Question On Eating Before Exercising
 

My wife and I had an interesting discussion, she prefers to wake up and start her exercise (she runs 3-6 miles), I prefer to have breakfast (a bowl of cereal) and a mug of coffee to put some sugar in my bloodstream as I typically will cycle 35 miles (this is on the weekend).

What do you guys do and / or recommend?

A bit of long-ish chain carbs before working out, proteins after. Generally speaking.

Over the last three years I've done research and tested out the theories, plus went to exercise classes taught by nutritionist vegan chef............... so on and so forth.

Break......................Fast

Breakfast

The first meal of the day breaks your body out of fasting mode, and FYI fasting mode conserves calories.

You will have a much better workout with the energy a breakfast gives, even a very small one.

Part of this is because your body can go into high gear and start burning calories required for a good workout if you eat first.

If you are in fasting mode that's going to be difficult to say the least.

Have a breakfast bar, or a 1/2 banana and a teaspoon to peanut butter if you want to eat lightly.

The more you eat, the longer you will have to wait before exercising.

Eat a small snack and wait 1/2 hour, medium meal 45 minutes, normal or larger breakfast wait an hour before heavy exercise.

Carbs in the morning to burn (ie oatmeal).

They say protein after a workout to rebuild the muscles.

I've read within the first 20 minutes, others say within the first hour after a workout eat protein.

All meals and snacks should be balanced.

Meaning eat enough carbs so your body can process the protein, and sneak fruit and vegetables into those meals.

Make half your plate something green typically.

I can hardly taste the kale in my protein shake smoothie, just had one for lunch.

been a long time since i rolled out of bed into my leotards.

but i would only slam a big glass of water and go, when i did.

The way it was explained to me by my brother who is a fitness freak, your body uses food in your stomach before it uses the fat it has stored. So if you want to lose weight you need to exercise in the morning before eating since your body has no choice but to use your fat reserves for energy. If you want to maintain weight or build muscle, eat before so your body uses what you just ate for energy instead of what is on your bones.

Personally, if I eat before walking I maintain my weight. If I want to lose weight, the only way for me to do so is to walk first and then eat.

Following on what drkshdw said,

If you want to do a fasting workout, especially an endurance workout, you've got to keep your exertion low enough to not burn up glycogen more quickly than you body can convert fat.

If you are successful in doing higher intensity fasting workouts, my understanding is that it is because
a) You are already in really good shape and your system has become more efficient in converting
b) your intensity is staying low enough
c) your actually starting to burn protein form your muscles and decimate them

In either case, in simple terms what I have been told is that the body uses energy in this order (and can switch in flight or fight mode but Ill leave that for another discussion

The conveyor belt:
1) burn glycogen stores in the muscles (a type of sugar)
2) when depleted call on glycogen stores in the liver to transfer to the muscles
3) when depleted call on fat to be converted to glycogen
The conveyer belt from fat to liver to muscles.

After your workout your body continues to feed the muscles and fill them back up, so after the workout what you eat can continue to fill up the muscles needed sugar stores or let the fat do it depending on intensity and what is needed back.

Note:
If you have a high sugar level in your blood and are doing high enough intensity, it will use that source directly instead. (Again leaving acrobatic/anarobic discussion for someone else to cover).

Also an easy but lengthy walk may be able to be fueled from fat alone since the rate of use is slow enough for the conveyer belt to supply it.

CAUTION:
If you work out even more intensely or for too long you may fall way behind and when you get home you'll uncontrollably eat absolutely everything in the fridge and then sleep for three hours (and gain a lot of weight)

Also, using glycogen from the muscles in normal. Burning protein from the muscles is not.

Being overly tired DURING your workout is a good sign that you need to eat.
Headaches and lightheadedness, (or passing out) means you've been stupid about not eating)

Science.

BBC Two - Trust Me, I'm a Doctor, Series 4, Episode 1 - The big experiment: how can I get my body to burn more fat, without doing more exercise?

I think you're both right.
If she runs anything around/under a 10 minute mile, she is done under an hour. Anything in her stomach is going to get bounced around as she runs. It probably works better for her to keep her stomach empty, and burn off the stored glycogen from last night's dinner.

If you are riding 20mph ave or under, you are riding at least 1.5 hours. You aren't bouncing around as much, and might benefit from the sugar/caffeine ritual.

Something to consider is that eating will divert blood to your stomach for digestion afterwards, so it's all about knowing how you react to eating before/during working out. Longer low intensity workouts - eating becomes more and more important with the longer durations. Higher short intensity workouts- sometimes better to keep the stomach light. Different people will also react differently to eating beforehand- also explaining your differences with you wife. Seems like both ideas work for each of you.

Also- some sugars break down into useful structures better than others. Poweraide drink, for example, has some long chain cheap sugar that doesn't break down and will sit in your stomach like a rock. I think Gatorade has it too, but I can't remember. All I know is that if I start drinking gatorade during a long ride, I need to be careful.

Oatmeal with a bit of Grape Nuts or toast with butter then on my bike 30 mins later.

My bicycling was longer distance than your number, with a minimum of 40 and more typical 60-80. I would definitely eat before a ride. High on the carbs and electrolytes. I prefer to stay away from Protein while riding because it can slow the processing/absorption of liquids/carbs.

I had issues with milk and high fiber (oatmeal) before long rides. I ended up on ramen noodles, since they provided carbs, liquid and electrolytes, not too mention quick and easy to fix while getting everything else ready.

Coffee is a double edged sword: It definitely wakes me up, but two, well, number 2. I' up 1-2 hours ahead of leaving to give my body a chance to "go".

3-5 miles of running is 30-50 minutes. I would go with coffee and not worry about anything else. 40 miles of cycling, I would definitely want some quick calories before heading out, since it is 2 hours.

when I raced bikes it was something with carbs before.
PB&J, waffle, pancakes.
you have to figure out what works for you though, but you need carbs.
how you eat depends on you too.
it took me a while to figure it out.

You don't need to eat before running/biking/exercising. You should be able to exercise the same whether you've eaten or not. I can run 6 miles after having had nothing but water (fasting) for the previous 36 hours as well as if I've eaten a meal or two that day.

You're body will switch over from burning glycogen (sugar in the blood) to burning fat. If you aren't used to it (who is) then your performance may flag a little until you've done it for a couple of weeks.

Good call.

And C should come WAY down the list. Even marathon runners should have enough fat to power them for quite a long time.

The guy that wrote this is a Dr.

https://idmprogram.com/fasting-and-exercise-fasting-23/

But elite cyclist may not because of the higher level of exertion and ability to outpace the conveyor belt

I like working out first thing. I need time to digest if I eat first, just delays things. Different if its a long workout, maybe over 90 min or so. Then I'll east something or at least during since what I call long is usually a ride.

and then on the other end of the scale there's this :D

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There hasn't been any definitive studies proving one way or the other. Do what works for you.

For me: If I am running, I don't like food sloshing around so I will eat after. If it is a lift day, I eat first.

For a ride of an hour and half or less I prefer just a cup of coffee. I've found my growing belly has enough to get me that far.

Over that and definitely for a fast club ride I'll eat a couple eggs and toast before plus a snack during the ride.