{"id":243738,"date":"2025-10-22T14:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/243738\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T14:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:43:07","slug":"what-to-eat-before-a-workout-for-maximum-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/243738\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Eat Before a Workout for Maximum Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"

When thinking about how to level up their fitness, the first question many people wonder is what to eat before a workout. This is understandable if you\u2019ve ever gone for a run with your lunch still sloshing around in your gut, but it\u2019s deeper than that: Whether you\u2019re hoping to channel your inner LeBron or simply not get winded when you kick up the incline on a treadmill<\/a>, a big unlock comes from nutrition, including what you\u2019re eating before the sweat starts.<\/p>\n

Pre-workout nutrition, from powders to whole foods, can play a huge role in everything from mid-run energy levels to fat loss over time. There is no right answer\u2014instead, there are many schools of thought, from those who can\u2019t imagine life without fasting before fitness<\/a> to those who religiously take pre-workout powders with hard-to-pronounce ingredients.<\/p>\n

But the bottom line is that what to eat before a workout matters. \u201cWhat and when you eat before exercise can make a big difference to your performance and recovery,\u201d says Brian St. Pierre, Director of Nutrition for Precision Nutrition<\/a>, \u201cIn the three hours before your workout, you\u2019ll want to eat something that helps you sustain energy, boost performance, hydrate, preserve muscle mass, and speed up recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here, experts answer your pre-workout nutrition questions.<\/p>\n

What Should I Be Eating Before A Workout?<\/p>\n

It really depends on what you\u2019re about to do. Generally speaking, your main priority is to consume carbohydrates before you exercise. While protein is key post-sweat, taking in a bunch of it (via a protein shake or some other source) beforehand isn\u2019t top priority, since it\u2019s not as effective as an energy source.<\/p>\n

At the same time, balance is important. Ideally, \u201cYou want to eat one healthy meal about 1 to 3 hours before exercise that has carbs, fat, and protein,\u201d says St. Pierre, adding that the timing window is something that you can individualize based on what feels right with your body. In other words, a full, healthy meal that you might eat any other time.<\/p>\n

Now, if you\u2019re like me, hitting the functional trainer<\/a> in the early morning, you may be thinking that feels a little aggressive. So think about what your goals are. While a 30-minute jaunt on the rowing machine<\/a> may not need a specific fueling meal, a longer workout might feel better with a small serving of easily digestible fuel beforehand, especially if your last meal was more than 2 hours ago, says Liz Wyosnick, a certified nutritionist and the owner of Equilibriyum<\/a>, a Seattle nutrition counseling service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When thinking about how to level up their fitness, the first question many people wonder is what to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[30743,337,299,97,269,5210,777,673,11657],"class_list":{"0":"post-243738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-_syndication_noshow","9":"tag-fitness","10":"tag-food","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-nutrition","13":"tag-textbelowcenterfullbleed","14":"tag-web","15":"tag-wellness","16":"tag-working-out"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}