If I am cutting, can I use one first thing in the morning (well, actually second thing, first thing being workout) as well as one when I come home from work as a 'dessert'?

personal opinion, and what has worked best for me is to get a whey protein shake in my belly as soon as i get up, do my workout, and then take another shake with ground oatmeal in it for carbs. i wouldnt work out on a totally empty stomach, as your body has already been in a fasted state overnight and needs something!

personal opinion, and what has worked best for me is to get a whey protein shake in my belly as soon as i get up, do my workout, and then take another shake with ground oatmeal in it for carbs. i wouldnt work out on a totally empty stomach, as your body has already been in a fasted state overnight and needs something!

I agree. Also, you might try mixing you protein with something like grape juice for High GI carbs after a heavy lifting session.

I agree. Also, you might try mixing you protein with something like grape juice for High GI carbs after a heavy lifting session.
ah the age old discussion of High GI vs Low GI post-workout shakes! lets not forget that he could use dextrose or maltodextrose as well! ;-)

use whatever suits you, just make sure you get some carbs+protein in your post-workout shake!

I would reccomend against doing cardio first thing in the morning before eating. if you do that your body is most likely to turn to muscle mass as an energy source. i would have a protein drink before or a light breakfast.

I would reccomend against doing cardio first thing in the morning before eating. if you do that your body is most likely to turn to muscle mass as an energy source. i would have a protein drink before or a light breakfast.


I have read that the best time to do aerobic exercise is first thing in the morning, before your first meal as your body has burned all (or most) of its carbohydrate energy overnight while you were "fasting" and will begin to burn stored fat almost immediately. Do you agree or disagree with this? It makes sense, but I'm not an exercise physiologist, so I could be wrong... :)

I tend to jog before I eat breakfast, occasionally I will drink a small amount of juice or eat a portion of a Clif bar first, just to get me going, but I do not eat a full breakfast until afterwards. Happy to hear other people's thoughts....

I agree with the post above me. Other forums i frequent all argue that running on empty stomach burns stored fat and is better than running after eating (i.e. later in the day)

I have read that the best time to do aerobic exercise is first thing in the morning, before your first meal as your body has burned all (or most) of its carbohydrate energy overnight while you were "fasting" and will begin to burn stored fat almost immediately. Do you agree or disagree with this? It makes sense, but I'm not an exercise physiologist, so I could be wrong... :)

I tend to jog before I eat breakfast, occasionally I will drink a small amount of juice or eat a portion of a Clif bar first, just to get me going, but I do not eat a full breakfast until afterwards. Happy to hear other people's thoughts....


Bill Phillips of Body For Life is a big believer of working out first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. He also has stated its best to wait an hour after working out as your body is still burning fat from the exercise.

Naturally working out in a caloric deficit (i.e. on an empty stomach) will be beneficial if your sole goal is to lose weight. However, if you wish to maintain muscle mass while cutting body fat, this is an inferior method.

Speaking as a person who has tried both methods with success (that is, they resulted in weight loss), I will say that as long as your diet is sufficient to promote weight loss (taking in fewer calories than you burn, approx. 10-12 times your body weight in calories a day), I wholly recommend cardio after a meal than prior to any food whatsoever. The idea is to burn more calories than you take in, and with your reduced calorie diet, cardio, and weight training (hopefully), you should certainly be burning plenty of calories to lose weight while not promoting muscle loss (which empty-stomach cardio does).

And certainly don't do HIIT on an empty stomach.

yes my post was taking into consideration my goal, which above all includes losing weight WHILE keeping as much of my muscle as possible

Hello everyone. I just would like to share my little story. When I came to USA from Europe (i was 18) my weight was 150 lbs. By the time I turned 25 I riched 300. On January 21, 2002, I went and signed up a membership at my local gym. THe first year I started working out realy slowly and only lost 30 lbs. On January 21, 2003, I was so upset that I did not want to work out anymore. I stayed at home and was thinking to try one of those majic pills that promise to lose weight fast. Luckely, my wife convinced me not to. And around late February 2003, I found John's site. That was a real inspiration. I don't think John realizes what a good DEED he did. It is January 21, 2004, today and I stand at 189lbs and plan to go down to 155lbs by summertime. Oh, I forgot to mention that I am 5'7 tall. I don't know where I would be if I did not find John's site. It took me 2 years to lose 110 lbs. I know it is a little bit long, but it is a steady loss. My pants were 46 in size and now I wear size 36. I completely changed my wardrobe. There were also a couple of people that Have not seen me for a while that did not recognize me on the street. That was a pleasent surprise.
Anyway, I don't want to be preaching here, but my success is John's success. He started it for himslef and ended up helping a lot of poeple. I e-mailed John last Novemebr to thank him. And, as promissed, he got back to me. If anyone needs any help with weight loss tips, I will gladly offer you my experience.
And the last thing that I wanted to say, is that I never used any steroids, or fat loss pills or any diet plans. All I a, doing is eating quality food 5,6 times a day , small portions and excerising twice a day: early in the morning run of about 2 miles and evening run of 5 miles mixing it with eliptical training or stepmaster training. I also do weights 2, sometimes 3 times a week instead of running.
Thank you very much for reading my success story!!!

Yes, it is true that your body will turen to muscle mass for energy. However, if you do only 15 to 20 minutes excercise in the morning on empty stomach and them load up your breakfast with about 20 grams of protein, 2 grams of fat and 20 grams of carbs, your muscle mass will be fully restored. Here is an example: in 20 minutes you will burn about 300 calories.out of 300 calories, at least 150 calories will be from fat (scientifically proven) and another 150 calories from muscle. Since muscle is made of 70% of protein and 1 gram of protein is 4 calories, only 105 calories will come from muscle. Since 1 gram of protein is 4 calories, devide 105 by 4 and it equals about 24 grams. And what is 24 grams of muscle? 1lb iquls 452 grams. Do the math. It still worth to do cardio on empty stomach. however, if deep in your heart you think it is bad, it will not help you. Instead, it will only hurt you. YOu have to beleive in what you are doing. Otherwise, it's not worth it.

d_samuylin, congrats on your success! what an inspiration! do you have before and after pics?!?!? keep up the good work!

Yes, it is true that your body will turen to muscle mass for energy. However, if you do only 15 to 20 minutes excercise in the morning on empty stomach and them load up your breakfast with about 20 grams of protein, 2 grams of fat and 20 grams of carbs, your muscle mass will be fully restored.

I hope you're right. I workout in the mornings on an empty stomach. My workouts will consist of weight-training and/or HIIT cardio. After my workouts, I take in 20 grams of high-quality whey protein along w/ my breakfast. I also take another serving of whey protein shortly before I go to bed. I'm 5'10, 175lbs and take in about 1700-1800 calories/day with about 150g protein daily. Does that seem reasonable?

I forgot to mention that my goal is to lose about 10-12lbs of body fat and start adding some lean muscle after I rid myself of my love-handles.

I also noticed that John worked out on an empty stomach during his fat loss phase.

I hope you're right. I workout in the mornings on an empty stomach. My workouts will consist of weight-training and/or HIIT cardio. After my workouts, I take in 20 grams of high-quality whey protein along w/ my breakfast. I also take another serving of whey protein shortly before I go to bed. I'm 5'10, 175lbs and take in about 1700-1800 calories/day with about 150g protein daily. Does that seem reasonable?

Before you go to bed, about an hour to 1.5 hours before, take one serving of low fat cottage cheese. It has only 90 calories and 60 of those come from protein (15 grams). Only 6 grams of carbs (4 grams of sugar), and 1 or 2 grams of fat, but a good fat. The catch here is that it cottage cheese has milk protein which takes a long time to break up. This way, when you sleep the body preserves your muscles and breaks down the protein in your stomach. And I would not suggest doing weight lifting on empty stomach in the morning. You have to feel strong before you do your weight lifting workout. But that is me. It is up to you to decide the better sourse of actions.

d_samuylin, congrats on your success! what an inspiration! do you have before and after pics?!?!? keep up the good work!


I did not take pictures like you did and Joh did. However, I have a picture of my face (at the naturalization certificate) which I will scan tomorrow and a face picture today, which I will also scan tomorrow. As soon as that is done, I will e-mail them to you. OK?

cardio on an empty stomach is a debated issue and i am currently doing a test on this myself.

currently i've always had something to eat than i would go do HIIT cardio.

i am now trying 45min of cardio at 68% of my max heart rate for 45min on an empty stomach. so far (3 days) i have not lost any muscle strength, but i still got 2 more days of cardio and 4 more days of lifting before i can make any sort of solid conclusion.

they say after 25-30 min your body turns on lyposis (fat burning) stage.

DO NOT do HIIT cardio on an empty stomach, that is CATABOLIC

cardio on an empty stomach is a debated issue and i am currently doing a test on this myself.

currently i've always had something to eat than i would go do HIIT cardio.

i am now trying 45min of cardio at 68% of my max heart rate for 45min on an empty stomach. so far (3 days) i have not lost any muscle strength, but i still got 2 more days of cardio and 4 more days of lifting before i can make any sort of solid conclusion.

they say after 25-30 min your body turns on lyposis (fat burning) stage.

DO NOT do HIIT cardio on an empty stomach, that is CATABOLIC

Is a week a long enough period of time to make that conclusion?

cardio on an empty stomach is a debated issue and i am currently doing a test on this myself.

currently i've always had something to eat than i would go do HIIT cardio.

i am now trying 45min of cardio at 68% of my max heart rate for 45min on an empty stomach. so far (3 days) i have not lost any muscle strength, but i still got 2 more days of cardio and 4 more days of lifting before i can make any sort of solid conclusion.

they say after 25-30 min your body turns on lyposis (fat burning) stage.

DO NOT do HIIT cardio on an empty stomach, that is CATABOLIC


I agry DO NOT DO HIIT cardio on empty stomach. I was talking about regular cardio 15 to 20 minutes on empty stomach in the morning. Not very light but very hard. It is just enough to jump start the metabolism, so that you burn more calories during the day. You will not lose muscle mass by doing 20 minutes cardio on empty stomach in the mornings, as long as it is not HIIT.