Quote Originally Posted by Sharla View Post
You don't usually use energy gels for most workouts - it's more for long workouts / races. Sometimes you will use it pre-bout for a boost but definately not for normal training and it will NOT cause muscle mass loss to train at a high intensity on an empty stomach.

You are more likely to have trouble training at a high intensity at all with normal meal in your stomach. Eating to refuel AFTER a hard workout however is important.
Sharla i think we both have different ideas as to what constitutes an empty stomach.

By empty stomach i mean first thing on a morning before breakfast, training in a catabolic state where you haven't eaten for 8-10 hours.

When you wake up your body is in its most catabolic state. Cortisol levels in your body are as high as they would be directly after pro-longed intense exercise. It wouldn't be good to train intensely in this state. It would be very catabolic. Breaking down muscle tissue, while your stress hormone (cortisol) is at it's highest is a very very bad idea.

Training 2 hours after a meal is perfectly fine so long as you've adequetly digested the food.

This happens mainly in the small intestine. Starch is processed by amylase(an enzyme) which converts it to sucrose and maltose

Maltose and Sucrose then get absorbed into the lining of the cells in the intestine where they are converted into Glucose.

The pancreas then releases insulin to basically convert it into glycogen. Once this as happened, you're good to go.

I think we had different ideas of what an empty stomach is.