Eat before you exercise!

From today's New York Times:

"After reviewing years of research on the subject, a report published this year in Strength and Conditioning Journal concluded that the body burns roughly the same amount of fat regardless of whether you eat before a workout. But you're likely to lose muscle by exercising in a depleted state, the report found, and without fuel to aid the workout, exercise intensity and overall calorie burn will be reduced.
One of the studies reviewed in that report looked at cyclists when they trained after eating and when they trained while fasting. When they trained with nothing in their stomachs, about 10 percent of the calories they burned came from protein, including lost muscle, the researchers wrote.
In a separate study published in 2002, scientists found an additional benefit from a pre-workout meal: Healthy women who consumed 45 grams of carbohydrates before their workouts ended up eating less throughout the remainder of the day."

Janet Rosen wrote: ...,One of the studies reviewed in that report looked at cyclists when they trained after eating and when they trained while fasting. When they trained with nothing in their stomachs, about 10 percent of the calories they burned came from protein, including lost muscle, the researchers wrote.,,,"

The greatest advantage cycling has over aikido is that you can eat and drink while cycling.

This is a very interesting info

My husband was in cycling as a teenager and still follows it, so I remember seeing the water bottles passed to the racers on tv, as Rudy's post reminded me. I remember NY Aikikai fondly and getting really thirsty after continuous throwing and falling, coming back again and again to practice because for me it was "the closest thing to flying for people"

There was a sink next to the mat in the front in the old days, the showers were in front of the entryway and behind them the sink, so you could just step up and stick your head under the faucet since the sink was very large. This was accepted and understandable in that dojo at the time... Although I'm not too sure about salt tablets, we had them available to us then, but I seem to have heard something about people in general not using them these days

About food, an empty stomach might not be a good idea, but how about guidelines about how much time to allow before practice?

Aikido is probably different from cycling, but it's impossible to tell from the article what kind of cycling they're talking about: ordinary shlubs riding for exercises or Cat 1 racers on Alpe d'Huez. In general, though, cycling is an endurance activity that uses up your body's glycogen stores, while the typical aikido class probably doesn't put that much of a dent in them. I think a very modest amount of calories maybe an hour and a half before class is optimal -- my favorite solution is a rye cracker with peanut butter, maybe with a piece of fruit, but no more than that.

Thanks, Mary, I was going to ask for suggestions on what to eat, how much, etc.

Diana Frese wrote: Thanks, Mary, I was going to ask for suggestions on what to eat, how much, etc.

Diane if you do a search you will find many older threads here on aikiweb that discuss this quite extensively.

Diana Frese wrote: Thanks, Mary, I was going to ask for suggestions on what to eat, how much, etc.

From experience, not lots of lasagna immediately before practice.

dps

I have more or less discovered this for myself. If I eat a high protein meal about 1.5-2 hours before a class ,or before going out on a hoof trimming run, I have more energy for the class/work and I feel better after it than if I don't eat well beforehand; which leads me to tire out faster and feel really hungry afterwards. I also eat a lot more during the day if I don't eat like this but have a smaller appetite if I do, although I had not really tied that into my eating patterns before a hard work.

Thank you very much for this invaluable information. I used to skip eating before exercise then eat after i am finished.

I think this information is useful and is probably best for most people and in most situations, but for some, eating after may be best. Us humans are so fickle and unique.

I have to say I do fall in with the majority here. I tend to function just fine without eating before hand, but I feel better if I do. One of my friends couldn't eat anything for several hours before class because it always made them sick.

I avoid eating for hours before training so as to avoid having to de-hakama to drop a log.

I'm really surprised to hear this. I have to stop eating for about two hours before class, or my g.i. tract will revolt. I find that I can train harder, longer if I stay well-hydrated, though.

it depends on what you eat and how long before. It's also something you can get used to doing. The stomach takes a certain amount of time to empty, depending on the volume and composition of the meal. Lots of fat and protein takes longer to empty. High G.I. causes a spike in blood sugar followed by a spike in insulin followed by a crash in blood sugar, Low G.I. causes a slower rise in blood sugar, not prompting a spike in insulin, making higher blood sugar available for a longer duration.

If you're training 3 times/day, you need to take calories before training to prevent low blood sugar during training, you need to take calories during training to spare your glycogen supplies and to maintain your intensity levels, and you need to take calories within 15 minutes of cessation of training to ensure the best recovery of muscle glycogens, which will permit training later in the day and later in the week.

If your eating and evacuating schedule don't jive with training, see if you can modify the eating schedule so that the stimulation of the GI tract can occur at a time before (or after) training... At least you can usually take off the hakama and do something about it.
Imagine being in a 30 cm wide human-powered boat, 10 km upstream of the nearest facilities...

This kind of thing is also highly variable by individual, something that the writeups of these studies generally fail to tell you. How insulin sensitive you are, how well you process different types of carbs, how efficient you are moving energy into and out of cellular stores all effect this kind of thing.

So if you've found an approach that works for you, don't muck with it.

Years ago the person who taught a class I attended loved to go to a local burger joint before class. They'd have a Tommy's chili cheeseburger with onions. Good lord... Of course this person was young, athletic, and able to deal with that "mess" and still train. Since I often got called up to take ukemi it was, um, interesting. Lots of "ki" in her "kokyu"... One breath to the face was like an atemi... If I did that I'd be in the bathroom praying to the porcelain god.

Wow, Keith. Ya know, I have one training partner who frequently eats raw garlic. I'm a garlic lover, but still...

Hm. Hard to know what is right. Janet, remember this?
Excercising on an empty stomach has benefits regarding preventing weight gain, and insulin resistance....

It's all so confusing, and then you have to look at the data yourself (which I haven't done).. and then of course there are different issues people may care about like weight gain, weight loss, insulin resistance, maintaining muscle mass. Anyway thanks for the link, it's more stuff to consider.