What's the Best Time to Eat — Before or After Working Out?

You're the best judge of whether you need fuel before hitting the gym. Regardless of whether you nosh before breaking a sweat, always eat after exercising!

We’ve always been told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Yet when it comes to exercise and weight loss, this advice might not be right for everyone.

Though weight loss should simply be the result of fewer calories consumed than expended, intriguing new research from Belgium shows there might be more to this simple math equation.

Researchers wanted to determine if exercising on an empty stomach could be more effective at regulating insulin in people eating a diet high in fat than exercising after a meal. Twenty-seven young men were fed a high-calorie, high-fat diet over a period of six weeks and divided into three groups. One group did not exercise. A second group ate a large high-carb breakfast before working out and then also consumed carbs while running or cycling. The third group did not eat before working out and drank only water; after exercising, they ate an equivalent breakfast to the second group.

Not surprisingly, the non-exercising group gained the most weight. Interestingly, however, the breakfast-before-exercise group also put on pounds while the breakfast-after-exercise group had almost no increase in weight despite eating a daily diet that was both high in calories and fat.