Chow Time

You are a high-power speedboat. Fill up at the right time with the right meal, and you add high-octane fuel to zip through workouts. But eat that big plate of spaghetti and meatballs at the wrong time and it’ll feel like an anchor in your stomach.

Timing your meals with your workouts can have loads of benefits. Along with avoiding that weighed-down feeling, you can also help speed recovery, burn calories more efficiently and lose weight better, if that’s your goal.

“When clients come in for workouts, the first thing I ask is when they had a meal,” says Matthew Smith, a trainer at the 24 Hour Fitness in Colorado Springs. “The timing of your meals affects the quality of your training. Go without eating too long, you won’t have a strong workout. Eat right before gym time, and your body will be too busy digesting to give you as much benefit from the workout.”

Here are five tips for scheduling your exercise and eating from Smith and Mitzi Dulan, RD, sports nutritionist for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals.

1. Follow a sliding scale. As the time gets closer to your workout, any food should be smaller volume, says Dulan, who also runs nutritionexpert.com and produced the DVD Fuel Like a Champion. You don’t want to be working out on a full stomach, so plan any full meals three to four hours beforehand. Eating a big meal right before a workout can lead to lack of energy and strength, because your body is busy sending blood to your stomach instead of your muscles. And you could experience nausea and have a chance of throwing up.

2. Shake into a routine. If you haven’t had anything to eat for several hours before your workout, sip an energy shake. Drink one with about 30 grams of carbs and about 30 grams of sugar, such as the Apex Workout Shake, an hour before you come into the gym, Smith recommends. The shake will digest quickly, giving you readily available energy stores and help avoid the lethargic feeling. “If you haven’t had a meal for 6 hours and you come in to train, you’re going to suffer,” Smith says. “You won’t get as much out of your workout. Because you’re not fueled up, you’ll likely have to lift lighter weights and have longer rest periods. It’ll be a less intense workout.” And if a shake isn’t handy, at least grab a piece of fruit, Smith suggests.

3. Wake up with a few carbs. For those who workout early in the morning, deciding whether to eat breakfast or not before exercise can be tough. Dulan recommends eating a snack with about 15 to 30 grams of carbs before that pre-sunrise sweat. A piece of fruit or a low-carb energy bar, such as a Clif Nectar, will do the trick. Then, after your workout, have a normal breakfast.

4. Eat 30 minutes after exercise. To help build muscles (which’ll aid in weight loss and help you get stronger faster), have some sort of meal within a half hour to 45 minutes after exercise. If you need an on-the-go meal, an Apex shake will work. Aim for having a meal with a ratio of 4 grams of carbs per every 1 gram of protein.

5. Don’t starve for weight loss. Don’t be fooled into thinking that if you don’t eat before a workout that your body will automatically burn fat, causing you to lose weight. “The body will turn to the most nutrient-rich substance and that’s the muscles,” Smith says. “If you starve yourself regularly before working out, your muscles can break down over time.”

Gut Check

Now you can monitor the effect of meals on your body in real time. Here's how.

What causes gastrointestinal rumblings in one person, may be a smooth sailing for another. Because everyone has different digestive system, individually monitoring heart rate and caloric intake can help your meal-working timing.

And when you use tools such as Suunto heart rate monitors or the bodybugg calorie monitor, the results can be dramatic. You’ll see how your body reacts to your eating and workout schedule and be able to tailor the timing to specifically suit your needs, says John Lally, training category manager for Suunto heart rate monitors.

For example, if you eat a heavy meal before working out, you may see that your heart may be working 10-12 bpm harder at its peak. That means you’re less efficient and not getting as much out of the workout, and it’d be a good idea to scale back on the size of that meal.

Lally likens eating on a full stomach to losing a gear. “Normally during a workout or when you’re playing a sport, you’d have another gear to click into,” he says. “But if your body is working to digest food, you don’t have that higher-end gear.”