6 Healthy Habits on an Empty Stomach
Doing healthy things on an empty stomach is an important way to start the day and have a healthier lifestyle. While your daily routine may be hectic and stressful, adding some good habits will improve your quality of life.
If you’re worried about not having time during the day to exercise or relax, then the best time is doing it the first thing in the morning. When you wake up, your body has had enough rest to start your routine again. You can make it a great day, but do you know how to do it?
Your metabolism on an empty stomach creates some favorable conditions for the body that you can take advantage of. Doing activities that boost your energy and having them become regular habits will create changes in your body that you’ll notice right away.
1-Drink water
Drinking one or two glasses of water when you wake up has a lot of benefits for your body. Water on an empty stomach activates your kidneys, which are in charge of eliminating toxins from your body. Intestinal activity also improves digestion and alleviates constipation.
Hydration is even good your brain by allowing cells to receive oxygenated blood and improving its function. This means you become more alert.
2-Eat fruit
Some people think that eating fruit at the start of the day is bad for your body, but in fact it’s the opposite. Eating fruits on an empty stomach is a healthy habit because it takes little energy to digest them and they help cleanse your body.
Likewise, fruits are made up of a lot of water. Do you already know that drinking water on an empty stomach is good for you, right? Well, eating fruit can be another good way to hydrate yourself in the morning.
If you experience gastritis and avoid citrus fruits like oranges or lemons on an empty stomach, then try eating dates, pears, or apples, all of which are high in fiber.
3-Listen to relaxing music
If you want to prepare your mind for the day and be filled with positive energy, listening to classical music or meditation will help. Due to its relaxing ability, music is great for calming the mind. It also helps regulate your heart rate and control your breathing. Classical music is recommended as therapy for very sensitive people.
4-Practice yoga
The energy you have once you wake up is a great thing to benefit from by doing yoga on an empty stomach. Since you haven’t eaten yet your body is lighter, cleaner, and more concentrated on the activity. It’s best to do simple yoga poses that don’t require a lot of physical effort. If you don’t enjoy yoga, you can choose to meditate instead as a way to calm your mind.
5-Stretch
This will help loosen your muscles and lubricate the joints to prevent muscle pain during the day. Remember to perform gentle and controlled movements to prevent injury: stretching also requires attention.
6-Get cardiovascular exercise
Cardiovascular exercise is another healthy activity for you to do on an empty stomach. Walking or light jogging when you wake up is good for your body. It helps warm you up, releases energy, and burns fat. You can do this on a daily basis or every other day without getting too tired.
When you wake up, your blood sugar and insulin levels are low so your body burns fat as energy. This helps you get better at using fat as fuel.
- Ideally you should do cardio or aerobic exercises right after you wake up.
- It’s important not to over work yourself and limit yourself for 45 minutes’ tops.
- If you do more intense or longer workouts you can cause catabolism and start losing muscle mass.
Once you’re done walking or jogging, it’s time to eat to regain your energy. Protein is an excellent way to recover after physical activity. Don’t let too much time pass from the time you work out to having breakfast.
If you want to improve your quality of life, you have to change it. Keeping yourself healthy should only take you an hour of time after you wake up. Doing healthy things on an empty stomach is important to start the day out right.
The most important thing is that you make these activities become regular habits and always maintain a good attitude.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Albero R, Sanz A, Playán J. Metabolismo en el ayuno. Endocrinol y Nutr. 2004;
- Iwayama K, Kurihara R, Nabekura Y, Kawabuchi R, Park I, Kobayashi M, et al. Exercise Increases 24-h Fat Oxidation Only When It Is Performed Before Breakfast. EBioMedicine. 2015;
- Popkin BM, D’Anci KE, Rosenberg IH. Water, hydration, and health. Nutrition Reviews. 2010.
- Knight, W. E. J., & Rickard, N. S. (2001). Relaxing Music Prevents Stress-Induced Increases in Subjective Anxiety, Systolic Blood Pressure, and Heart Rate in Healthy Males and Females. Journal of Music Therapy. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmt/38.4.254
- Seo, D. Y., Lee, S., Kim, N., Ko, K. S., Rhee, B. D., Park, B. J., & Han, J. (2013). Morning and evening exercise. Integrative Medicine Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.imr.2013.10.003
