early morning pre-workout nutrition

[Judy2]

i've got a question because i usually work out in the mornings and some of the nutrition advice that i've seen online conflicts in this regard.

on the one hand, it's advised to consume around 30g of carbs (preferably simple rather than complex) to fuel the workout, which makes sense to me.

on the other hand, women specifically are advised to get around 15g of protein within an hour of waking for hormonal reasons, and carbs in the morning may set you up for more of a blood sugar roller coaster later in the day.

as i (currently) don't want to have my full breakfast before i work out and prefer to eat more after i am finished, i wonder what the macros of an ideal pre-workout snack, which is simultaneously my first 'meal'/snack of the day, should look like.

so far i've been focussing more on carbs but idk if that is really beneficial or not.

Edited 15 hours ago by Judy2

[Ramasta9]

Eating early is unnatural and not needed IMO, and your body will tell you this by itself, that is far more intelligent than any expert out there, because its (your body). Exercising in a fasted state is the best, and fueling afterwards is a very natural process humans evolved with for millions of years.

Intuition is all you need. I personally never feel hungry before 11 - 12pm, and sometimes if i do eat, its only fruit or fresh squeezed fruit juice.

Some people do coffee or tea, matcha, herbal stimulants ect... since its zero calories, but i feel it still stimulates the body in an unnatural way and trains us to rely on such things for energy and motivation. So what happens when you don't have them? See the dilemma? 

That's just how I would do it at least, and there is a lot of scientific backing to what i say too, but you gotta follow your own soul.

 

[Natasha Tori Maru]

I tend to eat 2/3 very small meals through the day.

Main meal 3hrs before bed - larger.

I let my body digest and process food by fasting until 11AM. I use the morning for my most focused, intense tasks.

Because my main, larger meal at night, is quite large, it fuels the morning weights/run/ride by loading carbohydrates the evening prior. I have personally found exercising or doing any intense non-linear thinking work on a full stomach to detract from performance.

For this reason, I load the night/evening before.

I have tried one meal a day (OMAD) but it did not do so well for hormones. Such a pity women are not even looked at properly for a lot of modern nutrition studies

My advice is - experiment. The timing and diet for you is the one that YOU can stick to, and gives the best performance. If you cannot stick to something, it's never going to work.

I think all this food timing stuff can feed anxiety; paralysis by analysis!