Eating before hitting the dojo?

[ramymensa]

I eat 1 hour and a half before the class. If I eat to early I feel like fainting, if I eat too close to the class time I get sick ...

[karatekid1975]

When I first started in MA, I couldn't eat no more than two hours before class or I'd puke.

I've had tummy problems this past year, so now I HAVE to eat before class or I loose energy fast, and get a tummy ache. I have to have something in my tummy, but nothing too heavy. So on the days that I train, I eat a big carb-loaded lunch, then I will eat something light 1 hour before class like a power bar or toast or Triskets (wheat crackers). Then I eat dinner when I get home to re-fuel.

Like it was already said, listen to your body. No one is the same. I know people that eat a big meal before class, and are totally fine, and others can't eat at all. And theres people like me (I'm in between LOL).

[ninjanurse]

Never, ever eat just before class. Very bad, very bad..... !!

[karatekid1975]

LOL. I see why you didn't eat before Jujitsu now, Heidi hehehehehe.

I have a routine for test days as far as eating goes. I "carb-up" the night before, and all I have before the test is one or two power bars and Gatoraid (our tests for 2nd gup/kyu's and above are usually a saturday morning tests). But I usually eat it/them about an hour before I leave for the test, so it turns out to be two hours after I ate them before the test begins (I go early to warm up also). I also do that for my saturday morning classes.

I'm also vegetarian, so anything I eat, isn't too heavy anyways, unless I eat a Boca (fake beef) burger and a bunch of chips with onion dip before class. Then that's "puke city" LOL (too much food).

[Leopard claw]

Thanks again for the help!

[Menjo]

yea i eat 40min before,...........now im hungry lol

[Aodhan]

Personally, I can't eat before a workout. Makes me ill.

One of the side effects of intensive training is that your stomach will shrink up. If you've stuffed a lot of food into your gullet, and then your stomach shrinks, well, there's only really one good place for the food to go, and it ain't down.

Aodhan

Well... where does it go

I can vouch for this. When I first got into weight training, I would eat 20 minutes before working out. Ever heard of the term "Burp, and taste it"... yeah... yeah.............

The term "Technicolor yawn" comes to mind

There's also another good reason for eating minimally, or very easily digested foods before a workout. Your stomach gets a rush of blood to it to help carry away the initial nutrients from digestion, which deprives some of the rest of your body of blood. This can slow you down and make you feel slightly lethargic.

On tournament days, I generally eat very little, but I will occasionally eat jars of baby food. Nutritionally sound, incredibly quick to digest, and extremely easy on the stomach. When I was swimming competitively and doing triathlons, I used to almost live on that during competitions.

Aodhan