Early morning workouts and breakfast

Depends on the morning for me.
Most times I have my coffee (2 cups - a MUST!), swig some Gatorade, then I'm out the door.
If I wake up hungry, I eat a pretzel or 2 and the Gatorade.
This seems to work for me whether I am working out for 2 hrs or 4 hrs.

I can't eat first thing, so will just drink water while working out and eat after. Made one mistake only eating a bagel before biking one day, hooked up with a couple of other riders and my easy 20, turned into a hard 40 and I BONKED hard. Sooo, now I always have power bars and gu with me "just in case."

If it's a real early morning workout(i.e. 5 am) then I don't eat anything. But I don't exercise more than an hour or so that early.

If it's early like Sat. am (0700 or later) then I eat a bowl of cereal. The rest comes from gatorade, gels, etc... That has always worked well for me.

I struggle with this one too... can't eat much at 5:30am, but often lose energy mid-workout. Sometimes I bring an EAS protein shake and drink 1/2 while I drive to the gym, and the other 1/2 after. This morning I had 1/2 banana on my drive but still lost energy on my jog. A full dinner the night before can help too. I notice if I skip dinner or eat all veggies and no carbs or protein, then I konk out mid-workout. I may actually see a nutritionist for more advice on pre- and post- workout nutrition. It's a tough balance...

I have to eat. Good size bowl of Grape Nuts, pour in some chopped dates, slice a banana and add that too, with low fat milk (hate skim). Large glass of grapefruit juice. This is my breakfast almost religiously every day. I'm usually at the club working out within an hour of eating. Doesn't seem to bother me, I could work out 2 minutes after breakfast if I had to.

Max

I don't eat if I am working out first thing after getting up. Coffee is a must tho, but I have a better workout on an empty stomach.

I never eat breakfast during the week, just a cup of coffee. Sometimes I'll have a banana around ten or so and if not, I'll have a can of tuna after my noon workout.

I’m struggling with this. I’ve always been a non breakfast person but I have started having a large fruit smoothie about 30 minutes before a morning workout. Then just loads of water. By 8 am I’ve done a good ½ gallon of water. Coffee works much better right after a workout as well!

The downside of this is that I can’t get through to lunch anymore – I have to have something solid to eat. I am so disorganized that I have nothing with me so I end up at the snack machine. Bad Mike.
I did put a banana out for me to bring to work but put it in the smoothie instead. Ooops.

i can't eat much before i work out either (let me tell ya about the time i ate at chipotle before yoga class...biggest mistake of my life!). anyway, i also can't work out for 30+ mins without some kind of fuel. so, i drink a 32 oz nalgene full of water with two packets of emergen-c (love that stuff), and half of a bar of some sort. when i get home, i have light breakfast.

EmergenC is a nice trick to get in more water! I usually have one daily anyway, but maybe should just dilute it a bunch to get extra fluids (I dislike plain water!). I did the banana in the car trick on my way to the pool at 5:30a--- had plenty of energy.

I use GU prior to my early morning workouts. I take one 15 minutes before my run, bike or swim. I make sure that I have at least one full glass of water in me too. The GU comes in many flavors. I like Vanilla or Choc. the best--tastes like cake batter.

In fact, I take one GU for every 45 minutes into my workout. Keeps you going. If my run is an hour or longer, I take my pack with me which usually includes extra GU and a big bottle of water.

Evelyn

I don't eat before a morning run or bike, which I always do betweeen 5:25 and 6:15 am. I drink half a glass of water, stretch 10 mins, and off I go, starting slowly to warm up. Two things I believe are important: Make sure 60% to as much as 70% of your overall calories are coming from carbohydrates. This will keep your energy stores at a much more stable level; within 1/2 hour of finishing a workout on an empty stomach, eat a hi-carb breakfast - cereal, toast or bagel, banana, apple or orange. Good luck!

I can't believe the number of people who don't eat before they work out! Boy, how do you have the energy? Even though I'm up at 4:45 and at the gym by 5:30 every monring I have to eat! I can not, not eat. When you wake up that early your body is so on empty it's crazy. And it's not until about 8 a.m. when I get to work that I'll have time to grab a snack etc. But when you're out the door by 5:15 a.m. it sure is hard to eat pancakes and eggs! So I usually make a protein shake so it's not eating a meal, just drinking basically. Or I'll eat a piece of fruit that's high in sugar, ie., banannas, kiwi, strawberry. I never eat bagels, or any type of bread. (I've given up bread). Sometimes I throw all that fruit, bananna, strawberries, kiwi, soy milk and yogurt into the blender, dump a scoop of protein powder or cottage cheese and I'm good to go in about three minutes! But some days my body revolts and I have to force myself to eat. Believe me I've tried not eating and it's the worse to BONK! I get side stiches, I'm out of breath it's crazy. So I look at the strawberries or cup of yogurt and I say eat this or feel the pain. I go for the food everytime!

I tried the Gatorade idea this morning along with my dried fruit. It was definitely helpful. I'm going to a discussion tonight about tri training and nutrition - I'll see if I can get any other ideas!

Usually a banana or a Power Bar. For long workouts I bring Powerbars & drink Accelerade. You may want to get up a few minutes earlier so you don't have to eat too fast.

In the morning I can do up to an hour's workout without eating anything beforehand, although if it's biking or swimming I usually take along a bottle of sports drink. Doesn't seem to bother me. If it's anything longer than an hour I nibble on an energy bar or, if I'm cycling, stop and eat! Coffee and bread I can process fine, anything heavier and I get anything from cramps to full on hurling. This seems so individual - I know lots of people who have to do something completely different re: food and workouts.

Carrie

I went to a triathlon related nutrition discussion this evening - where, lucky me, won an entry into a sprint tri in Sept!. But anyway, the guy (who is a Master's prepared sports nutritionist and is a member of the US Duathlon team) talked about how depleted glycogen stores are in the morning. He basically said that if you are planning a high intensity workout 1st thing in the morning, then you should eat. If it is lower intensity, you may be able to handle it - it depends on the person.

So, I'm one of those who needs to have some carbs in me to do workouts. I'll keep experimenting!

I find I cannot eat anything too early..I do a couple of morning swims and i just cant.

By the way, dont mean to sound dumb but what is GU?

GU is one of those energy gels in the rip-open foil pack that gives you a shot of carbs and protein. I've never tried that brand, but I used to use the kind made by PowerBar...it sorta tasted like vanilla pudding!

Max