What you eat can significantly affect your well-being and energy levels. It is essential to monitor your diet if you regularly train and lead a sporty lifestyle. Some foods can slow your body down or give you a sudden surprise incompatible with exercising. It would help if you didn’t snack on those before physical activity to avoid getting trapped and harming your health.
7 foods to avoid before training
1. Protein shakes
Many people drink a protein shake immediately before training because it helps muscles grow and recover faster. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do any good. Protein is, in fact, the last nutrient the body needs before exercise. It needs carbohydrates, which give the body the energy it needs to cope with the load. Protein slows down digestion and prevents carbohydrates from being absorbed.
As a result, a glass of protein shake can cause nausea for you. It’s a shame when it catches up during difficult exercises, forcing you to finish your workout earlier. Don’t get me wrong — there is nothing criminal about protein shakes as such. They are helpful because they help restore and build muscle mass and help to stay whole. They must be consumed before and after training to feel good.
2. Fried dishes
No matter how delicious donuts or potatoes are fried with onions in a frying pan, this is not the best food choice before training. With active movement, blood should flow freely throughout the body. It nourishes tissues and muscles to achieve a personal record or challenge your endurance.
However, fried food is difficult to digest, so when you chew deep-fried chicken wings, blood rushes to your stomach, not your muscles. As a result, you become weaker and cannot master the exercises from the usual training program. You feel like you’re giving your best, but you still can’t do the correct number of reps or run as fast as you planned.
It’s like filling up a car with lousy gasoline and expecting it to run forever without interruption. Moreover, because your body is hard at work digesting fried food, you may feel sluggish, so much so that you stay home and lie on the couch instead of doing your best in the gym.
3. Nuts and avocados
Nuts and avocados, which are helpful and rich in essential substances for the body, are a bad choice if you plan to devote a day to cardio training. Fatty snacks and fried food take a long time to digest. They disrupt blood circulation throughout the body and often cause a feeling of weakness.
Also, being in the stomach while actively moving nuts and avocados can cause nausea and bloating. Of course, these products will not reduce your workout to zero. But they will make it much more difficult for you to perform active exercises and move quickly, negatively affecting the lesson’s progress and benefits.
4, Dishes with a high fiber content
Eating a lot of fiber, in general, can work wonders for gut health and cholesterol and blood sugar levels. But if you don’t want to run to the toilet now and then from training, then you should give up bars, muesli, and cereals with a high content of this trace element. The fact is that our body does not digest fiber.
It passes almost unchanged right through your intestines. Now, contrast this with the fact that exercise causes the muscles of this organ to contract. V I S I T A F R I N I K . C O M.That’s why you may experience sudden urges to defecate and quite strong ones while lifting weights or performing cardio exercises. If you don’t want such embarrassments, leave fiber-rich dishes for rest days or consume them after training.
5. Dairy products and their derivatives
Everything is individual, but dairy products before jogging or active training should become taboo for most people. Why? They contain both protein and fat. It excites the gastrointestinal system, even if you don’t have lactose intolerance, primarily if you work out in hot weather or a stuffy gym.
Due to the consumption of dairy products and cheese and treats based on them, during training, you will most likely feel like there are a ton of bricks in your stomach. What are the approaches for abs, pull-ups, or barbell exercises in this condition? To make matters worse, eating dairy products before an active workout can result in nausea and vomiting.
6. Spicy food
Spicy food should only be consumed after training for several reasons. First, the capsaicin it contains can irritate the intestinal mucosa, which, with active movement and exercise, will lead to stomach upset, nausea, and heartburn. Second, spicy food often causes acid reflux, which leads to an unpleasant burning sensation in the throat and chest area. These symptoms will make your workout unbearable and may force you to stop it much earlier than you planned.
7. Too many eggs
If you are used to exercising in the morning and include a few boiled eggs in breakfast, you should reconsider your approach to the nutrition plan. Of course, eggs are helpful, but no more than two pieces a day. If you overdo it and eat the entire daily allowance at a time, and even before training, there will be trouble.
This product is rich in protein and fat, which is why it is slowly absorbed. If you eat too many eggs, you will feel slow, tired, and clumsy, and it will be difficult to complete the workout in full. It is better not to take risks, and also remember that excessive consumption of any product, even very useful ones, does not bring benefits.