Before you workout, fuel your body with the right nutrients…
If you’re working out to lose some weight and get slim waistline, then you’re already on the way.
But what else you can do from your side to maximize the fat burning rate? Now, you absolutely need to dig out something most effective.
Yes! Add pre-workout foods.
It should be healthy enough to support your weight loss but absolutely not heavy that interrupt.
The food you eat before workout highly affect your physical performance and calorie burning.
If you want to get most of your workouts – like train harder, longer exercise, spin faster, jump higher and burning calories faster.
Then you need to add some best fat burning pre-workout foods into your everyday routine to prepare your body for maximum efforts.
A perfect balance diet of fats, carbs, and proteins is very necessary.
But before that, you need to be aware of how these pre-workout foods help you reward great benefits.
Why It’s Important to Eat Pre-Workout Foods?
Just imagine your body as a car.
Now, can you expect to drive your car 100 miles without petrol?
Can’t. Right?
This is how our body wakes up every morning – without fuel.
We can’t drive our body (car) to workouts intense without eating foods. Right?
And if you do this then it’ll be simply a disaster for your body.
The goal of eating foods before workout is to provide enough energy to your body so it stays longer and performs well in the gym.
In cases, if you do not fuel up before workouts, you’ll feel tired quickly, workouts won’t be long enough, and decreasing of your muscular strength arise.
It’ll also lead to post workouts binge that will leave you eating more.
Now, you don’t need to eat a big meal, just small yet powerful foods are enough to keep you active and energetic.
More benefits of eating pre-workout foods –
- It fuels your workout by keeping you energetic
- Increase physical performance
- Prevent premature fatigue
- Reduce protein breakdown in muscles and tissues
These reasons are pretty enough to understand the importance of eating well before workout.
But what you should eat is highly depends upon when you work out. Now the question arises is when to eat pre-workout foods.
When to Eat Pre-Workout Foods?
As we explained above, the timing to eat pre workouts foods matters a lot.
Ideally, you should eat a healthy and balanced meal containing carbs, proteins and fat, about 3 hours before you work out so your muscles gain some strength.
But if we talk about morning workouts before breakfast, you need to be more conscious about what to eat, as we don’t have enough time gap between foods and workouts in the morning.
Hardly a 30-minute gap people can arrange in the morning.
Eating a big meal close to your workouts may lead to poor digestion, cramping, and uneasiness during workouts.
For those reasons, your foods selection for morning workouts should be light and powerful enough to exercise healthily.
In every meal, you need to consider – protein, fats and healthy carbs. But make sure to manage the ratio.
Ratio For Pre-Workout,
- Avoid eating much fat, this is because it’s higher in energy and slow digesting.
- Protein provides major benefits as pre-workouts. It helps to prevent muscles loss.
- Carbohydrates, choose right carbs as per your workouts time –
| When to eat carbs | Simple Carbs | Complex Carbs |
| The right time to eat before workouts | Eat 30 minute – 1 hour before workout. | Eat 2-3 hours before a workout. |
So, make sure not to eat too early before workouts, just maintain your foods and workouts timing. It’s very important for healthy fat loss.
For 30 minute to an hour pre-workout: Consume lights foods that contain simple carbs, more protein, and fewer fats.
For 2-3 hours of workouts: Consume a meal 400-500 calories containing a good source of protein (around 200g) and complex carbohydrates (20-30g).
Best Pre-Workout Foods for Weight Loss
Here is a list of some higher nutrients pre-workout foods that you can eat 30 minute – 1 hour before.
1. Banana
Known as a great source of energy.
Banana is packed with simple carbohydrates and potassium that support your muscles function during gym or workouts.
Consume banana around 30 minutes before your workout.
Eating banana as pre-workout food is an excellent way to boost your glycogen stores which strengthen your body to workouts more.
You can also add some peanut butter for an extra protein boost.
2. A Bowl of Berries
No doubt! Berries are filled with lots of fat burning properties.
It loads healthy nutrients to your body and gives you energy for an active morning workout.
All berries are low in calories and rich in anti-oxidants that boosts your metabolism and breakdown fat fast.
According to the study found in BMJ, the adults whose diet is rich in flavonoids – a compound found in strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and other – are less likely to gain weight.
You can also add berries as toppings to your favorite breakfast.
3. Apple With Peanut Butter
Few slices of apple with peanut butter is the tastier and healthier options to boost your workout.
It serves as one of the easiest pre-workout foods for busy morning schedule.
For people want to lose more weight, it’s great.
This calorie restricted diet fills your body with healthy fibers and proteins.
Apple contains plenty of nutrients and makes perfect pre-workout foods. Eat an apple 30 minutes before workout every day.
4. Dried Fruits & Nuts
Dried fruits and nuts are nutrients dense foods that fuel up strength for physical activities.
Almonds, dried berries, walnuts, and pineapples are known to offer great energy and promote more fat burning during workouts.
You can also pair them up with high fiber fruits such as apple.
Grab a handful of nuts and hit the trade mill after.
5. Whole Grain Oats
Whole grain oats is what everyone loves to eat at breakfast.
It’s full of fibers and carbohydrates which keep your energy level consistent throughout the workout so you can train your muscles longer.
Vitamin B in oats converts carbs into energy.
Eating oats 1 hour before workouts boost your body with slow releasing energy.
Prefer Irish oats as these are considered best and less processed type than quick cooking and instant oats.
Also, add a scoop of protein powder to your oats.
Chilled overnight oats also serve great benefits as it won’t make you feel heavy like hot cooked oats. Try once.
6. Fruits & Greek yogurt
Berries with Greek yogurt is killing combo.
Fruits are full of fibers, anti-oxidants while Greek yogurt is full of proteins. Both are packed with an extra punch of energy.
A cup of this creamy bowl offers more than 20 grams of proteins and enough energy to practice intense workouts.
The protein helps to prevent muscles injury and pain.
7. Trail Mix
Trail mix is also great options to have nuts and healthy dried fruits.
It provides a great boost of healthy fat, proteins, and lots of anti-oxidants that help you to gain muscles mass.
A handful of trail mix makes your body workouts ready. It gives you enough strength to perform better exercise every day.
You can also buy pre-prepared trail mix from markets, but avoid one containing chocolate coated nuts.
8. Protein Bars
Eat protein bars but with the right calorie count.
This is a hurry to go solution for your busy morning and offer great help when you don’t have many options to eat.
It saves your lots of time in urgency and fuels your body to have a great workout.
But make sure to select protein bars having around 200 calories and at least 10 gram of protein.
Today’s market is flooded with lots of protein bars and you need to be very conscious about nutrition over labels.
Always read the labels and avoid selecting bars over 300 calories. Also, look the one with some carbohydrates to offer a great balance of energy. Oats with whey is perfect for that.
9. Green Tea
Green tea is wonderful fat burning tea that you can drink any time of the day.
It doesn’t matter when you drink it, but every time it’ll enhance the fat burning rate of your body.
The combination of green tea with regular workouts is mind- blowing to promote weight loss, according to Penn State Researchers.
Green tea is loaded with lots of anti-oxidants such as Catechins and caffeine. Both are known to boost metabolism and thermogenesis.
Drinking any type of caffeine before a workout gives you the energy to go longer, thus increase fat burn.
10. Drink Up Water
To promote weight loss, it’s necessary to hydrate your body throughout the day. Drinking 8-10 glass of water is what everyone suggests.
But when to drink water to lose weight fast?
The right time of drinking water makes this simple drink more powerful than usual.
Drinking warm lemon-honey water immediately after waking up fuel up healthy nutrients to boost fat burning.
Vitamine C energies your body and improve metabolism.
This is the most effective morning rituals you can include in your daily routine to promote weight loss.
Workouts are the most sweating session, so it’s very necessary to hydrate your body enough as you wake up. Being dehydrated can hinder your performance and slow down fat burning rate.
Follow these guidelines –
Before Exercise: Drink 2-3 cups of water.
During Exercise: About ½ -1 cup every 15-20 minutes.
After Exercise: About 2-3 cups of water for every pound lost during exercise.
What’s your favorite pre-workouts foods?
Don’t forget to share.