Pre-breakfast exercises will attack your body fat
By Michael Klepper
Knight Ridder News Service
Good morning! You've just awakened, about eight to 12 hours since your last meal. Your body is in a fasting mode, hence the name "breakfast." Time to break that fast and get back on to the regular refueling pattern.
Only four things give the body energy — proteins, carbohydrates, fats and alcohol. Your body used the stored carbohydrates to repair tissue while you slept. Because the body does not store alcohol, only two sources of energy — fats and proteins — are available first thing in the morning. As the body stirs and increases its activity level, it needs energy. Because of the stress placed on it from fasting, the body fears starvation and begins to develop pathways to protect itself.
Jon Orque • The Honolulu Advertiser
First off, the body wants to protect its best energy source — the fats — and use the less efficient proteins as energy until the carbohydrates arrive. This is not good because the body will shop for proteins where the blood supplies are the highest — your muscle tissue and organs. This is where you start going backward. All that hard work to build your lean muscle base is now being burned for energy. Stop it cold in its tracks. Begin by incorporating some calisthenics-type activities immediately after waking up.
First thing out of bed, stimulate your metabolism by running the stairs, or doing some sit-ups or jumping jacks. To overcome the stress being applied through the exercise, the body needs its muscle mass or proteins, so it forces the body to burn fat instead of taking nutrients from muscle tissue.
Jumping jacks are great because they involve the whole body. Find a space where you can jump and reach without bumping into anything. Stand with your feet side by side and arms down at your sides. Looking straight ahead with your abdominal muscles tight, jump up, moving your legs and arms at the same time. Your feet should move apart about three or four feet and your arms should move from your sides to straight up above your head in a wide arching pattern. Then, with another jump, return to the starting position.
Do jumping jacks for about four to five minutes nonstop. Then move to the breakfast table for the day's first meal, maybe a bowl of oatmeal with an egg-white omelet, a high-carb, high-fiber, low-fat way to fuel up your body.
Begin every day with some light exercise or calisthenics to boost your metabolism and then break that fast and begin fueling the body for its full day of activities. Jumping jacks also work great as a warm-up before your exercise session.
