Sports Nutrition

Guidelines for Pre-Exercise Nourishment

To determine the right pre-training or pre-competition meal for your body, experiment with the following guidelines. You may find your food preferences vary with the type of exercise, level of intensity, and time of day. Schedule a free appointment with the Wellness Center nutritionist by calling (713) 348-5194.

1. Every day, eat adequate high-carbohydrate meals to fuel and refuel your muscles so they'll be ready for action. Snacks eaten within an hour beore exercise primarily keep you from feeling hungry and maintain your blood sugar; they don't significantly replenish muscle glycogen stores. The best refueling occurs within an hour post-exercise.
2. If you will be exercising for more than 60-90 minutes, choose carbohydrates with a moderate to low glycemic effect. Yogurt, bananas, oatmeal, bean soup, lentils, and apples are a few good choices.
3. If you will be exercising for less than an hour, simply snack on any tried-and-true foods that digest easily and settle comfortably. Bread, english muffins, bagels, crackers, and pasta are a few of the most popular high-carb, low-fat choices.
4. Limit high-fat proteins. Cheese, steak, hamburgers, and peanut butter take longer to empty from the stomach because fat delays gastric emptying. Small servings of low-fat protein, however, can settle well and keep you from feeling hungry. Some appropriate protein choices (which ought to be combined with a source of carbohydrates) are: two or three thin slices of turkey or chicken, one or two slices of low-fat cheese, a spoonful of low-fat cottage cheese, one or two poached eggs, or a glass of skim or low-fat milk.
5. Be cautious with sugary foods (such as soft drinks, jelly beans and even lots of maple syrup or sports drinks) or foods with a high glycemic effect (potatoes, honey, corn flakes, rice). The majority of research currently shows that performance can actually improve with pre-exercise sweets. The safest bet, if you simply must have a little bit of something sweet, is to eat it within 5 to 10 minutes of exercise.
6. Allow adequate time for food to digest. Remember that high calorie meals take longer to leave the stomach than do lighter snacks. The general rule of thumb is to allow at least three hours to four hours for a large meal to digest, two or three hours for a smaller meal, one to two hours for a blended or liquid meal, and less than an hour for a small snack according to your own tolerance.
7. Allow more digestion time before intense exercise than before low-level activity. Your muscles require more blood during intense exercise than when at rest, so your stomach may get only 20 percent of its normal blood flow during a hard workout. This slows the digestive process. Any food in the stomach jostles along for the rice and may feel uncomfortable or be regurgitated.
8. If you have a finicky stomach, experiment with liquefied meals to see whether they offer any advantage. Liquid foods tend to leave the stomach faster than solid foods. In on research study, a 450-calorie meal of steaks, peas and butered bread remained in the stomach for six hours. A liquefied version of the same meal emptied from the stomach two hours earlier. Before converting to a liquid pre-event meal, keep in mind that some athletes reoprt that too much liquid "sloshes" in the stomach and contributes to nausea.
9. If you know that you'll be jitery and unable to tolerate any food before an event, make a special effort to eat well the day before. Have an extra-large bedtime snack in lieu of breakfast.
10. If you have a "magic food", be sure to pack it along with you when traveling to an event. Even if it's a standard item such as bananas, pack it so you will be certain to have it on hand. Even if you have no favorite foods, you still might want to pack a tried-and-true favorite in case of an emergency.
11. Always eat familiar foods before a competition. New foods carry the risk of settling orrly; casing intestinal discomfort, acid stomach, heartburn, or cramps.
12. Drink plenty of fluids. You are unlikely to starve to death during an event, but you might dehydrate. Drink an extra four to eight glasses of fluid the day before, so that you overhydrate. You should have to urinate frequently. Drink at least two or three glasses of water up to two hours before the event. Drink another one to three glasses 5 to 10 minutes before the start.