Pre-workout nutrition
If you are striving for a slim figure, then remember that the food you eat before exercising to lose weight should be healthy, ideally carbohydrate-rich. You cannot overeat, otherwise working out in the gym will not give the expected result, the energy obtained from food will be spent, and its excess will turn into fat. Fasting also does not contribute to weight loss; the brain and nervous system will sound the alarm, demand food and save energy. A small snack of food rich in carbohydrates will saturate the body and give the energy needed to perform exercises.
How long before training can you eat?
It is important to know not only what to eat before exercise to lose weight, but also how long before exercise you should eat. You don’t want to come to the gym with a full belly and want to lie down on the sofa? The nutrition received before a workout for weight loss must have time to be digested and transformed into the necessary energy, so a snack a couple of hours before exercise is considered optimal.
Those who missed their main meal can have a snack 30-40 minutes before class. The food should be light and balanced, for example, you can eat nuts, an apple, a banana with yogurt, light cottage cheese, and drink a mug of green tea with honey. Such food will saturate the body with essential substances, add energy and vigor. In addition to food, it is important to drink plenty of fluids before and after sports; it should be clean, still water. Violation of hydrobalance will interfere with weight loss and will have a bad effect on the functioning of the entire body.
Detox drinks instead of sweet fruit juices
You probably loved juice boxes as a kid, but they're the worst thing you can drink before a workout. “Most of these fruit drinks contain corn syrup, which is high in fructose, an artificial sweetener that has been shown to cause liver dysfunction, metabolic syndrome and obesity,” Onsgard says.
Instead, add slices of fresh citrus fruit, berries, mint or basil to your water bottle. "Or drink coconut water, which replenishes the electrolytes you burn during exercise," says Onsgard.
On this topic, we offer you recipes for drinks with water: .
What's better to eat
Let's take a closer look at what to eat to lose weight and what to avoid. Immediately forget about sweet cakes and fatty foods, which will slow down the body’s absorption of nutrients and bring a feeling of heaviness and discomfort. Proteins and carbohydrates, on the contrary, improve muscle function and help increase muscle mass. Eating healthy food before training should replenish energy reserves, increase endurance and promote weight loss. Before sports activities you can eat:
- buckwheat, oatmeal (classic side dish);
- salads from vegetables, fruits (except banana, grapes);
- breads, dietary cookies;
- chicken, turkey meat;
- omelette;
- cottage cheese with a low fat content.
The best energy drinks
Pre-workout complexes are produced by many sports nutrition manufacturers, but the top three include the following:
- Jack3D, produced by USP Labs;
- Mesomorph from APS;
- Assault, manufactured by MusclePharm.
To decide which energy drink is best, you need to familiarize yourself in detail with the features of each, look at various ratings, and decide on your expectations from taking this supplement.
What to eat before exercise for energy
The main source of energy reserves for humans are complex carbohydrates. When they enter the body with food, they are converted into glycogen - the main fuel resource for building and growing muscles. Complex carbohydrates are found in pasta made from coarse wheat, rice, potatoes, and legumes. Building muscle is also impossible without protein, so many sports trainers advise including some protein foods in your diet: kefir, boiled white meat, fish, omelet.
The ideal option is a protein-vegetable snack: an omelet with vegetable salad, a sandwich made of black bread with herbs, boiled chicken. Some people drink a cup of coffee without sugar before a sports program, which adds vigor, energy, and improves overall tone. To speed up the fat burning process, some athletes supplement their pre-workout diet for weight loss with special supplements containing L-carnitine.
Normal blood sugar is maintained thanks to complex carbohydrates with a low glycemic index. Cakes, buns and pastries have nothing to do with them; nuts, berries, fruits, vegetables, and smoothies will be an excellent replacement for such products before doing weight loss exercises. You can eat a small portion of such food without harm to your waist and entire figure.
What to eat before your morning workout
Exercises on an empty stomach are ineffective, muscles do not work at full strength due to the lack of the required amount of energy, so you must eat breakfast before training. It is better to eat a couple of hours before playing sports so that the food has time to digest and assimilate, otherwise you will experience nausea, belching, a feeling of heaviness and drowsiness. An ideal breakfast consists of slow carbohydrates and proteins in a 2:1 ratio. For example, a pre-workout morning meal to burn fat could be:
- buckwheat with chicken;
- 2 eggs and oatmeal cooked in milk;
- mashed potatoes with rabbit meat;
- a piece of lean fish with rice or vegetables;
- low-fat cottage cheese with a slice of whole grain bread.
In the morning, 15-20 minutes before breakfast, you can drink a glass of fresh fruit or vegetable juice, which will give you a boost of vitamins and strength for the whole day. An excellent addition to one of the proposed breakfast options would be one piece of fruit, which can also be used as a snack half an hour before sports if you did not have time to have breakfast. In addition to fruits, you are allowed to eat a small portion of low-fat cottage cheese or yogurt.
Black coffee instead of alcohol
This may sound like a given, but there are people who might drink beer or wine the night before a workout. This is completely unsuitable. “Alcohol causes dehydration, activates inflammation, and negatively impacts balance and decision-making,” Onsgard says. You also won't be able to make a sound decision about how much weight you should lift.
“If you need a pick-me-up, drink a cup of dark roast coffee (the lighter the beans, the less caffeine they contain),” adds Onsgard. “Coffee can increase alertness and help improve physical performance.”
Pre-workout energy drinks are not the kind of thing that sits in rows on store shelves with huge amounts of caffeine and other harmful, body-damaging ingredients. Drinks to give energy to your body are teas, coffee, water with pieces of fruit, berries, herbs, as well as natural juices that are quite familiar to you.
Before the power
The goal of strength exercises is not weight loss, but a rapid increase in muscle volume and they require large energy expenditures. To accumulate it, complex carbohydrates are needed, and the growth of muscle cells cannot occur without protein, which is the supplier of necessary amino acids, so the meal before strength training should include proteins, carbohydrates and not contain fats. Half an hour before going to the gym, many athletes drink a protein shake, which promotes rapid muscle growth. Before strength training you can eat:
- rice, coarse wheat pasta with poultry;
- boiled potatoes with fish;
- porridge with eggs;
- cottage cheese with berries, fruits or bread;
- omelette with vegetables or cheese and whole grain bread.
Eat in small portions, after eating there should not be a feeling of heaviness in the stomach that will interfere with exercise. In addition to the snack options suggested above, before strength training, you can drink a cup of strong coffee, but without adding sugar or cream. This drink promotes the production of norepinephrine, which accumulates energy for training from human fat deposits. As a result, the effectiveness of exercise will increase, and glycogen and amino acids will be consumed less.
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Almond oil
Recipe: 2 tbsp. l. almond butter and celery. When to eat: Before a muscle-building workout. Dip celery in oil and eat it an hour or two before training. Calories: 206; proteins: 7 g; fat: 18 g; carbohydrates: 8 g; sugar: 3 g.
Athletes love nut butters because they are high in protein and healthy fats. Almond oil contains vitamin E, potassium, magnesium, iron, calcium and phosphorus and is considered a very healthy food. It is very difficult to find in stores because it is not produced much, and salt, sugar and fat are not added to it. Remember that peanuts are not a real nut, but rather a vegetable, so they are much more harmful to your belly. Before training, simply leave a jar of almond butter at work, home or in the car and eat it with celery. The taste is refreshing, but it’s easy to overeat. Be careful.
What to eat before training
Snacking before a workout often confuses beginning athletes. What can you eat to get the necessary boost of energy, a surge of strength and not feel heaviness in your stomach? There are several options for healthy and tasty snacks that contain the BJU composition necessary for high-quality exercise, have a minimum amount of calories and promote weight loss.
Cottage cheese
Try eating cottage cheese before training along with your favorite berries, fruits or honey. Such a fermented milk product will saturate the body with the necessary amount of protein, and the fruit will help restore glycogen in muscle fibers. The deficiency of these substances is especially relevant after training, when their reserves have been wasted, so nuts with fruits and dried fruits can be consumed as a light snack before and after sports.
Nuts
Any nuts before training should be eaten carefully, because in addition to protein, they also contain a lot of fat. If you decide to make a nut snack, dilute it with dried fruits: this way you will reduce fats and increase the amount of carbohydrates, and also enrich your body with phosphorus and zinc. Please note that the nuts must be in their pure form, without chocolate glaze, powdered sugar and sesame seeds. Such supplements will prevent you from losing weight.
Eggs
Try eating eggs as a pre-workout snack. This product is the richest supplier of protein to the human body, therefore it is useful both before and after sports activities. Many athletes drink raw eggs, considering this method effective in building muscles, but this is not entirely true, and boiled egg whites are absorbed better.
Oatmeal
Many people believe that eating a serving of oatmeal will give them an energy boost for the day. Athletes know that oatmeal before training, especially strength training, is an excellent carbohydrate snack. By adding a small handful of nuts and 1 tablespoon of any berries to boiled porridge, you will understand that a snack before sports can be healthy and tasty at the same time.
Apple
It is believed that the best time to eat an apple before a workout is before lunch. This opinion is due to the fact that the fruit contains fructose, which can turn into fatty deposits if you eat apples at night or in large quantities. These fruits enrich our body with iron, fiber, pectin, vitamin C, the permissible norm is 1 red or 2-3 green apples per day.
Turkey cabbage rolls
Recipe: 100 g turkey fillet, 1 cabbage leaf, purple onion, red pepper, small tomatoes and a teaspoon of mustard. Spread the mustard on the cabbage leaf and wrap it with the rest of the ingredients. When to eat: before training for muscle development, half an hour to an hour before training. If you also plan to do cardio, you can eat porridge instead of cabbage. Calories: 184; proteins: 28 g; fats: 3 g; carbohydrates: 13 g; sugar: 6 g.
Turkey is an excellent source of protein that is easy to digest and does not interfere with digestion. This variation of the classic cabbage roll, which is lower in calories and carbs, is great for losing weight and building muscle. Ideal for those avoiding gluten.
