# Struggling to train in morning/on an empty stomach??



## renton (Nov 27, 2005)

Hi all Im after some advice.

Currently out in afghan and trying to do a bit of training.

Im working 12midday to midnight 7 days a week so have been training after work at about 1 ish.

I have been concentrating on building up a base fitness for running so have been doing an interval program which gets me raising an then lowering the speed. At night I can do this ok, bit of a struggle but ok.

For the past couple of days Ive tried switching my workout to half 9 in the morning and training on an empty stomach as Ive read that its good for fat burning.

Well its not working at all... I can only get 20mins into my run and I have to give up as ive got nothing in the tank and I fell sick????

Is this somthing that will pass or am I better off training after work??

If it makes any difference due to the shift pattern I am only getting two meals a day and my last meal is around 7 at night !!

cheers

Steve


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## luke997 (Jul 26, 2011)

renton said:


> Hi all Im after some advice.
> 
> Currently out in afghan and trying to do a bit of training.
> 
> ...


It is difficult train hard in the morning, especially without meal
Your body can adapt, but it takes time & effort. 
Best time for hard workout is 2-6pm generally (few reasons for that, main is because pain threshold is highest during the day).

Mornings are good for low to medium intensity workouts (recovery/long/easy run).

If you must to do it however - have some breakfast first. 
Not having breakfast might slow down your metabolism for the day so you'll achieve opposite effect.

As for the fat burning:
Generally the higher intensity workout, the higher ratio of glucose:fat burned during the workout.
However since the workout is more intense, you might actually burn same/more fat than on the slower run, but you'll need your more glucose.
Another factor to consider is that after high intensity workout you'll metabolism will be slightly increased (you'll notice it by higher heart resting beat rate).

You have 2 main sources of glucose - meal and your energy stores, and if you train without food for so long, you only have access to the latter.
You store glucose in form of glycogen, mainly in liver (roughly 100-120g of it), which is easily available and some in muscles too.
You'll have stored glycogen in the liver if you have enough food on your last meal and haven't depleted it - of course once that's full you'll start to store surplus energy from meals in bodyfat.

Now you can see where the difficulty to train hard in the morning without meal comes from. What you can do about it:
1) Eat more complex carbohydrates on your last meal
2) Eat simple carbohydrates ~2h before the workout
3) Do your hard workout in the eveninig
4) Grind your teeth and force the body to adapt  it is still possible to do - - but it is tough, takes time to get used to and it's not advised until you know what you do and your medical condition allows it.
After all you don't want to collaps in the middle of the road during fast fartlek...

P.S. There is much more to what I've described above, so you can ask or do more research, but this should get you going in the right direction.


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## nick-a6 (Jun 9, 2007)

Only having two meals a day really isn't going to help in your fat loss , as your body with begin to store fat as it's not getting fed enough.
do you drink enough water as well?


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## luke997 (Jul 26, 2011)

nick-a6 said:


> Only having two meals a day really isn't going to help in your fat loss , as your body with begin to store fat as it's not getting fed enough.
> do you drink enough water as well?


It's not as simple as that.
Although it is better to have more frequent,smaller meals, you will not get fat by having 2 meals if you burn more than eat.
Body can store ca. 1500-2000 kcal in glycogen in liver and muscles,that's enough buffer to get by with 2 sensible meals.


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## renton (Nov 27, 2005)

thanks for all the replies, just finished work (its 1 oclock in the morning here) and ive just read them all.

my goals are the following.....

lose weight... a lot of it(more long term goal)

pass RAF fitness test(bleep test) this is my short term goal.

Ive been given a remeadial package which is mainly this interval running, its currently not at high speeds, roughly between 7.0kph and 12.5 kph but as im a fat knacker at 18 stone and not done much running since last year im struggling a bit!!!

Im going to stick with one training session a day after work which will be a 30 mins run/ x trainer sesion, either steady state or interval and then a weight session.

I can only manage to get to the mess twice a day due to time constraints, im eating at half 11 in the morning and then between 6 and 8 in the evening. would you suggest a snack around 10 at night to help with my workout??

currently drinking at least 3 -4 litres of water a day !

cheers for all the help!!

stve


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## luke997 (Jul 26, 2011)

renton said:


> Im going to stick with one training session a day after work which will be a 30 mins run/ x trainer sesion, either steady state or interval and then a weight session.
> 
> I can only manage to get to the mess twice a day due to time constraints, im eating at half 11 in the morning and then between 6 and 8 in the evening. would you suggest a snack around 10 at night to help with my workout??
> 
> ...


If you're 18 stones, definitely do weights, possibly splitting running days so that you don't run back to back, due to weight your body needs time to recover.
Don't do just hard sessions, throw in slower recovery runs so your body have rest and benefits from tougher workouts, all this will prevent injury.

As for the food - if your routine is 2 meals, you're happy with it and don't eat more than burn, stick to it, you won't get fat because of that.

Also remember, best way to capitalise after workouts, is to eat ca. within 20-40min after it, ~4:1 carbs to protein ratio preferably, the simpler the carbs the better.
This is because after workout its easiest for your muscles/liver to restore glycogen stores, and simple carbs are easiest to absorb (coffee additionally improves this process), while protein will help to rebuild fibres.

Again, this is to get you started, there is much more to all of this, feel free to ask about particular part and I will elaborate where I can.


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## renton (Nov 27, 2005)

at the moment i am also trying to cut out carbs from things like potatoes and bread and rice etc and have been eating more veg!!


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## luke997 (Jul 26, 2011)

renton said:


> at the moment i am also trying to cut out carbs from things like potatoes and bread and rice etc and have been eating more veg!!


Don't cut out carbs completely, they are important part of diet, necessary for certain processes in the body, mono before/after workout, poly otherwise (rice --> brown rice, bread --> wholemeal bread etc.). 
Only too much carbs (but same goes for everything really) is bad.

Better is to make sure that all in all you don't eat more than burn, have healthy stuff rather than junk and good proportions between fat/carbs/protein.

One more important thing the remember.

There are many ways to achieve your goals, the tricky part is to find one which works best for you, feels good, fun and you are happy about - that's best chance to succeed and change your lifestyle in the process.

This is much better than just following some regime/plan which will just feel like hard work, waiting to stop because you're tired and deep inside sick of it.

BTW - that's why often people fail when they go on diet to loose weight rather than change the lifestyle/eating habits and loose the weight as by-product. 
Diet subconsciously feels like restricting from something - which might eventually lead to giving up to the temptation. 
Changing lifestyle and choosing something because you want to - is much less likely to cause it.

Good luck!!!


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## horico (Jul 17, 2010)

I understand there have been some detailed replies so far so I'll keep mine simple. Sorry if this goes against the above comments. 

•Do not fear carbs (of any sort). Carbs do not make you fat or make you 'store fat'. Eating too much overall does that. 
•Dont obsess about protein + simple carbs after a workout - what matters is the daily total. You will not deplete glycogen sufficiently (unless you workout for hours on end) for this. 

For weight loss, burn more calories than you take in. The only variable effect is the faster the weight loss, the more lean tissue lost too (eg. muscle - but depends on your goals). 

HTH


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## McWullie (Nov 25, 2008)

Make friends with the cook house and ask them if they can make you a couple of boiled Eggs for through the day also take at least 3 bits of fruit. Have at least one of the eggs and some fruit 2 hours before your workout so you have the energy to keep going. If not you'll burn yourself out as your no getting enough food in. You do need to eat to loose weight just eat better things like lots of veg and pure carbs like Brown rice/pasta and potatoes.

Training wise as Luke says do weights but I would keep them low and do lots of reps. If you are in the RAF you should ask one of the PTI's for help with a routine he wil know what equipment is avalable and good running and training techniques are for the bleep test.

Good luck!!


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## traplin (Feb 22, 2012)

horico said:


> I understand there have been some detailed replies so far so I'll keep mine simple. Sorry if this goes against the above comments.
> 
> •Do not fear carbs (of any sort). Carbs do not make you fat or make you 'store fat'. Eating too much overall does that.
> •Dont obsess about protein + simple carbs after a workout - what matters is the daily total. You will not deplete glycogen sufficiently (unless you workout for hours on end) for this.
> ...


^^^THIS!!!^^^

You can't train if you have no fuel!!! Find what works for you as everyone is different. Fat increase / loss does not happen overnight so adjust things (training, eating habits etc) slightly and find your ideal approach. Don't do like so many do and stick to something for months on end just because its been recommended even though you aren't seeing any results! :thumb:


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## renton (Nov 27, 2005)

thanks for all the replies.

ive reverted back to training after work now and it seems fine, banged out a 5k run in just under 30 mins which is special by any means but its not bad for an 18 stone fat knacker like me!!

ive got a program from the raf pti's that i brought with me and was trying to stick to it but add some more weights.

only thing is now because of all that happened out here in bastion over the past few days they have closed the bloody gyms for the time being!!!


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