run blindly according to their own reality.

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