If you’re looking for good performance in the gym, on the field, or anywhere where physical performance is needed, you need to know that the pre workout meals are just as important as your post workout meals.
However not every pre workout meal is a good one. In this article we will discuss the most important things you need to consider, if you want to make a muscle building, performance pre workout meal.
What you really need to eat before a workout
There are some basically nutrients you should add to your meal and certain nutrients to remove because they can hinder performance. Here is a list of food you need to eat before a workout and foods to avoid.
Cut the fat
Fat is known to slow down digestion, which is not something you want before you work out. Slow digestion means upset stomach during the workout and slower flow of nutrients for your muscles.
Cut the fiber
Fiber is a very important nutrient when it comes to health and protein absorption, but you don’t need it in your pre workout meals. It slows the digestion of protein, allowing the body to absorb all the protein consumed from big meals and making it available over an extended time period. But like we mentioned, slow absorption can cause difficulties during a workout.
Leave sufficient time for the pre-workout meal to be digested
First of all, eating a meal right before you go to workout won’t do you good, since the stomach needs blood supply in order to work properly. During the workout the blood flows to other body parts and interrupts digestion. Eat your meal at least 1 to 2 hours before the workout. The bigger meal you eat the more time it needs to be digested.
Consume 25-35 grams of protein pre-workout
25 to 30 grams of protein is just enough to keep a steady flow of amino acids to the muscles and keep you in anabolic state during the workout. It is desirable to consume easy digesting protein such as whey instead of meat or casein.
You need to consume fast digesting carbohydrates
The energy for the intense workout will be provided by carbohydrates. Carbs that are easily broken down to glycogen will be the perfect choice for the pre workout meals.
You can consume white rice, potatoes, juices, fruits that are poor in fiber, or even dextrose. About 20-30g of these carbohydrates will ensure your body enough fuel for the intense workout.
If you are not a big “eater”, it’s better to consume a small meal
Not many people people can tolerate well a big meal before a workout. In this case you can have a protein shake and add some fruits or honey. This will be enough to get you through intense exercise.
Use probiotics
Probiotics contain bifidus and acidophilus bacteria strains. Studies have shown that these colonies of good bacteria in our gut can grow with increased intake of probiotics, which leads to increased digestive system functionality, increased immune system function and also a bigger resistance of the body to food allergies and food intolerances.
You can take a probiotic with your pre-workout meal to speed up digestion and reduce the symptoms of an upset stomach.
Use supplements that increase insulin sensitivity
Insulin sensitivity is the relationship between how much insulin needs to be produced in order to deposit a certain amount of glucose. The more insulin sensitive you are, the less insulin needs to be produced in order to store glycogen in the muscles and more glycogen gets stored as muscle glycogen instead of fat.
Insulin sensitivity supplements may be supplements that directly act upon cells to induce insulin sensitizing effects (like resveratrol or L-Carnitine or ALA )
