Fueling the Workout: How I Eat Before, During, and After Training

Nutrition around training is one of the most powerful performance tools available to athletes. At its core, fueling a workout means providing the body with the substrates required to produce energy, maintain performance during the session, and recover well enough to repeat that effort tomorrow.

The physiology behind this is fairly well established. Carbohydrate availability influences glycogen levels, glycogen availability influences performance during moderate to high intensity exercise, and adequate protein intake supports muscle repair and adaptation. Organizations such as the American College of Sports Medicine and the International Society of Sports Nutrition have published extensive guidance on these topics.

But translating those recommendations into something that works in daily life is often less straightforward. Work schedules, training times, gastrointestinal tolerance, and simple practicality all influence how athletes actually fuel their sessions.

What follows is not a strict protocol, but rather an explanation of how I fuel different types of training sessions in practice. The goal is not to suggest that this is the only way to do it, but to show how the underlying physiology translates into real decisions about what to eat before, during, and after training.

Pre-Workout Fueling

The purpose of pre-workout nutrition is to support glycogen availability, maintain blood glucose, and delay fatigue during training. Muscle glycogen is the primary fuel source during moderate to high intensity exercise, and when glycogen availability becomes limited, force production and exercise capacity decline.

General sports nutrition guidelines suggest consuming roughly 1–4 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight within the 1–4 hours before training, depending on the duration and intensity of the session. Including some protein in this meal may also support muscle protein synthesis and reduce protein breakdown during exercise.

In practice, I keep things fairly simple and adjust the approach slightly depending on the type of training session.

Strength sessions

Before lifting sessions, I typically prioritize carbohydrates along with a moderate amount of protein while keeping fat relatively low to avoid slowing digestion. The goal is simply to ensure I am not walking into the gym under-fueled.

If the session occurs later in the day, my pre-workout meal is often just a normal meal eaten a few hours earlier. Something like oatmeal with eggs, Greek yogurt with fruit, or toast with honey and a protein source works well and digests easily.

Morning sessions tend to be lighter. On most mornings I will simply eat a rice cake with honey or a banana with a small amount of peanut butter before heading to the gym. It is not a large meal, but it prevents starting the workout completely fasted and provides a small amount of carbohydrate for the session.

Afternoon lifting sessions usually occur two to three hours after lunch. In those cases, I may only need a small snack beforehand, such as a banana or apple with a bit of peanut butter, or occasionally a sports drink on the drive home from work.

The goal here is not to make things complex, but to simply ensure that some fuel is available when the session begins.

Conditioning sessions

Conditioning workouts tend to place a greater demand on carbohydrate metabolism, particularly when intensity is higher or the session is longer. For those sessions I generally bias the pre-workout intake more heavily toward carbohydrates.

In practice this usually means simple carbohydrate sources that digest easily and are unlikely to cause gastrointestinal discomfort. A piece of fruit such as a banana or apple works well, as do rice cakes with honey or a carbohydrate sports drink.

One product I use fairly regularly is 1st Phorm Ultra-Formance. I have no affiliation with the company, but it provides about 24 grams of carbohydrate per scoop coming from a combination of dextrose, fructose, and highly branched cyclic dextrin. Combining carbohydrate sources in this way can increase total carbohydrate absorption because glucose and fructose use different intestinal transporters. Glucose primarily utilizes the SGLT1 transporter, while fructose uses the GLUT5 transporter, allowing higher overall carbohydrate uptake when both are present.

Again, the goal is simply to ensure carbohydrate availability before the session begins.

Fueling During Training

Intra-workout fueling is not necessary for every training session. A typical 45 to 60 minute strength workout generally does not require carbohydrate intake during the session if glycogen stores are adequate beforehand.

Fueling during exercise becomes more important when training sessions become longer or more metabolically demanding. During endurance exercise, carbohydrate oxidation rates can exceed 60 grams per hour, and well-trained endurance athletes using multiple carbohydrate sources may utilize up to 90–120 grams per hour.

While those higher values are typically observed in elite endurance athletes, the same physiological principles still apply more broadly. When carbohydrate availability declines, blood glucose falls and fatigue develops more quickly.

For that reason I usually incorporate intra-workout carbohydrates under several conditions: conditioning sessions longer than about an hour, threshold or high-intensity conditioning workouts, hybrid sessions that combine strength and conditioning, and longer endurance sessions such as long runs or extended bike rides.

When fueling during training I typically aim for 30–60 grams of carbohydrate per hour, depending on the session.

Running tends to be harder on the gastrointestinal system than cycling because of the repeated vertical impact and the reduction in gastrointestinal blood flow during harder efforts. For that reason I usually rely on gels or sports drinks when running. Honey Stinger gels are something I use frequently, particularly the versions that contain caffeine during longer runs.

Cycling is generally easier on the stomach, which allows for a bit more flexibility with fueling. On longer rides I often carry a bottle filled with carbohydrate sports drink along with a banana. I will also usually bring an extra gel along as a backup in case the ride runs longer than expected.

Shorter conditioning sessions, particularly those under an hour, I will often complete without intra-workout fueling unless the intensity is very high or I feel energy levels starting to drop.

Maintaining carbohydrate availability during longer sessions helps preserve training quality and allows the body to sustain higher workloads over time.

Post-Workout Recovery

After training my approach is straightforward: eat a normal meal.

Post-workout nutrition is often discussed in extremely precise terms, with debates about protein types, carbohydrate timing, and supplement choices. While those discussions can be interesting, the larger picture is much simpler.

What matters most is total daily intake of protein and carbohydrates.

Protein intake following training supports muscle protein synthesis. Research suggests that approximately 0.3–0.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight is sufficient to stimulate this response for most individuals. For someone weighing around 200 pounds (about 90 kilograms), this corresponds to roughly 25 to 35 grams of protein.

Carbohydrates also play an important role in restoring muscle glycogen. However, when athletes are training only once per day, glycogen replenishment typically occurs over the following 24 hours as long as overall carbohydrate intake across the day is sufficient.

Because of this, I rarely overthink post-workout nutrition. Most days I simply eat a whole food meal within an hour or two of finishing training. If the workout occurred in the morning that might be breakfast. If it occurred later in the day it may simply be dinner.

Occasionally I will have a protein shake after lifting sessions, but that is largely a matter of convenience rather than necessity. If my daily protein intake and total calories are where they should be, there is no physiological requirement to prioritize a shake over real food.

Session Type	Before Training	During Training	After Training
Strength (<60 min)	Small meal or snack with carbs + protein (oatmeal + eggs, yogurt + fruit)	Usually not necessary	Normal meal with protein + carbs
Conditioning (<60 min)	Simple carbs (fruit, rice cake + honey, sports drink)	Usually not necessary unless high intensity	Normal meal with protein + carbs
Conditioning (60–90 min)	Carbohydrate-focused snack	30–60 g carbohydrate per hour	Meal with protein + carbs
Long endurance (>90 min)	Carbohydrate-focused meal or snack	30–60+ g carbohydrate per hour	Normal meal + continue carb intake across the day

Fueling Examples From My Training Week

Guidelines are useful, but what ultimately matters is how those principles show up in real training. Below are a few examples from recent sessions showing how I actually fuel around different types of workouts. The goal here isn’t to present a perfect nutrition protocol, but to show how general sports nutrition principles translate into real decisions during a normal training week.

Monday: Morning Strength Session (~60 minutes)
This was a typical early morning lifting session that started around 5:00 AM. Because the session was relatively short and strength-focused, I kept the pre-workout fueling simple. Before leaving for the gym I ate something small and easy to digest, usually a rice cake with honey or a banana with a small amount of peanut butter.

During the session I consumed only water. Strength workouts of this duration generally do not require intra-workout carbohydrate intake if glycogen stores are adequate.

The workout finished around 5:45 AM. I didn’t eat immediately afterward, but had breakfast later that morning around 7:30 AM. That meal consisted of three hard-boiled eggs and two slices of sourdough toast with butter and jelly.

Thursday: Threshold Run (~60 minutes)
This session occurred later in the afternoon and consisted of a treadmill threshold run lasting roughly one hour.

Lunch that day was around 11:45 AM. On the drive home from work at about 2:30 PM I ate a banana as a small pre-run carbohydrate source. The run began around 3:30 PM.

During the run I drank a sports drink consisting of two scoops of Ultra-Formance and water mixed in my bottle, which provided roughly 48 grams of carbohydrates over the course of the session. For threshold workouts of this duration, I find that a moderate carbohydrate intake helps maintain pacing and perceived effort.

Dinner afterward consisted of lean beef and white rice, which provided both protein and carbohydrates to support recovery.

Saturday: Long Run (~90 minutes)
This session was a longer aerobic run performed on Saturday morning.

I woke up around 6:30 AM and had a large Honeycrisp apple with some peanut butter along with about 20 ounces of water. The run began around 7:15 AM.

During the run I consumed one caffeine-containing gel about 45 minutes into the session. For runs of this length I typically bring two gels but will sometimes only use one depending on how the session feels.

Immediately after the run I had breakfast consisting of three scrambled eggs, 60 grams of oatmeal, about 150 grams of berries, and roughly 12 grams of brown sugar on top of the oatmeal.

These examples are not particularly complicated, but they illustrate the same basic principle: match carbohydrate availability to the demands of the session. Strength sessions require relatively little intra-workout fueling, while longer or more metabolically demanding conditioning sessions benefit from additional carbohydrate intake before or during training.

Body Composition vs Training Performance

One mistake athletes sometimes make is allowing body composition goals to interfere with training quality.

Even when trying to lose weight, it is important to ensure that training sessions themselves are adequately fueled. Consuming carbohydrates around the workout window can help maintain performance without significantly interfering with fat loss.

In practice, the calorie deficit required for fat loss should generally come from the broader day rather than from starving the workout itself of fuel.

Training quality ultimately drives adaptation. If energy availability is too low during training, performance suffers and progress tends to stall.

Fuel the work first.

Final Thoughts

Sports nutrition guidelines provide useful frameworks, but the most effective fueling strategy is the one that consistently supports high quality training sessions while fitting naturally into an athlete’s daily routine.

For some people that means a full meal before training. For others it may simply be a banana and a protein shake on the way to the gym.

The details will vary, but the underlying principle remains the same: ensure adequate energy availability so the body can perform the work required to adapt.

Over time, consistently fueling training sessions well allows athletes to train harder, recover more effectively, and accumulate more high-quality work.

And over months and years, that work compounds.

Fuel the work.