Pre-Exercise Meal
The meal you eat before exercise will depend on the time you are participating. For a morning run or triathlon event, the meal the night before needs to be the pre-exercise meal, with a small breakfast being the top up. For an evening cycle or basketball game, dinner may be the pre-exercise meal, and for a lunch time gym session, you should eat either your lunch or a substantial snack beforehand. Any pre-exercsie food should be accompanied by a drink, or be consumed as a drink.
Food needs to be digested, and the larger the meal the more time it requires to be digested. The higher the fibre content the longer it will take to digest, so aim for low fibre options before vigorous activity. A large meal should be eaten 3-4 hours , a small meal or snack can be taken 1-2 hours, and a drink can be consumed 1/2 hour before starting.
Here are some ideas:
3-4 hours before
- Breakfast cereal with low fat milk
- Toast/muffins/crumpets with jam/honey
- Spaghetti on toast
- Smoothie (blend milk, fruit, yoghurt) or Sustagen/Up&Go
- Meat & salad sandwich, yoghurt, fruit
- Pasta meal & fruit
1-2 hours before
- Fruit
- Muesli bar
- Jelly lollies
- Bread product
- Sandwich
- Sustagen/Up&Go
1/2 an hour before
- Sports drink
- Sports Gel
- Water
- Cordial
- Banana
