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POSTED IN Nutrition, Workout Tips // Comments (16)

Do You Eat Before Your Workout?

EXCERPTED FROM COOKING LIGHT

“Think of a pre-workout snack as fuel­ing, not fill­ing,” says fit­ness expert Myatt Mur­phy, CSCS. “Aim for 100 to 200 calo­ries, just enough to give you enough energy for exer­cise. Too much food, and your stom­ach will be work­ing out at the same time to digest it all.”

Thirty min­utes before exer­cise is the way to pace this. If you’re an early bird, a pre­-workout snack is essential—there’s no fuel in the tank. If you exer­cise mid-afternoon, you might need less.

What to eat: The best pre-­workout snacks pro­vide a mix of carbs and protein—a banana and a hand­ful of nuts or a slice of whole-grain bread with peanut butter.

There’s been much debate about this around BC4C… do you eat before your work­out? If so, what do you eat?

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16 Responses to “Do You Eat Before Your Workout?”

1. Kathleen says:

   September 13, 2011 at 8:49 am

   Great job this morn­ing!! We have some stealth super speed­ies in our group (Jen­nifer, Lisa, Ian, and Jes­sica to name a few).

   As for the pre-workout eat­ing debate, I say every­one is dif­fer­ent and you should exper­i­ment to see what works for you. I like to have some juice and about 1/3 of a mojo bar.

   I will be lead­ing an optional work­out tomor­row at the same time and place. We will do strength train­ing and yoga. Please bring light weights and a yoga mat or beach towel if you have them. If not, I always bring spare. If you have any ques­tions, please email me at kathleen@​bc4​c.​com.
2. Julie says:

   September 13, 2011 at 9:29 am

   I asked this ques­tion a few months ago as I was really tired dur­ing a cou­ple of work­outs (turns out my din­ners the nights before were not help­ing), and Lau­ren told me about these great snacks for kids called ‘Buddy Fruits’. You can get them at Pub­lix, they’re basi­cally mashed up fruit in a con­ve­nient squeeze pack. Half of one before a work­out helps on days I’m feel­ing slug­gish and wak­ing up is tough.

   Now, I have another ques­tion for the group: I’m find­ing at about 8:30 a.m. I crash — I could be fully dressed and leav­ing for work OR dri­ving to work (yikes) and I’m strug­gling to keep my eyes open. A dol­lar to the per­son who cures me!
3. Jeff says:

   September 13, 2011 at 9:41 am

   I do not eat before, I just chug water until I leave for the park. AFTER the work­out, I imme­di­ately drink a glass of choco­late 2% milk, shower, then eat break­fast (cof­fee, juice and a meet/cheese sand­wich). This holds me until around 10:00.

   Julie, make sure you eat after work­outs to replen­ish your fuel and raise your blood sugar, and make sure some is pro­tein so it’s not just carbs. I used to feel too sick after work­outs to eat (dehy­dra­tion, usu­ally), but I just kept forc­ing myself to drink the milk and it helped.

   See you Thursday.
4. Susan says:

   September 13, 2011 at 10:11 am

   This is a great con­ver­sa­tion! Every­one is dif­fer­ent, so we each need to find out what works for us. I can­not eat prior to boot camp — it’s just to early for me. I drink water on the way to the park and through­out the workout.
5. Pumpkin#1 says:

   September 13, 2011 at 10:14 am

   Great work out for sure!! Dont for­get super speed­ies Jamie and Jamie.

   Julie — Defin­tely need to have some pro­tien in your body after the work out. Some thing with B vit­a­mins may help give you the extra push also. Any of the B vits give you energy. Just look at almost any energy drink and they are loaded with B vits and of course three tons of sugar. Not recomend­ing any energy drinks just stat­ing a fact about B vits.

   See some of you peeps tomor­row for YOGA with WEIGHTS!!
6. Lauren says:

   September 13, 2011 at 11:00 am

   Yes, I eat a pack­age of Buddy Fruits each morn­ing before the work­out. It’s easy to digest, has some fiber in addi­tion to the sug­ars, and gives me a great carb charge for the workout.

   Julie, I agree with all the other com­ments so far… it’s impor­tant to get pro­tein into your body as quickly as pos­si­ble after the work­out. Espe­cially if you’re only tak­ing in carbs before the work­out. Pro­tein helps slow your diges­tion and helps level out your sugar spike and crashes.

   I used to always drink choco­late milk after my work­out like Jeff, but now I enjoy a hard-boiled egg or cot­tage cheese, or yogurt. Choco­late milk is still good, though!

   If you can bring a small protein-packed snack to eat on the way home from boot camp, you’ll be set!

   Check out this blog post about when and what to eat after your work­out:
   http://​www​.bc4c​.com/​2​0​1​1​/​0​7​/​0​7​/​w​h​e​n​-​a​n​d​-​w​h​a​t​-​t​o​-​e​a​t​-​a​f​t​e​r​-​y​o​u​r​-​w​o​r​k​o​ut/

   And, here’s one more idea: MFJ has got­ten a lit­tle post-workout Grand Slam club going. I have enjoyed three Grand Slams after work­outs this month so far — and I have been pleased with the energy and mood boost! Come join the club!
7. Andy says:

   September 13, 2011 at 11:01 am

   Every­one is dif­fer­ent, I do not like eat­ing before a work­out, though I will have 1/2 a Clif bar before a long run (6+ miles) but I also make sure I am eat­ing prop­erly the day before.

   I try to have pro­tein with every meal (espe­cially din­ner) so that I don’t wake up hungry.

   In addi­tion to pro­tein, it is impor­tant to get enough calo­ries and fat dur­ing the day. I think we spend too much time focused on cut­ting calo­ries and fat to lose weight, but both are impor­tant to keep­ing our bod­ies strong and effi­cient. The key is hav­ing the right kind of fat and calo­ries not the kind that come from Schweddy Balls Ice Cream — http://​www​.hulu​.com/​w​a​t​c​h​/​4​1​5​6​/​s​a​t​u​r​d​a​y​-​n​i​g​h​t​-​l​i​v​e​-​n​p​r​s​-​d​e​l​i​c​i​o​u​s​-​d​i​s​h​-​s​c​h​w​e​d​d​y​-​b​a​lls

   Non­sat­u­rated fats are impor­tant as are at least 1200 net calo­ries a day (more for men). Net calo­ries are what you eat minus what you burn.

   Some great resources to help you deter­mine fats and calo­ries are Dai­ly­Plate and MyFit­ness­Pal. Both have web­sites with data­bases and smart­phone apps to allow you to track your caloric, carb, fat and pro­tein intake.

   Great effort today. The cooler weather is really bring­ing out that extra push from everyone.
8. Leigh says:

   September 13, 2011 at 11:36 am

   Eat­ing is overrated.
9. Brett says:

   September 13, 2011 at 11:41 am

   Great work­out today, always like when we get lots of run­ning in.
   As for food, I seem to have bet­ter work­outs on an empty stom­ach. So I don’t eat any­thing before the work­out. Some­times I drink half a red bull for caf­feine. And I always try to eat by 7:30…either a smoothie or a bowl of cereal w milk.
10. Kayron says:

    September 13, 2011 at 12:03 pm

    I don’t eat any­thing before a work­out either. I’ve tried var­i­ous things but for me, it’s bet­ter to just eat after. Although if I’m really feel­ing low energy, I some­times like half water/half gatorade in my water bot­tle dur­ing Boot.
    I’m in the Grand Slam Club too! Although I was the only par­tic­i­pat­ing mem­ber there today…ahem.
    The only prob­lems I see (besides the taste of the gin­ger shot) are that A: You’re sup­posed to do it on an empty stom­ach, and B: You’re not sup­posed to eat for at least an hour after. Not sure how to sat­isfy that require­ment AND the “get some pro­tein into your body ASAP” require­ment at the same time.
    How­ever, I am going to try the choco­late milk plan; that sounds yummy!
11. Julie says:

    September 13, 2011 at 1:57 pm

    Thanks all! Great sug­ges­tions, I’ll try them one by one and when I find one that works, I’ll make the per­son who sug­gested it the dessert of their choos­ing (as healthy as humanly possible).

    J.
12. Girl Jamie says:

    September 13, 2011 at 5:54 pm

    Woo! It was great being back in the park with you all (espe­cially my same name friend, Boy Jayme!). I’ll tell you what WON’T work food-wise…eating 3 slices of pizza and 10 pieces of choco­late and think­ing that will get you through one of Daniel’s work­outs. Shoooooot. I was eat­ing dust today try­ing to keep up with the super duper speedies!

    When it rains, it pours. And it was rain­ing Asians today! 4 Asians at boot­camp this morn­ing = Asian inva­sion! AGCW — per­haps I will see you in…November…after my 5 week work trip to Cal­i­for­nia. Who wants to come visit me?

    Every­one was push­ing hard today and it was a lung buster! Thanks, Daniel. Remind me to give you an extra butt slap the next time I see you.
13. Girl Jamie says:

    September 13, 2011 at 5:55 pm

    What is a Grand Slam?
14. Lauren says:

    September 13, 2011 at 6:02 pm

    Grand Slam from Arden’s Garden:

    1 oz (or 2 oz) Wheat Grass Juice
    1 oz Pure Gin­ger Extract
    1 oz Pure Lemon Juice
    1 oz Pure Cran­berry Juice
15. Mary Ellen says:

    September 13, 2011 at 8:35 pm

    I sec­ond (third? fourth? tenth?) the post-workout pro­tein suggestion.

    Kath­leen, thanks for lead­ing the work­out today. Andrew, you’re fast for an old fart.

    See you all on Thursday!

    M.E.
16. Emily says:

    September 14, 2011 at 10:20 pm

    Wow, it never even occurred to me to eat any­thing at 5:30 in the morn­ing! I’m lucky to make it out with my pants and shoes on, and some­times even my nametag. Maybe I’ll give it a try.

    I usu­ally eat an egg on ezekial toast or a Greek yogurt at 7:30, but the Star­bucks club is more my speed than the grand slam club.

    See y’all Fri­day. Cant make it tomorrow.