Help me to get a better workout!

sixpacklady

Hi Sara/Sidesteel,

I usually workout from 3 -4 pm and eat my lunch at 11 and a small snack at 1pm. My lunch usually consists of veggies, 4 oz lean protein and maybe 1/2 avocado. Snack is usually 1/2 cup greek yogurt with 1/2-1 cup fruits (berries, mangos etc).

I do a HIIT type (sprinting) workout 1-2 times/week and some kind of strength training or circuit training 2-3 times. I usually feel little empty by the time my workout starts. Sometimes get a little tired during strength workouts and feels a little giddy during HIIT workouts.

I feel that I am eating enough for my lunch and feel that I cannot do the workouts, especially the HIIT, on a full stomach. But my question is how can I improve my pre workout nutrition so that I can feel and perform optimally?

I usually skip breakfast, but I read somewhere that body uses the food eaten 6 hours before as the energy source for the workout. Not sure is its true... Should I try adding breakfast back in? Or any other tips?

Thank you for any help!

_benjammin

Hopefully SS and/or Sara will chime in but SS recommended I eat some carbs about an hour before I workout. The recent carb of choice, poptarts.

whitebalance

In to follow. I'm struggling with the same thing... can't eat an actual meal for several hours before hard cardio, but don't want to crap out midway through my two hours. Nut butter snack was too heavy last week. Today I'm trying kettle corn a couple hours before, and orange juice an hour before.

sixpacklady

thanks all. yes, its tough to figure out a perfect balance of food in the stomach so that we are in the right zone to get a good workout - not too much, not too little...

DancingMoosie

I do a lifting workout at 4:30, my lunch is at 11:15, and my snack at 2pm. I usually have coffee with 1/2 protein shake and a bar of some sort (Balance, South Beach, Cliff Builder, etc) for my snack. Maybe if you moved your snack a bit closer to your workout, but leave an hour or so in between? Sometimes I have to add a banana on the way to the gym, but it doesn't bother my stomach. I can even run after a banana. Do you not eat anything before lunch? Maybe its not enough calories to fuel your morning all the way through your workout, even with the snack.

Rayman79

Can I ask how long you have been doing this?

I ask because it took me a little while to adjust to my new routine. I changed from fasted 6am workouts to going an hour or two after dinner (my largest meal). This took a few weeks for my body to get used to, but I'm fine now. I do still find high intensity work hard to stomach though (pun intended).

As for the energy sources, you will primarily use muscle glycogen which builds up over time and will still be in a plentiful state even if you haven't eaten for hours before you workout. You will then replenish them over time after your workout when you feed again.

So for the sake of fuelling your workout/recovery, if you wanted to leave the snack until post workout it would do you no harm at all as long as you are getting adequate amounts of food in before your next workout.

SideSteel

I tend to have issues with performance training fasted and I think it has more to do with blood glucose levels than glycogen. I've seen a difference having some carbohydrate about 15-45m prior to the training bout. For me that's typically fruit if I'm in a calorie deficit and pop tarts if I'm not, simply due to available calories in the diet and personal preference.

sixpacklady

I tend to have issues with performance training fasted and I think it has more to do with blood glucose levels than glycogen. I've seen a difference having some carbohydrate about 15-45m prior to the training bout. For me that's typically fruit if I'm in a calorie deficit and pop tarts if I'm not, simply due to available calories in the diet and personal preference.

Thank you Sidesteel!

I will try the fruit before the workout.

gweneddk

I've used Greek yogurt + fruit as my pre-workout snack for more than 2 years. You'd think I'd be tired of it by now :-P
I eat it anywhere between 3:30-5pm depending on when I get hungry. Generally I am warming up by 6 and lifting by 6:30; if I do HIIT it is after lifting so around 7:30, so anywhere from 2.5-4 hours after my snack. I absolutely *need* my BCAA supplement if I am going to do HIIT though. I like XTend. I feel like the BCAAs make more of a difference than the food in my personal experience.