What if I told you that you could actually burn more fat and reach your weight loss goals faster by doing nothing more than changing when you do your treadmill workouts? Simply doing your cardio first thing in the morning – right after you wake up and before you eat breakfast – you can burn more body fat with the same effort as you are already putting into your workouts.
Many people view weight loss as something that is extremely complicated and confusing, but the formula is pretty simple. To lose weight you have to burn more calories than you consume! As you’ll discover shortly, you’ll burn more body fat working out on your treadmill in the morning. There are a few reasons for this so let’s explore them.
First and foremost it is really easy to put off exercising. After a long day at the office the last thing you want to do is workout on your treadmill. It’s more tempting to just sit in front of the TV and relax. This is an easy trap to fall in to and we all do it. Unfortunately when this happens you end up missing several workouts throughout the course of a month and you don’t burn nearly as much body fat – obviously.
By doing your treadmill workout first thing in the morning you are making it a priority and are guaranteeing that it will get done. This strategy effectively prevents you from skipping any workouts. Morning exercise will also give you an energy boost that will last all day long. And if nothing else, it’s one less stressful thing you have to worry about getting done in the day.
The most important reason for exercising in the morning has to deal with the way your body works. When you eat, your blood glucose and glycogen levels increase and your body produces more insulin, all of which prevent stored body fat being used up during your workout. When you workout on the treadmill after you eat, you’ll mostly be burning off the calories you just consumed – not the calories that are already stored in your body.
When you wake up in the morning, you’re coming off a 5-8 hour fast and that’s assuming you eat something right before you go to bed, which most people don’t. Just as an aside note, you should not eat before going to bed if you are trying to lose weight.
Most people have their last meal or beverage a few hours before they go to bed so the fast is actually closer to 8-11 hours! Because you haven’t consumed any calories for several hours, your blood glucose, glycogen, and insulin levels are at their lowest. This means that a good cardio workout on your treadmill in the morning will force your body to burn your fat reserves in order to get the energy it needs to complete the workout.
By exercising first thing in the morning you are essentially putting in the same amount of effort, but getting a much bigger benefit! You will also find that a morning cardio session will increase your metabolism, which stays operating at this increased rate for several hours so you keep on burning fat effectively all day long.
Treadmills are an excellent way of burning off your excess body fat, but when you are putting all that effort in, why not get the maximum possible benefit from your hard work? If you want to burn more fat and reach your weight loss goals quicker, do your treadmill workout first thing in the morning!