There are many opinions about how many hours before bed you can eat. There is confusion among people in this concept, as there is a divergence of opinion. Some nutritionists say that dinner should be no later than 6-7 pm, and there are also studies that the last meal should be 4 hours before bedtime. And if you have to go to bed at 1 am, then what opinion should you follow?

Should you eat before bed?

First, you need to figure out if you can eat before bed. The fact is that the processes of digestion during sleep slow down and the food eaten at night does not have time to be digested. For this reason, diseases of the stomach, dysbacteriosis develop and immunity worsens and, as a result, excess weight appears. But gaining extra pounds is not the worst thing that can happen.

Violation of the hormonal system leads to the appearance of such serious diseases as atherosclerosis, osteochondrosis, hypertension followed by strokes, etc. Depression, psychosis and other nervous disorders are the result of eating at night.

Experts note that while sleeping on an empty stomach, the body triggers a rejuvenation mechanism, and if you eat in front of it, the level of sex hormone and stress hormone increases in it. This leads to accelerated aging of the body.

Best time for dinner

It is advisable to have dinner before 18:00 if the time for sleep comes between 20:00 and 21:00. Otherwise, there will be a very long break between the last and first (morning) meals. And this provokes fluctuations in sugar and insulin levels, which leads to a great feeling of hunger, and further to overeating.

Light dinner

Gastroenterologists and pediatricians, arguing about how many hours before bedtime you can eat, came to the conclusion that patients with diseases of the digestive system and children under 14 should not go to bed hungry. Nutritionists in this case suggest eating low-calorie foods. If we talk about the lungs, then they include boiled chicken with vegetables, baked fish with salad, cottage cheese.

Therefore, everyone else, except for the above-mentioned categories of people, is not recommended to eat at night. But nutritionists also advise, if you really want to, then an hour before bedtime you can eat light meals: a serving of green salad, stewed vegetables, a small portion of oatmeal in water, a glass of milk or kefir, a couple of apples, yogurt without additives, banana. They will be able to satisfy hunger well and will not harm the body.

This food is not suitable for dinner

But if you still have doubts about whether you should eat at night, then you should always listen to your body.

There are people who allow themselves any errors in nutrition and do not gain excess weight. For those who are inclined to be overweight, it is necessary to eat before going to bed no later than 3-4 hours before bedtime. During this period of time, the body will digest food and at the same time will not be hungry, and will not store fat in reserve. But you should know what foods can not be eaten for dinner. These are coffee and other drinks containing caffeine.

And also this and especially french fries, fatty meat, sweet cereals and sweets, spicy, smoked and pickled foods. For dinner, you should eat protein light food and avoid carbohydrates.

How many hours before bed can you eat? Answering the question, it is necessary to take into account the lifestyle of a person, the time of sleep and awakening, what kind of food and in what quantity was consumed during the day. Here everything is calculated individually.

The opinion of nutritionists

Previously, foods that should not be consumed in the evening were considered. Nutritionists offer recipes for dinners and late snacks. 2-3 hours before bedtime, it is better to cook pollock fillet, chum salmon, salmon. The fish must be baked in the oven. The ideal option would be fish cakes or meatballs baked in the oven or steamed.

You can cook mussels or shrimp for dinner. Poultry meat and lean beef should be cooked with vegetables. 1-2 hours before bedtime, it is useful to eat salads made from fresh herbs, which can be poured with 1 tablespoon of flaxseed oil. It is sold in a pharmacy. Half an hour before bedtime, you are allowed to drink a glass of kefir or eat some cottage cheese, washed down with herbal tea.

Athletes' opinion

There is also the opinion of athletes: for those who play sports, what to eat before bedtime is extremely important, and sometimes even necessary, since a snack will reduce hunger and the body will have enough protein for muscle growth. But you need to correctly distribute the time of dinner. Athletes recommend eating a small, 250 gram, portion of protein food in an hour and a half.

Making Dinner Healthier

If you have already developed the habit of eating before going to bed, and in the morning you have to wake up with a feeling of heaviness, fatigue and bags under the eyes and swelling appear, then you need to gradually moderate your evening appetite. To do this, you need to change the dinner diet - remove high-calorie foods and replace them with less high-calorie ones.

It is important to exclude the consumption of alcoholic beverages at night, it is preferable to drink water or green tea. It is recommended to use aromatherapy: the smells of fir, vanilla and mint help relieve hunger and promote restful sleep.

Conclusion

Now it’s clear how many hours before bedtime you can eat. After analyzing the opinions of scientists, doctors, athletes and girls who follow their figure with great zeal, it was very difficult to come to an unambiguous decision.

But everyone who cares about this problem adheres to the rules: you can’t eat right before bedtime, it’s better to do it for an hour and a half. It is necessary to exclude evening reception and alcohol. Food portions should be small. Then an evening dinner or a small snack will not be able to harm your health.

After a busy day, in the evening we all want to relax and unwind. It is in the evening that you especially want to have a bite to eat, despite a hearty dinner. In the evening, it is better to have a snack with something tasty and healthy, you should not exhaust yourself and starve, because you can choose something suitable from a variety of products without harming your figure.

For those who dream of a beautiful, slim figure without extra pounds, dinner is a mandatory daily process. If you decide not to have dinner, then after a while you may notice that a couple of extra kilos have disappeared somewhere, but keep in mind: this is a short-term effect. Soon the body will get used to the lack of food in the evening and, anticipating it in advance, will store fat "in reserve".

People who want to quickly lose weight and say goodbye to hated kilograms very often make a big mistake - they refuse to eat dinner. Nutritionists and gastroenterologists say with one voice: you need to have dinner! But it is necessary to carry out the evening process of eating according to the rules, approaching it with all responsibility, because indeed, it is better not to eat at all than to dine incorrectly. Another negative moment when refusing a healthy and complete dinner is breakdowns that will happen sooner or later. Thoughtlessly limiting yourself in the food necessary for the body, you are detrimental to your health.

So, we note the most important points regarding the evening meal.

1. Serving size and quantity of products

The usual, normal portion of food for a losing weight person is as much as fits in a handful (a pair of palms folded together). By the way, this is quite a lot, as it might seem at first glance. The average male handful holds about 350 grams, and the female - about 250 grams. And one more important rule: make sure that there are 2 times more vegetable products and greens on your plate than protein foods.

2. Calorie per serving

If we talk about the evening meal, then dinner should not contain more than 400 kcal, even for an ordinary person who is not overweight. For actively losing weight, the calorie content of dinner cannot exceed 350 calories. Eating in the evening should contain an optimal balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates and be low in calories. It is best to distribute your daily diet so that dinner contains only 20% of calories from the total daily weight.

3. Dinner time

Of course, it is quite difficult to accurately indicate the time of a meal in the evening: for each, this indicator is individual and has a direct dependence on the daily routine. But you must follow the rule: dinner should take place 3-4 hours before going to bed, no later. For example, if you go to bed around 10 pm, then it is better to have dinner from 6 to 7 pm, but if you go to bed closer to midnight, then you can have dinner at 20:00

A well-known proverb says that "dinner must be given to the enemy." But this is the case if your plate literally sags under the weight of fried potatoes, fatty pork cutlet, salad with mayonnaise and a piece of cake for dessert. Such food certainly will not help to get a wasp waist, and even spoil your health. Therefore, it is strictly forbidden to have dinner with cereals (the exception is buckwheat), fried meat, potatoes, corn flakes, any varieties of legumes, and you should not add salted nuts, ketchup and mayonnaise to your evening diet. Among other things, in the evening you should not eat pasta and dumplings, any bread and, of course, sweets and other similar desserts.

Healthy dinner options: what can you eat?

The reason for the need for dinner is very logical. If the body has not received enough food during the day, including in the evening, the next day it begins to literally demand an additional portion of food to fill the gap. Overeating in this case is almost inevitable.

Therefore, you need to have dinner, but before eating, you need to analyze its composition, and also drink a glass of water 10-20 minutes before eating.

An ideal option for the evening is an easily digestible high-fiber protein meal. If you decide to treat yourself to dessert before bed, then choose moderately sweet and light foods. Let's talk more about what dinner should be like.

In the evening, the metabolic processes of the body slow down significantly, our motor activity decreases; accordingly, the need for carbohydrates disappears. Therefore, fruits and carbohydrates are advised to be consumed before 17 hours. In fact, a proper and healthy dinner should consist of a combination of protein (meat/fish) and fiber (vegetables).

If we consider in more detail, then the following options for a proper dinner are possible:

A healthy dinner is very easy to fit into yours.

Proper dinner is the basis for weight loss

The main component of successful weight loss is a clear control over the amount of proteins, fats and carbohydrates that enter the body with food, and the calorie content of foods. It is best to keep a small notebook, the so-called "food diary", and record all the data on meals in it. If you write down what and in what quantities you ate during the day, it will be very easy to understand how much more you can eat in the evening so as not to go beyond the norm.

For those who find this calorie counting option too complicated and boring, you can make a recommendation to focus on the contents of the plate. Evening meals should be almost carbohydrate-free. Of course, carbohydrates can be present, but in a minimal dose.

The correct ratio would look like this: 2:1:1 (fiber proteins:carbohydrates). This combination is perfect. It will allow you not to feel hungry until it's time to sleep, so in the morning there will be no overwhelming desire to pounce on food. Fat may also be present, but only of plant origin.

The meal should be as light as possible, but one apple or a glass of kefir will not be enough. Include in your evening diet foods that can saturate the body with protein, vegetables and berries. Losing weight will benefit from any variety of cabbage: from white cabbage to Brussels sprouts. An excellent addition to dinner will be seaweed, which will enable the body to get rid of hunger for a long time. And sauerkraut will save you from problems with the digestive system.

If you can tolerate hot spices and seasonings well, then it will be good to add them to dinner dishes. Ginger, mustard, horseradish, cardamom, garlic can be used as flavoring additives. These products have a beneficial effect on digestion, accelerate metabolism, as a result of which the body gets rid of fats and toxins at an accelerated pace.

And a few more recommendations for losing weight: you need to eat slowly, chew food thoroughly and measuredly. Refrain from watching television while eating. It's best if the plates you use to serve your food are blue or black.

Spice up your meals with simple, natural spices. Salad dressings should be olive oil or light, natural yogurt. If after an evening meal there is a desire to treat yourself to something sweet, brew yourself herbal tea with honey or rose hips.

Easy Recipes for a Healthy Dinner

Recipe 1. Chicken Casserole

Ingredients:

• Chicken fillet
• Eggs - 3 pcs.
• Tomatoes
• Sour cream

Cooking:

Finely chop the chicken fillet, salt and pepper it. Beat eggs with sour cream, salt. Transfer the chicken to a baking dish and pour over the mixture. Place chopped tomatoes on top. Preheat the oven to 200 C, put the chicken in the form and cook for 30-40 minutes. For garnish - greens or salad.

Recipe 2. Salad with chicken fillet

Ingredients:

• Boiled chicken fillet - 100 g.
• Cucumber - 1 pc.
• Quail eggs - 2 pcs.
• lettuce leaves
• Apple - 1/2 pc.
• Olive oil, vinegar (optional)

Cooking:

Chicken fillet and cucumber cut into strips, eggs and an apple into cubes. Mix oil with vinegar. We put all the ingredients in a salad bowl, salt, season. Mix and put on a plate with lettuce.

Recipe 3. Salad with squid

Ingredients:

• Squids - 200-250 g
• Tomatoes - 1 pc.
• Cheese - 100 g
• Garlic - 1 clove
• Yogurt

Cooking:

Peel the squids and boil in salted water for 1-2 minutes. Cut squid and tomatoes into strips. Crush the garlic, grate the cheese on a coarse grater. Mix the ingredients and season with yogurt.

Recipe 4. Cottage cheese and strawberry mousse

Ingredients:

• Fat-free cottage cheese - 150 g.
• Strawberries frozen -200 g.

Cooking:

We put the cottage cheese in the blender and pour the pre-thawed strawberries there, along with the juice that has turned out, so that the mass is sufficiently homogeneous. We put the resulting mousse in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes, so that it cools down and reaches readiness. Bon appetit!

Snacks before bed: is it possible or not?

In addition to the main evening meal, provided that you go to bed late and you have a long enough break between dinner and sleep, you can also have a small snack or even a second dinner. The following psychological moment is important here: it is better to eat something healthy if you are really hungry than to endure, and then break loose and eat sweet or flour instead of low-calorie and healthy food.

Especially for you, we have selected a list of products that can be consumed in the evening.

If you are very hungry (even after a light dinner) and you go to bed no earlier than 22:00-23:00, you can eat two hours before bedtime:

• Dairy and sour-milk products with a fat content of up to 5%
• Eggs in any form
• Oatmeal 100-150 g (possible with a spoonful of honey)
• Meat, fish and seafood
• Dried fruits - figs, dates, pear
• Chicken or vegetable broth
• Orange, kiwi or apple
• Vegetables (except potatoes and corn)
• low fat cheese
• Mushrooms
• Vegetable salads with light dressing (olive oil)
• Curds, cottage cheese casseroles

As a small snack, you can also consume no more than 100 g of the following products:

• Almonds (about 20 nuts). However, it should not be fried or salty.
• Strawberries (1 cup) or Raspberries (1 cup)
• Grapefruit (half)
• Tangerines (2 pcs)

If you do not follow the regime, but do not want to gain extra pounds, three hours before bedtime you can eat:

• Protein (meat, fish, wild or red rice, buckwheat)

In the evening, everyone, without exception, who watches their figure, needs to exclude fast carbohydrates: cereals, fruits, sweets, starchy foods.

To make an independent decision about proper evening snacks, it is very important to know the rules for digesting foods:

1. Liquid juices and juices of medium density 20-13 minutes;
2. Fruit on average from 30 minutes to 60;
3. Vegetable salads with a light dressing will take 30 to 40 minutes to digest;
4. Sour milk drinks 60 minutes;
5. Kashi (oatmeal, buckwheat) up to 90 minutes;
6. Potatoes - from 1.5 to 2 hours;
7. Cottage cheese is digested for about 2 hours;
8. Fish - 2 hours;
9. Chicken meat and turkey meat are digested for 2-3 hours;
10. Nuts - 3 hours;
11. Pork 4-5 hours.

A proper, balanced dinner will provide you with sound sleep, excellent health and excellent well-being. And you need to remember: it is not only the composition of the food that matters, but also the mood with which you eat this food. Even the healthiest food won't do any good if you eat it in frustration, constantly beating yourself up about the extra 50 calories on your plate.

Dinner should be tasty, satisfying, healthy and with pleasure. Only in this case the dream of an ideal figure will become a reality!

Night snacks: harm to our body

Night snacking is a bad habit, and you need to get rid of it. Most often, night hunger occurs due to a disturbed diet. If you don’t have breakfast, you dine somehow - that’s why the biological schedule of eating is shifted to the night hours. Another common reason for reaching for the refrigerator in the late hours is the so-called tidbit syndrome that has been left in the refrigerator since the evening. That's what won't let you rest. Of course, most often this refers to psychological.

To unlearn eating at night, you first need to have a hearty breakfast and lunch, and dinner in moderation. Between main meals, always snack on the right foods. Ideally, these are fruits, nuts, dairy products. When a person sits at a computer or in front of a TV screen for a long time, then most often a surge in appetite is not due to physiological natural hunger, but to a simple habit of chewing and eating something. Often such blitz portions are sandwiches, chips, crackers and fast food.

It also happens that the daytime stress does not allow you to fall asleep, and you are just trying to seize the stress. In this case, after a hard day, it is recommended to brew a relaxing tea - with mint, lemon balm and ginger. Ginger has a warming and relaxing effect, mint and lemon balm soothe. If you are hungry - then you can brew green tea with milk - after it you will feel full.

You should pay attention to your evening needs that do not concern food - relax, make tea and read your favorite book or magazine, watch an interesting movie.

Attempts to stop nighttime snacking can be argued with alarming facts that should act on you like a cold shower:

• First, eating at night can cause heartburn, swelling, nightmares, and obesity. If this does not bother you, then continue in the same spirit, but still think about it. Motivate yourself with the fact that you will look bad with puffiness on your face if you allow yourself some yummy.
• If a person eats something salty or sweet at night, then he is guaranteed thirst. People who constantly eat at night may notice an increase on the scale in the morning. Unprocessed glucose in our body turns into body fat, and if you have a habit of snacking at night, then sooner or later you will be obese.

At night, our body needs to recover and rest - rest is also required for our digestive system. Therefore, try to dine measuredly, beautifully decorating the dish. If, nevertheless, hunger does not recede, and strictly 2-3 hours before bedtime.

For those who have not had dinner yet, we offer you a video recipe for hearty pasta with meatballs and mustard - simple, fast and delicious!

Proper nutrition is the most important factor in achieving your pre-workout bodybuilding and fitness goals. Success depends on nutrition by 60 - 70%, and only 30% depends on exercises and training programs both in gaining muscle mass and in losing weight, that is, burning fat.

In this article, you will learn all about proper nutrition before training, so read the information provided here very carefully.

Please note: this article describes only the basic requirements and rules. But all people are different, and based on this information, you can create an ideal nutrition scheme and build it for yourself.

before training on goals and intensity of training

The intensity of the exercise determines which source of energy will be used by the body. The combination of fats and carbohydrates in the body is more commonly used, but the intensity of the training will affect their balance.

The main source of energy for heavy weight training is carbohydrates. With aerobic weight loss, fats and carbohydrates will participate in the energy supply of the body in equal measure.

When to eat before a workout: meal times

The expression “before training”, for experienced athletes, does not mean 5 minutes before the start of classes in the gym. With a full stomach, physical activity will slow down the digestive processes, because the blood from the organs will go to the muscles, and you will also be disturbed by drowsiness, belching, and heaviness in the stomach. That's why eat at least 2 hours before before the start of the workout.

And training on an empty stomach will not take place at the required level of intensity due to the lack of resources in the body. Therefore, before training, you should always eat.

If you didn’t manage to eat on time, then you can eat something easily digestible and energetic, for example, some kind of sweetness or a small fruit, or drink a gainer. Half an hour before the start of the workout, you can eat a small fruit, a small portion of low-fat cottage cheese, light yogurt, half a serving of porridge.

What to eat before a workout

Before starting a workout, you need to consume carbohydrates to fill the glycogen depots, which will be used by the muscles during the workout itself. Eat a small portion of protein, which will be used by the body as a source of amino acids for muscles, creating the so-called anabolic “premise”. Fats should be avoided in the pre-workout menu because they slow down: metabolism, gastric emptying, and the rate of absorption of other nutrients such as protein and carbohydrates.

Calorie content and amount of food

When training to gain mass, not eating enough before a workout can lead to feelings of hunger and energy will be depleted much earlier than the end of training. But increasing your calorie intake before a workout is also a bad idea. You need to eat food as you would at a normal breakfast or lunch.

The amount of energy consumed by a person is influenced by many factors:

• Age
• The amount of muscle and fat mass, etc.

The optimal calorie intake before training should be:

• 200 calories for women
• 300 calories for men

Carbohydrates

Before training, you need to consume 40 - 70 grams of slow carbohydrates. They are so called because they have a low rate of breakdown into monosaccharides, which serve as the body's most preferred source of energy. Due to this, foods containing slow or complex carbohydrates feed the body with energy for several hours.

About 65 grams per 100 grams of product: natural rice, oatmeal, durum pasta, buckwheat and other cereals.

40-60 grams of carbohydrates per 100 grams of product: rye or bran bread, beans, peas, vegetables

10-40 grams of carbohydrates per 100 grams of product: sweet cheese curds, potatoes, beets, grapes, apples, natural fruit juices.

Squirrels

In addition to carbohydrates, your workout day diet should contain protein to maintain an anabolic state and reduce muscle breakdown. Proteins are a source of amino acids necessary for the repair and construction of muscle fibers.

15-30 grams of protein per 100 grams of product: veal, beef, pork (lean), chicken, turkey, trout, cheese, cottage cheese, chicken eggs.

5-15 grams of protein per 100 grams of product: milk, sausage, goose meat, salami.

For one meal you need to consume 20-30 grams of protein from food. That is, in one sitting, in total, all products should give 30 grams of protein.

Fats

In the diet of any person, and not just an athlete, vegetable fats should be present no more than 10% of the daily food intake.

Fatty foods take a long time to digest and prevent other nutrients from being absorbed into the bloodstream, so they should not be eaten before a workout. Consume plant-based fats, such as omega-3 fatty acids.

Water

Water is an essential component for any person, and even more so for an athlete. Keep fluid intake throughout the day so that it is at least 2 liters. An hour before training, you need to drink about 800 grams of water for a man, and for a woman - 500 grams. Also during classes, you also need to consume water in small sips, because during classes you lose a lot of fluid.

Salt

Do not disturb the electrolyte-salt balance. During exercise, especially aerobic exercise, many minerals are lost. Therefore, you can drink mineral water or add salt to the water before training to restore electrolytes.

Pre-workout nutrition for muscle gain

To increase muscle mass before strength training, you need to consume a sufficient amount of carbohydrates. 2-2.5 hours before an anaerobic workout, you need to consume slow or complex carbohydrates. Also in the diet should be. During and immediately after training, proteins cannot yet be used to repair and synthesize muscle fibers, but they can protect muscles from destruction.

30 minutes before training you can eat:

• one large fruit
• berries with a low glycemic index (apple, pear, strawberry or any other berry
• wash down with a protein drink, preferably whey, because it is absorbed faster (0.22 grams of whey protein per 1 kg of body weight).

Pre-workout nutrition for weight loss

If you need to lose weight, that is, burn body fat, then you need to ensure that calorie consumption exceeds their consumption. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t need to eat before a workout to lose weight. If you want to lose weight, then you need aerobic training for weight loss. .

As in the case of weight gain, when losing weight, you need to eat 2 hours before training. But this time, the amount of carbohydrates should be reduced to 15-20 g, and the amount of protein consumed to 10-15 g, so that there is no excess glycogen (glucose) in the muscles. Take all the same complex carbohydrates.

If you don't eat before your workout, you won't be able to train at the intensity you need to burn fat. And if you eat heavily and shortly before training, then you will spend the energy of food, and not excess fat.

Before training for weight loss, you need to make a meal, with a total composition of 15 grams of carbohydrates (for men) and up to 10 grams of carbohydrates for women, as well as protein foods, for women it will be optimal to get up to 7 grams, for men 12-15 grams. Such nutrition will give the body the energy to maintain the required intensity at the beginning of the workout, but it will not be enough and the body will begin to break down fat deposits for additional energy. If you use, then the diet needs to be adjusted taking into account the characteristics of the diet.

As an additional stimulant, 30 minutes before training, you can drink a glass of strong green tea or coffee without cream. This will increase the secretion of epinephrine and norepinephrine, which mobilize fat from fat cells so that muscle cells can use it for energy.

Conditions that must be observed in order to lose weight:

1. Before training, you must eat

The body needs energy to perform any work, and for its functioning it also needs energy, which it receives from food. And if you do not eat, then the body will not have the resources to conduct training at that level in order to get the desired result.

2. The athlete should have a meal 2 hours before the start of the workout

Firstly, it is difficult to train on a full stomach because of the feeling of heaviness, drowsiness.

Secondly, undigested and undigested food will not allow the body to use internal resources, that is, burn fat.

3. Reduce the amount of protein and carbohydrate-containing foods if you want to lose weight, and if you want to gain weight, then increase

Proteins and carbohydrates are nutrients that need to be manipulated depending on your goals: whether you want to lose weight or gain weight. Therefore, increase or decrease their consumption depending on the desired result.

Protein before workout

It is always easier and faster to get the right amount of nutrients from a shake. It is easier and more convenient to consume and it is absorbed faster. Therefore, before training, you can take one serving of a protein shake or gainer for 1 hour or even 30 minutes.

Can I eat during a workout

During training, for additional fuel, you can consume fast carbohydrates or BCAA amino acids. They will protect the muscles from destruction and add strength.

Pre-Workout Foods

Below are examples that combine protein and carbohydrate foods, you can alternate these options depending on your taste preferences:

• Poultry meat (turkey, chicken breasts) with coarse bread or rice or pasta
• Lean fish with potatoes
• Lean meat with potatoes or pasta
• Eggs with porridge
• Cottage cheese with bread

Immediately after training you can eat almost any easily digestible food, because it will go to restore the energy spent in training. Such products can be:

• fruit juices
• fruits - watermelon, banana, pineapple, mango, apricots
• fruit cocktails
• sports drinks - gainers, proteins, post-workout complexes, energy bars.

You don’t need to eat up after a workout, and it’s unlikely that you will succeed when all the blood has gone into the muscles and not only overeat, but it’s hard to breathe.

Nutrition before morning workout

If you prefer the morning for training, then after waking up you need to drink a protein shake and add 5-8 grams of BCAA to it. Or you can eat something easily digestible, like a piece of cake or brownie. Other foods are not very suitable before a morning workout, because they are digested for a long time and the body will not get energy from them for training.

But immediately after a workout, it is advisable to consume a sufficient amount of protein and carbohydrates from regular meals.

The best meals before and after a morning workout:

• poultry meat (chicken breast, turkey) with wholemeal bread or rice
• lean meat with potatoes or pasta
• cottage cheese with wholemeal bread
• low-fat steak with potatoes or fresh vegetables
• egg white omelette with oatmeal
• lean fish with potatoes or vegetables

Sample pre-workout diet

What to eat before training, each athlete must determine for himself based on his personal experience. But the main principles can be distinguished: solid food can be consumed 4 hours before the start of a workout, a carbohydrate shake or foods containing fast carbohydrates - 2-3 hours before a workout, and the water-salt balance must be restored an hour before class.

1 hour or less before workout

• - fresh fruits: apples, watermelons, peaches, grapes, oranges and/or
• - energy jams (gels)
• - up to 1 cup of sports drink

2 - 3 hours before training

• - fresh fruits
• - bread, bagels, pasta
• - yogurt
• - water

3 - 4 hours before training

• - fresh fruits
• - bread, bagels
• - pasta with tomato sauce
• - baked potato
• - energy bar
• - cereal with milk
• - yogurt
• - bread/sandwich with peanut butter, meat or cheese
• - water

Caffeine pre-workout and performance

Caffeine is used by athletes as a stimulant of the central nervous system, to improve its functioning and neuromuscular communication. There is information that caffeine can increase endurance and improve the breakdown of fats for energy for muscle cells. This theory is not backed by research, but you can do a little experiment and see if it works for you. Coffee can be used as a central nervous system stimulant, but here you must proceed from the state of your health (heart function and blood pressure).

Foods to Avoid Before a Workout

This has already been discussed above, but I will remind you again that fatty foods before training are a bad option. It is poorly digested and prevents carbohydrates and proteins from being absorbed into the bloodstream, which are needed to supply the body with energy.

Foods that are harmful to training can be safely attributed to:

• Fat meat
• Donuts
• Fried potatoes
• Chips and any fast food

Only you yourself can choose the optimal diet, according to your personal feelings, based on practical experiences in the process of training. And what works very well for your partner or even a coach may not suit you personally at all. You will definitely have personal preferences in products, body characteristics and metabolism, so experiment and find your right nutrition before training.

A small example of a fitness menu plan

Fitness diet menu

1st day

Breakfast: 2 eggs (1 yolk, 2 whites), 100 g oatmeal, 1 glass of orange juice, 50 g fat-free cottage cheese. Second breakfast: fruit salad, fat-free yogurt. Lunch: 100 g boiled chicken, 100 g rice, green salad. Snack: baked potato, fat-free yogurt. Dinner: 200 g of stewed fish, salad, apple.

2nd day

Breakfast: 100 g of muesli, 1 glass of skim milk, 2 eggs, some fruit. Second breakfast: 1 glass of carrot juice, 50 g of cottage cheese. Lunch: chicken salad (150-200 g of meat), 1 potato, apple. Snack: low-fat yogurt, fruit. Dinner: 150 g of fish, 1 cup of boiled beans, salad (optional with low-fat salad dressing).

3rd day

Breakfast: 200 g strawberries, 100 g oatmeal, 2 egg scrambled eggs. Second breakfast: banana, 100 g of cottage cheese. Lunch: 200 g fish, 100 g rice, salad. Snack: fruit, yogurt. Dinner: 100 g turkey, 1 cup corn, salad.

4th day

Breakfast: 1 grapefruit, 100 g of hercules, 1 glass of milk. Second breakfast: banana, 100 g of cottage cheese. Lunch: 150 g chicken, 50 g rice. Snack: 1 glass of vegetable juice, bran. Dinner: 120 g beef, a cup of corn.

5th day

Breakfast: peach, 100 g of oatmeal, scrambled eggs, a glass of juice. Second breakfast: 1 glass of vegetable juice, 100 g of rice. Lunch: pita, 100 g turkey, apple. Snack: salad, 100 g of cottage cheese. Dinner: 100 g chicken, salad.

6th day

Breakfast: scrambled eggs, 100 g of buckwheat, 1 glass of milk. Second breakfast: cottage cheese, banana. Lunch: 200 g fish, 100 g rice, salad, 1 glass of orange juice. Snack: baked potato, yogurt. Dinner: 150 g shrimp, vegetable salad.

7th day

Breakfast: an apple, an omelet from 2 eggs, 100 g of buckwheat. Lunch; 100 g cottage cheese, peach. Dinner; 100 g beef, mixed vegetables (corn, carrots, peas). Snack: yogurt, 100 g of rice. Dinner: 150 g chicken, vegetable salad.

8th day

Breakfast: 1 grapefruit, 100 g muesli, 1 glass of skim milk, 2 eggs. Second breakfast: 70 g of rice, 1 peach. Lunch: 120 g chicken, salad, half a plate of pasta, 1 glass of orange juice. Snack: yogurt, apple. Dinner: 120 g of beef, vegetable salad.

9th day

Breakfast: scrambled eggs, 100 g of buckwheat, fruit, 1 glass of orange juice. Second breakfast: banana, cottage cheese. Lunch: 100 g fish, 100 g rice, peach, 1 glass of orange juice. Snack: yogurt, 50-100 g dried apricots. Dinner: 200 g fish, baked potatoes, vegetable juice.

10th day

Breakfast: 1 cup blueberries, 100 g oatmeal, scrambled eggs. Second breakfast: 100 g fat-free cottage cheese, 50 g raisins. Lunch: 100 g chicken, baked potato, 1 glass of vegetable juice. Snack: low-fat yogurt, orange. Dinner: 100 g of fish, vegetable salad.

11th day

Breakfast: a slice of watermelon, 2 eggs, 50 g of bran bread, 1 glass of orange juice. Second breakfast: banana, 50 g of cottage cheese. Lunch: 100 g rice, 200 g squid. Snack: 150 g fish, salad. Dinner: 100 g chicken, corn salad.

12th day

Breakfast: 1 glass of carrot juice, 100 g of oatmeal, scrambled eggs. Second breakfast: 100 g of rice with raisins and dried apricots. Lunch: 100 g chicken in pita, salad. Snack: fat-free yogurt, apple. Dinner: 120 g beef, 100 g broccoli.

13th day

Breakfast: grapefruit, 100 g of oatmeal, scrambled eggs. Second breakfast: 50 g of cottage cheese, peach. Lunch: 120 g of turkey in pita, boiled corn on the cob. Snack: fat-free yogurt, apple. Dinner: 150 g of fish, vegetable salad.

14th day

Breakfast: 1 glass of orange juice, 2 eggs, 100 g of muesli, 1 glass of milk. Second breakfast: banana, 50 g of cottage cheese. Lunch: 150 g chicken, green salad, 100 g rice. Snack: yogurt, peach. Dinner: 150 g of river fish, vegetable salad.

This is an example of a diet for athletes. Approximately this is how you should eat, but you should not copy, because you have your own weight, your own metabolism, and so on. Therefore, we proceed from our data and goals and, on the basis of this menu, we compose our own. The easiest option is to reduce or increase the calorie content of food if you want to lose weight or gain weight, respectively.

And yet, the dairy products mentioned above must be fat-free. All meat products are boiled or can be baked. It is better to choose fruits that are not sweet and give preference to green ones. Drink only natural juices or do not drink at all. It is always better to drink plain water.

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It is often believed that eating 3-4 hours before bed leads to weight gain. This is partly true - metabolism slows down in the evening, and during sleep, adipose tissue begins to play a key role in metabolism, synthesizing the hormone leptin. In fact, the presence of carbohydrates in the stomach can negatively affect the body's ability to burn existing fats. In other words, eating at night makes you fat.

On the other hand, the human body, in fact, does not care how many hours before sleep a particular food was eaten - in the end, the body only cares about the total caloric content of food. Theoretically, if you will at least roughly observe the daily calorie intake, the average portion of healthy food even 20 minutes before bedtime will not change the situation and will not turn you into a fat man.

In reality, the quality of food in the evening is important - firstly, you should avoid fast carbohydrates with a high glycemic index. Fitseven has already published a complete list. Secondly, for dinner it is preferable to eat as many various vegetables as possible and fiber that is useful for digestion and normalization of blood glucose levels.

Best food for dinner

Since the body literally runs on free fatty acids during sleep, the quality of oils and fats consumed at dinner plays a decisive role in the fight for the health and fitness of the body. It is important to minimize saturated animal fats (butter, lard) as much as possible, as well as limit low-quality refined vegetable oils.

The most healthy choice for dinner would be a 450-500 calorie meal containing approximately 25-35 g protein, 15-25 g fat (mainly the beneficial omega-9 fatty acids in the form of olive oil), and 50-75 g carbohydrates (of which 8-10 g and no more than 7 g of sugars) - that is, approximately 150-200 g of lean meat with a side dish of 50-70 g of buckwheat and a portion of green vegetables.

Metabolism after 6 p.m.

Scientific studies show that the human biological clock is closely related to the rhythms of day and night. That is why the brightness of the light affects not only the level of the sleep hormone, but also many other metabolic parameters. For example, we all noticed that at night the work of the digestive system and stomach significantly slows down.

However, it is extremely difficult to name a specific hour at which these changes begin. In fact, it is not entirely clear where the remember the rule “do not eat after six in the evening” came from. Most likely, this is influenced by the time of sunset - which is why Ayurveda, the traditional Indian health doctrine, does not recommend eating after sunset.

Are carbs bad at night?

During sleep, metabolic rate drops by about 15-35% (1) and blood glucose (and insulin) levels drop, thus increasing levels of fat-burning growth hormone. Also during sleep, the metabolic process is actively included. In fact, at night, the body minimizes the processes of digestion.

In addition, at night the body activates the use of existing fat as fuel - while the presence of a large amount of food in the stomach will definitely cause an imbalance of these processes, forcing the body to burn the calories of the dinner just eaten in the first place. And the more simple carbohydrates in such food, the worse.

The habit of eating in the evening

The main problem of "evening calories", according to nutritionists, is not at all in the time of eating food - but, above all, in banal overeating. If a person did not have the opportunity to have a normal breakfast and lunch, then it is obvious that by dinner he will be very hungry - and, as a result, will eat more calories than he needed.

Unfortunately, this is quite a typical case. For most hardworking people, it is the evening that becomes the main meal time of the day, and they physically cannot afford to have dinner 3-4 hours before bedtime. The situation is aggravated by the fact that attempts to reduce the amount of food eaten in the evening quite often result in uncontrolled night gluttony.

Night gluttony

Although only 1% to 2% of the general population are awake from hunger and uncontrollably go to the refrigerator for food at night, it is quite normal for a quarter of obese people (2) . This behavior is caused by disturbances in the nocturnal fluctuations of leptin and, as well as an inadequate response of the body to insulin.

In order to avoid nighttime binge eating, it is important to saturate the body with the right energy during dinner - which is why you should not just go on a diet and try to reduce portion sizes, but eat as much healthy fiber (in the form of green vegetables) and vegetable fats as possible. While avoiding sugar and other fast carbohydrates.

Despite the fact that from a theoretical point of view, “calories are always the same” (that is, in simple terms, the timing of their consumption should not matter for the body), in practice, the habit of making dinner the main meal of the day is most often associated with weight gain. As we mentioned in the material ““, fat is accumulated mainly in the abdomen.

That is why the best time for an evening meal will be the period 3-4 hours before going to bed - this will allow the body to digest and fully assimilate carbohydrates, facilitating a smooth transition to the night mode of using free fatty acids as the main source of energy. If you go to bed at 11 pm, dinner should be no later than 9 pm.

***

From a theoretical point of view, for the body there should be no difference between "morning" and "evening" calories - however, in practice, this difference is still quite noticeable. That is why, in order not to gain excess weight in the abdomen, it is really best to have dinner 3-4 hours before going to bed and not overeat at night.

Scientific sources:

1. The impact of sleep disorders on glucose metabolism,
2. fat circadian biology,

Of course, you are determined to get the most out of your workouts in the gym. And for this it is important not only to eat correctly, but also to eat on time. Improper nutrition before training or lack of it can make the session useless or add stress in the form of colic, bloating and nausea.

Overeating and foods that irritate the gastric mucosa are fraught with lethargy and disorder of the corresponding organ. Hunger is the other extreme, which leads to decreased stamina, dizziness, fainting, and injury.

When and how much to eat before training

“Regardless of what kind of training is ahead, you should eat 1.5–2 hours before it,” advises dietitian Elena Tikhomirova. Are you planning a super-nutrient intake of heavy and high-calorie foods? Then forget about active actions for 3 hours after.

If for some reason it was not possible to eat a balanced and complete meal on time, you can have a snack 30 minutes before the start of the class - intercept fruit, light yogurt, fruit juice or smoothies. Determine the portion size based on how you feel. The main thing here is to avoid feeling of heaviness in the stomach.

Proper nutrition before training largely depends on the individual characteristics of the person. Actual nutritional needs differ based on body type, goals, genetics, exercise duration and intensity. The training experience is no less important: the longer it is, the better the system of energy reserve and consumption is developed.

“Very often, newcomers come to the gym who do not calculate their strength. And even after a not very intense workout, they catch hypoglycemia (a sharp drop in blood sugar), which leads to nausea, cold sweat, dizziness, loss of consciousness and tinnitus,” says personal trainer Natalia Saitova.

This is because the muscles have not yet adapted to the accumulation of glycogen (stored glucose) for intense work. Experienced athletes, on the contrary, even after a light snack can train for a long time without manifestations of hypoglycemia.

Sports menu: basic rules

Before aerobic exercise the main source of energy is carbohydrates, which will keep blood sugar levels stable throughout the session. We are talking, of course, about complex carbohydrates with a low glycemic index. And these are not fragrant buns, but oatmeal, vegetables and fruits, berries, whole grain bread, brown rice, smoothies and nuts.