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Thank you to Patricia N-A for suggesting I write this blog, especially for some of the new people just starting out a new lifelong long term life changing exercise routine it will take a bit of time to get your exercise diet perfected (any other suggestions on topics you would like to read about please let me know know).

Early morning exercise e.g. 6.30am:
When you wake up and move / exercise your body needs roughly at least 60 calories of energy straight away. If you don’t eat anything those sixty calories will come from the glycogen store in your brain! That’s why sometimes people feel rough, giddy, tired when they exercise on an empty stomach first thing. Your muscles / body needs energy but your brain does too so it’s not a good idea to lose the stored energy in your brain!

Instead try eating something even if it’s very small 15-25 minutes before a a very early morning work out like:

Orange juice
Yoghurt
Banana
1 piece of brown toast

Just something easy to digest roughly 80-150 calories then you should feel a lot better and also when you feel better and have more energy then you can train harder which burns more calories rather than an easier session on an empty stomach.

Mid morning workout e.g. 9.30am:
You might have been up a few hours by now and should easily have enough time to eat a good hearty breakfast and take on some liquids 90-120 minutes before you exercise.

Evening exercise e.g. 6.30pm:
You should have had at least 2 good substantial meals by now plus some healthy sensible snacks along the way to keep your energy / metabolism up.

If you had a good lunch at 1pm not eating anything again till 6.30pm is too long a gap!

Think about eating every 2.5-3 hours if you’re very fit / lean / energetic.

Think about eating every 3-3.5 hours if you’re a little bit off your ideal goals / body weight / body fat.

Lots of dieticians and nutritionists etc say it’s better to eat small and often 5-7 times a day rather than 3 massive meals with lots of gaps in between (which slows down your digestion and metabolism and your body can only digest a certain amount of nutrients / calories in one sitting).

Eat at 1pm train at 6.30pm means you need to be having a very small healthy meal or good low GI snack about 4.45pm ish.

Experiment / trial and error:
Don’t ever shy away from exercise because you have eaten too much or to little.

Just take it easier and be sensible depending on how you feel.

After a few weeks you’ll work out your perfect formula then you’ll be able to push yourself a bit harder.

When I was in the Royal Marine Reserves time was of the essence so we had to run to the galley (food canteen) eat our massive much needed portion of food / calories really quick then run back to our accommodation get changed into our PE/PT kit then run to the gymnasium or boot field assault course for an intense sessions sometimes only 20 minutes after eating a massive roast dinner! We all soon got used to it hehe 🙂