Should I eat before or after I go to the gym

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I'm wondering about this subject.
Since during the excersise the body needs energy to do the various things to train the muscles and heart, I'm wondering if it's better to provide the energy before or after, I've been excersising with weighs or running.

I would like your ideas or theories about this subject, if you like to write about them here.

Eat something something light so it doesn't weigh you down when you're exercising, but eat enough so you're not light-headed afterwards.

There are some pretty complicated theories of when the best time to eat is. Things like "eat 1.85 ounces of fish before you workout and 2.58 ounces of chicken afterwards." The numbers in that quote were not real.

Ideally;

immediately before (optional)- A very light meal (perhaps a drink) consisting of fast protein (eg whey) with some carbs. This can serve as a top-up if your last 'proper' meal was more than an hour or two ago & your energy reserves are likely to 'burn-out' during the session. Avoid fat, which will slow absorbtion.

immediately after - slow protein (eg casien,egg) incorporated into a normal meal. Take something as soon as possible, even if its just a snack. This will help avoid catabolism (i assume your intention is to gain lean body mass)

If your at all interested in bodybuilding (dieting & training) taken to obsessive scientific extremes, then this is the place to look; http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/
Pretty much every other site is riddled with myths and industry disinformation.

Heres the HST article on Pre/Post exercise nutrition;
(fully referenced to scientific research)

http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hsn ... nutri.html

i'm pretty athletic, so i've been thinking about this a lot and i've decided that you should eat a little before (like a salad or some fruit) like a half hour before so you have time to digest it, and like 45 minutes after you should have something w/ a lot of protein (anything like a cheese stick or a protein bar) if you're looking to build muscle. but either way have some gatorade or something like a bananna so you can replenish electrolytes!

I have no idea what the best thing to do is, but I hate eating a meal before exercising - I find it makes me feel sick during the exercise and that isn't the best. So probably a light snack quite a while beforehand would be good. The suggestions of fruit or salad would work pretty well because they aren't that filling usually. The only problem with that is that (from my experience) you don't feel hungry afterwards or you've drunken alot of water so you don't feel like eating as much even though you're hungry. I always used to have fried eggs and an apple when I got home from exercising for some reason. I always did my exercising pretty late at night, I'd finish at 10pm so I guess I can't really comment on how hungry one would be. So maybe just having 2 light meals before and after would work alright.

If you're going to eat something before you go to the gym, make sure its about an hour before you go to give your body chance to digest some of what youve eaten. If you don't you could end up giving yourself a stomach cramp and, speaking from experience, stomach cramps are extremely unpleasant. Also make sure that whatever you eat isn't too stodgy or filling as this takes longer to digest. So no white bread or potatoes or red meat. The best thing to do is have a small meal or snack and then have a sensible meal afterwards. This worked for me.

The answer to that question depends upon your work-out goals. Without knowing your specific goals, I can only offer one generic piece of advice. Never eat a huge meal and then work-out hard because it could make you puke.

Remember the saying many mothers tell their kids, no swimming for 20 minutes after eating, and the same is true for working out. If you over-eat or have a sensitive system, you’ll need to wait about an hour after eating.

I think it's a good question, but you can choose only to drink like myself that buys cans from my local gym from time to time

I'll post a thought that just came to mind:

1. When I go to the gym, I need only food for the energy that is needed to move my legs and arms and other muscles.

2. When excercise is finished I go home and eat something that contains protein and things which rebuild my muscle cells.(rebuilding cells, which is an automated process by the body)

If you're going to excercise, you should eat some carbohydrates (like a slice of bread with peanut butter on it, or maybe some bran cereal with milk or something). You could also try a sport's bar, like a Cliff Bar or a Powerbar or some other bar that suits your taste. But the thing is that it depends on how much you actually do eat, and that determines what time you should actually go to the gym. If you eat spaghetti with red sauce before hand, you should wait for a few hours, since that would take a little longer to digest because it's a complex carbohydrate, not to mention it's more complex to digest than that slice of bread with peanut butter on it. Complex carbohydrates could be better if you're doing a long run, since complex carbs digest slower and so provide a longer supply of fuel than say a lollypop might for instant sugar. I've even heard of people, before races, consuming an energy drink right before to boost their energy for the beginning of the race. I wouldn't recommend that because instant forms of energy could be harmful to your heart in my opinion. Anyways, after you excercise, you should eat food with protein in it. A banana is often good, and even milk; or even make a shake of a banana, a tablespoon of peanut butter, and 1 cup of milk. It tastes often, and it does the job. The reason why it's recommended to eat protein afterwards is that when you excercise, you're body builds muscle, and takes down muscle. The protein helps build the muscle back up so that you don't keep excercising and never gaining strength. Yes, if you run, you increase your cardiovascular side, but your arms and legs wouldn't get nearly as strong if you didn't eat protein. I read that it's good to consume at least 9 grams of protein within 45 mins. after your workout. Anyways, there are many theories about to eat the night before and even the week before a race or workouts, and lots of the time it's finding the right balance of food for you, since we all have different tastes and different bodily needs.

I like to work out early in the mornings. I wake up, eat some dry cereal, cook myself a bowl of Irish oatmeal if I'm up early enough, and go straight to the gym. When I'm done, I come home and make myself a shake with milk and powdered whey protein.

Eating a serving of protein directly after working out helps you build muscle and get the nutrients into your body.