Q&A: Should I Eat Before I Workout?

Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to today's video. So today my question comes in from Lee Taylor, and the question is— let me just get it here— it is, should I eat before I work out? Now this one all depends, and like many things in health, it all depends because it, it's down to your own physiology. Now there are some people that recommend, oh, eat before you train so then you've got plenty of fuel on board to to fuel the workout. Then there are others who say don't eat before you train because if you do that, your body will be trying to, um, to digest the food and stuff and you won't have all of the energy needed to put into the workout. Now the truth is it all depends on you and your physiology and how you feel. So I've had clients in the past, if they eat within 2 hours before their workout, by the time they got through their, their warm-up, they feel like they want to throw up. Because their system is far more sensitive. And what we have to remember is that digestion takes place on the opposite side of the nervous system to our fight or flight response. Now, when we start training and get active, that activates the fight or flight response or starts to shift us into what we call a sympathetic state or more towards the stress side of the nervous system. So that will actually start to shut down digestion, which takes place on the opposite side of the nervous system. So sometimes when the body is trying to compete, it's like, oh well, I'm— I've got food in my stomach, so I should be digesting and obviously making use of this food, digesting it, absorbing it, assimilating it, and so on. But now you're telling me I need to fight or flight or train. So sometimes for, for people, if their system is a bit more sensitive, it can make them feel a bit off. They'll feel sluggish, they'll feel like they want to be sick, and so on. But in my experience, that's relatively rare. Most people can train, um, on a full stomach or a partially full stomach without too many problems, but it just comes down to, to you as an individual. Now, the question, should I eat before I work out, is probably asked more from the perspective of what's better. Like, my goal is, for example, fat loss— should I eat before I work out? My goal is building muscle— should I eat before I work out? Now, I would say if your goal is to build muscle then generally speaking, it's good to have a meal before you train and one pretty much straight after, or within 30 minutes of finishing up, up that workout as well. Um, doesn't have to be a huge meal, but we want to make sure we've got plenty of protein on board and plenty of resources available at the end of the workout too, to repair anything. Because of course, if we're trying to build muscle, we need to be in what they call a calorie surplus. We need additional calories, resources, etc., available so that our body can, can rebuild and repair the muscle that we've damaged in the workout. But then, of course, also build new tissue on top of that. When it comes to fat loss, the research doesn't really clearly define which is or isn't better. Should I eat before I train or not? There isn't a great deal of difference in the, in the net result that's gotten in terms of fat loss and weight loss. So really it comes down to you as an individual. Now I know a lot of my clients that I will train in the mornings, they prefer, generally speaking, to train on an empty stomach, or they'll just have something small, like, you know, a very small breakfast, couple of boiled eggs, a banana, that type of thing, rather than a huge meal. But that's because they're coming in, it's quite early, they're going to train hard, and for them as individuals, they prefer to train with a stomach that's not full. They tend to feel a bit shit, a bit sluggish, can't quite get into the workout as well if they've had a big meal. That might be totally different for you. So I wouldn't worry too much. I'd do instead what works for you. I wouldn't sort of think, oh, well, if I eat before, does that mean I'm going to have more calories on board and then my body is going to then be trying to digest instead of work out? Or because I've taken those extra calories, does that mean that I won't get the fat loss at the end? And so on. In reality, it makes very little difference as long as your overall calorie intake isn't in excess. of what your body requires, then of course, as a result of the training and the, the recovery that you'll hopefully be getting as well, and obviously the eating well, you will get the fat loss results that you want whether you eat before your workout or not. So that's, that's about it really. You know, if you want to eat and you feel like you can get away with it, go for it. Um, but if you don't want to, not a big deal either. But I would say your post-workout meal is more important than the pre-workout meal, generally speaking. So if you don't eat before, make sure you have a good meal after. If you do eat before, make sure you have a good meal after. Either way, that post-workout meal will tend to yield the best results because we're looking to obviously maintain any muscle mass that we have, and we're also looking to rebuild that as quickly as possible and provide our gody— our gody, sorry, our body with healthy nutrition so that obviously we stay healthy as a result of all the training that we're doing. So I'll leave that, um, leave that one there today, guys. If you have any other questions, of course, as I always say, drop them in the comments below and I will get back to you guys as quickly as I can with an answer. Take it easy, people, and thank you for watching.