morning vs evening workout

[august mentor]

Hey guys,
I haven been working out in the evening because it's impossible for me to do it in the am since I have to be in college at 7 am, I would like to ask you guys if it makes any difference morning or evening work out, do you get the same benefits? some people say it's better in the morning on an empty stomach because your body gets the energy it needs from stored fat so you get cut faster and burn more body fat, true?

 

[stevesmi]

no but you might have more energy in the AM because you just slept and your body isn't run down

i would say i grew the most was when i woke up, ate a good breakfast.. worked out, then ate again and took a nap. i grew like a weed when i did that.

but essentially it boils down to when you can go in and have a no rushed session. whether that is AM, midday, PM, doesn't matter. proper nutrition and proper sleep is going to make a huge difference in your results from there

 

[FlexManning]

The "burn more fat on an empty stomach" part is largely a myth. You might burn more fat during the time your body has ways of getting around that later in the day.

Most people are stronger in the evening (depends on what you do for a living), but that doesn't necessarily make it better. If my PR in the morning is X and my PR in the evening is X +10lbs, I'm still increasing X regardless of my workout timing.

When I worked night shift I used to enjoy waking up, popping ephedrine and caffeine (ephedrine being considered OTC until fairly recently), and working out on an empty stomach. I'm one of those folks that really has a problem getting meal timing right for the gym. I always feel like I'm either 5 minutes away from starving to death or about to vomit. And working out right after waking up fixed that.

Now that with my morning drive, waking kids up for school and all that, it's not really practical because I'd be taking time directly from sleep. But there's definitely some advantages to it. Most people will feel better throughout their day at work or school if they work out in the morning.

 

[muskate]

Recent studies have actually shown that you burn MORE calories when training after having eaten.

Just think about it logically. Which situation do you think you will have a better workout?
1. You have had a good meal before hand and your energy levels are high.
2. You haven't eaten anything before and are hungry throughout your entire workout.

Food is fuel. You always want to eat and fuel your body before your workouts.

 

[Jay Scott]

I dont think it makes much of a difference whether you work out in the evening or morning.

The only time where it would differ, if you are cutting and want to incorporate fasting training. But that still is debatable, as some people claim to have much better results in fat loss while doing fasted cardio, whereas others claim there's no significant difference.

 

[MasonicBodybuilder]

Just train whenever you can. It wont make a difference. It is more mental than anything. For me I know I am more comfortable training in the AM just because I like it.

 

[FlexManning]

Recent studies have actually shown that you burn MORE calories when training after having eaten.

Just think about it logically. Which situation do you think you will have a better workout?
1. You have had a good meal before hand and your energy levels are high.
2. You haven't eaten anything before and are hungry throughout your entire workout.

Food is fuel. You always want to eat and fuel your body before your workouts.

Definitely makes sense. I think the contention the "train on an empty stomach" folks were making was based on the idea that on paper your glycogen is depleted until you eat breakfast so a greater percentage of calories used were coming from fat.

However, as you said, when you think about it and use common sense, it doesn't really jibe.

1. If you're famished when you train you're going to accomplish less.
2. People keep trying to insist there are all these loopholes you can take advantage of with workout and meal timing that simply don't make sense from an evolutionary standpoint.

Personally whenever I've trained on an empty stomach I've taken ephedrine and caffeine or at a minimum a heavy dose of caffeine and I've trained early enough that I didn't get a chance to be hungry, so that offset some of that.