What to Eat Pre-Workout

Supplementing your workout regimen with a healthy diet will help you consume food that is easy to burn off and which will give you the needed energy to have a successful workout. What you need to eat before you work out depends on how healthy your diet is. Those who already have a healthy diet won't need to worry about what they eat before they work out. However, those who are beginning to try to get into shape need to understand what they need to eat and when they need to eat it.

Morning Workouts

• Most people have enough energy to workout in the morning from dinner the night before. However, if you have low blood sugar levels, you should eat before working out, or you can end up feeling lightheaded and dizzy. If you eat in the moring, it should be about an hour or two before you workout. This is so that the food digests and gives you the sugar and energy you need to make it through your workout. Ideas of good morning pre-workout foods are whole grain cereal, bananas, juice, and low-fat milk.

Pre-workout meals

• If you work out after a meal, you should wait about an hour or two after you eat to start a workout. Blood sugar levels begin to fall about 15 to 20 minutes into a workout. Therefore, it is important to eat a healthy combination of carbs and proteins. The proteins help insure that your muscles can rehabilitate after a workout. You should eat about half the calories that you plan to burn off. Good meals before working out include trail mix with nuts, hard-boiled eggs, half a peanut butter or turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread, and yogurt. Your meal should have 50 percent to 60 percent carbs and some protein.

Pre-workout Snacks

• If it has been a long time since your last meal, or if you have low blood sugar, it's important to eat a small snack about 30 minutes before a workout. This isn't for energy; you should have enough energy from your previous meal. It's to keep your blood sugar at a good level. Good pre-workout snacks include fruit juice, smoothies, bananas, and energy bars with little fat.

Fatty Foods

• Your pre-workout meals or snacks should contain a healthy balance of carbs and proteins. However, even if you're eating carbs and proteins, you won't get the full extent of the benefit if your meal or snack includes high levels of fat. Fatty foods will sit in your stomach and make your workout uncomfortable. Fat also digests slowly, so the benefit of burning off the calories in healthy carbs and proteins doesn't exist for fatty foods.