Time to continue with our series on what to eat when to power and recover from your workouts.
Last week, we reviewed what the basic nutrients are. This week, we put all of these nutrients together to create a pre-workout meal. Why do you want to eat before your workout? You eat a pre-workout meal to take in put some gas in your tank. You want to consume adequate calories to fuel you through a workout.
Workouts can be anything from weight training to cardio work or some combination of the two (like Boot Camp). Attempting to work out without eating before hand is like trying to drive your car with no gas in the tank … you can push it, but it doesn’t perform well.
A pre-exercise meal can be consumed anywhere from 1-4 hours before the exercise. That’s a big gap, I know. The question I get most often is, “What can I eat just before I arrive at the gym for my workout?” so this week I’ll focus on what to eat in the hour before your workout.
Within the one-hour window, meals should be high in carbohydrate and contain some fluid. Carbohydrate and fluid will clear the stomach rapidly and the nutrients are moved quickly into the working muscles. Fluids pre-hydrate you for your workout. Avoid fat in these meals because fat requires more time in the stomach to be digested and is not a good choice for the one-hour window.
What should be in the meal? Here’s the formula: no more than one gram of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight.
Translated into real food, that could mean something like an English muffin with 1Tbsp of honey, 8 oz. (1 cup) of orange juice and 8-oz. (1 cup) of water. Think high-energy foods that are easily digested. Bananas, bagels (small), corn flakes, carrots, oatmeal, jelly beans, cookies, (Yes, I said jelly beans and cookies. Pre-workout is a great time to indulge your sweet tooth…those carbs are quickly digested and ready to fuel you through a great workout), are all good choices pre-workout. This is also a good time to consider sports drinks as they are high in carbs and easily digested so you won’t have that “heavy on thestomach,” feeling.
Next week, what to eat 1-4 hours before your workout.
