“What should I eat before I train?”

This is a common question at Vitruvian Fitness. And the answer is: It depends and something.

It depends on what your training goals are, your health status, the time of day you’re training, when you ate last, when you’re eating next, and what you typically eat in a day. Simple, right?

So, here's the real answer: Eat what you should throughout your day making simple timing adjustments to accommodate the intensity and demands of your training.

Here are some very general guidelines and from these, you’ll need to figure out what works best for you.

Daily Nutrition Strategy

On a daily basis, a properly nourished person consumes a well-balanced assortment of quality vegetables, fruits, protein products, beverages, and other complementary foods that make you healthy and strong. As an aspiring properly nourished person yourself, you actively seek a solution to this by reading, researching, experimenting, questioning authority, challenging convention, creating hypotheses and coming to your own educated conclusions.

Here are some guidelines (which I challenge you to challenge using the scientific method).

Protein. You’re consuming not less than 1 gram of protein for each pound of ideal body weight. You can get protein from animals and non-animals. Pick your preference.

Carbohydrates. Carbohydrates come from fruits, vegetables, legumes, flours, and the sugar bowl. None of these are bad. It’s the quantity and timing of this energy-abundant macro-nutrient that matters. It’s like laughing. Laughing is always healthy unless you’re laughing at the wrong time.

Fat. Fat is also an abundant energy source and it’s necessary for several bodily functions and is the exclusive transporter of some nutrients.

Fiber. If you eat enough vegetables, you eat enough fiber. If you’re not eating enough vegetables, eat more.

Fluids. Also known as water. Drink your water plain or drink it infused it with stuff like broth, tea, nourishing powders, and magic potions. Cook your food in it and with it.

Spend some time doing real research on the subject. Libraries, bookstores, and the world wide web are overflowing with information. Yes, it’s overwhelming. But the streets you drive on are littered with thousands of different signs and distractions and you figured out how to navigate your way around. You’ve got this.

Pre-Workout Nutrition – What you came here to learn.

What time you’re going to work out will influence what to eat/drink more than any other factor. First, we’re going to assume that you’re working on the “what to eat all day equation.” The next thing to answer is, “What nourishment do I need to give myself the best training session possible?” And the last thing to consider is what your overall training objectives are.

Remember this truism: Food is Fuel. You can’t drive your car from Denver to Grand Junction on a quarter tank of gas. Likewise, you can’t expect to get through a hard training session on an empty tank. But you don’t want to puke up a stomach-full of broccoli and protein products either.

So, what’s the right answer? Something.

The right answer is something. Not too much, not too little, not too recently, and not too long ago.

When I was a wee lad growing up in the mother country, we were generally advised to wait an hour after eating before swimming or jumping on the trampoline. This was probably pretty good advice. Whatever we ate was probably still energizing us but not sitting in a bolus in our belly bouncing about looking for the exit.

But what if you’re just not awake or your energy is low? Maybe this is your situation?

• You’re training first thing in the morning 20 minutes after waking up?
• You’re training 3 hours after lunch and right before dinner?
• It’s been a long day of sitting at your desk, driving in your car, or Zooming with New Zealand?

Here are some ideas.

• Coffee or Tea – for the caffeine
• Oatmeal – for the carbohydrates*
• Fruit – for the carbohydrates
• Prepackaged “pre-workout” drinks – for the caffeine and other legal stimulants
• Prepackaged “energy” bars – for the carbohydrates

*Fun fact: Cold oatmeal, like overnight oats, digests more slowly than hot oatmeal making the absorption of carbohydrates slower which has some benefits. Beans, lentils and cold potatoes work the same way. These are known as resistant starches. Look it up!

Getting your money’s worth.

This is about the economics of training and the allocation of finite resources.

If you show up for your training session fired up and ready to go and you make it a habit of showing up fired up and ready to go, you can expect great results from your training over time.

Conversely, if you habitually show up for your training tired and malnourished, then you will get poor results from your training over time.

You don’t have to be perfect all the time. Just do your best as often as you can.

If your time and energy are limited resources, how do you want to spend them and what do you expect from them?

Being well-nourished, focused, alert, and ready for action is the secret.

Curious to learn more about Vitruvian Fitness?

We encourage you to do a 14-Day Trial Membership. In 14 days, you will get a private onboarding session that includes the Functional Movement Screen®, then unlimited semi-private training sessions doing the program we design based on that first session. And you’ll get to be a part of one of the most inviting, inclusive, and fun communities you’ll find anywhere. At the end of your trial, you get to decide if you liked it and if you want to continue with a regular 6-month membership. All the options and prices are on our Membership page.

Click the Get Started button to schedule a call to learn more.

Our facility is conveniently located on the northwest corner of Denver in beautiful downtown Wheat Ridge.

Attribution: This article was written with assistance of ChatGPT.