The Best Meals to Eat before a Workout

When consuming a meal before your workout, there are a couple of things to look for in order to get the most out of your nutrition and workout. You can read more about the dos and don’ts about workout nutrition here. What you should be looking for are foods that are high in carbs and proteins and low in fat. For carbs, you want something fast acting because the last thing you want is to lift weights on a full tummy. You want to feel satisfied but not “stuffed”. So think rice, potatoes, fruit, jelly.

You should consume a minimum of 20g of lean protein before and after your workout.  Your carbs should be the highest around your training, At least 35% of your daily carb intake should be consumed before and after your workout. For example, let’s say your total daily carb intake is 135g. Your Pre and Post workout meals should be 47.25g of carbs pre-workout and 47.25g of carbs post workout. The remaining 94.5g of carbs should be divided by the rest of the meals you have left for the day. If you eat a total of 5 meals a day, including your pre and post workout, then you would divide 94.5 by 3 to get 31.5g of carbs in the rest of your meals.

That’s just the basics of it. There are other contributing factors that go along with creating a meal plan for a diet. It depends on your hormones, your goals, your digestion, glycogen absorption just to name a few. Not every one of my clients has the same type of meal plan, nor should they because everyone is different. But this is just the basics that you can definitely start with.

Here are a couple of meals that you can have pre-workout

-          Rice Cakes w/ Turkey Slices and a fruit

-          Rice cake mixed with protein powder and jelly

-          A protein shake with fruits

-          Greek yogurt and a fruit

-          Oatmeal (if you have 1-2 hrs prior to working out)

-          Coffee drink with a scoop of protein and some type of syrup (this would be something you can have only if you're in a rush and only have a couple of minutes to get to your workout or you forgot to eat and you need a fast boost of energy & nutrients)

What are some of your favorite Pre-Workout snacks you like to have?