The Perfect Pre-Workout Meal

 The Perfect Pre-Workout meals 

Once you know you're getting all of your total macros right for the day, both your pre and post workout meal are the most important meals of the day (and not your breakfast like many people believe). Let's first talk about pre workout nutrition. It's main function is to fuel the workout itself and maximize your performance throughout.

Sounds simple, right?

That's because it is. Unfortunately, the fitness world has really overcomplicated this, and many gurus will sell you super specific recommendations or products that really don't make a difference. Let's cut through all of that nonsense and figure out exactly what you should be eating before your workout. Like I said before this meal is meant to fuel your workout. In a scientific sense it's meant to do three things:

Reduce muscle glycogen depletion.

Reduce muscle protein breakdown.

 Reduce post workout cortisol levels.

How exactly do you accomplish this? Easy, you eat carbs and protein before your workout. What this means is, the most important rule of your PRE workout meal is to consume a good amount of both carbs and protein before you train. I know this sounds very simple and maybe too simple to you, but let me tell you way too many people overcomplicate this and fear that if they don't consume x grams of protein and x grams of carbs x minutes before their workout they will build no muscle and lose no fat.

Fortunately, that's not the case and anyone telling you otherwise is probably trying to sell you some overpriced supplement. Of course, I don't want to leave you with no guidelines at all so I will give you a few rough values that you can keep in mind when you prepare your pre workout meal. The true specifics here will always differ from person to person and depend on what time of the day you work out or how much time you actually have before your workout, but it's still a good reference.

If you can, eat a balanced meal with 0.2 to 0.25 g/lbs of your bodyweight (for both carbs and protein) around one hour before your workout. People with a very high body weight should go with their target weight.

In case you don't have time for that and/or your last meal lies more than two hours prior to your training, consume liquid or easily digested protein and carbs 30 minutes before your workout. This could be a protein shake with a banana for example. The liquid will be more easily digested allowing your body to absorb nutrients faster.

I personally, like to eat a normal meal of brown rice and chicken or meat an hour before my workout. You see, this is nothing special just protein and carbs coming from normal foods one to two hours before working out.

This is what is proven to get you the best results and will keep things a simple as possible. There's really no need to get any more complicated than that, and no need to obsess about the specifics. Last but not least, In case you don't like rice and chicken or don't want to eat it every day here are some more suggestions for pre workout meals:

Meals that you can eat up to 1 hour include:

- Oatmeal with whey protein mixed in

- Large chicken sandwich with whole grain bread

- 2x or more hard-boiled eggs on toast

- Whole grain pasta with some sort of protein (again chicken or meat or whatever source of protein you prefer)

Snacks right 30min or less before your workout:

- A banana with a whey protein shake

- Apple wedges with cinnamon and some sort of light protein

 -A protein bar