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As well as weight lifting, I do some all-round training like running and Quads and Core (okay, the class name is officially "Legs Bums & Tums"). With these kinds of exercises it helps if you are not weighed down by a big meal you had earlier on the day.

I'd like to have lots of energy, but not have a full bowel if you know what I mean. When should my last big meal be, and what should I be eating to give me energy without becoming weighted down?

UPDATE: How about this. Somebody competing, in running or swimming say, needs to be full of energy but not be full of food (or else they add to their body weight, making them slower). What would they do? Snack on food 24 hours before rather than have big meals?

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  • Personally I don't do "big" meals in a normal day. Maybe a big dinner with family, but throughout the day I'm earing ~300 calorie meals. Pretty much always sated and ready, never "full".
    – Eric
    Apr 19, 2015 at 14:42
  • Don't eat at all before a workout? Maybe some small snacks. That is what i do because if i eat i get sleepy.
    – s3v3ns
    Apr 20, 2015 at 5:10

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Somebody competing, in running or swimming say, needs to be full of energy but not be full of food (or else they add to their body weight, making them slower). What would they do? Snack on food 24 hours before rather than have big meals?

Maybe read up on this answer related to carb loading. The short answer is that the human body can store around 2,000 calories in blood sugar. What you do the day before a big cardio event matters just as much (if not much more) than what you do the morning of.

In my quasi-pro cycling history a common practice was to eat a lot of carbs at night, and then have a really small breakfast in the morning. If your body is in ketosis then things get even more complex because you're not really carb dependent anymore. Ketosis is really its own separate topic, but that along with things like intermittent fasting underline the rather wide array of diet choices that athletes and people of all stripes use with success.

I would recommend getting your diet dialed in to whatever mechanism you like. Low carb, high carb, IF, paleo, constant dirty bulk, whatever. Then you'll make diet changes that are in sync with your overall program.

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    Just a thought; if you're going to use "k" to mean a thousand, you should probably be more verbose about it. When you say "2k calories", this equates to "2 kcal", which is off by a factor of a thousand. I assume what you mean to say is 2000 kcal or 2k kcal. I know that "calories" is more or less synonymous with "kcal" in this context, and I normally wouldn't nag. But if you use "k", may as well make it unambiguous. :)
    – Alec
    Apr 20, 2015 at 16:33
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Higher energy foods come from the more calorie-dense foods like sugary granola bars/power bars. For me, I like to have some chocolate to get my sugars up high and provide quick energy for a more intense workout. Namely, when I come home from work I like to have a quick snack, maybe a few pieces of chocolate, maybe a sugary drink (no more than 250 ml) to get my energy up.

This also helps with the motivation which can be hard to pump up after a long day.

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