Eating Before Working Out

Earlier this week, a friend of mine said that her son was getting headaches and overall just not feeling well after his track practice. I told her that he should have a little something in his stomach before track practice and that should cure the problem. Sure enough, that did it.

Had the same situation occur last night in my kickboxing class. It was a pretty intense class and one student came up to me afterwards and said "ya know, it's amazing how much more energized you are with just having a banana before class."

I know there's a myth out there that working on an empty stomach will result in burning more of your body fat.

The reality is that the majority of the calories you burn during the workout is from carbohydrates from food and glucose in your blood, liver, and muscle. The reason for this is because those sources turn into the energy that you need for the activity that you're performing more quickly than converting body fat into that energy.

Don't get depressed about that. If your workout is intense enough, then after the workout your body goes into fat burning mode in order to repair muscle, build muscle, build up the bone mineral density in your bones, repair your nervous system, etc.

So by having a little bit to eat before you workout will give you the extra energy to keep the intensity up which will then result in more fat being burned AFTER the workout.

What to eat and how much? Well , don't make it a seven course meal. Just something like a quick shot of an energy drink, maybe a protein bar, a banana, a granola bar, something that has a little bit of protein, a moderate amount of carbs, and a minimal amount of dietary fat.

I'm going to say it again. Be more concerned about the intensity of your workout so you'll burn more calories AFTER the workout, not during the workout and getting a little bit of food in your body before the workout is going to help you keep that intensity up.

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