2024-04-03 10:49:10
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To maintain a healthy routine, what we eat plays a crucial role.
Not only because food has the power to make us gain or lose weight, sleep better and change our mood, but also because your diet can dictate how well you perform physical activities, including how much energy you will have to train and how you will recover. your body later.
For those who play sports, what you eat just before starting to exercise can be seen as an important step in achieving good results, such as weight loss or improved performance.
But, according to experts interviewed by BBC Brazil, this pre-workout serves more to ensure satiety and maintain energy levels.
“What is consumed before training does not work great miracles. This meal or snack is, in fact, only to keep you well enough to exercise,” explains Julia Engel, sports nutritionist and host of the podcast “In Search of Performance” .
According to the expert, what really matters for good performance – whether lifting weights, running or another type of activity – is what you ate in your last “post-workout”, the food eaten following training the previous day.
The nutritionist states that “the pre-workout begins following the previous post-workout,” because it is at that moment when the body replenishes glycogen, the glucose reserve (the most basic carbohydrate that provides us with energy for any activity).
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Fuel for training
Glucose and glycogen are essential carbohydrates for those who need energy for exercise, but they play different roles in the body.
Glycogen is stored in the muscles (and in the liver, but this part will not be used in training) waiting for the moment when the body moves and needs extra fuel.
By “saving” as much as possible, the body has enough stock to use in training without relying on the most recent meal.
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“For this storage to occur, a meal specifically designed for post-workout must be consumed within four hours of exercise.”
Engel mentions rapidly absorbed carbohydrates as a good consumption option.preferably a combination of glucose and fructose.
“This mixture allows for faster absorption, using different transporters. Some examples are: corn cereal (rich in glucose) and potatoes, which contain a lot of starch (glucose), and raisins (which contain glucose and fructose),” says Engel.
The exact choice and quantity of food, says nutritionist Jamile Tahim, a teacher at UECE (State University of Ceará in Brazil), must take into account aspects such as age, basal metabolic rate (amount of calories the body needs to perform its basic functions while at rest), weight, modality, time and intensity of the exercises.
In the hours following training, Protein consumption – whether through food or supplements – is also crucial to promote muscle synthesis, accelerating recovery and muscle growth.
Consuming fiber, such as whole grains, vegetables and green leaves, explains Engel, can hinder the rapid absorption of carbohydrates, so it should be done at least two hours following consuming glucose and fructose.
But having a good physiological reserve for physical exercise does not mean that you should not eat just before training or that the food eaten a few hours before can consist of any food.
A fruit smoothie can be a good option when you train in the followingnoon. [Getty Images]
What to eat right before training
The “immediate” pre-workout, which should be consumed between 3 hours and 15 minutes before training, depending on the amount of food and individual needs, is intended avoid feelings of hunger and maintain blood glucose, the level of glucose in the body. blood.
Glucose consumed through food is transported by the blood to the muscle cells. There it is converted into ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which is the body’s main source of energy.
The ideal, according to experts, is that the guidance is always individualized, taking into account the characteristics of each person, their tastes and level of physical activity.
But in general, nutritionist Jamile Tahim recommends that the last meal before exercise contain low amounts of fiber and fat, an adequate amount of protein and a higher concentration of carbohydrates.
This is because the consumption of fats, fibers and proteins increases the emptying time of the gastric system, which consequently delays the process of eliminating feces, and this can harm sports performance, explains Tahim.
“The consumption of carbohydrate sources should be prioritizedbecause the sources of this macronutrient have a faster digestion process and are also the main source of energy for our body.”
The nutritionists consulted explain that, if the training is done early in the morning, it is necessary to think of something that will keep the person energized.
In this case, it is advisable to choose foods that are quickly digested to maintain blood glucose levels.
On the other hand, if the training is done in the followingnoon or evening and the person has already eaten different nutritious foods throughout the day, the approach may be different, and will depend on each case.
Nutritionist Jamile Tahim describes some examples:
Morning workouts
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Natural yogurt with fruit and a drizzle of honey
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Fruit salad with granola
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Orange juice with beet and ginger
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Grape juice
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Banana
Afternoon training
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Skimmed cheese, egg, chicken or tuna sandwich
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Roasted banana with slice of skimmed cheese and cinnamon to taste
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Fruit smoothie
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Açaí
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Condensed milk
Night workouts
For long-duration intense workouts, such as running or cycling for more than an hour, Engel points out that it is necessary to ingest carbohydrates during the activity, which is usually done through gels, but also through the consumption of food.
“In sessions of up to two hours, ingesting 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour can be enough,” says the nutritionist.
In workouts longer than three hours, performed by high-performance athletes, it may be necessary to increase up to approximately 90 grams of carbohydrates per hour, according to Engel.
“It is essential to train the body to get used to these quantities, since adaptation is necessary to ensure effective absorption.”
If the person wakes up not hungry, following having eaten a good diet the day before, they can do exercises on an empty stomach. [Getty Images]
Don’t train hungry
A person can exercise without eating first, but only if they are not hungry, experts explain.
“A good example is the habit of exercising on an empty stomach: if the person wakes up not hungry, following having eaten well the day before, they can exercise,” says Engel.
“But if you’re hungry, it’s not ideal because it puts unnecessary stress on the body.”
The important thing is to pay attention to the signals your body is giving you.
Avoiding eating before training or consuming portions that are too small, which can cause hunger during exercise, can harm not only sports performance, but also health.
“Some people start physical activity hungry, mistakenly believing that the feeling will disappear during exercise,” says the nutritionist.
Exercising while hungry can cause a person to tire more quickly due to low glycogen availability.
The symptoms themselves can also impair training: without sufficient “fuel”, dizziness, weakness and gastrointestinal discomfort such as dizziness and nausea can occur.
Besides, lack of fuel can cause loss of muscle masssince the body can begin to look for energy in muscle tissue.
[BBC]
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