The Best Thing to Eat Before You Workout

THE QUICK OF IT

Simple carbs, low or no fat, and protein as a bonus but not necessary.

Toast with honey or jam on it is a pretty perfect pre-workout snack. You have a very simple carb source in the honey or the jam, and you have a slightly more complex source in the whole grain bread you use for toast.

This can be eaten within the hour before because it does not sit heavy, and the components (simply a slice of bread and some honey or jam) break down easily in the system allowing for the glucose to be utilized sooner than later. 

Bananas are a common pre-workout snack with the added benefit of the electrolyte potassium being present (necessary for muscle contraction). 

White rice, or potatoes also fit here but tend to be seen more as components of a meal than a pre-workout snack. 

Peanut butter and almond butters are common choices but less favorable due to the amount of dietary fat (more on that below). 

Toast with a little honey or jam will do the trick!

MORE EXPLANATION

Eating before your workout is ultimately about finding what works best for you. The time of day you workout, the type of workout you doing, and the sensitivity of your stomach all come in to play here. 

You also may have heard of “Fasted Cardio,” which simply means completing a cardio focused workout before eating your first meal of the day. That then may confuse some into believing working out on an empty stomach is the best idea. 

Ultimately we are wanting to find what will allow us to have the best workout and keep us on the path of progress for a long time. 

I made some roasted sweet potatoes with rosemary and sea salt last Saturday and these also work well for a pre-workout snack. Easy to heat up but I also have no problem grabbing them cold if they are roasted in large enough chunks.

Let’s start with nutrition and what macronutrients are useful for our workouts. 

Of the three macronutrients (protein, dietary fat, carbohydrates), we use fat and carbs as fuel sources for activity. And which one we utilize most is dependent upon the level of activity. Fat is a great slow burning, long lasting fuel source. Bouts of long sustainable effort ideally use fat as the fuel source. 

Carbohydrates burn hotter but for a shorter period of time. High intensity activity (including most of the workouts we are referring to here) benefit greatly from efficient carbohydrate fueling. 

Because the demands of our workouts are ideally suited for carbohydrate fueling, our pre-workout meal should lean mostly on this macro-nutrient. 

The presence of dietary fat in our food helps to slow digestion. This helps control blood sugar spikes which is important for maintaining our insulin sensitivity. 

However for the purposes of pre-workout fueling, slowing digestion is NOT the goal. 

We want something simple that breaks down quickly and easily so that little jump in blood sugar can serve to jump start our intensity in our workouts. 

If you want to do cool stuff inside and outside of the gym, then you have to eat.

DO YOU REALLY NEED TO EAT? 

This is based on personal preferences and likely tied to how long before you ate your last meal. 

Athletes who train at 5am often find that a cup of coffee is enough to get going since they still have calories from dinner in their system. But athletes who train more midmorning may find themselves running out of energy or bonking (hitting an invisible wall) entirely due to low fuel if they have not eaten since waking up. 

If the goal is growth or strength training or any version of improved performance, fuel is needed to drive you down the path of progress. Just because you can train on an empty belly does not mean that is ideal for you achieving what you hope to. Muscles uptake blood glucose during and after workouts which means we need that glucose present to gain maximal benefit. 

Food may also add to your mental/emotional energy reserves more than you expect which may, in turn, help to at least lower your need for stimulants. An underfed zombie needs a lot of pre-workout. 

My advice is really to eat a little something no matter what. Even those with the goal to lose weight would be well served by a small snack if doing anything other than steady state cardio. Even longer or higher intensity cardio sessions benefit from a snack. 

Let me know what works best for you? 

- Ben