Starting a workout properly fueled can really make or break that day’s performance. A little snack or light meal can help push you over a PR, run a few feet further, go one extra in-your-face rep, and shave a few seconds off your time. And while at the moment, that might not seem so monumental, it is if you improve just a little bit consistently, day after day. Tiny improvements bring a world of change over time.
After today, your pre-workout preparation starts before the warm-up or light stretching; it starts in the kitchen. In this blog, I’ll give you my go-to pre-workout snacks and meals to help fuel your workout without weighing you down. After all, you don’t want to tackle your workout feeling too stuffed.
But first, we need to settle a hotly contested debate: should you eat a meal or a snack before a workout?
Pre-Workout Meal vs. Pre-Workout Snack
We’ve long known that macronutrients, like simple carbohydrates, help fuel performance and endurance when taken before a workout.1 But does it matter the volume of macros you need to fuel your performance? Well, that depends. That depends mostly on the timing and size of your meal.
If you have a small snack, like a piece of toast with peanut butter (my go-to), you should aim to have this pretty close to your workout time—like within an hour. These simple carbohydrates digest quickly. So, you’ll want to time it just right. As these carbohydrates are getting digested, they are fueling your energy and staving away any hunger pangs.
Now, let’s say you’re more of a mid-day trainer. For a proper workout, you feel like you need to have had breakfast before grabbing the running shoes or stepping foot in the gym. Some days, this is me. It’s what fits into my busy schedule and helps me maintain consistency. If this is you, make sure to have a healthy meal of protein, carbs, and fats at least an hour before training. At least. You can certainly give your body more time to properly digest and prepare for an all-out sweatout. But at minimum, give your body an hour to digest a full meal.
So, the debate or a pre-workout meal or snack is really just up to you. What fits better with your schedule? What feels comfortable? But just make sure to eat snacks within the hour of your workout and meals an hour before your workout—at least.
Pre-Workout Snack Ideas
Before my runs or workouts, I gravitate toward snacks with simple, easily digestible ingredients. These snacks include:
- A banana with 2 tablespoons of almond butter
- Half a bagel with jam
- A couple of whole-grain crackers with a hardboiled egg
- A GoMacro Bar
Feel free to mix and switch some of these ingredients. But these are my core snacks that I rotate throughout the weeks.
Pre-Workout Meal Ideas
If you want to enjoy a meal before training, opt for natural, easily digestible ingredients. Some of my favorite pre-workout meals include:
- Chicken, rice & vegetables
- Berry smoothie with Greek yogurt
- Omelette with whole grain toast & an avocado
- Oatmeal with banana & sliced almonds
Parting Thoughts: A Little Tip on Hydration
Alongside proper fueling, hydration is a key factor to consider before and after training. Typically, I tell my clients to drink half their body weight in ounces of water per day. Now, if you sweat a lot during a workout or are breastfeeding, you will need to drink more.
So, whether you snack or enjoy a meal before training, make sure to pair it with proper hydration!
Bibliography
- Ormsbee, M. J., Bach, C. W., & Baur, D. A. (2014). Pre-exercise nutrition: the role of macronutrients, modified starches and supplements on metabolism and endurance performance. Nutrients, 6(5), 1782–1808. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu6051782
