Can You Eat Before You Work Out?
Working out is not hard. What is hard is to be able to attain consistency in your workout schedule. Life can get difficult at times, so you decide to crunch in a workout whenever you get the chance. It can even sound tempting to get a training session done right after lunch. The thing is, should you? Here we have the answer for you.
What Happens When We Eat?
According to the website Dummies, digestion is the “process of changing food into a form that the body can absorb and use as energy […] to repair and build new tissue.” Digestion is found in two of the following kinds:
Mechanical digestion is the physical aspect of breaking the food into smaller pieces. As you would suspect, it begins at the mouth, when you put the food inside it and the teeth break the food down. Then it continues as it descends down the digestive tract.
Chemical digestion is when the food is transformed into much smaller nutrients with the aid of body chemicals that make it digestible. But, what will amaze you is that chemical digestion does not actually begin inside the digestive tract, but it does when you see or even smell food in the first place.
What you can deduct from all this information is that the digestive process is used by the body to build tissue and repair it, so working out while on a full stomach is not the best idea, as your body is “focusing” its resources on getting it repaired.
In short, eat enough to give you energy during your training session and then eat to full capacity post training to optimize fitness levels.
Do I Have to Wait If I Want To Exercise After Eating?
For heavy meals, a good hour and a half is recommended. For a light meal, 45 minutes. As you would expect, the larger and the heartier the meal, the longer it will take to pass.
In case you need to eat quickly, it is recommended to stick to something that is easily digestible, mostly simple carbohydrates, like fruits. Refrain from consuming things that contain saturated fats, lots of protein, or fiber, as these take a much longer time to digest.
What Are the Consequences of Working Out On a Full Stomach?
If you have worked out in the past right after eating, don’t fret. You will not face any kind of life-altering consequences for it. But, if you do so, here are some of the downsides to it:
- Nausea
- Feeling bloated
- Diarrhea
- Feeling “heavy”
- Overall decreased performance
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