Quote Originally Posted by ono View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Sharla View Post
Quote Originally Posted by ono View Post
If you're doing cardio on an empty stomach i would advise doing low intensity for somewhere in the region of 30 mins. Anything other than low intensity will lead to muscle loss (a lot). By low intensity i mean walking (quite a fast pace).
I'm not sure I agree with this. High intesity exercise like sprints will increase muscle mass in your legs. What is low intensity will depend on how fit you are so it doesn't have to mean walking.

I also would say that while I don't usually have a problem eating small amounts before an intense workout most people will have issues if they eat within an hour immediately before a hard workout. I wouldn't say that exercising hard on an empty stomach is bad as long as you don't feel drained. I would often leave breakfast until after my harder morning workouts if I do it early enough - say 5 or 6 am.
Hig intensity training on an empty stomach will result in a loss of muscle mass.

Exercising like this on a empty stomach is the last thing you want to do if you want to build muscle.

Suppose it all depends on what your goals are.
Nope! This is so wrong get your facts straight! Something sitting in your stomach is not yet available to your muscles. It takes energy to digest food. You need to digest it before you can use it. If you train too intensely too quickly after eating you'll just want to throw up because your body will find ti too hard to train intensely and use energy to digest your food at the same time.

You can train while ingesting very high GI, small amounts like energy gels which are pretty much pure glucose but thse things are usually reserved for endurance events like marathons, long triathlons etc where you're likely to compete for durations longer than 2 hours and use all of your glycogen reserves.

Glucose will help fuel long (relatively low intensity) endurance events but what you need to stop loosing muscle mass is protein and carbohydrates AFTER training. when your muscles need to repair - often i think they recommend something 20 mins after a session.