eating before and/ or after workouts

tobejune

To answer these...

What do you do that burns 800-1600 calories in a typical workout. Unless your running 10-15 miles a day, you're probably overestimating the burn.

How are you burning 1600 calories in a workout? I wanna do what you're doing if that's accurate lol

...I use a heart rate monitor and have my metabolic rates tested every six months so I know it is accurate. I dance ballet 1-3 hours/ day. Typically averaging 400-650/ hr.

Seems like the responses are pretty mixed though the people eating before a workout are mostly consuming carbs.... I may start trying to have some high quality carbs 30ish minutes before and see if that helps and/ or if I feel ill.

Thanks for the responses everyone. I'm going to check out the resources people posted, too.

RoadsterGirlie

I have to eat dinner prior to my workout. My dinners aren't very large since I practice portion control. I usually wait about 10 minutes after eating, and then workout.

I haven't had any issues with cramping.

I have found though that work out before dinner, I don't have as much energy for my workout.

Lammerchops

Strange, I race (and therefore have both a very low resting and active metabolic rate) and only burn 1,600 cals on a half-marathon training run. Not sure ballet would create a comparable BPM, but I'm no dancer, and that's not the point of your question sooooooooooo....

Pre-workout meals are pretty standard: complex carb, protein.

Post-workout meals are also pretty standard - if it's a strength-training/weights workout, you want protein with a simple carb to drive that protein into your muscles (think protein shake with banana in it). If it was cardio, it would be important to get more complex carbs in after your run/swim/cycle to restore your muscles' glycogen muscles.

mmapags

1600 cals, wow!

There is no difference in fat burning as to whether you train fasted or full. I train ABSOLUTELY full (Im still eating on the way into the gym!)

If you find your uncomfortable having eaten before you can negate the physiological effects somewhat by taking 15g or BCAA or EAA (Brach Chain or Essential Amino Acids). This will stop your excercise becoming catabolic without having a uncomfortable amount of food in you.

As far as Post work out, it is ABSOLUTELY the time to eat. Your muscles will be at their most sensitive to insulin and any protein or carbs you eat will be channeled towards those. Infact, if you are looking to maintain weight, it is the very best time to consume any starchy carbs you need in your diet. Not eating after working out will only lead to catabolism in the long run.

As always, send us a message if you want clarification on anything,
Good Luck
JU

Dude, I'm not sure what you are using for sources for your info but I'd get some new ones if I were you. According to Lyle McDonald, training fed is slighty better than training fasted on terms of lipolysis and according to Alan Aragon the Anabolic Window is 24 hours. Also, carbs right after workout are somewhat counter productive to HGH production. In general, nutrient timing is a waste of time. A link and a quote fyi.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/820577-meal-frequency-rev-up-that-furnace-lol

"The post-exercise “anabolic window” is a highly misused & abused concept. Preworkout nutrition all but cancels the urgency, unless you’re an endurance athlete with multiple glycogen-depleting events in a single day. Getting down to brass tacks, a relatively recent study (Power et al. 2009) showed that a 45g dose of whey protein isolate takes appx. 50 minutes to cause blood AA levels to peak. Resulting insulin levels, which peaked at 40 minutes after ingestion, remained at elevations known to max out the inhibition of muscle protein breakdown (15-30 mU/L) for 120 minutes after ingestion. This dose takes 3 hours for insulin & AA levels to return to baseline from the point of ingestion. The inclusion of carbs to this dose would cause AA & insulin levels to peak higher & stay elevated above baseline even longer.

So much for the anabolic peephole & the urgency to down AAs during your weight training workout; they are already seeping into circulation (& will continue to do so after your training bout is done). Even in the event that a preworkout meal is skipped, the anabolic effect of the postworkout meal is increased as a supercompensatory response (Deldicque et al, 2010). Moving on, another recent study (Staples et al, 2010) found that a substantial dose of carbohydrate (50g maltodextrin) added to 25g whey protein was unable to further increase post-exercise net muscle protein balance compared to the protein dose without carbs. Again, this is not to say that adding carbs at this point is counterproductive, but it certainly doesn’t support the idea that you must get your lightning-fast post-exercise carb orgy for optimal results.

Something that people don’t realize is that there’s no “magic anabolic window” that’s open for a short period of time near the workout & then rapidly disappears. As a result of a single training bout, the receptivity of muscle to protein dosing can persist for at least 24 hours (Burd et al, 2011)."

vanguardfitness

you dont have to eat before your workout. Nothing stopping you from consuming something half way through to tide you over for the rest of your workout. So try a mid workout snack.

vmekash

Though I can workout on an empty stomach (1st thing, a.m.), I find I prefer to workout about 1/2 hr. to an hour after my breakfast -- usually cereal. Then after my workout, I love to have a heaping tsp. of peanut butter (so heaping, it may be more than 1/2 Tbs.). I actually crave it after a workout.