Eating before early morning workout

Gunslinger92

I find it very difficult to eat in the mornings. On a workday, I don't eat until I get to the office at 9, 9.15 ish.

This morning I had to leave a class as I got light headed and dizzy from not eating anything. Mortifying. I was grand again after a sit down, and I know well it was not having anything to eat beforehand that got me.

So I'm looking for suggestions for something to eat before an early morning workout. Nothing too heavy, all I can think of so far is a banana or maybe those breakfast biscuit things.

Would appreciate suggestions

kerryked

Rice cake and peanut butter?

Or maybe make a fruit salad the night before?

I find the Clif bars nice enough, they're pretty high in sugar though.

If you had time you could make a smoothie. I usually just put in blueberries, a banana, some oats and almond milk. Wouldn't drink it right before your session though, you know yourself..

Mr. CooL ICE

You will just have to find something that works for you. Different things work for different people.

Currently, I roll out of bed, have a few glugs of water and then make myself a strong coffee and two slices of toast with butter. Between this, getting ready for the gym, getting there and warming up, I'm usually working out about an hour after waking up.

Then again, I don't do classes or cardio in the morning, so the above mightn't suit you.

Zillah

I don't think you're supposed to get light-headed and dizzy from skipping one meal... I would have thought a healthy person could go on a 24hr fast with no consequences beyond feeling hungry, no?

rondog

I use Cliff bars or Kinetica chocolate protein bars.

If im doing an early morning workout I usually leave one beside my bed and eat as soon as I open my eyes.

Its great to get me through workouts without feeling sluggish and im not normally hungry until lunch time.

intheclouds

I cant eat before a workout but if I am going to be doing cardio that might leave me a bit lightheaded from being empty I will eat about 6 brazil nuts on the way to the gym.

Not so much food that its rattling around in your stomach, but enough to take the edge off being empty.

I find a banana can work too but (mad as it sounds) its often just too much for me to stomach at 6.30am!!

A boiled egg could work as well?

rondog

Have to say the cliff bars or Kinetica bars are very light and don't affect me at all.

If I had a big brekkie and did anything intense it would probably come back up too but the bars don't seem to bother me.

boredatwork82

I train every morning at 6.30. I don't seem to be able to eat before training, so I take some fat burning pills, I don't think they burn any fat, but they have loads of caffeine and green tea in them which kick in and get me through my class. Sometime I will have a few mouthfuls of a smoothie aswell. Made and ready to go the night before, just blend and sip on the way into the gym.

Mellor

Gunslinger92 wrote: »

This morning I had to leave a class as I got light headed and dizzy from not eating anything. Mortifying. I was grand again after a sit down, and I know well it was not having anything to eat beforehand that got me.

I'm not sure how you could know for sure what the cause was.
If you have of eaten something, it would be unlikely that it would have been digested by the time you were in the gym, so the energy would yet have been available.

When your training, you are burning stored glycogen rather than what you just ate. You should have enough glycogen ready to go to run a half marathon without hitting the wall.

Dehydration could also be the cause of dizziness. And it would more common in the morning, especially when you haven't eaten - as people sub-conciously wait until they eat to drink.

El Horseboxo

A colleague complained of the same thing and was blaming not eating before their morning classes for them feeling light headed and like they hit a wall. I asked her what time her last meal was at and she said about 8 PM or so. I then asked if she had any water or liquids with that and she said no. Her last glass of water was with her dinner around 6 PM and she wasn't drinking anything when she woke up. Her class was at 6 AM. I told her to download this app that reminds you to drink water based on your target. She gave it a shot and drank water close to bedtime and when she woke up.

How she felt previously almost disappeared straight away. Dehydration is something that is very often overlooked and a lot of people don't get enough water.

jennyjoy

I honestly don't eat anything because I can't. Doesn't sit well with me first thing in the morning or even right before a run or workout. One thing I suggest is really making sure you drink enough water the night before! If you are feeling light headed it could mean you are overheated and dehydrated, not necessarily hungry. If you do feel like you are fatigued and you are not getting enough out of your workouts, I'd then suggest having a banana or a light protein smoothie with a banana in it.

Pepe LeFrits

I hate eating first thing in the morning too, I don't get hungry for anything substantial until about 10am at the earliest, but I find a bowl of bran flakes and a banana followed by coffee / juice easy enough to get down. Sometimes a few almonds and/or grapes if I have any.

gutenberg

Usually I will have a drink (typically just water, maybe with one of these Berocca-type tabs in it), and one of those energy-protein bars before my morning swim at 7am. I use the recipe posted by muffinn for homemade protein bars, and find them perfect for getting through some morning exercise without feeling too heavy. The recipe tells you to cut the tray into 7 bars, but I find that half a bar is more than enough for me, so I get 14 bars from one tray

Blacktie.

gutenberg wrote: »

The recipe tells you to cut the tray into 7 bars, but I find that half a bar is more than enough for me, so I get 14 bars from one tray

This is such a simple solution to a very minor problem I was having!

jive

Blacktie. wrote: »

This is such a simple solution to a very minor problem I was having!

yeah it's great, you can eat twice as many

gutenberg

Blacktie. wrote: »

This is such a simple solution to a very minor problem I was having!

jive wrote: »

yeah it's great, you can eat twice as many

Glad to have been of some assistance When I first tried them I just found that one full bar was too much; half is the perfect for me, and then they do indeed go further since you're only eating a half bar at any one time. Be sure to store them in an airtight box in the fridge!