My 2 cents

I agree with you that cardio in the morning is excellent, because it does speed up your metabolism, and does continue to burn fat. However, you will burn some muscle doing this if your intensity is strong enough. I have experience with. I did it in the morning on an empty stomach until I reach my weight goals, but my bench press was going nowhere. If your body is in a fasting state from the previous evening until after your morning workout too many hours have passed until you have any nutrition, which is very important for lifting. Once you've burned through all of the reserved carbo's and fat stored from the previous day, you'll surely start burning muscle. Of course, you won't have as much energy for lifting after a moderate to heavy cardio workout.

For myself, and my goals, when I was cutting bf, and trying to lose weight, I did 3 days cardio for 45 minutes, and 3 days lifting. Then, took Sunday off. I started taking a MRP before my workout, so I could sustain high intensity during my training (cardio, or resistance). Then, like you, I would eat within one hour after training. Usually, a MRP. If you insist, on training on an empty stomach, you should eat before you go to bed, and try to eat six small meals per day. BTW, now I train 2 days cardio, and 4 days weights, on different days, and I'm still getting bigger, but my waist stay a healthy 32".