Pre Exercise Food Recommendations

This is an article concerning the food you must eat before your exercise begins. This is also called pre exercise foods. Exercise should be very much part of our daily routine. Nowadays most people are health conscious. People are ready to adapt exercise as a great back up for their desire to keep fit.

There are a certain things we should keep in mind.

Till now you might have heard about doing exercises in empty stomach. If you go for a “heavy diet” before an exercise you will end up with muscle cramps, stomach upset, and discomfort in general. You may also experience a tendency to vomit.
But there is another aspect to it. If you are going to spend long hours in the gym and you are doing heavy exercises then while doing exercises there are chances that you may experience hunger pangs. This will disturb your performance.

What is a Pre Exercise Food?

Pre meal is nothing but having a light diet before doing exercise. This should be eaten a little time before exercise. Try to have a light food 15 to 20 minutes before exercise. If it’s not a light meal that you wish to have as a pre exercise food, then you can have that main meal one or three hours before. The long duration time gap is due to the time taken to digest the food. The type of food you had, the nature of your digestive ability all contributes to the time that you should have as a healthy time gap to go for exercise. If your stomach has still undigested food then you will experience nausea.

There is a misconception that pre exercise meal is for giving adequate fuel for our body to perform the exercise well. But this is not true. The energy needed is got from the carbohydrates we eat. That is taken from the stored glycogen in muscles. In fact it’s the carbohydrates of our diet that is getting converted to glycogen.

Who All Need A Pre Exercise Food & What Can Be Had As A Pre Exercise Food

If you are doing yoga in early morning then you can do in empty stomach. But for a gym work out it’s always better to go for a pre exercise food.

Thus a pre exercise meal is to provide

• Better exercise performance.
• Better comfort.

If you are a lady with sedentary work style then go for one medium sized baked banana. Men can go for 3or 4 baked bananas. Why I mentioned bananas is due to its carbohydrate content. Pastas and breads are also choice of many. They can also go for two cups of fruit salad without cream. If you are going for heavy work out your diet should be well planned because you should have enough glycogen store for using for the next exercise session. There is no better option than fruits. The reason being:-

1. It does have carbohydrates
2. It won’t make you gain weight.
3. It compliments your workout regimen.
4. It will get digested very quickly.
5. The glucose [immediate source of energy] in fruits is readily digestible.
6. It won’t give you nausea or muscle cramps.

If you don’t want to add an additional meal, then take your regular meal and leave 4/4.5 hours before hitting gym.
If the idea of a pre meal limits within a glass of juice then have that 10 minutes before performing exercises. The reason being fruit’s glucose is in the easily digestible form.

If you are seeking a pre meal for competing in a sports event

When you have 4 to 4 and half hours gap from a sports event you can have quite a big meal consisting of pasta, grilled lean meat or baked potatoes or bread with pea nut butter or a grilled piece of chicken or yogurt which is low fat. You can choose any of these.

In a gap of 2 and half hours before the event, go for fresh fruits salad, yogurt which is low fat or bread. At that time too if you want to limit your pre meal with a sports drink you can do that.

Nearing the event within an hour from the sports event you can for fresh fruit/vegetable juices or 1 to 1 and half cup sports drink.

Foods to be avoided and foods that acts as a stimulant

• For people who are not sensitive to caffeine can go for it. But too much of caffeine will result in dehydration that will be a great hindrance for a smooth performance.
• Only one thing you need to keep in mind that it’s the readily digestible food that is considered to be the best pre meal which can be taken 15 to 20 minutes before exercise. The reason being it has a lot on influence on the psychological level too. So any hard to digest food should be on the ‘to avoid’ list. The strict do not have’s are fried items, doughnuts, pastries, ghee sweets, steaks, chips, doughnuts, payasam [kheer], fried rice, biriyani.

Note: – You can experiment with the kind of food you wish to take as pre meal. Each person is unique. The pre exercise food that suits your work out icon or your sports icon need not suit you.

But if you are a sports person, please don’t experiment with the kind of food that you going to take as a pre meal on the day of the contest. Please try out different foods from the choices given and go ahead with confidence. You need to Plan things. For this you can take the help of a sports nutritionist.

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