You are currently viewing Pre-Workout Nutrition

Pre-Workout Nutrition

Let’s talk about pre-workout nutrition.

BUT, first my friends, please don’t be the guy or girl who prioritizes his pre-workout carb/ protein ratios, yet hasn’t even locked in ones “energy balance”.

IE, calorie intake first to meet your goals, followed by macros.

This is equivalent to you planning the wedding for the girl you like, but you haven’t even sacked up to ask her to go have Fro-Yo, your just liking her IG pics, and “putting the cart before the horse”.

For pre-workout nutrition, context is ever important. Are you trying to build muscle? Lose fat? Maintain? Is this more performance, or aesthetic based?

For simplicity, let’s keep this focused around an aesthetic based, fat loss approach.

Regardless of your goal, it all begins with digestion.

So choosing food sources, and looking at timing, so you “FEEL” your best during training, therefore can “PERFORM” your best.

We want to make sure to have circulating amino acid availability while training.

This can come from intra-workout EAA’s, or WHEY. Both work in this situation.

You should aim though to have a bolus of protein within around 3 hours of training.

I typically like to have my pre-workout meal 90 minutes before my first set, to allow the bulk of digestion to run its course.

Now, when looking at food choice, let’s avoid ones which you don’t digest well.

Within this, we usually want to limit fats, and fiber as this will slow the digestion process.

Choosing lean protein sources, (ribeye steak might not be the best bet), rather egg whites, whey, chicken, turkey, tuna, and other white fishes.

Now, with carbohydrates, understand that we need also to prioritize sources which will not linger in the gut, and hinder performance.

Oatmeal, for example, is high in a soluble fiber called beta-glucan which dissolves in water and forms a thick, gel-like solution in the gut.

Great for other times in the day to stave off hunger, but we need faster clearing glucose sources (unless your pre-workout meal is going to be 2+ hours prior, this would be a good choice).

Other sources which seem to linger in the gut (often related to fiber), include cream of wheat, and sweet potatoes.

Better choices would include cream of rice (my go-to), kids cereal, white rice, rice cakes, white bagels, white pasta, etc…..

“But Jordan, I thought sugar is bad, shouldn’t I limit this?”.

First off, it’s important to remember that any source of carbohydrates is eventually broken down into monosaccharides (aka sugars) as the end result.

So even the bro-bodybuilder who only lets you eat sweet potatoes, and rice, is still causing sugar to enter your bloodstream.

With that said, different carbohydrates offer a unique combination and amount of various health-promoting micronutrients, but at the end of the day, they’re still just fucking sugar…

My favorite meal includes peanut butter cream of rice, chocolate peanut butter protein, PB2, a bit of fruit for added fructose, and a small amount of nut butter.

“Why nut butter? Don’t we want to limit fats?”… yes, but it depends.

Some people without a small number of fats in their pre-workout meal can feel a bit of “hypoglycemic” effect.

Meaning the carbohydrates digest quickly, cause a rise in blood sugar, then a steep decline, leaving you feeling “tired”, and performance suffering.

Everyone is different here, so if you feel this happening, simply add in 5-10g of fats with your pre-workout meal, and you should be golden ponyboy.

Let me know if you found this helpful!

This Post Has 6,869 Comments

  1. Bridget prasnicki October 31, 2019 Reply

    Curious because I wake up at 4:30 AM and leave to hit the gym. I eat a banana, dry scoop my pre workout then hit it. Thoughts on this?? Only time I can workout is if I’m there before 5 so I don’t have time to eat an hour before 🙁

  2. Anonymous December 10, 2019 Reply

    I think this is all fine except I would ABSELUTELY include protein here.

    We need circulating amino acid availability during training, so I would add in a protein shake, or just essential amino acids if you have trouble digesting whey.

    Hope this helps

  3. п»їcialis July 7, 2020 Reply

    Best Place To Buy Cialis Online daypeoxype [url=https://acialisd.com/#]buying generic cialis online safe[/url] offimeds prix viagra pas cher en saint-denis SleereeNed Cialis Imizom Best Over The Counter Erection Pill

  5. Inhennabync August 13, 2020 Reply

    vegas free slots free casino games slot machines bovada casino pompeii slots [url=http://onlinecasinostt.com/ ]list of online casinos for us players [/url]

  355. NatashaEvada9882 August 21, 2020 Reply

    Perfect update of captchas solving package “XEvil 5.0”:

    Captcha solution of Google (ReCaptcha-2 and ReCaptcha-3), Facebook, BitFinex, Bing, Hotmail, SolveMedia, Yandex,
    and more than 12000 another categories of captcha,
    with highest precision (80..100%) and highest speed (100 img per second).
    You can use XEvil 5.0 with any most popular SEO/SMM programms: iMacros, XRumer, SERP Parser, GSA SER, RankerX, ZennoPoster, Scrapebox, Senuke, FaucetCollector and more than 100 of other software.

    Interested? You can find a lot of introducing videos about XEvil in YouTube.

    FREE DEMO AVAILABLE!

    Good luck!

  412. NatashaEvada3167 August 22, 2020 Reply

    Perfect update of captcha solving software “XEvil 5.0”:

    Captcha regignizing of Google (ReCaptcha-2 and ReCaptcha-3), Facebook, BitFinex, Bing, Hotmail, SolveMedia, Yandex,
    and more than 12000 another types of captchas,
    with highest precision (80..100%) and highest speed (100 img per second).
    You can use XEvil 5.0 with any most popular SEO/SMM software: iMacros, XRumer, SERP Parser, GSA SER, RankerX, ZennoPoster, Scrapebox, Senuke, FaucetCollector and more than 100 of other programms.

    Interested? You can find a lot of introducing videos about XEvil in YouTube.

    FREE DEMO AVAILABLE!

    See you later 😉

  622. NatashaP8543 August 26, 2020 Reply

    Revolutional update of captcha solving package “XRumer 19.0 + XEvil”:

    Captchas breaking of Google (ReCaptcha-2 and ReCaptcha-3), Facebook, BitFinex, Bing, Hotmail, SolveMedia, Yandex,
    and more than 12000 another subtypes of captcha,
    with highest precision (80..100%) and highest speed (100 img per second).
    You can use XEvil 5.0 with any most popular SEO/SMM programms: iMacros, XRumer, SERP Parser, GSA SER, RankerX, ZennoPoster, Scrapebox, Senuke, FaucetCollector and more than 100 of other software.

    Interested? There are a lot of demo videos about XEvil in YouTube.

    Free XEvil Demo available.

    Good luck 😉