Morning Exercise at the Park
Members of the Laughter Yoga club practise laughing during morning exercise at a public park in Hanoi September 24, 2011. REUTERS/KHAM

Research has found that early morning workout helps in weight loss, in addition to the burning of fat. The research showed that exercising before breakfast or fasted breakfast, which is exercising after fasting overnight, could help improve endurance and muscle growth as well as energy.

According to stuff.co.nz, the New York Times had explored if breakfast after workout aided weight loss. NYT found a 2010 Belgian study which showed that more fat could be burned after fasted exercise. The 2010 study took into consideration healthy male participants.

Peter Hespel is the Head of the Exercise Physiology Research Group at KU Leuven and the lead author of the study. He said that the optimal strategy which was necessary to prevent an increase in body weight was a combination of a healthy diet, which was well-balanced, and physically active lifestyle.

The study researchers convinced the participants to eat 30 percent more calories than their usual intake. They were then divided into three groups.

For a span of six weeks, the first group remained inactive. It was found that they gained three kilograms, in addition to developing resistance to insulin. The next group of participants were asked to exercise after breakfast. It was found that they put on 1 and a half kilograms and they also recorded a spike in the insulin. The third group practised fasted workout and it was found that they maintained both weight and insulin, in addition to the participant burning of more fat.

According to Hespel's study, early-morning, fasted exercise was more potent. This was in comparison to the same amount of exercise after a meal.

Nell Stephenson is a nutritionist, an athlete and the author of Paleoista, Gain Energy, Get Lean and Feel Fabulous With the Diet You Were Born to Eat. She said that incorporation of fasted training into one's daily regime would help weight loss, would improve mental focus and even the energy levels would be steadier.

According to Stephenson, this would be better when compared to starting one's day with sugar, even if the sugar came from a natural source. She put it into basic terms by saying that if one got up in the morning and started the day without supplying the body with a dose of sugar, the body had to get energy from somewhere else, which was where fat was stored.

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