Should you eat before or after a workout? When you should eat would depend on your personal preferences as opposed to what works better scientifically. Without proper nutrition it is very difficult to have the necessary energy or fuel to get through your workouts.
Should you eat before or after a workout? iStock-photo credit: nensuria
There was a study that was done on 273 people, and it showed that fat burning was higher when they fasted while exercising. Fasting meaning when they exercise on an empty stomach. Now that doesn’t mean that is 100% true because there are also studies that show more fat burning happens when you are fully fed before exercising. Studies show that blood sugar is higher before and during your exercise when you eat before you work out.
There are also studies that show there is no difference in fat loss for women who fasted before exercising or ate before exercising. What’s important to know is that when you exercise in a fasted state you use more fat for energy, and this doesn’t necessarily translate to more fat loss.
Most of the studies show there is no significant benefit when it comes to eating an hour before a short duration cardio workout than someone that doesn’t. There is no significant difference in exercise performance with regards to fasted exercise and fed exercise.
Eating before a long duration exercise has shown to improve performance. An example is eating some slow digesting carbs before you go on a long endurance run which is common for those types of athletes to do. Because their body needs the extra carbs to power through a long endurance run or exercise.
Eating a high carbs meal 3 to 4 hours before a long-distance run helps to improve exercise performance.
Studies show there is more benefit in eating before a long duration exercise vs a shorter duration exercise. If you exercise on an empty stomach, it is more than likely to affect your energy levels which would impact your workouts. As someone who has worked with a lot of clients, I don’t really advise that. If you choose not to eat anything the day before you work out then you should immediately eat something after your workout.
Getting adequate protein after you work out can help repair your muscles after you have torn it down from exercising. Rest and recovering from a workout is just as important as exercising. And the type of nutrition you feed your body is key to recovering faster. At the end of the day your personal preference will always dictate when you should eat whether it is before or after you work out. The most important thing is make sure you eat something because nutrition is your fuel.
The Bottom Line is your personal preference should dictate when you are more comfortable in terms of when you should eat, whether it be before or after you work out. Studies show it won’t make any distinctive difference on the timing of eating in terms of improved performance.
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References
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5) Schoenfeld BJ, Aragon AA, Wilborn CD, Krieger JW, Sonmez GT. Body composition changes associated with fasted versus non-fasted aerobic exercise. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2014 Nov 18;11(1):54. doi: 10.1186/s12970-014-0054-7. PMID: 25429252; PMCID: PMC4242477.
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