The Best Pre-Workout Fuel

I may or may not be the best person to give advice on this, that all depends on your perspective.  I’ve been practicing fasting for two years now and in my fasting schedule I do not eat until 5pm. This may be a red flag to some considering I workout before I eat, however, I can tell you that I do not feel any decrease in strength or energy. As a matter of fact, because my body isn’t in the process of digesting, all of the blood necessary to perform the weight lifting is available.

With that, I’m not saying that you will experience the same results if you were to go a week or for multiple days without any food, if you were to follow a similar fasting schedule of roughly a 20 hour fast then you too should have the same experience; it may take a little bit of time for your body to adapt to the new energy reserves, however, our bodies being the most efficient machines on the planet, you would be surprised how fast your body will adapt to the new circumstances.

Complexity Is Key

Ok, now that you are aware of my eating schedule I can tell you that the energy demands at the gym, or during any form of exercise, are exactly the same. Weight lifting is an anaerobic activity. Anaerobic means that instead of depending on the oxygen you breathe, your muscles depend on glycogen which is a form of energy that is produced and stored in the liver. This molecule is formed from glucose and glucose is what our bodies break all food down to during the digestion process (along with extracting the other nutrients like vitamins and minerals). The most efficient food source for creating this glucose is through carbohydrates. However, not all carbs are the same, and the carbs that you choose to eat all depend on how close your pre-workout meal is to the actual workout time.  I don’t suggest you eat right before any form of physical activity, but if you do decide to eat, let it be no sooner than 2 hours before your workout.  With that, the closer your meal is to your actual workout the more simple the carbohydrate needs to be, and vice versa.  Simple carbohydrates are essentially forms of sugar that don’t require much effort to break down into glucose; such as juice, honey, fruit, candy, jelly.  If you exercise before you eat (in a fasted state) Below is a list of more complex carbohydrates that I would recommend, be sure to steer clear from white breads, pasta, and the prepared foods that include these carb sources.

I suggest you get your carbs from these sources:

• Lentils (All types)
• Beans (All types…except prepared baked beans)
• Potatoes (All types…except prepared mashed potatoes)
• Oatmeal (stone ground…not the microwaveable kids stuff with fruit in it)
• Rice (All whole grain types…not the stripped white rice)

So To Sum Up

The complexity of your carbohydrate source all depends on how long after you eat that you decide to exercise; further away means more complex, shorter away means more simple.  This may not have been the suggestion you were expecting but I hope it gives you a new perspective that “eating before going to the gym” could also be interpreted as 20 hours before going to the gym.

The closer your meal is to your actual workout the more simple the carbohydrate needs to be, and vice versa.