Should you eat before or after working out?
I'm sure this question has been asked before, so I'm sorry.
I usually have a small snack, like fruit or a nutri-grain bar or something small with water before I work out. If I don't I begin to black out and faint while exericising.
But what I want to know is, should I eat a meal before exercising or wait until after I exercise to eat. I'm scared that if I eat a meal before execising then it'll be all over the floor sometime during my exercising...and I really don't want that to happen...but after I exercise and then go eat a meal, I feel slightly guilty, even though it is something healthy. I feel like I'm reversing all the hard work I just did...
So what should I do?
I think its really a personal choice!
I usually have a light snack about 30 minutes before working out. Then after about an hour after working out I eat a light meal. You shouldn't feel guilty at all eating after. You need to replenish your energy, and it's the simple math of calories in versus calories out. If you burn more than you take in no matter what time of the day it is or when you eat, you will still lose weight. You should feel good that you are making healthy food choices that will replenish the nutrients that your body lost from working out.
Remember the formula 3500 calories = 1 pound no matter how or when you eat it, and no matter how or when you burn it!!!
Do it how it works best for you! Good Luck.
Thanks...that helped...thanks for the other info too melkor. I'll have to remember that...
I have had open heart surgery and of course they want me to work out for that particular reason to m ake my heart healthier. But my doctor's tell me not to eat before working out because it is too hard on the heart. Because the stomach and heart are so close and when the stomach is full or partially full it pushes up on the heart making it work a lot harder. I know when I have a stress test they have me do it on an empty stomach. Then they have me go get a lite bite to eat. I will then go back and go through the stress test again so they can see how the heart works with food in the stomach in which it makes it work harder.
I'm only going by what my doctors tell me.
