Is it better to have breakfast before or after training?

Have you ever asked yourself whether it makes more sense to have breakfast before or after doing sports? As with many questions, there is not only one correct answer. In order to judge whether you should have breakfast before or after you need to take into account the goal you are pursuing with your sporting activity.

After all, anyone who does sports primarily to get into shape or even lose a little weight must pay attention to other things than ambitious athletes who want to surpass themselves in every training session.

No matter what your goal is or why you ask yourself this question – together we will find the perfect answer for you and your needs.

Does sport burn more fat on an empty stomach?

You want to lose a few kilos, and preferably as soon as possible? You have heard that training on an empty stomach can be beneficial for fat burning?

This is not true if you trust scientific studies. They could not find any evidence that a training session on an empty stomach is beneficial – at least not to lose weight. Although this leads to an increased metabolism of fatty acids, this does not seem to have a decisive influence on body fat percentage or weight reduction, but rather holds interesting approaches for insulin-resistant people (type 2 diabetes).

Therefore, exactly the same things are important for you as for anyone else who wants to lose weight – plenty of exercise and an adequate diet.

Breakfast before doing sports – the key to success?

You want to get the most out of every training session? No matter whether in strength or endurance sports – if you want to take your training to the next level, you need to be sufficiently supplied with energy.

Why breakfast before exercise improves your endurance

Depending on whether you are more of an endurance athlete or into HIIT, your body gets its energy from different energy sources. While you mainly metabolise carbohydrates during HIIT training, your body gets rid of fat during longer, but less intensive endurance runs.

Therefore, it makes sense to fill up on carbohydrate before a high-intensity session. The best way to do this is to eat a high-carbohydrate meal before exercise, which will allow your blood sugar level to rise as evenly as possible and thus provide you with energy throughout your workout. However, you should make sure that you leave enough time between breakfast and your exercise session to avoid exercising on a full stomach. 

Can you build muscles faster with a carbohydrate-rich breakfast?

In order to accelerate muscle building, the body needs sufficient stimulation. These need a high intensity and therefore a lot of energy. Therefore, if your goal is to build muscle mass, you should ideally have breakfast before training. Because if your carbohydrate stores are almost completely empty before exercise, it can be difficult to train hard enough to promote muscle building.

After training, it is especially important to have a high-protein meal, as your body needs enough protein to regenerate and build new muscle tissue. That’s why we place great importance to a sufficient amount of protein in our Sport Range – this way, porridge, muesli and shakes are the perfect companions for your way to muscle building.

But carbohydrates can also be useful after intensive strength training. Because the same applies here as for HIIT training – the body primarily metabolises carbohydrates and thus empties your glycogen stores.

In order to fill up your reserves as well as accelerate your regeneration and thus optimise your muscle build-up, you should therefore fall back on a diet rich in protein and carbohydrates. We have also summarized for you how the perfect breakfast before doing sports looks like. 

Conclusion: Which is better, having breakfast before or after doing sports? 

Whether breakfast is better before or after exercise largely depends on the type of sport you are doing and the goals you are pursuing.

And if you can’t decide at all – why not just have breakfast twice? 😉

Nicolas Dworak

Sportwissenschafter

Ich bin studierter Sportwissenschafter und angehender Journalist. Neben meiner Faszination für Sport und das Schreiben blättere ich gerne durch die Fachbücher der Ernährungswissenschaft. Sport und Ernährung gehen für mich Hand in Hand, wenn es um einen gesunden Lebensstil geht.

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