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Fat Burning Question

shrkntz said: "I usually grab a handful of breton whole wheat thins, 4 slices of brick cheese and a bottle out of my freezer with ice on bottom. I rarely ever go to gym on full stomach or partial full stomach. I find I yawn and am too tired to even get motivated. Sometimes I will have...1 apple, 2 carrots, 1 large glass of fruit juice, crackers and cheese and a fruit. I read that if you have something an hour before you workout, you feel more up to excercising more wholeheartedly than hitting burger king before you go."

Leah20 said: "My good friend actually told me that. And she went from 160 - 120... She heard it on a tv show on discovery channel or something."

spectrachic311 said: "Hey Holly...funny you asked that question. In college, I took an advanced physiology class where we had to design an experiment using respiratory functions. Here was ours: Does eating a high-carb meal before exercising cause the body to burn more carbohydrates than fasting before exercising? We had an exercise bike hooked up to a computer and a gas-mask looking thing that measured the amount of CO2 expelled and the amount of O2 used up. The ratio of those numbers can help you determine the structure of what you burned (carbs vs. fat). So we had subjects fast 8hrs and then pedal the bike at a certain work output for 30 minutes. A different day, we had these same people eat an amount of almost pure carbohydrates (we chose plain bagels) and then pedal the bike again. They burned more fat if they fasted before biking. But they didn't burn any more CALORIES. Just from a different source. You do expend some energy though in converting fat to blood sugar for fuel, so burning fat actually causes you to burn more calories overall. So, there ya have it...firsthand evidence :)"

Holly said: "Hi there! I'm wondering if any of you work out in the morning before breakfast or any other snack? I've read that you first burn stored carbohydrates (glycogen) and then after about 15 to 20 minutes, you start burning stored fat. So, my thought was, if you exercise first thing in the morning before any food, would you perhaps burn more fat? I would love to burn more fat, but I hate exercisng when I'm hungry. Also, I know the calorie burn is the same if you execise 45 minutes straight or if you break it up throughout the day. However, is the fat burn not the same if you first tap into the glycogen and then break into the fat after 15 minutes of cardio?"

Holly said: "That is interesting. Thanks for the reply. I like the idea of burning up the pudge around my waist rather than the oatmeal I just ate. :)"