What to Eat For Breakfast Before a Big Workout or Race: Part 2
This episode is a continuation of what you need to know about eating breakfast before a big workout, marathon,triathlon, obstacle race, or any other event that you need to fuel without getting stomach problems.
Ben Greenfield
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What to Eat For Breakfast Before a Big Workout or Race: Part 2
In the last episode, you learned all about blood glucose, storage carbohydrates, and how to keep your levels topped off, whether that be for a triathlon, a marathon, an obstacle race, a big workout, or any other intense or voluminous event.
But of course, there’s more to life than carbs. For example, there’s fat. Consumption of a high-fat meal pre-exercise has actually been shown to alter substrate supply before exercise and leads to increased free fatty acid (FFA) levels in the blood, which could then increase lipid metabolism during exercise and either preserve some of your precious and limited glycogen stores, or at least attenuate the normal rate of glycogen depletion. Now, it’s important to understand that this is mostly anecdotal, and the effects of consuming a high fat meal on subsequent exercise performance are not widely acknowledged or proven, with one exception. The exception is that it has been noted in “fat-adapted” athletes who have followed a high fat, ketogenic diet for more than six months that athletic performance can be sustained on a high fat diet, with a significant preservation of glycogen stores during exercise.
For example, one study examined the performance effect of consuming either 1.) a high-fat meal 4 hours pre-exercise + a placebo jelly 3 min before exercise; 2.) a high-fat meal 4 hours pre-exercise + maltodextrin jelly 3 min before exercise; or 3.) a high-carbohydrate meal 4 hours pre-exercise + placebo jelly 3 min before exercise. Participants in the high-fat meal + maltodextrin group showed both a significantly higher fat oxidation rate and a significantly decreased carbohydrate oxidation rate during the first 60 minutes of exercise compared to the other groups, along with a significant increase in their time to exhaustion during exercise. What you can learn from this is that including fat with your pre-race meal is definitely going to be beneficial.
So, what type of fat is best? The answer there is simple: medium chain triglycerides (MCTs). These fats bypass the long 4-6 hour digestion time that many other fats can take, and are instead readily available as a form of usable energy. Most athletes can tolerate 100-150 calories of MCTs without experiencing gastric distress, and the easiest way to get these are via coconut milk, coconut oil, or MCT oil.
Please note that although the study referenced above involved eating the pre-workout meal 4 hours prior, you should also know that they fed the participants about 1,000 calories in that meal. When you consider that your body can absorb about 250 calories per hour, this makes sense (1000 calories get absorbed over a 4 hour time span). However, I’m a bigger fan of eating a smaller meal, such as the one I recommended earlier, about 2 hours prior, and this is due to the simple fact that athletes need sleep. Rubbing sleepy eyes at the starting line of an Ironman, and feeling like taking a nap halfway through the marathon because you awoke at 3 am to stuff 1,000 calories in your face, is simply not worth it compared to eating at 5 am and simply having a smaller feeding of around 500 calories.
Quick and Dirty Tip: In addition to the meal recommendations earlier, if you’re competing in a long race, especially an Ironman or ultra-endurance event, then consider including 3-6 ounces of full fat coconut milk, a heaping tablespoon of coconut oil, or a level tablespoon of MCT oil with your pre-race meal.
And then finally, there’s protein, which I actually discussed in Get Fit Guy Episode #243.
There’s been quite a bit research done lately investigating the effects of adding protein to carbohydrate drinks or supplements, with many studies finding enhanced exercise performance when amino acids or proteins are included with a pre-exercise meal. There’s a few interesting reasons for this.
For example, protein lowers the glycemic response to carbohydrates, making it less likely that you’ll experience a surge in blood glucose from your pre-race meal followed by a hypoglycemic slump in energy by the time you get to the starting line. The consumption of protein also increases blood levels of amino acids like arginine, leucine, and phenylalanine, which stimulate cells in your pancreas to release insulin and glucagon. This hormonal response to protein may help to more quickly drive your breakfast into tissues for use as fuel, and may also stimulate output of glucose by your liver, which can also help you to avoid hypoglycemia. While it would seem that the presence of insulin might somehow reduce fat oxidation, this is counterbalanced by the fat burning effect that glucagon can elicit. There is some research to suggest that combining proteins with carbohydrates may speed up pre-exercise fuel storage by enhancing glycogen (storage carbohydrate) synthesis, which could lead to even more glycogen sparing during exercise. Finally, high blood levels of amino acids can actually increase your ability to counteract the tendency of your brain to get flooded with tryptophan during hard and long efforts, which can actually make you sleepy, and is one reason the body can “shut down” towards the end of a race.
Quick and Dirty Tip: Smaller athletes can absorb around 20 g of protein in a meal, while larger athletes can take on closer to 30 g. However, this amount of protein can take up to four hours to digest, so I’m a bigger fan of using “pre-digested” proteins in the form of amino acids capsules or powders. If you use a supplement like this, simply take 5-10 g of amino acids in a glass of water along with your breakfast. Alternatively, you could take a couple scoops of protein powder in a glass of water with breakfast, but that will take longer to digest.
So, let’s summarize all this math and geek-speak we’ve covered in the last two episodes, shall we? When putting together your pre-race meal, you should include:
1) A low glycemic index carbohydrate, preferably from a couple different sources such as fruit and potato, at around 400 calories for smaller athletes and 500 calories for larger athletes, eaten 2 hours before the race, and accompanied by another 100-150 calories from a sport drink or bar in the 2 hours leading up to the race. If you’re a “fat-adapted” athlete, simply include a more fat-based meal, such as a cup of coffee blended with butter and coconut oil, with about 10-20 g of protein thrown in.
2) If it’s a long event of 1.5+ hours, include another 100-150 calories of an easily digestible fat, such as throwing a big spoonful of coconut oil on top of your sweet potato.
3) Whether it’s a long event or a short event, also consider including 20-30g of protein with breakfast, or 5-10g of amino acids.
OK, so let’s finish with a quick thought experiment: was the guy in the very beginning of this two part article series who ate oatmeal, fruit, toast, and scrambled eggs actually onto something? Here’s the deal: assuming he wasn’t fat-adapted, he really needed just the oatmeal or toast, probably could have left the scrambled eggs, should have included some easily digestible fats and proteins, and rather than that second meal of bars later on, just needed another quick 100-150 calories in the hours getting ready for his race.
If you have questions about what to eat for breakfast before a big workout or a race, then leave your thoughts over at the Facebook GetFitGuy page!
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About the Author
Ben Greenfield received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Idaho in sports science and exercise physiology; personal training and strength and conditioning certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA); a sports nutrition certification from the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), an advanced bicycle fitting certification from Serotta. He has over 11 years’ experience in coaching professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes from all sports, and as helped hundreds of clients achieve weight loss and fitness success.