What to eat before training?
Before a workout it is important to eat the right way to avoid not only having to throw in the towel after a few minutes of activity but also low blood sugar levels and dehydration problems.
There are so many doubts, especially among those who are not experts and have recently started going to a gym.
However, the questions are always the same: how much to eat? What to eat? And when to eat?
The answer is not universal but depends on the activity you are about to do and obviously before going to the gym you will not have to take in the same nutrients that you would take before a run.
When to eat before training?
The fear of feeling heavy and not being able to train affects everyone but often leads to incorrect attitudes and worse risks than a little drowsiness in the gym.
Not eating anything before a workout is absolutely wrong and can have dramatic consequences such as dizziness and fainting.
This is because the body during physical activity consumes enormous quantities of carbohydrates and liquids, the former used to produce energy , the latter lost through sweat which cools the body.
Pre workout snack
This is why before starting a session you should always consume the right amount of nutrients which varies depending on the chosen activity.
Before a run it is best not to overdo it, especially if the run is intense, to avoid the risk of annoying acid refluxes due to the movement of food thrown from one part of the stomach to the other.
Weightlifting allows a little more but pay attention to the intensity here too. In general, the amount of food should not be less than 250-300kcal to ensure you have sufficient energy for the entire training session.
Digestibility is important and instead influences the time that must pass between meals and training. The digestion of fats and proteins is quite slow and it is better not to start working before 2:30/3:00 hours in which you have the opposite effect that you would like to obtain.
Digestion, like any process, consumes energy and lowers the glycemic index, making us feel tired, which is why in the first hours after a heavy or abundant meal we suffer from a lack of energy. If you don’t know what and how much to eat.
What to eat before a workout?
The best nutrients to consume are undoubtedly simple and complex sugars . Green light for fruit, pasta, bread, rice and honey, all foods that give you energy in their own way, but according to different rules. For example, bread, rice and pasta are complex carbohydrates and take a long time to digest and release their energy.
You should take them if you intend to train for a long time such as before a session in the weight room or if you intend to run for many kilometers. Fruit, sugar and honey give immediate energy and are perfect before a short jog or zumba or crossfit sessions that do not exceed an hour.
If in doubt, you can create meals that mix both types with the result of being full of energy from the start and maintaining it for the entire duration of the exercise. However, if this has to last for many hours, as in the case of the marathon, there are two options to save the body from fainting.
What to eat before a very long workout
The first consists of taking small quantities of simple sugars at half-hour intervals so as to refuel during the journey. The second is to try to slow down the absorption of bread or pasta with foods that slow digestion such as dietary fiber. In fact, a sandwich with lots of vegetables inside is absorbed much more slowly than bread alone and can be of great help if you are about to try your hand at endurance sports.
