Preworkout Meals And Low Blood Sugar

So you’re getting ready to work out and not soon after eating something, you notice that you start feeling hungry, faint, dizzy, tired, whatever. It’s like, “Didn’t I just eat a little while ago?!?!”

What you’re experiencing in the situation I just used my creative writing skills to contrive is a drop in blood sugar. If you experience that often, you probably have some form of metabolic disorder and should consult a physician, dietitian, or other qualified professional trained to deal with clinical conditions.

But if you’d rather entrust your health to a stranger on the internet, here are some things you can do for your pre-workout meal to avoid the situation that was so creatively contrived earlier…

SAY NO TO BEING SIMPLE

Stay away from simple carbs.¹e.g. bagels, cakes, cookies, pastries, crackers, candy, syrups, instant oatmeal, most breakfast cereals, white rice, white bread, white pasta, soda, fruit juice concentrate, and almost anything else with flavor that makes life worth living. They digest quickly and cause blood sugar to rise dramatically, which then leads to a crash.

EMBRACE COMPLEXITY

Choose complex carbs rich in fiber.²e.g. non-starchy vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, and whole grains, like barley, oatmeal, wild rice, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, and other boring shit that zaps the joy out of life. They digest slowly, which delays the release of insulin and prevents a spike in blood sugar.

DON’T EAT ALONE

Eat your preworkout carbs with protein. As the macro that takes the longest to digest, consuming protein with carbs helps slow the rise of blood sugar.³TIP: Slow things down even further by eating your protein first, then fat, then fibrous carbs, then starchy carbs. That order of food consumption has been found by research to have a significant effect on glucose and insulin levels.

EAT BUT SO MUCH

Your preworkout meal should consist of 0.25-0.50 grams of carbs per pound of body weight.⁴EXAMPLE: It’s far-fetched, but let’s suppose you’re 150 lbs. I know, that shit is unimaginable! Anyway, were you ever to weigh that little, your preworkout meal would then consist of 38-75g carbs. If that’s still too much, reduce the carbs and offset the calories with fat, an energy source that your body will turn to burn once its glycogen stores are depleted.

KNOW HOW TO TELL TIME

Eat your preworkout meal 3-4 hours before going to the gym.⁵NOTE: The closer you get to your workout, the simpler the carb choice can be. For example, let’s say your workout is in an hour and you still haven’t eaten yet. In that perfectly accurate illustration of your poor time management skills, the best food options for immediate energy without a crash would be apples, oranges, berries, and other low-sugar, fiber-rich fruits.

Give one, two, all of those tips a try and be sure to let me know how they work out for you!

And if they don’t make a difference?!, you ask.

Well, that’s what you get for listening to a stranger on the internet!!!

Glossary: calories, dietary fat, gym, work out

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Monster Longe

Monster Longe is a personal trainer in San Diego. He has been lifting weights for +25 years and training clients in the gym and online for about half of that time. When not working with clients or making content that's easy to read, understand, and apply to everyday life, he enjoys long walks and leaving buildings crushed and entire city blocks decimated in his wake.

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