What Is The Best Thing To Eat Before Exercise?

It’s important to remember that before practising any sort of exercise, you should have enough to eat to provide enough energy to get through it, but make sure that you are following a healthy diet and eating at the right time. If you start without anything in your system, you can wear yourself out quickly and get too tired to continue. Here are some tips to remember before starting sports.

Obviously, overeating can make you feel full, making it difficult to accomplish as much as you’d like to, because the digestion process concentrates blood around the stomach. That blood is usually necessary for transporting oxygen throughout the body, especially to muscles.

Types of Food

What you eat before, during and after a session of physical exercise is very important for staving off exhaustion and actually completing your workout regime. Foods such as energy bars, beverages, jellies and other carbohydrates are very easy to digest and can help prevent distracting symptoms of hunger during athletic activity, all while helping you maintain the proper levels of energy you need.

The most important source of food for the muscles is glycogen (a polysaccharide energy reserve formed by branched chains of glucose see Wikipedia). After exercise, the body takes time to replenish these glycogen stores and what you eat after exercise can help or diminish this process. Taking in adequate food at the right time is essential for recovery and preparation for your next session.

What you eat before exercise often depends on your individual needs and preferences, but you should design it according to the intensity, duration and type of exercise you plan to do. So, if you want to walk a lot, run or ride a bike for a few hours, glucose is the preferred source for most of these exercises. For this reason a pre-exercise meal should include foods rich in carbohydrates and that are easy to digest. For example, pasta, fruit, bread, energy pills and drinks.

Carbohydrates, Fats or Proteins ?

Carbohydrates are the main nutrient that fuels exercise of a moderate to high intensity, while fat can fuel low intensity exercise for long periods of time. Generally, proteins are used to maintain and repair the state of the body and are often used for muscle activity.

For sugar intake, it is best to take in fruit and chocolate with a high cocoa content.  The ideal fat to use is vegetable fat such as olive oil, avocados. Another source of good fat is the blue fish, such as salmon.

When Should You Eat Before Exercise? 

Physical exercise on a full stomach is not advisable. The food that remains in your stomach during exercise can cause nausea, stomach discomfort and soreness. Make sure you have enough energy and that one to four hours have passed since you last ate (depending on what you’ve eaten and the quantity) before practising any sports, though this all depends on each person.