Do I really need to eat?
I often get asked this and the answer, 9 times out of 10 is ideally YES. You wouldn't try and drive a car with little- no fuel so why would you do the same with exercise?
Ultimately, proactive fueling i.e planned/ thought-out pre-exercise nutrition plays a key role in ensuring you perform your best in that training session. This will best facilitate the physiological adaptations to training needed for you to improve your performance in that discipline.
Yes, you could probably complete a session without fuel….will it be your best power/ speed output or performance? Probably not. If you don’t provide your body with the ‘fuel for the work required’ then you may not be hitting the performance goals you are striving for. Moreover this could place you at higher risk of longer term underfuelling and low energy availability (LEA) that is linked to negative health consequences far wider than just performance.
Pre exercise fueling is particularly important for all you early risers who train first thing in the morning as your bodies' stored carbohydrate, namely liver glycogen stores will be low after a nocturnal fast.
Repeated fasted training has been shown to negatively impact performance, accelerate the onset of fatigue and compromise recovery from exercise. Under Fuelling at this time will catch up with you.
What should I eat?
Food choice and quantity consumed should be directed by;
Nature of the session planned: duration, intensity etc
Purpose of the session i.e. is it an easy session with friends or are you pushing power/ pace or racing
How much time you have to take on nutrition!
Taking the ‘fuel for the work’ required framework, it makes sense that for sessions where you are working harder either by pushing intensity and/ or duration, and those with a targeted purpose e.g. building on your aerobic base, threshold training or mimicking a race scenario, your pre session nutrition will be far more important than say an easy chatty run/ cycle with your friends.
The former will also demand a greater energy intake and focus on carbohydrate (CHO) availability, as CHO will be the body's preferred source of fuel for these sessions.
Food choice will ultimately depend on the time you have available to eat and, if your session is in the afternoon/ evening, what you have already eaten that day.
Recommendations are expressed as grams of CHO per kg body weight which decrease the closer to starting exercise you are planning on eating (Diagram below)
The closer you are to starting you more you will need to prioritise easily digestible and faster acting CHO, so your body will have readily available CHO to use during the session.
You should also go easy on/ avoid anything high in fibre, fat and protein as these all tend to slow down your gastric emptying time and overall digestion. The last thing you want is for food to be hanging around in your stomach and lower gut during exercise…..cue gastrointestinal symptoms (See my previous blog post on gut training)
2 - 4 hours before exercise
Aim: 2 - 4g CHO per kg body weight
e.g. 60kg female should aim for 120-240g CHO
With plenty of time for digestion, your food choices should focus on CHO with a moderate amount of protein, fibre and small amount of fat. This is usually a main meal.
Examples include:
Overnight oats with nut butter & chopped banana
Eggs & avocado on wholegrain toast
Wholemeal bread sandwich: cream cheese/ ham/ egg filling
Pasta with tomato based sauce & tuna/ lean chicken & soft veg
Jacket potato with hummus, tuna or grated cheese
Noodle/ rice with egg/ chicken
1 -2 hours before exercise
Aim: 1 - 2 g CHO per kg body weight
e.g 60kg female should aim for ~60-120g CHO
You should continue to prioritise CHO +/- small amounts of protein but minimise fat and fibre containing foods.
Good examples include
Low fibre cereal e.g. cornflakes, rice krispies with milk & banana
Bagel: cream cheese & cucumber, peanut butter & banana
Scotch pancakes with banana/ blueberries & syrup
Smoothie bowl with sprinkle of granola & nut butter & banana
<1 hours of exercise
Aim: 0.5 - 1g CHO per kg body weight
e.g. 60kg female should aim for 30-60g CHO
Here you need to prioritise easy to digest and fast absorbing CHO that are low in protein with little/ no fat and fibre. This may include puree or liquid consistency foods that are easier on the gut.
Good examples include:
Crumpets/ white toast or bagel with honey/ peel free marmalade or jam
Rice cakes & honey / jam
250ml conc fruit juice (smooth) & ripe banana
Hot cross bun/ malt loaf/ 3-4 dates (If fibre tolerated)
Apple/ fruit puree pouch
1-2 stroop waffles
Energy gel
500ml sports drink
Choices will of course be individual and will depend on your baseline diet and what your gut is familiar with. Individuals who have a high CHO & fibre diet may well be able to tolerate higher fibre choices e.g. dried fruit close to exercise with no negative gut side effects, while for others these things will not not be tolerated well.
I train early and don’t feel like eating and/ or have enough time to eat ….
This is not uncommon but Ideally a pattern that we want to break, in a step by step fashion.
Remember that the purpose of taking on nutrition at this time is not to satisfy hunger, but to provide readily available CHO to your working muscles and allow you to perform well. If you are relying on only hunger signals to drive when you eat for training, it's likely that you will fall short on pre/ during and even post training nutrition. If we are looking at performance enhancement, these are key time periods to focus on nailing your nutrition.
Short on time? Even if you set your alarm 15 minutes early, and take on something liquid while you are getting ready, that will benefit you. Think ½ glass of juice/ sports drink, ½-1 gel as you get dressed.
I’m new to this, where should I start?
If you are starting from scratch start from just below/ at the lower end of the CHO recommendations and work upwards over time s.
If you struggle with solids start first with liquid/ semi solid sources inc sports drinks/ smoothie/ fruit juice/ gel or puree fruit pouches. You can work in more solid sources once your gut has adapted to these.
Don’t feel you need to do a whole diet overhaul. The examples provided above as just examples……start by looking at your habitual diet and adapting to suit the recommendations. This may be as simple as changing the type of bread you chose (white rather than brown/ wholegrain) and the topping you chose (Jam/ honey rather than nutella). Wildly changing your diet from the offset is likely to reduce your compliance.
Most importantly, practise, practise, PRACTISE. Your gut will take time to adapt to taking on nutrition at this time so be patient. This is especially critical if you are training towards an event/ race, as you want your pre-event nutrition to be well rehearsed and well tolerated well ahead of the day itself! Check out my previous blog post on gut training for more info,
Not sure where to start? Have you got a big event on the horizon that you want sports nutrition advice for? Get in contact with me!
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Good reads below:
Burke, L., et al. (2011). Carbohydrates for training and competition. Journal of Sports Science, 29 Suppl 1: S17-27. doi: 10.1080/02640414.2011.585473
Chryssanthopoulos, C., et al. (1997) Pre-exercise carbohydrate meal and endurance running capacity when carbohydrates are ingested during exercise. International Journal of Sports Medicine. 18(7):543-8. doi: 10.1055/s-2007-972679.
Jeukendrup, A. (2017). Race day breakfast considerations.
Kerksick, C. M., et al. (2017) International society of sports nutrition position stand: nutrient timing. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 14:33. doi: 10.1186/s12970-017-0189-4.
Mountjoy, M., et al. (2023) 2023 International Olympic Committee's (IOC) consensus statement on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs). British Journal of Sports Medicine, 57(17):1073-1097. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2023-106994.
Thomas, D. T., et al. (2016) American College of Sports Medicine Joint Position Statement: Nutrition and Athletic Performance. Medicine and science in sport and exercise, 48(3):543-68. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000000852.
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