Nutrition, Weight Loss

Pre-Workout Nutrition

Pre-workout Nutrition
As you establish your training plan, it’s important to support your activity through sound pre-workout nutrition. The most common struggles related to sports nutrition includes not eating enough, eating the wrong foods at the wrong times, or skipping workout nutrition entirely. Let’s take a closer look at how skipping a pre-workout meal can set you back before you even begin.

Why You Need It

It’s no secret that your body needs fuel. By skipping a meal before you workout, you are more likely to hit the wall during your workout, reducing the effectiveness, quality and overall calorie burn of your workout. You will also increase the likelihood of breaking down muscle in order to fuel your activity.

What You Need

So what is the best way to keep this from happening? Keep in mind the nutritional adage, “fat burns in a carbohydrate flame.” This refers to glycolosis, which is how our bodies create fuel for our exercise. We require some carbohydrate within our muscles to access our fat stores. If it’s hard to time a meal right before your workout, your best bet is to provide your body with some simple, easily digestible carbs shortly before your workout. This might include fruit or fruit juice, a breakfast bar, or toast. You’ll make up the calories by improving your workout and will help your body to access the fat stores you’re trying to reduce. Meeting your training goals takes more than just completing the workouts, you need to support your training efforts by eating the right foods at the right time. These efforts will result in stronger training sessions and helping you to get stronger and fitter faster. Eat smart and have a great workout! About the writer: Joli Guenther is a certified personal trainer, yoga instructor and clinical social worker practicing in and around Madison, Wisconsin.