Early morning advice

[SamW]

New agenda for my mornings will be soon coming into play.

Currently I'm up at 6am and out the house at 6:15am for a four mile run. This is always dry from pre run food. Ill have a half pint of water before I head out but then I'll have my morning meal when I get home followed by a shake.

New plan of action due to work commitments is to now get up at 5am and run to the gym - train and then run home.

Question is, should I have my morning meal as soon as I get up then as I arrive at the gym my pre-workout mix.

OR

Run to the gym empty, take pre workout and then eat when I return home.

Discuss - Arguments for and against both if needed.

P.S - Currently running 14.2stone and dropping

Sam!

[Ryancoyle]

Difficult one to call.

I know that your insulin levels will be at there peak when training as soon as you get up but you do need carbs for energy when training hard

[McGuire86]

What's your goals pal ? Cutting, bulking, maintaining ?

[SamW]

Sorry should have specified. Looking to drop weight.

I'm no stranger to nutrition or training however when it comes to first thing in the morning my brain can not compute! As there is so many arguments for both sides of the fence!

[Ryancoyle]

If you are looking to cut I would suggest cutting down on carbs a bit.

If you eat 6 small meals a day, only eat 3 carb meals with protein instead of 6 carb meals with protein i.e. carbs before gym and after and then maybe later on that day at some stage

[SamW]

Aye already do buddy.

Currently I do this...

Wake at 6am
Drink 1/2 pint water
Run four miles
Juice from one lemon and one orange along side with daily vits, etc...
Meal 1 at 7am - Usually a high carb(oats and protein)
Meal 2 at work 10:30am - 100/150g rice/pasta with lean meat
Meal 3 at 1:00pm - Minimal/no carbs (salad with salmon, chicken, etc)
Meal 4 at 4:30pm - Same as above - (sometimes addition of fruit)
Meal 5 at 6:30pm - red/white meat or fish with veg (broc, coli, etc)
Train at 8pm
Whey after training
Bed

[Ryancoyle]

Aye already do buddy.

Currently I do this...

Wake at 6am
Drink 1/2 pint water
Run four miles
Juice from one lemon and one orange along side with daily vits, etc...
Meal 1 at 7am - Usually a high carb(oats and protein)
Meal 2 at work 10:30am - 100/150g rice/pasta with lean meat
Meal 3 at 1:00pm - Minimal/no carbs (salad with salmon, chicken, etc)
Meal 4 at 4:30pm - Same as above - (sometimes addition of fruit)
Meal 5 at 6:30pm - red/white meat or fish with veg (broc, coli, etc)
Train at 8pm
Whey after training
Bed

Your diet looks to be fine so I would advise you to so the same if you are dropping weight already.

Just make sure your protein stays high so you keep your size.

Are you juicing at the moment - might not want to answer but if you are I would add tren / tri-ten / winstol << something along them lines

[SamW]

No matey, no juice.

My thinking/query is to the nutrition gurus that as I'm adding my workout in the morning in between my run should I up a meal before I train or just train on empty as the overall workout will be greater than a run alone.

[Ryancoyle]

No matey, no juice.

My thinking/query is to the nutrition gurus that as I'm adding my workout in the morning in between my run should I up a meal before I train or just train on empty as the overall workout will be greater than a run alone.

The way I done it was get your carbs meals eaten before train (depending on what time you train)

Once you train you will be using the carbs you have for energy.

Have a carbs meal after training to keep your energy up then do no carbs for the rest of the day.

Depends on metabolism as well.

How do you train?

Do you lift as heavy as you can for 8 - 12 reps or do light weights and more reps?

[smiith]

Not that clued up, but from what my brain can think through, is you would be better running to the gym empty, as you will burn more fat when theres nothing else to burn, then your pre workout.. Then run home, then the food.. Then your runs are pretty much on empty, so you will burn more fat...

That's my way of thinking anyway!

[Ryancoyle]

Forgot to add, try adding a lot of spice to your food as it will help you lose fat weight faster

[Ryancoyle]

Not that clued up, but from what my brain can think through, is you would be better running to the gym empty, as you will burn more fat when theres nothing else to burn, then your pre workout.. Then run home, then the food.. Then your runs are pretty much on empty, so you will burn more fat...

That's my way of thinking anyway!

Only problem with this is he could start losing muscle as well if he doesn't eat protein every 2-3 hours

[smiith]

Only problem with this is he could start losing muscle as well if he doesn't eat protein every 2-3 hours

True, but the run to the gym, if its not too far, shouldn't do more damage than good..

[SamW]

Gym is around 1.3 chaps

[Ryancoyle]

True, but the run to the gym, if its not too far, shouldn't do more damage than good..

Yeah I suppose..It really depends on what way your body works, how you train and what your metabolism is like.

[McGuire86]

TBH I don't know why you're running to the gym, you want to preserve your energy for the weights as this is the main area for what you're trying to achieve. Plus running everyday whilst on a cut may cause your body to become catabolic and you don't want that !

I would do cardio on non lifting days and even then I would be particular about what sort of cardio I'm doing. You should look to do HIIT training as this is far more effective for stripping fat than general jogging. I used to just jog but then I added in alot of sprints and this helped me strip fat easier whilst maintaining muscle mass.
If keeping cardio levels very high is important to you then the odd run on lifting days is fine but do it AFTER weights and don't go mad!

Also with your diet I would leave pasta out, any processed carbs like pasta, bread etc aren't good for cutting. You want low GI foods like rice, potatoes (sweet, boiled, new etc) and vegetables.
You don't want to be eating foods that produce a high insulin spike like pasta, insulin is a fat storing hormone so it doesn't make sense whilst trying to drop fat!

Oh, and I just read that your gym is about a mile, well you could walk to it. This would be ideal to warm up your body.

[matt_vtr_15a]

Sam you're in exact same sitaution as i have been for the last 4/5 months...

I'll run down what i do...

5.30am wake up, cold shower, half alitre of water with vits and fish oils, and i supplement carnitine and glutamine

Walk to the gym, it's 1.3miles and i brisk walk this, i like to keep the intensity low and this wakes me up that little bit more and lets me get prepared...

I take my pre-workout on my way to the gym so it's ready to kick in as soon as i bust through the gym door, i used musclepharm assault up until now but fancy a change... it hasn't let me down though! Has a really good profile in general to prevent catabolic effects! I see you have matrix from.what i remeber im sure this will be pretty decent!

Preworkout i want to get bcaas in me which i get from.assault, some creatine, carnitine, glutamine and anything that will help keep me anabolic really!! As said i rry and get this from my preworkout shake!

Do my workout, and immediately have postworkout shake aimed at recovery!

I then eat my postworkout meal when i get to work which is about 15mins walk away which gives me time to consume the meal within an hour of the end of my session and get those glycogen stores filled to aid recovery as i am fairly low on carbs for the rest of the day..

I try and get simple sugars in here and complex carbs...

I have oats, low fat greek yoghurt, some whey protein, banana and honey or something along those lines.. just to really keep those muscles fed right after my session...

I'd suggest if your returning home after the gym you consune the shake on the way back and then have your postworkout meal at home...

I'm.writing this on my phone so apologies if poorly written, i have also wrote this 4 times and my battery has died due to a faulty charger so i have probably missed out some bits...

I have seen great results doing this, i make sure i get casein in me before bedtime for the slow release to keep me fed thru the majority of the night... i like to think this means my muscles arent too starved when i wake up...

Personally i have cut a considerable amount of bodyfat, got a lot leaner and retained my muscle mass and built on that to...

I do use prohornones though... this really does help prevent me being catabolic

[SamW]

Exactly what I was after. Cheers bro!

[McGuire86]

You're welcome !

Oh.