Should You Eat Before A Workout For Fat Loss?

29 Mar 2025 · 1 min

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1:19

In this informal YouTube monologue, the speaker argues that eating carbohydrates before a workout supplies muscle glycogen, which the body will burn for energy during the session, meaning stored body fat is not used as fuel in that moment. He emphasizes that this intra‑workout fuel choice does not affect overall fat loss, which is governed solely by maintaining a sustained calorie deficit (CFD). Consequently, he advises that pre‑workout carbs are fine as long as the viewer’s total daily calories remain below maintenance. He concludes with a call‑to‑action, directing viewers to a free calorie‑deficit calculator linked in his bio.

Chapters

If you eat carbs before a workout, your body is going to burn those carbs for energy and you won't burn any stored body fat. You've probably heard some butt sniffer on the internet tell you this before, but is it actually true? Well, your muscle's main source of energy is something called glycogen, and when you eat carbs, your body breaks them down into glycogen. So if your muscles are getting energy from carbs, it doesn't make sense to use your stored fat. So yes, you won't burn fat for energy. But here's what those butt sniffers won't tell you. There's a difference between burning fat for energy during a workout and actually losing stored body fat. It doesn't matter if you use carbs, fats, or other sources of energy for the workout, because you don't lose fat from one workout. You lose stored fat from a CFD, a calorie fucking deficit. So you can and should still eat carbs before your workout. And as long as you hit your CFD goal, you will still lose fat. And if you need to know what your calorie deficit goal should be, click this link in my bio to use my free calorie calculator.