> train in the morning before eating

Welcome to the Army, perhaps. Ask them if they're ex-mil, or are copying someone who's ex-mil.

25 years later the concept of exercising on anything but an empty stomach feels weird to me. Like if you put forth a true 100% effort how do you not puke?

> A few friends of mine fast intermittently and train in the morning before eating but it's beyond me how that is not just pure torture.

Practice. If you've never done it before, it takes a few days/weeks to get used to. Also willpower.

Saying that willpower is a factor implies that it is unpleasant, which is actually agreeing with the implication of "pure torture" that the parent comment implied.

Not really, it has nothing to do with it being pleasant or not. It means that you need to commit to actually doing it (like anything in life).

I'm absolutely fine with it and prefer it, like many other people. It's definitely not "torture".

Maybe it isn't for some but mostly it's about overcoming the change in routine and there's no shortcut to changing or building habits, it's just willpower.

Generally we throw a lot of words around sometimes:

Like calling something torture - that you voluntarily do to yourself because of an expected net positive outcome.

For the respect of people who suffers or have suffered from torture I think we should avoid that kind of hyperbole.

Same goes for calling sexism on any joke about gender differences. It's kind of disrespectful to everyone who has suffered from the real thing.

Usually something only requires willpower if it's not pleasant. I.e. It doesn't take willpower for me to eat, but it does take willpower for me to avoid eating unhealthy foods.

What effects do you experience in lifting performance vs. eating beforehand?

> A few friends of mine fast intermittently and train in the morning before eating but it's beyond me how that is not just pure torture.

It's just habit. I stopped eating breakfast in primary school and always preferred doing sports in the morning. Currently doing fasted weightlifting/cardio 5x a week first thing in the morning.

I'm currently doing only one big meal a day for lunch so technically that's fasting since 2pm the previous day.

Same here, rolled oats w/ banana in the morning, I'm surprised that I don't feel hungry after eating that for a couple hours. I have to leave a gap of around 4-5 hours between eating, and lifting.

with late dinner the night before this is totally doable even when lifting heavy in the morning. some competetive lifters especially if they were cutting to make weight 'go for the bloat' after the weigh in - pizza, whole milk, pedialyte :) and then all they have before the meet in the morning is coffee.

then there are the 'early birds' who get up at 5 am and have a 4 egg omelet before the meet. they disgust me :)

It's just pure torture. I've IF and exercised around noon for some time and it's a struggle. Coffee compensates somewhat.