Cal loading before or after spin 'marathon'

nickyfm

So tomorrow at my gym they're holding a spin marathon as part of fitness week. I've done their marathons in the past, which were about 3 hours in length, but this one is only 1.5.

My question is, is it better to eat some of the exercise cals before or after spinning? In regards to weight loss, muscle retention etc. The class finishes at 7:15pm, so I was gonna have an apple and a small protein shake immediately after, and then a dinner of about 350 calories, so about 550 cal in total after it.

I will probably burn around 700 cal, and plan to eat about 300 back.

momof3and3

I would eat a snack about 1 to 1.5 hours prior ( banana, plain bagel, oatmeal, etc...), carb loaded for energy and than after have your mix of protein and carb for recovery...Thru the day eat with a slight bit more concentration on more carbs....oatmeal for breakfast, a healthy sandwhich for lunch, etc...you will need the energy to get thru the workout

NateDad

It doesn't matter too much, if you're just worried about weight loss and muscle. They've proven that there's no hour to hour difference in muscle gain, weight loss, etc related to when you eat. The only thing I'd worry about is bonking, which is what happens when your body runs out of available energy. Happened to me by accident over the weekend, and I felt horrible. As long as you're eating a relatively balanced diet, with a normal amount of carbs, 700 calories in a workout won't make you bonk... but you might want to have a banana or a bagel an hour or so before the workout, just in case. And if you do eat a really low carb diet, or if you are doing another workout earlier in the day, you should make sure to eat probably a few hundred calories of mostly carbs in between.

What happened to me was that I worked out late at night, got up, had mostly protein for breakfast, and then worked out again before lunch.... so I hadn't replenished my body's supply of available energy. basically I felt like I was trying to work out after running a marathon.