Study authors Dr. Emma Stevenson and PhD student Javier Gonzalez say the results of the test are “very important in helping to provide practical guidelines relating to food intake to individuals who are exercising to maximize fat mass loss.”
The conclusion was reached after a research team analyzed 12 physically fit men in their morning workouts. Some of the men had not eaten anything since the night before while others had consumed breakfast the morning of the test. Each man was asked to perform the same workout (running at moderate speed on a treadmill for a predetermined amount of time) and each was given a chocolate drink afterwards. An hour and a half after that, each man was given a pasta lunch and asked to eat until they were comfortably full.
Afterwards, researchers confirmed that not only did those individuals who had fasted overnight not eat more at lunch to make up for their skipped meal but they also burned up to 20% more fat than those who chose to consume b-fast that morning. “In order to lose body fat we need to use more fat than we consume,” Gonzalez explains. “Exercise increases the total amount of energy we expend and a greater proportion of this energy comes from existing fat if the exercise is performed after an overnight fast.”
Source: National Post
