Does exercising with an empty stomach help lose belly fat? Interesting explanations according to Amir Hossein Manzouri, a famous Iranian sports physiologist and international fitness trainer

After eating, your body decomposes the food into different substances, including glucose or blood sugar.

Moreover, your body releases insulin hormones that make your liver, muscles, and adipose tissues take the blood glucose and store it.  

Your liver and muscles store the glucose in the form of glycogen, and fat cells store glucose as substances called triglycerides.

The glycogen and triglyceride resources increase the muscle cells and body fat, respectively. This growth in fat cells leads to a bigger belly (simply speaking, where you fasten your trousers belt). When eating, body fat loss does not happen. Meanwhile, your body uses blood glucose as an energy resource and store the excess amount. This phase takes one to several hours depending on how much you eat.

After the absorption of the eaten food, your body’s insulin level decreases, and then you feel like you are running out of energy. So, your body starts to exhaust fat for providing power. This process is repetitively running every day, storing the consumed nutrients, and then using them for generating energy when your insulin level is natural or, in other words, your body is fasting, and it will rely on this energy. After eating a usual meal, it takes 2-3 hours to enter this phase. If you work out during this time, your body will burn more fat.

Weight exercising is specifically effective at that time. Studies show that weight exercising during the fasting phase has better anabolic effects if you eat a meal after exercise.

Anabolic= for example, insulin hormone is an anabolic hormone that fills the muscle glycogen resources in the fasting stage and is also beneficial for building a 6-pack belly because it increases the blood flow locally in the belly part and prevents fat accumulation at that spot.