What do we eat before weight training?
A question often arises among bodybuilders: “What should you eat before a workout? In fact, everyone is looking for the perfect meal or snack to eat before a session to get maximum energy. Therefore, nutrition is very important in exercise as it is a fuel For body and muscles.Therefore, it may
be interesting to snack around your workout as before and/or after to meet the needs of the body.This can improve energy and athletic performance while reducing fatigue to sustain effort.In this article,we will focus on the macronutrients in Our diet in order to determine what we can eat before a bodybuilding workout.
Focus on the different macronutrients
In our food, we find 3 macronutrients which are proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
Proteins
Proteins are essential nutrients for athletes and bodybuilders. In fact, according to scientific studies, it has been shown that high-protein diets can promote muscle mass gains and avoid muscle mass loss even during calorie restriction because they help maintain and grow muscle mass (1). Proteins are abundant in our daily diet: as in white and red meat, eggs, fish, dairy products, legumes ... we also find them in the form of nutritional supplements such as whey protein for example.
carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are macronutrients that are the main source of energy for the body and muscles. The body can store a limited amount of it in muscle glycogen stores. Carbohydrates fall into two categories: simple carbohydrates and complete carbohydrates. The latter should be preferred thanks to the low glycemic index. This means that they can provide sustainable energy over the long term, without increasing blood sugar. Simple carbohydrates provide readily available energy and raise blood sugar.
Simple carbohydrates are great when consumed around training to provide instant energy while preserving glycogen stores. For this, there are sports drinks such as maltodextrin or dextrose. In your diet, we advise you to switch to whole carbs like rice, quinoa, pasta, legumes, etc.
Fats
Fats are macronutrients that can be beneficial to health, if they are made up of omega-3. In fact, heart societies recommend 1 gram/day of omega-3 fatty acids (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Prevention of cardiovascular disease, prevention of sudden death, and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease (2).
However, it takes a very long time to digest and therefore it is not recommended around training as it will not bring you any real benefits. You can find it in fatty fish such as salmon and mackerel but also in vegetable oils such as olive oil, linseed ... It is necessary to resort to high-quality fats.
Why eat before weight training?
There are bodybuilders who like to eat pre-workout to perform the exercises and get more energy, while avoiding an empty stomach. During strength training, your body and muscles rely on your fuel reserves so that you can provide an intense and lasting effort. These reserves are generally your stock of glycogen made up of carbohydrates and sugars that are depleted as the session progresses. When the reserves are depleted, the body will naturally rely on muscle reserves and therefore proteins, which can cause muscle catabolism, which is clearly not the intended goal.
What do we eat before exercise?
As seen above, we advise you to eat carbohydrates before or during your workout, to get enough energy during your workout. For this, you can take a training carb such as maltodextrin or powdered dextrose which you can mix with water, BCAAs or a drink of your choice. BCAAs are the so-called essential branched amino acids, made up of leucine, isoleucine and valine, which cannot be synthesized by the body and must be supplied by diet and supplementation. According to scientific studies, consuming BCAAs before and after exercise has beneficial effects in reducing exercise-induced muscle damage and enhancing muscle protein synthesis (3).
Optigura coach advises you
We also advise you to have a snack or meal about an hour and a half before the session to provide enough amino acids for the muscles and also carbohydrates in the form of oatmeal or fruit such as bananas or apples.
As you understand, it can be interesting or even very beneficial to eat before training and consume fast carbohydrates and/or BCAAs during the session for better results.