Recently switched to am workouts- like 5:30 am. Wondering what people eat before their am workouts? I usually stomach a piece of whole grain toast and some peanut butter…
I lift at the same time, and usually take a whey based protein shake with milk and OJ as soon as I wake up then lift 20-30 mins. later.
By 4:15 a.m. I’ve consumed my 1/4 cup steel-cut oats with some raisins sprinkled on top for sweetness.
By 5:30 a.m. I’ve started my workout.
TShaw, you get up to early.
I drink one cup of skim milk with 1 scoop of Grow!. About 200 calories and I train about 30 minutes later.
I’d make sure to get some protein in as well if you care about muscle growth/preservation. Working out early in the morning without a sufficient breakfast before hand is a situation when a pre/during WO shake w/ adequate protein & carbs is most important.
I workout at 5:30 as well and usually drink a glass of a Sustagen Sport (don’t know if it is available outside of Australia), which is a protein/carbs drink I’m guessing somewhat similar in purpose to Surge (it’s got amino acids etc).
I usually have this about 20-30 min before I start lifting and then during the workout drink Staminade (Aussie form of Gatorade) and another, more dilute serve of Sustagen. By the time I get home and get ready for work it is then time for breakfast, which is usually oats with berries or sultanas or a banana plus 2-3 scoops of Classic Grow!
Cheers,
Ben
Wake up at 6:30, cup of oats and a scoop of whey at 6:45. Then lifting at 7:45.
When I work out early, I usually eat something quick going out the door to get myself started… maybe a zone bar or something (note to self, try Grow! bar after returning to US).
Then I drink Surge at the gym, and immediately following the workout I drink a serving of Low-Carb Grow! mixed with oats and water. Of course, that’s back when I could still get ahold of biotest products 
Now I replace the biotest stuff with crap tasting protein poweder instead…
[quote]ironbat wrote:
Recently switched to am workouts- like 5:30 am. Wondering what people eat before their am workouts? I usually stomach a piece of whole grain toast and some peanut butter…[/quote]
I started the 6:15 AM workouts about 6 weeks ago and I just do 1/2 serving of Surge then and 1/2 serving right after my workout. Then I get home and about 1 hour later, oatmeal with Grow!. Works great for me.
Kuz
Kuz, I recommend eating more PWO. You don’t need to wait an hour after your Surge. Especially in the morning when the Surge is the only thing you’ve taken during the workout, your body desperately wants food to help start the day and recover after your workout. Make this a huge breakfast, not some Grow! & oatmeal an hour after Surge.
I work swing shifts, and if I’m forced to train shortly after waking up (about an hour after, which is usually the case for me, unfortunately) I just wait about 40 minutes after waking up, slam a half serving of Surge, add more water, sip the other half during my workout, then slam another Surge right after training. 1 to 2 hours after that Ill have my big P+C meal for the day.
If I’m running low on Surge I’ll do one serving before/during, then fat free Carb Countdown + a whole ton of Hersheys Syrup for after training. I just like using Surge before the workout even starts because I know it’s in my body by then haulting any catabolic effects before they start.
Same thing here, early morning person. When not dieting, I usually drink 8 oz of orange gatorade w/ 1/2 scoop of Low Carb Grow! (vanilla). I save my Surge for right after my workout. Obviously if you have the cash to spend on extra Surge, that would be ideal both before and after.
[quote]vandalay15 wrote:
Kuz, I recommend eating more PWO. You don’t need to wait an hour after your Surge. Especially in the morning when the Surge is the only thing you’ve taken during the workout, your body desperately wants food to help start the day and recover after your workout. Make this a huge breakfast, not some Grow! & oatmeal an hour after Surge.[/quote]
You’re probably right. It’s not as much a question of wanting to wait that long as much as it is I have a hard time pounding a lot of solid food PWO. I like doing the Surge split and the Grow!/oatmeal combination is usually a full up of oatmeal and a lot of times frozen fruit. But, good advice nonetheless.
Kuz
Below is an answer from John Berardi regarding this very topic in one of the older appetite for construction series (Testosterone #193)
AM Training and Nutrition
Q: I train early in the morning, soon after waking up. I know this isn’t ideal, but it’s truly the only time I have. What can I do diet-wise to maximize my efforts? What should I eat before training, if anything? What should I consume during training? After? When should I eat my first solid meal? How many times should I chew it? Help!
A: Let’s put things into their proper perspective. The most important thing is that you’re getting up and draggin’ your glutes to the gym. Yes, my focus is nutrition, but in terms of a trainee’s hierarchy of needs, find your way to the gym first and then worry about nutrition. After all, slightly sub-optimal training and nutrition is better than no training and piss poor nutrition. So keep up the good work.
Now, to take it the next step and optimize your personal situation, let’s consider the nutritional needs you have when training in the AM. Since it’s probably been about eight hours since you’ve last eaten, your liver is probably somewhat depleted of its glycogen (stored glucose). The liver giving up its glycogen in the form of glucose is one of the only ways for the body to maintain an adequate concentration of glucose in your blood, especially overnight. Without adequate blood glucose, not only will your workout suffer, that little thing you call living and breathing will also suffer.
Since there’s no dietary glucose coming into the blood while you sleep, the liver must deplete itself in an attempt to supply this blood glucose. But in the morning, even with the liver’s efforts, blood glucose is probably lower than it needs to be for optimal functioning, especially in the gym. So the morning is the time that one should begin to normalize blood glucose and replenish the liver glycogen with food. Although the main focus at this time should be the carbohydrate situation in the body, understand that blood amino acid content is low in the morning as well and this isn’t the ideal scenario to “get your bulk on.”
Since waking up and beginning your day will require significantly more calories than sleeping, and your body is already running on stored energy, the body must begin to rely even more on stored calories to function. Those calories will come from fats, carbohydrates, and protein. However, assuming you did eat within the last eight hours or so, you’re not necessarily “catabolic” in terms of muscle mass (when you’re doing normal morning things).
What you’re simply doing is breaking down stored glucose in the liver to manage blood glucose, stored glucose in the muscle to provide for muscle contraction, and stored fat within the muscle and from adipose tissue to also provide for energy needs. Ultimately, if this “fasting” situation persists, muscle loss begins. But getting up, draining the plumbing, brushing the teeth, and waxing the moustache won’t make you catabolic.
However, head to the gym and start exercising with this physiological situation and things take a turn for the worse. Since weight training uses predominantly glucose for energy, and your blood glucose and muscle and liver glycogen stores are low, your training intensity won’t be statistically different from zero unless you provide some carbohydrate. In addition, even this small amount of stress on the muscles will begin to tax the protein reserves. Without adequate amino acids in the blood, say goodbye to your dreams of building those peptide chains you call muscles.
So in the end, training after an overnight fast is a mistake because strength and intensity will be lower than they should be and your efforts in the gym will slowly eat away at the muscle. So how can you remedy this situation and ensure optimum intake? Well, as I’ve written before:
- Weight Trainers: Eat a protein and fat meal about two hours before training. This will provide the body with adequate calories and spare muscle glycogen for the exercise effort to come.
Endurance and Interval Trainers: Eat a carbohydrate and protein meal about two hours before training. This will help restore liver and muscle glycogen as this type of exercise is severely glycogen depleting and you may simply run out of gas if these tanks aren’t “topped off.”
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All Athletes: Drink 1/2 - 1 serving of a fast-digesting protein and carbohydrate drink like Biotest Surge during training to spare muscle protein, force a positive protein balance, and to maintain blood glucose.
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All Athletes: Drink 1/2 - 1 serving of a fast digesting protein and carbohydrate drink like Biotest Surge immediately after training to promote recovery.
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Eat a solid food meal that’s moderate to high in carbohydrate and protein with little fat about an hour or two after training. This will help promote recovery and enhance glycogen resynthesis for your next workout.
But, with your morning workouts, that doesn’t work for you, does it? Well, for all those reading this who can eat two hours before training, use the above schedule. But for you guys rushing off to the gym as soon as the sun pops up (or earlier), here’s what you need to do.
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Regardless of your exercise, begin drinking a specially concocted beverage within ten minutes of beginning your workout (in the car if necessary). This beverage should contain 1/2 - 1 serving of a fast digesting protein and carbohydrate drink like Biotest Surge and an additional serving of Gatorade or other simple carbohydrate powder (an additional 33 to 40 grams of carbohydrate above that already in Surge). This will provide adequate blood glucose and help accelerate glycogen synthesis in the liver and muscle.
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Drink 1/2 - 1 serving of a fast digesting protein and carb drink like Biotest Surge immediately after training.
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Eat a solid food meal that’s moderate to high in carbohydrate with little fat in it, about one to two hours after training.
This program, while not as complete as the first, will yield comparable results in terms of muscle mass gain. The failure to replenish glycogen completely after the overnight fast may cause your workout intensity to suffer a bit (if you’re doing high intensity anaerobic interval training or aerobic training), but it won’t be terribly detrimental to a normal weight trainer.
[quote]TShaw wrote:
By 4:15 a.m. I’ve consumed my 1/4 cup steel-cut oats with some raisins sprinkled on top for sweetness.
By 5:30 a.m. I’ve started my workout.[/quote]
We seem to have the same schedule and morning diet. I usually have 2scoops of Low-Carb Grow! too.
Then slurp Surge throughout the workout…and one more after on the way back home to shower.
Wake up at 4:00 a.m.
Breakfast:
4 eggs from free range chickens
2 slices of Ezekiel bread
8 ounces of organic O.J.
1 serving of green tea
3 capsules of Gingko
1 serving of Garden of Life’s Perfect food
1 huge ass glass of water
5:00 a.m. train
6:15 a.m. full serving of Surge
This morning:
-2 soft boiled eggs
-1/4 cup cream of wheat, plain
-1/2 cup fresh strawberries mixed into the cream of wheat
-1/4 cup Green tea
-I’m still bad as I had a huge cup of strong black coffee as well.
John Berardi’s guidelines are the ones most of us old timers live and breathe by.