How long between meals & training?

scottie pippen

How long should you wait between a meal & a training session.
Also what foods are a good source of energy to keep you going during training?
Any tips or links will be much appreciated


Cheers
Scottie

rebel girl 15

Depends on how long it takes to digest the food. Did this in college about a week ago, so I'll explain why you need to leave time between a meal and a training session

Basically what happens when you are at rest, between 20 and 25 per cent of your blood flow is going to your stomach and intestines, for the digestion of food, with 15-30 per cent of the blood volume going to the muscles. When you exercise, the blood flow to the stomach decreases to between 3-5 per cent of your total blood volume, and the blood flow to the muscles increases to 70-85 per cent of total. When you have food in your stomach, and are digesting it, it creates a conflict, and the food sits in the stomach and cannot be effectivly digested, and blood in forced to go to the stomach, causing cramp.

Anywho, to answer your originals questions, it depends on what you eat, if the food is light enough, about an hour should do, but if it is a heavy meal, leave it for a couple of hours to digest. Depends if the foods are simple and easy to digest or not

Probably the best food before a training session is chicken and pasta, a protein and carbohydrate. Have a look at this one on the fitness forum for some nutritional tips http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054876750

scottie pippen

Thanks for the info, will check out the link also.
Kind regards
Scottie

BOHtox

This works for me but then again your not me.
Have dinner maybe an hour and a half before training warm up gently before the proper warm up ie walking to training.
Lucozade sport and crunchy granolla bars are good if your energy is low.
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