what is wrong with eating right before working out?

I hit the gym after work. Tonight, after a long day, I was very hungry. I had a protein bar and a banana ( about 300 cals). I felt bad about it because I had to wait for an hour in a nearby starbucks before I can workout. People here say that it is not good to eat right before the gym. I really don't understand why and I want to know why?

a light snack like what you had is ok to work out on. what happans is a lot of people who eat a meal right before working out get cramps, dizzy, upset stomics ect. thats why most advise against it. but it depends on the person as well.

Yeah, if I eat a meal before I work out, it will come right back up (or at least feel like it's about to). But if I eat a light snack, that gives me just an energy boost. Like Bernst said, it really depends on the person.

what you had isn't bad, they do recommend something light before a workout so you can endure longer.  as long as it's not a heavy meal there's nothing wrong w/ eating b/f exercising.

I've read things about how you should work out 1.5 to 2 hours after a meal because thats when your body converts glucose to glycogen. If you don't have enough sustainance, you could very well lose energy and fall fatigued too quickly to complete an effective workout. Quick energy kick-starts the body.

I've heard other things about depleting muscle proteins if you dont eat enough or before a workout and push, but I have no sources for that.. if anyone has info?

I would experiment with yourself, but be prepared you MAY have a bad workout, or not achieve what you want.

That said you could be completely fine.

As far as I remember, stats are based on 95% of the population.

Therefore 5% of the population do not follow the trend.

Not really applicable to this forum, but I can go to a restaurant and have a HUGE indian meal, drink beer through it, and then hit the beer on a night out without bloating or feeling full :)

Sometimes I eat a tablespoon of peanut butter before I go out for my walk.  Seems to give me a good energy boost. Then afterward, I'll have my cereal or oatmeal.

When I first started CC I was eating my meal before... but once I got out there and my body got warmed up... I felt extremely nauseated, stomach ache and crampy.  Had to stop that and reevaluate, so the above is what I do now.  Makes a huge difference.

thanks everyone. I heard that if you eat right before exercising, the body will consume what you just had for energy. thus you will not be burning the fat that is store in your body. I am not sure how true is that?

Your body does not work that way.  If you don't have any fuel in your body before a workout it tends to burn muscle, not fat, as muscle is much more easily accessible.  So you are just sabotaging yourself by not eating before you work out

don't know if this is true but apparently i read somewhere that if you eat AFTER you exercise, your body is still 'burning' something and thus you're not intaking as much as you would have done if you ate the food before.. but it just seems like a load of **** to me ;p

that said, i wouldn't really eat before working out because it makes me feel sick, especially if i have a big meal - your body is supposed to use a lot of the energy it already has to digest your food so working out wouldn't really do you much good. of course as many other people have mentioned, it's ok to eat a small energy bar or something else to boost you as you do need some energy to work out, otherwise you're not doing yourself any good!

Well, personally, I need a light snack, I can't work out at full intensity on an empty stomach.

As for burning more fat on an empty stomach, assuming that is actually true, the easiest way to counter that argument is to point out that either you eat before hand, burn that off and no fat, or you don't eat, burn fat, and then when you do eat, then that goes to fat, netting the same effect. Of course, it's not that simple, but that's the kind of logic that people use who say that you burn more fat on an empty stomach.

I eat a full meal 2 hours before, and a protein rich snack right afterwards. Eating 2 hours before hand allows me to have some quick energy to last for my hr-hr 1/2 of exercise. Afterwards its protein and lots of hydration to feed my aching muscles that I just pushed to failure.

It's not bad to have a snack before you work out. I would if I didn't get such horrible cramps =P so I just eat something light afterwards.