Eating before a workout is important to improve your athletic performance.
But is it necessary in the morning? Shortly, it depends on factors like your workout goal and training duration.
Some people are often believed that working out on an empty stomach can help in weight loss, but you should know that it can also affect your stamina.
Let’s read on to know the answer to your question deeply: should I eat before a morning workout. And we’ll know what science prefers about eating a morning pre-workout meal.
Should I Eat Before a Morning Workout?
Like I said before, it depends. Working out in the morning before eating breakfast (also known as a fasted state) is often believed to help weight loss.
However, working out in the fasted state can affect your stamina and endurance during high-intensity workouts.
Okay, let’s dig through what the studies found and recommend us the best way.
A 2019 study found that doing aerobic exercise overnight-fasted state are greatly increased the body’s ability to utilize fat as a fuel source and helps to lose weight.
Another study published in the national library of medicine said that pre-exercise feeding could greatly enhance exercise performance and metabolism than the fasted state. In addition, they also include that pre-workout eating enhanced prolonged, but not shorter duration aerobic exercise performance.
What should you do?
When you’re going to do a shorter duration aerobic exercise, avoid eating in the pre-workout. But if you’re planning to perform a longer workout (45-60 min), it would be best to take your pre-workout meal before it to enhance your athletic performance. (1, 2, 3)
Remember, when we are working out in a fasted state regularly, there can be another possibility that our body may get normal to use the stored fat for energy and start to store more fat than before.
Summary: Perform an aerobic exercise (or short-duration exercise) in a fasted state to maximize the body’s ability to utilize and burn the fat. But taking a pre-workout meal can be the best choice to endure a longer duration workout.
What to Eat Before a Morning Workout?
Before we go on the foods, we need to understand what nutrients the body needs before a workout.
In the pre-workout, our body needs two main ingredients to enhance workout performance: carbs and protein.
Carbohydrates help fuel the body, give solid muscle contraction, and maintain energy levels throughout the workout, while protein helps reduce muscle protein breakdown during training.
Which foods can help you the best?
Let’s check out some of the best foods to eat before a workout.
- Eggs
- Oatmeal
- Banana
- Sweet potato
- Peanut butter
- Watermelon
- Whole grain bread
- Protein shake
Add the foods mentioned above in the pre-workout to maximize your strength and performance.
Confuse, what food combinations are work best?
Don’t worry. I would highly recommend you to visit this article, where you’ll get 50 awesome snack ideas that you can try at your pre-workout meal.
Related: 40 Healthy Post-Workout Snack Ideas
What is the Best Time to Eat Before a Workout?
Although, the time of a pre-workout meal depends on the foods you choose and the quantity you eat.
For example, If you choose a heavy meal like rice with chicken and vegetables, you should eat it a minimum of 60-120 minutes before exercising. On the other hand, a meal with bananas and eggs/protein shake, you can consume 30 minutes before training.
The general recommendation of consuming a pre-workout meal is about 30-45 minutes before you begin to exercise. And that should be small, combining with a healthy amount of carbs and protein.
How Much Carbs and Protein Before Workout?
The quantity of protein and carbs isn’t an exact recommendation. It’s just a rough value that you should keep in mind when preparing a pre-workout meal.
Eat a balance meal with 0.2 to 0.25 g/lbs of body weight for both carbs and protein and should take around 45-60 minutes before workout.
For example, if your weight is 150 lbs, you try to consume about 30-35 grams of carbs and protein around one hour before a workout.
But if you feel your last meal doesn’t digest properly before your training, consume a shake or easily digestible protein and carbs (like a protein shake and banana) 30 minutes before your workout.
The true specific here is differs from person to person and depends on what time you work out or how much time you have before training. But they’re still a good reference.
The Final Words
I hope you got the answer to your question: should I eat before a morning workout.
Should you eat or not before a workout, it depends on your goal and the type of exercise you’re going to perform. For example, do a short duration aerobic exercise in a fasted state, but have a meal before a workout while extending your training duration.
If you have any questions regarding pre-workout meals or morning workouts, feel free to ask in the comment section below. We’ll glad to help you!
