8 Must-Eat Pre-Workout Meals

The best pre-workout foods contain easily digestible carbohydrates, a little bit of protein and healthy fat to stave off mid-workout hunger. Carbohydrate-rich food, including white bread, English muffins or bagels, will take only 30-minutes to digest for quick energy. The protein and fat will help to keep an athlete from getting hungry again before the workout is over. A little bit of fruit, honey or other sweet food is good to gain quick energy that your body will be able to use as soon as you start exercising.

Before a workout, you never want to eat too much food that is high in fat and protein because it takes up to three hours to digest. If you are going for a long run or another endurance exercise, steer away from foods that are high in fiber, like salads or cooked vegetables. Too much fiber can cause irritation to the GI tract during endurance exercise.

The best pre-workout foods contain easily digestible carbohydrates, a little bit of protein and healthy fat to stave off mid-workout hunger. Carbohydrate-rich food, including white bread, English muffins or bagels, will take only 30 minutes to digest for quick energy. The protein and fat will help to keep an athlete from getting hungry again before the workout is over. A little bit of fruit, honey or other sweet food is good to gain quick energy that your body will be able to use as soon as you start exercising.

Eat the following meals 30 to 60 minutes before working out. Each of these meals contains easily digestible carbohydrates and sugars and just enough protein and fats to keep you going through most of your moderate-intensity exercise.

1. Top Your Toast with Peanut Butter and Banana

Ingredients:

1 slice of white bread

2 tablespoons peanut butter

1 medium banana

This is my personal favorite for a pre-workout meal. I don’t like to eat much before I exercise, but if I know I will have more than a half-hour before my workout starts, I will be hungry mid-workout if I don’t eat. The bread and banana ensure that I have enough sugar and simple carbohydrates to have energy throughout my workout, and the peanut butter keeps me from getting hungry mid-stride. Bananas are also full of potassium and peanut butter is full of sodium, which you will sweat out during your workout.

2. Mostly Yogurt Parfait

Ingredients:

1 cup plain Greek yogurt

¼ cup of dried fruit

1 tablespoon sunflower seeds

Yogurt has a healthy amount of simple carbohydrates, sugars and protein for a balanced snack pre-workout. The dried fruit and sunflower seeds adds just enough sugar, healthy fats, protein and a little bit of fiber to give you a kick and to keep you full throughout your workout.

3. Fruit Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon peanut butter

1 cup soy milk

½ cup oats

½ cup blueberries

This smoothie combines the protein and fats of peanut butter and soymilk with the easily digestible carbohydrates of oats and blueberries for a filling and nutrient-filled snack that will keep you going. Blueberries are also full of antioxidants and nutrients that your body will need to recover!

4. Oatmeal

Ingredients:

½ cup oats

1 cup almond milk

1 pear

1 tablespoon sunflower seeds

Oatmeal is great before workouts! Cook the pear in a saucepan by itself before adding the almond milk, oats and sunflower seeds. This will make the pear easy to digest for your gut. It’s a meal guaranteed to keep you full throughout your workout and provide you with some energy to last the duration of a 60-minute workout.

5. A Healthier S’more

Ingredients:

2 graham cracker squares

1 tablespoon peanut butter

1 tablespoon plain yogurt

1 teaspoon raw cacao powder (for sprinkling)

This is a far cry from a s’more, but a graham cracker is a great source of sugar and simple carbohydrates as a pre-workout food. Try the peanut butter and plain yogurt for just a little protein and fat. The cacao powder has lots of antioxidants for when your muscles need repairing post workout.

6. Bring Some of the East to Your Pre-Workout Breakfast

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon tahini paste

1 tablespoon peanut butter

½ cup sliced strawberries

½ of a white pita

Tahini is a Middle Eastern paste that is made of sesame seeds. Sesame seeds have a little bit of protein, healthy fats and carbohydrates. Combined with peanut butter and strawberries on a white pita, this combination makes for a delicious pre-workout snack that will keep you from getting hungry during your workout while having enough carbohydrates and sugars to keep you energized.

7. If You’re Used to A Little More Protein

Ingredients:

1 slice of white toast

1 tablespoon sunflower butter

drizzle of honey

1 hardboiled egg

Top the toast with sunflower butter and honey. Eat the egg on the side of the toast.

The high protein diet is all the rage these days. Especially because we know having protein with every meal is so great for losing fat mass, maintaining muscle mass, staying full throughout the day and regulating your metabolism. If you are used to having a lot of protein in the morning, your body will be able to handle a little more protein pre-workout than average. Still include the easily digestible carbohydrates of white bread and honey, but go ahead and eat a hard-boiled egg. It is enough protein that your body sticks to its regular routine, but not so much to throw your workout off.

8. Too Sweet to Be True

Ingredients:

1 white English muffin

1 tablespoon raspberry preserves or a handful of fresh raspberries

1 tablespoon nutella

This meal is chock-full of simple carbohydrates. As a normal meal, I would say decrease the sugars and increase the protein, but as a pre-workout meal, the carbohydrates and sugars from the fruit preserves, English muffin and chocolate-hazelnut spread are all that you need.