The Truth About Eating Before You Workout

Justin_7272

I work out in the mornings (lifting followed by cardio) and have read varying opinions on the benefits/detriments to eating (specifically carbs) before working out. I've read doing so can redirect some bodily functions to digestion-which may be detrimental-to eating carbs 30-60 minutes before will allow your body to use that as fuel and will prevent burn out (though I've also read carbs are generally in the stomach 30-60 minutes before moving to the small intestine, so I'm not sure how they would be fully processed for energy consumption so soon after ingestion).

I'm not looking for a "whatever feels right" type of answer (personally, I don't seem to have an issue working out without eating), but rather scientific analysis/data that supports or refutes the notion that eating before working out is in fact beneficial. Any information is appreciated - thanks!

steveko89

I don't have the specific scientific analysis to back it up but I trust RP to be truly science-backed as they claim to be given my high opinion of Mike Isratel. Their guidance for a morning training session is some protein before and a little during training accompanied by a easy-to-burn carb source; i.e. Gatorade, Vitargo, or a fruit juice. My understanding is that there's some study out there that showed a higher hypertrophy response with intra-workout carbs. It's also my understanding to try to minimize fat intake around training which allegedly slow protein absorption.

In practice, I bought two big tubs of powdered gatorade and have found not-terrible flavor combinations with a few protein powders. I put ~2/3 of a scoop protein in a small shaker cup for the pre-workout protein and combine the other ~1/3 scoop protein and 32g of Gatorade in another shaker cup to sip while lifting (basically take one decent gulp between sets and it spaces pretty well through the whole session for me, YMMV). In general, I've been at least loosely following the RP templates for about 10 weeks and I've noticed at least an anecdotal improvement in body composition and energy level while overall calories and macros haven't changed significantly.

*It's worth noting this is very much majoring in the minors if you're not at least getting sufficient protein in total for the day and certainly wouldn't consider it any kind of prerequisite to progress.

heybales

https://www.biolayne.com/media/videos/educational/nutrient-timing/

Touches on pre-workout aspect, among other things.

Justin_7272

@steveko23 Appreciate the feedback. Definitely agree with the "majoring in the minors" comment. I have sufficient protein covered; currently 165lbs and hitting 160-180g/day on a 1,000+ cal deficit.

@heybales Info in this video is pretty much what I suspected (given he is correct. I eat ~30g protein (mix of food &/or protein shakes) every 3 hours, which is very easy to manage with work from home in place.

heybales

On endurance events, which rely heavily on keeping the blood flow with oxygen to working muscles - you can still digest/absorb some carbs.
The limit is usually how much your body happens to use of the blood flow to get what you put there, and how much food sits and causes issues later.

I've never seen anything suggesting priority is given to stomach for the muscles to suffer.

Regarding carbs, there is the research on endurance aerobic (case studies, I don't think big studies because you have to do blood samples and analyze, expensive on big groups) that shows you eat the carbs first and indeed with elevated insulin you just caused those carbs to be used first along with the fat, but elevated ratio compared to what you might have gotten not eating, which does mean it could extend out your already liver stored carbs.
Muscle-stored carbs can't be put back into the blood stream for use elsewhere anyway, so no concern there.

Now the problem, if insulin doesn't lower timely and nicely, you'll keep pulling from the liver stores past at that elevated ratio of carbs, instead of settling into a better endurance higher fat% ratio.

Caught that reference work as a myth to the high carb breakfast before a marathon not always being best, along with a big carb dinner night before is not really carb loading.

But that's aerobic endurance, not lifting which is going to be huge carb heavy source of energy. Elevated insulin or not, you may push off muscle store usage. So "endurance" lifting for the morning perhaps?
I'll see if I can find that study reference, probably on Dr Schoenfeld site lookgreatnaked.com

watts6151

Generally I have a good few hundred grams of carbs in me before I train, if I do train early or deep into a cutting phase my intra workout is a mixture of peptopro and karbolyn, the amount of carbs depends on the body parts been trained.
As previously said in the overall picture it’s a very small aspect

rheddmobile

Since you were wondering about how quickly food hits the bloodstream as glucose: I can tell you as a diabetic who tests blood sugar after eating that quick-digesting carbs such as gummies or juice hit the bloodstream within 15 minutes, peak at 45, and have been metabolized by 2 hours. Carbs combined with fiber or other macros such as potatoes take longer, and some carbs which are harder for the body to break down such as pasta can take hours to peak in the blood. People who aren’t diabetics will see less of a spike in the blood because with a healthy insulin response glucose starts to decline more quickly, but the speed at which food hits the bloodstream is the same.

It’s my understanding that insulin is conductive to hypertrophy if that’s a thing you’re after. So carbs before lifting would be good on that front.

I both lift and run, and my experience as a diabetic has been that I can lift fasted and in fact I’m not comfortable lifting after a full meal, but I lift better following a small amount of quick carbs as @steveko89 suggests. My preferred thing is a small glass of milk and about a dozen grapes. Lifting quickly drops my blood sugar, and heavy squats in particular can drop it a lot very quickly. It’s pretty common for people on the forums to ask about feeling faint about fifteen minutes after heavy lifting. If this is you, try eating some carbs shortly after you finish to bring your blood sugar back up. Otherwise you can do whatever feels best to you.

As far as running is concerned, running fasted makes me feel like a puppet with the strings cut. But I know people who do their best running fasted. Try it both ways and see what works for you. I was reading a study recently which found that eating carbs before running increases the amount of stored glycogen in the muscles over time, but the theory of when and how much to eat was pretty complicated and I don’t remember the details.