I am someone who, as soon as she wakes up, is not immediately hungry. I used to hate having breakfast before I went to school when I was a kid. I just couldn't get a Dutch sandwich down my throat in the morning.
When I got older, I took my breakfast to school with me and ate it for the first time around 10 AM. Later, when I went to university, I did the same and even at work I took my bowl of morning oats with me and started eating it around 11 AM.
Short Intermittent Fasting
Actually, I have been doing short intermittent fastings for more than a decade. And I've always combined this with exercising before breakfast because I took the bike to school and work.
Nowadays, I still do exactly the same. And if I am at home, for example at the weekends, I go to the gym or go for a walk before I have breakfast.
My breakfast tastes much better afterwards, plus you've got your body's energy engine running for a while before it gets its supply of energy again. Considering the fact that the prehistoric human also had to search for his food first, it is in fact not strange at all and actually good for your body to be active before you eat. Let's take a closer look at this.
Sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system
The balance between exercise and relaxation is very important for our health. A good balance contributes to health. There is no rest without effort and no effort without rest.
Within our nervous system, you can see these counterparts. One part takes care of the "fight or flight" mechanism and the other part takes care of the "rest, digestion and reproduction" mechanism.
Sympathetic nervous system = fight or flight
Parasympathetic nervous system = rest, digestion and reproduction
There is no rest without effort and no effort without rest.
In case of stress, we go into "fight or flight" mode. The sympathetic nervous system is on and the parasympathetic nervous system is off. Stress activates the adrenal glands, which then start producing adrenaline and cortisol. As a result of these hormones, blood flows to the muscles. After all, the muscles need blood to fight or flight. This is based on survival. In order to survive, most of the blood (and therefore fuel) goes to the muscles and not, for example, to our digestive system. Everything has to do with the distribution of energy. If there was a tiger in front of you, you did not continue eating or reproducing. You fought or fled (or were eaten yourself).
As a result of stress, there is little blood available for your gastrointestinal system and digestion. As a logical consequence, stress is often part of the cause of digestive complaints. Activity of the sympathetic nervous system is a bad time to eat and digest food. However, there are many people who exercise after dinner. This is not a good idea. It is best to eat after exercising. After all, after a big meal, you fall asleep. The parasympathetic nervous system takes care of rest (sleep) and digestion. These two things go well together. However, eating (parasympathetic) and exercising (sympathetic) do not go well together. This causes problems in the gastrointestinal system, leading to poor digestion.
Activity before food
It is therefore desirable for your body, when you exercise in the morning, not to eat beforehand. As a result, your body can give all its energy to your muscles instead of having to divide this energy between your muscles and your digestion.
I would like to make a note of this because it also depends on what kind of sport you are doing. Will you be running, doing HIIT, a Les Mills class, yoga, or weight lifting?
For the latter, you may feel you need more nutrition beforehand than when you will do for example a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).
In my opinion, this is a matter of getting used to. I used to be convinced that I always had to eat before a workout or I wouldn't have any strength. When I became lazy and skipped my breakfast more often before my training, I noticed that it took some time to get used to it, but that it no longer made any difference to me.
Training at the end of the day
Now we know that eating just before a training is not a good idea, I want to mention that it works slightly different when you do your training in the evening. Of course you can eat during the day, but take into account to eat at least 2-3 hours before you start working out. Your digestive system has enough time to focus on your food intake and can rest as soon as you start your training.
What works for you
I would like to say that you can try it out for yourself for a while, keeping the information above in mind. Perhaps you will find out that it works better for you (and your entire digestive system) to be active before you eat a meal and then rest, so your body can fully focus on your digestion. A little walk outside before you start eating your breakfast could be a good way to start!
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