A constant question that always seems to come up is “what should I eat before my morning workout?” It will follow up with, “does my type of workout depend on what I eat in the morning?” And will continue on with “do I have to eat before my morning workout?”
In my experience, there are a multitude of answers to these questions. However, right now I am going to break it down for you as simple as possible so you never have to ask these above questions ever again!
So to your FIRST question, “what should I eat before a morning workout?”. I have found that eating a small portion of protein with a combination of a small portion of carbs is going to be optimal to fuel you through an A.M workout session. I would say, and many fitness experts would agree, you need about 15-20 grams of protein with about 30-40 grams of carbs.
Now, before you go and start shoveling down steak, eggs, oatmeal, toast, & juice it depends on how soon after you have that meal you plan on working out.
If you are going to have a king size breakfast like the one I stated above, you will need atleast 2-3 hours of digestion time before you hit the workout or you risk being even more sluggish during your routine.
If you decide you will actually follow my advice of 15-20 grams of protein and 30-40 grams of carbs, you will need about an hour to digest as this will optimally fuel your workout.
You can still get away with slightly less protein and carbs needing only 25-40 minutes of digestion time.
So now you know your timing, I have to tell you what to eat. Your protein in the morning can come from eggs, chicken, steak, or a protein shake. And to keep it simple for your carbs, no pun intended for you nutrition nuts out there!; you can have fruits, whole wheat toast, oatmeal, grits, or juice. I suggest the fruit if you are working out sooner because it will digest fast and give your blood sugar a faster spike to get the energy you need RIGHT AWAY!
Now SECONDLY, I am sure you would like to know “does my style of working out depend on what I eat in the morning?” Well of course it does! I mean, just take a look at your goals. Are you trying to lose weight? gain weight? Build a lot of muscle? get shredded? Increase endurance? And also take into consideration, is your workout insanely intense? Is it slow and steady? Is it cardio based? Weight based?
If your routine is super intense and you are really pushing yourself, you may need even more protein and carbs to keep you lasting through the whole workout.
If your workout is weight based with moderate intensity, go with my recommend 2:1 ratio of protein to carbs, 15-20 grams of protein with 30-40 grams of carbs. Oh, by the way, I keep reverting back to my original ratio because this is optimally the best amount of nutrients your average man or women would need for an A.M. workout. I mean, you should be hitting your workouts with moderate to high intensity anyway if you plan on seeing results!
If your workout is light cardio, jogging, the elliptical machine, you can go with less than my recommended ratio as you may not need that many calories from the food to get through the workout. Which brings us to the last question…
“Do I have to eat before my morning workout?”. This is probably the most asked out of the 3 questions. What I want to tell you first is, go back through this entire article and find out who YOU ARE individually by asking yourself a few questions…
Do you wake up early? late? Are you tired in the morning or do you already have a ton of energy? Do you feel tired after eating in the morning? Are you insanely hungry when you wake up?
Do you workout as intensely as a spartan warrior going into battle? Are you just and average guy or gal burning some calories in the morning and trying to lose some body fat? Are you really serious about your goals?!
Now that you have answered all these questions, you should have a good idea of who you are individually and should have an idea if you need some nourishment before you hit your morning workout routine.
What I will tell you though, is that about 80% of people of I’ve known and trained have consumed some sort of nourishment prior to their morning workout and have seen more results because of that!
Just remember this, you may fall within a certain category I have described here that helps mold your decisions on your morning workout food choices, but you as the individual will always have your specific needs. It is a process and you just have to find out what works best for YOU!