Eating breakfast Before Exercise

New research conducted by scientists from various British universities showed that eating breakfast before a workout may enhance the body’s ability to burn carbohydrates while exercising and also help the body digest food more quickly afterward.

The researchers from the universities of Bath, Birmingham, Newcastle and Sterling compared the effects of working out after having breakfast on the metabolization of food, with the effects of exercising after an overnight fast. The study looked at 12 healthy males who cycled for an hour as exercise and were fed a meal of porridge and milk for breakfast. The control experiment for this study examined the effects of taking three-hours rest after eating breakfast.

Source: NY Times

This study was published in the American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism.

The blood glucose and glycogen levels of the participants were measured after exercise or rest, and the researchers found that eating breakfast made the body more efficient at burning carbohydrates during exercise and digesting the food the participants ate later on. The researchers also found that the carbohydrates being burnt during the workout did not just come from the breakfast the participants ate but had also come from the carbohydrate stores, i.e. glycogen, in their muscles.

According to Rob Edinburgh, co-leader of the study and PhD student in Bath University’s Department for Health, this increased use of muscle glycogen during workouts after participants ate breakfast may explain why their post-meal blood sugars cleared pretty quickly even after the next meal.

What else could this study mean for us?

Dr Javier Gonzalez, also co-leader of the study and senior lecturer in Bath University’s Department for Health says that this is the first study that looks at the impact of eating breakfast on the way our bodies metabolise meals after exercise.

Source; Food52

He also says that this study could mean that data from other studies looking at our metabolisms may not be applicable to everyday circumstances as they tend to come from studying the metabolisms of fasting participants. This is because most people don’t fast during the day, and this study shows that eating changes the way our metabolisms work.

Rob Edinburgh says that this study only assessed the short-term impact of eating breakfast before exercise and that more research is needed to know the long-term health effects of doing so regularly. He also adds that there needs to be more research on the impact the type of food eaten before exercise can have on the health of overweight people with a heightened risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Perhaps making the time to fuel up before your morning workout isn’t such a bad idea after all.