Contradictory data all over the net makes this issue more confusing. For me to believe if a certain issue is true, I'd personally try it myself to confirm. If it works for me, I'd go on ...

Is that some exotic or mythological food?

In case you're not being sarcastic, it's a typo and is supposed to read: "an hour or so before."

I try not to eat anything before a run.

What's more important is the type of things you're eating prior to the run. For example, if it's race day, you'd want to spend a week eating extra carbs and drinking plenty of water. The importance is probably the amount of water you drank during the past 24 hour interval.

I'm thinking it all depends on your state of mind. For me, I can't eat then go for a run. I'll feel extremely sick and probably come back short breath.

I run on an empty stomach every morning...all I had

I run on an empty stomach also and feel better and faster without something in my gut- but physiologically I don't know whats better. I ran my last half marathon on an empty stomach (because of nerves) and got my best time-who's to say it couldn't have been better with some nutrition though.

You have about 2000 calories in your glycogen stores which is plenty to get you through a half marathon. In a perfect world, you'd want to put down some calories though.

I thought glycogen stores can only handle around 800 average before its full.

He is right, on average, the human body stores 500gr of glycogen, which is 2000 kcal.

Don't forget that you also have your fat that can generate energy when needed, so you have more than enough energy to get you through your morning ran.

someone calling me fat?!!?

haha

God no, i 've seen your photos and i have to admit you look hot... especially your legs...wow!......emmm.....ok....i think i'm gonna stop now

Which is the whole point of endurance training. You only have about 2000 calories in your glycogen stores but you have approximately 70,000 calories in your fat stores. Staying in your aerbobic zone for extended periods of time conditions your body to use more of its fat stores for energy.

Totally correct and well put!

At low, mid and even extreme exertion the body will still be spinning-up some fat as a means of fueling our muscles....it's a mistake to think we have a "fuel-selector" switch that exclusively draws from only one source of energy storage.

Depending on intensity, fat can provide anywhere from 20-45% of the energy used during exercise. The greater the intensity, the less the fat AS A PROPORTION is utitlized.

Let's say you bike for 3 hours and burn about 2,000 calories....at a moderate intensity, you may have burned about 740 calories from fat and 1,260 from glycogen. FWIW, my Heart-Rate monitor generally projects about 35-40% of calories coming from fat.

After exercise it's important to replace what you've burned. My understanding is that glycogen can only be replaced through eating food: you're body can not replenish glycogen by drawing from fat within your body....it needs to come from consumed food. Accordingly, I generally figure I can eat about 50% of the calories burned during exercise. I don't mind re-fueling the glycogen, but I certainly don't want to re-fuel the fat supply....course, my goal is to burn burn burn the fat.

And it's best to replace these calories in the first 15 minutes after excercise. What you want is about 300 calories with a 4:1 carb protein ratio. A bottle of Ensure or a chocolate milk are perfect.

Use common sense when it comes to workout duration and calorie consumption. What I mean is if you're trying to lose weight and you go to the gym to lift for 15 minutes, don't start sucking down bottles of Ensure afterwards or you'll start yelling at me for your weight gain.