Eating before a workout

absolutely you should be ingesting some good quality protein, i take a heaping scoop of whey along with bcaa's. this will spare your muscle protein.

jb

I never do any exercise without eating something first. Even when trying to lean out, I get some protein first, at least. Protein only (whey in water) if I'm doing cardio first thing in the am. I never lift without having some complex carbs first.

Posted by: Trevdog

I never do any exercise without eating something first. Even when trying to lean out, I get some protein first, at least. Protein only (whey in water) if I'm doing cardio first thing in the am. I never lift without having some complex carbs first.

I couldn't agree more.

Posted by: jboldman

absolutely you should be ingesting some good quality protein, i take a heaping scoop of whey along with bcaa's. this will spare your muscle protein.

jb

I do 40-50 grams of whey plus BCAA's.

Posted by: liftsiron

I do 40-50 grams of whey plus BCAA's.

I've been doing this lately and been enjoying it.

I have too, but i need to find a good BCAA supp, any recs?? saw this stuff by universal called, uni liver. Ever heard?

i get mine in powder from beyond a century

jb

I'm going to order some lycene from www.beyond- a-century.com or www.bulknutrition.com next time I get some other things.

Re: Eating before a workout

Posted by: Jimmykick

Please comment on this.

I weight train at 6 am to 7 am followed by 45 min to 1 hour of cardio @ 5 days a week. I do this all on an empty stomach and I find that it works real good for me. I leaned up big time, built new and saved my old mass. Of course I was on a cycle of sust/deca/winny and HGH at the time.

Now I have been off cycle for 12 weeks and I'm not seeing the pop and in fact I feel that I may have lost some size although I have only lost around 3 lbs from my last cycle. I started a new cutter on Friday so I know I'll be back to seeing more leaning up with new gains and preservation of muscle. Many swear that you should eat before a workout...even when cutting. Would you still eat before working out even though you are trying to shred up?

By the way this current cycle will include Enanth, tren, winny, primo, prop at the end, clen and of course hcg/Clomid/nolva.

Here's the thing JK, I'm going to go ahead and assume that you have a pretty solid diet and that you consume carbs/protein after you workout. Okay, so assuming that this is the case when you spend your whole day storing glycogen/fat and repairing muscle, you're going to be ready for that morning workout, as far as the glycogen needs go. The only thing that would worry me is going as long as you do (from the last meal to after your entire workout) without any protein to keep your body in a relative state of positive nitrogen balance (keep the amino's in the muscle). See when your body doesn't have any more glucose to burn up (glycogen = stored glucose) it turns to fats and amino's respectively for an alternative energy source. So these guys are right in a cautious sense that you need some protein before you work out. Is it because you're going to burn muscle up doing cardio first thing ? Probably not, because the body using amino's for energy is a highly inefficient form of energy. Not only that, but your bodies store of glycogen isn't going to be used up first thing am unless you do exercising in the middle of the night... However Unless on a serious anabolic regiment like you were on it would be hard if not impossible to burn up some amino's after your cardio and into your weight training if you didn't take any protein somewhere along the line.

Having said all of this, to be on the safe side I would definitely ingest some protein only (maybe some simple carbs, but a low amount like a piece of fruit or something) before a rigorous cardio/weight training regiment. I like the free form amino acid idea, at least for myself I always consume 10g of amino's before every workout. Whey would be fine too because you just woke up, so your muscles will be starving for those fast absorbing amino's whey breaks down to. My advice to you, would be forego anything before the cardio, let the body burn the fat off. After the cardio, grab some protein before your weight training. Whether it's amino's or whey.. whatever you can get!

Alright, mic off, hope this helps ! (I know I just kinda reiterated everyone else, sorry guys).

Re: Re: Eating before a workout

Posted by: RippedRon

Here's the thing JK, I'm going to go ahead and assume that you have a pretty solid diet and that you consume carbs/protein after you workout. Okay, so assuming that this is the case when you spend your whole day storing glycogen/fat and repairing muscle, you're going to be ready for that morning workout, as far as the glycogen needs go. The only thing that would worry me is going as long as you do (from the last meal to after your entire workout) without any protein to keep your body in a relative state of positive nitrogen balance (keep the amino's in the muscle). See when your body doesn't have any more glucose to burn up (glycogen = stored glucose) it turns to fats and amino's respectively for an alternative energy source. So these guys are right in a cautious sense that you need some protein before you work out. Is it because you're going to burn muscle up doing cardio first thing ? Probably not, because the body using amino's for energy is a highly inefficient form of energy. Not only that, but your bodies store of glycogen isn't going to be used up first thing am unless you do exercising in the middle of the night... However Unless on a serious anabolic regiment like you were on it would be hard if not impossible to burn up some amino's after your cardio and into your weight training if you didn't take any protein somewhere along the line.

Having said all of this, to be on the safe side I would definitely ingest some protein only (maybe some simple carbs, but a low amount like a piece of fruit or something) before a rigorous cardio/weight training regiment. I like the free form amino acid idea, at least for myself I always consume 10g of amino's before every workout. Whey would be fine too because you just woke up, so your muscles will be starving for those fast absorbing amino's whey breaks down to. My advice to you, would be forego anything before the cardio, let the body burn the fat off. After the cardio, grab some protein before your weight training. Whether it's amino's or whey.. whatever you can get!

Alright, mic off, hope this helps ! (I know I just kinda reiterated everyone else, sorry guys).

Great post and well recieved. Thanks Bro. Let me ask you this however, does that advice change if I weight train first followed by cardio? I almost always do the weights forst as I work out with a partner at 6 am and then he leaves and I stay to do my cardio. Thanks again!

you need both protein powder AND bcaas prior to working out resistance or cardio.

jb

Posted by: jboldman

you need both protein powder AND bcaas prior to working out resistance or cardio.

jb

I believe cardio on an empty stomach has more benefit
PLUS the way I eat at 6x a day means that tomorrows workout really depends on todays eating. and that is fine.

if you confine your pre-workout meal to pure protein and bcaas it will not effect the substrate utilization, ie fat will still be the preferred substrate. the result will be "muscle-sparing" which is what you want and in fact will facilitate muscle synthesis which i assume you also want. avoid carbs prior to cardio for fat burning.

jb

thanks Bro. Good thoughts