Morning Cardio

There is  some debate over whether it is better to do morning cardio on a completely empty stomach or to have a little breakfast before. I think it comes down to what works for an individual. I prefer to either eat nothing at all or only have a small protein shake at least an hour before. I'm the type that doesn't fair well with food in my stomach during my workouts so if I do have anything to eat prior it has to be light and I have to give it time to get digested.
     That said, here are some things to consider with scheduling meals and workouts. When you eat, blood gets diverted to the gut for digestion. When you workout, blood gets diverted to the muscles to circulate the various nutrients and byproducts of exercise in and out. So, though some can handle it find, others find it difficult to have the blood going two places at once. Side effects food can have when activity is soon followed is heart burn, stomach ache or the dread run to the nearest trash can cuz it doesn't want to stay down just to name a few(thankfully the most I have ever experienced is heart burn and a stitch in my side if I'm doing cardio/plyos). You can see how this can impede a person from reaching their fitness goals, simply because they aren't able to go full out.
      Another point to be made, though, is that when you wake up, you are in a fasted state from not eating all night (or at least you should be, if you are a night grazer of the fridge there are some other issues to address). So some feel that if you don't give the body some sort of fuel to work on it will use your muscle as fuel and you can lose the gains you make in the day. Others feel that the fuel it chooses is fat, because your glucose is nil. This is where I believe it is up to the individual. Do you have the fat reserves for the body to pull energy from? Is your body willing to pull the energy from there or is it stubborn? What is your body type? Do you build muscle easily? Lose muscle easily?
     For me, I build muscle easily. And it stays, I have very little worry of losing muscle. So I tend to prefer my morning cardio on an empty stomach or very little in there. When I do have breakfast before cardio is is a protein shake because of the minimal carb content, it's simply a fuel that my body can use so that it doesn't use the protein already in my body. Plus then I wait at least an hour, for instance as of writing this I still have 30 minutes before I will go to the gym for my morning cardio. FYI My morning cardio today is going to be 45-60 minutes of stepmill followed by some ab work. Today I think my goal will be to do 400-500 ab reps total.