PRE AND POST WORKOUT NUTRITION

Depending on what type of training you’re doing, you may also find that during and post-workout nutrition is also beneficial. The length of the workout, type of workout, etc. all go into this determination.

So again, the answer is that it depends. Certainly, there is some logic to having nutrients in the system during and right after training by consuming something right before the workout. But this is complicated by whether or not you’ve eaten a whole-food meal in the few hours before your training. As above, if you’ve eaten within 2-3 hours, I wouldn’t bother with anything before your workout.

If it’s been 3-4 hours since your last meal, I’d suggest at least experimenting with eating something maybe 30 minutes before workout (this could be a protein bar, a small carb/protein drink) to normalize blood glucose and get some amino acids into the system is probably a good idea.

About 0.3-0.5 g/kg (0.14-0.23 g/lb) of both carbs and protein would be a good starting place. For a 180 lb lifter that’s 25-40 grams of carbs and protein combined about 30 minutes before your workout (to give the nutrients time to get into your system).

I would mention that a small percentage of people seem to get rebound blood sugar issues from consuming rapidly digesting nutrients right before a workout; if you’re one of them you’ll want to wait until you start warming up to eat anything. Exercise blunts insulin response and waiting until your warm-up to start eating anything limits the possibility of a negative blood glucose response.