Thread: What to eat 30 minutes before a workout

oats.....

then a whey shake right after the workout

Originally Posted by camfit

I workout early in the morning, 6:00 am. I am up at 5:15am. What sould I be eating before my workout? I am into bodybuilding.

do cardio on a black coffee

if your weigh training do it later in the day after a couple of meals

I use a shake of whey/oats/water...

you need some form of an easily digestable protein and some carbs. the body is in a catabolic state when you wake up. if you train in that state you are further increasing the protein defecit and increasing cortisol levels.

training with weights on an empty stomach first thing in the AM is probably the worst thing you could do

I won't eat anything 60min before my workout.

I do not like physical exercise with a full stomach

Originally Posted by lnvanry

I won't eat anything 60min before my workout.

I do not like physical exercise with a full stomach

You to remember he hasn't eaten since the night before.
also Workout at 6:00 and midway through my workout I lose energy if I don't eat something. I just hate cooking so early in the mourning and I screw up by just eating a banana.

Originally Posted by min0 lee

You to remember he hasn't eaten since the night before.
also Workout at 6:00 and midway through my workout I lose energy if I don't eat something. I just hate cooking so early in the mourning and I screw up by just eating a banana.

fried egg sandwich on whole wheat bread!!!!! bast preworkout meal ever

Shhhhh, I eat this afterwards but with bacon.

bacon is my nemesis!

Originally Posted by min0 lee

Shhhhh, I eat this afterwards but with bacon.

Is that how you got that big ass???

Originally Posted by camfit

I workout early in the morning, 6:00 am. I am up at 5:15am. What sould I be eating before my workout? I am into bodybuilding.

You want something relatively fast to digest and something that is going to offer you carbs and protein.

so things like:
Skim milk or ff/sf yoghurt
Relatively light/non-heavy fruit (banana, strawberries etc)
whey
+/- some oats (quick oats would be best)


I am up at 5am to work out at 6am... I do a mix where, the night before I add some oats to some natural yoghurt and put it in the fridge - then the next morning I add whey and some fruit. Works perfectly!

Thanks. I have been eating oatmeal, bananas with peanut butter, yogert, or milk. I do start to lose energy just over halfway through, but I am working out for 90 minutes or more. I always have a protien shake following my workout.

Originally Posted by ForemanRules

Is that how you got that big ass???

Nope but my ____ did grow from it.

Originally Posted by Emma-Leigh

You want something relatively fast to digest and something that is going to offer you carbs and protein.

so things like:
Skim milk or ff/sf yoghurt
Relatively light/non-heavy fruit (banana, strawberries etc)
whey
+/- some oats (quick oats would be best)


I am up at 5am to work out at 6am... I do a mix where, the night before I add some oats to some natural yoghurt and put it in the fridge - then the next morning I add whey and some fruit. Works perfectly!

I should try that.

Originally Posted by camfit

Thanks. I have been eating oatmeal, bananas with peanut butter, yogert, or milk. I do start to lose energy just over halfway through, but I am working out for 90 minutes or more. I always have a protien shake following my workout.

Firstly - Dump the PB. That fat will be doing nothing for you except for slowing the digestion of that meal making the first have of your workouts semi-fasted..

Secondly - If you are working out for >90 minutes I would urge you to consider taking a protein/carb drink into training with you and I would start to sip that after you hit about 75 minutes... Once you head over 90 minutes (if you are training intensly) your glycogen levels will start to plummit and your workouts will become ultra-unproductive.

And what exactly are you training for that you require 90 minute sessions?

Well, I do split training. Upper body, lower body, then upper again. I usually work two muscle groups per session. Chest and Biceps, Legs, Shoulders, back and triceps. My weight training last for an 1:15 minutes and then I do cardio for 20-30 minutes or so depending on my time. It was only recently, the past three-four months or so that I starting training to gain muscle mass/bodybuilding. The past 5 years I did weight training off and on and was only interested in maintaining. Whatever suggestions you have let me know. I know nutrition in a crucial part to gaining weight. I did weigh 117 6 months ago and now I am 126, 19% body fat. I want to gain weight but lose body fat% the same time. So the is just a bit about myself

Originally Posted by camfit

My weight training last for an 1:15 minutes and then I do cardio for 20-30 minutes or so depending on my time. It was only recently, the past three-four months or so that I starting training to gain muscle mass/bodybuilding....

Whatever suggestions you have let me know. I know nutrition in a crucial part to gaining weight. I did weigh 117 6 months ago and now I am 126, 19% body fat. I want to gain weight but lose body fat% the same time.

If you want to maximise the benefits of your weights sessions then you might want to consider seperating them from your cardio sessions (this way you can also get the most benefits from your cardio sessions too).

If you can't, then don't worry (because at the end of the day just training sensibly + getting good nutrition is going to be more important)... but it can help.

If you are going to do these long sessions then I would strongly suggest you do take in a GOOD pre-workout meal and that you ensure you have a good PWO meal too...

Pre-workout I would do no less than 0.25-0.33g carbs per pound (so 31-45g carb) and a good dose of protein too (~20-30g). So this could be:
0.33 cups oats
0.5 banana
1 cup skim milk
0.5 scoops whey
TOTAL = ~300 cals, 44g carbs, 25g protein, 2g fat

PWO you want 0.5g carbs per pound and 0.25g protein per pound. So you could do something like:
0.5 banana
1 scoop whey
1 cup skim milk
45g (3 tbs) dextrose
TOTALS = ~430 cals, 70g carbs, 33g protein, 1g fat


Or, if you wanted a mix with lower GI:
0.5 banana
1 scoop whey
1 cup skim milk
0.5 cup oats
1 tbs (15g) dextrose
TOTALS = ~465 cals, 68g carbs, 38g protein, 4g fat




About the 'decreasing BF% while gaining weight - you can do it... it just means you have to gain more muscle than fat (if you gain muscle and not a lot of fat then, as your weight increases, your bf% will decrease)...

Hey, Thanks for the feedback. Duh I should know that as you gain muscle weight that your body fat% will go down, I preach it everyday. As for the pre and post workout meals, they sound great. Pretty much what I have been doing but I guess not large enough quanities. For years it was all about low calorie intake and just losing weight, it is hard to adjust to the huge increase in calorie intake. Even though I increased a great deal maybe not enough.

For some reason eating some fats with my first meal of the day never seems to affect my workouts. I'm sure it would be optimal to cut out the fats, but it really doesn't seem to bother me. I'm usually in the gym about 45 minutes after breakfast.

You don't think the body begins to uptake any nutrients and stifle catabolic hormones after that long? I would think that it should...

Originally Posted by CowPimp

You don't think the body begins to uptake any nutrients and stifle catabolic hormones after that long? I would think that it should...

It is not really up to the body as to whether it wants the nutrients or not - rather the fat chemically slows the digestion regardless of the needs of the body (fat causes a reflex hormonal release that tells the stomach to 'slow down') so, even if your body wants those nutrients, it is going to be delayed.

And yes you do get some energy released/taken up - but you will not get a lot before you workout (and then working out itself will further delay things) so the first half of your workout will be 'semi-fasted' and the second half will be slow to take as well.

And pre-workout nutrition is more important than PWO nutrition in terms of performance and for stimulating maximal anabolism... So as I have said before, doing it like this is essentially 'working on half a tank'...

Also - you have to remember that these fats will then take >2-3 hrs for digestion, so they will still be in your stomach/intestines after your workout and will also go on to slow the digestion of your PWO meal too... So you are missing that whole vital window of nutrition.

But we have had this conversation before - and I believe I said "if it isn't broken...." So - as long as it is working for you then don't worry about it...

Originally Posted by Emma-Leigh

You want something relatively fast to digest and something that is going to offer you carbs and protein.

so things like:
Skim milk or ff/sf yoghurt
Relatively light/non-heavy fruit (banana, strawberries etc)
whey
+/- some oats (quick oats would be best)


I am up at 5am to work out at 6am... I do a mix where, the night before I add some oats to some natural yoghurt and put it in the fridge - then the next morning I add whey and some fruit. Works perfectly!

what are quick oats?????

Originally Posted by Emma-Leigh

It is not really up to the body as to whether it wants the nutrients or not - rather the fat chemically slows the digestion regardless of the needs of the body (fat causes a reflex hormonal release that tells the stomach to 'slow down') so, even if your body wants those nutrients, it is going to be delayed.

And yes you do get some energy released/taken up - but you will not get a lot before you workout (and then working out itself will further delay things) so the first half of your workout will be 'semi-fasted' and the second half will be slow to take as well.

And pre-workout nutrition is more important than PWO nutrition in terms of performance and for stimulating maximal anabolism... So as I have said before, doing it like this is essentially 'working on half a tank'...

Also - you have to remember that these fats will then take >2-3 hrs for digestion, so they will still be in your stomach/intestines after your workout and will also go on to slow the digestion of your PWO meal too... So you are missing that whole vital window of nutrition.

But we have had this conversation before - and I believe I said "if it isn't broken...." So - as long as it is working for you then don't worry about it...

Yeah, well I haven't been trying to gain weight in a while. I don't plan on it until my shoulder is fully healed so I don't make things even more uneven in terms of size/strength. So, I really don't know how "broken" my breakfast is or not except that I don't feel tired when I workout unless I'm lacking sleep.

Is there some kind of upper limit on how much fat you would recommend I ingest with this meal to prevent it from being an issue? I would like to avoid having this meal turn into another shake, but that seems like the best way to go about it.

I was thinking something along the lines of:

8oz Apple/Orange Juice
20G Brewer's Yeast
40G Oats
4oz 2% Milk
.5 Scoop Whey

There should be something like 5G of fat in that meal. Would that be too much in your opinion?

Also, I typically take a multi-vitamin/mineral here. However, I would probably move it because the yeast has a lot of nutrients in it already. Perhaps it doesn't really matter. I'm probably overthinking this all, but hey, I want to straighten out my pre-workout nutrition. I know it is highly important.