Should You Exercise Before Breakfast?

A lot of people are extremely busy, and they only exercise before breakfast, early in the morning (that is, if they eat breakfast. But I’m sure that doesn’t apply to you, as a loyal reader of this newsletter… right? 😉

In this article, we’re going to examine the effectiveness and safety of exercise before breakfast.

Original source: here.

 

First, let me start by saying that if this is your only time to work out, then absolutely, doing something is better than doing nothing. It may not be optimal, but again, it’s better than doing nothing.

But if you have a choice in the matter, here are my thoughts:

No or Light Strength Training 

The risk of injury is far higher in the morning than in the afternoon, for a number of reasons:

• You’ve just been horizontal for 8+ hours. The fluid in your joints (including in the spine) has accumulated. While great for cushioning the joints, it also gives them less flexibility.
• Cortisol (the stress hormone) is highest in the morning (for many people, but not all. You obviously have to test how your cortisol behaves). Doing exercise (especially endurance exercise) increases it even more.

Effectiveness 

For the purpose of muscle building, working out before breakfast is definitely a bad idea. Not only is the risk of injury higher, but after not eating for the last 10-14 hours, you don’t really have much protein in the bloodstream, ready to be absorbed into your muscles.

You’ll get far worse results doing strength training in a fasted state, compared to a fed state.

This is when we’re talking about muscle building. But if you workouts are aimed at maintaining muscle, that’s a different story. It takes a lot less to maintain than to build.

Endurance Exercise 

Endurance exercise appears to be safe first thing in the morning, before breakfast. With one key caveat. If you’re at risk for a heart attack, DON’T DO THIS!!! Way more heart attacks happen before noon than after noon. Don’t quote me on the numbers here, but I believe that something like 80% of heart attacks happen before 12PM. Why? Because of the person’s hormonal profile in the morning.

How do you know if you’re at risk for a heart attack?

• You’re over 50
• You’re overweight
• You’re a male with a waist circumference of over 40 inches (101.5 cm) or a female with a waist circumference of over 35 inches (89.5 cm)
• You smoke
• You have high blood sugar
• You have high blood pressure

You might be all of the above, starting a new exercise program, trying to better yourself and get it done first thing in the morning, and you get a very unpleasant surprise. One that you may not wake up from.

 

There you have it. So now you have a few things to consider before deciding whether or not to exercise before breakfast.