What to Eat Before a Workout: Timing, Portions and Real Examples

The short answer: eat a normal meal with carbs and some protein two to three hours before you train, or a smaller carb-heavy snack if you only have an hour. Inside 30 minutes, stick to something small and quick to digest, like a banana. Save the big, greasy, high-fibre food for later. For most hour-long sessions, timing matters more than finding a perfect food.

The details depend on three things: how long you have before class, what kind of session it is, and how your stomach handles food. This guide uses the numbers sports nutrition researchers actually publish, and turns them into foods you can buy at any Canadian grocery store.

The two numbers worth knowing

Most pre-workout advice comes from two documents. One is the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) position stand on nutrient timing. The other is the joint position paper from Dietitians of Canada, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the American College of Sports Medicine.

The joint paper suggests 1–4 g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight, eaten 1–4 hours before exercise lasting more than 60 minutes. For a 70 kg (155 lb) person, that's 70–280 g. The top of that range is for endurance athletes before long races. For an hour-long class, the lower end is plenty.

For protein, the ISSN suggests doses of 20–40 g (about 0.25–0.40 g/kg) every three to four hours across the day. You don't need a shake right before you walk in. A pre-workout meal with protein in it counts toward that day's total.

What to eat, based on how long you have

2–3 hours before: a real meal

This is the easiest window. You have time to digest a normal meal, so aim for about 1 g of carbs per kg of body weight, 20–30 g of protein, and only moderate fat and fibre.

Examples with rough numbers from Health Canada's Nutrient Value of Some Common Foods:

• A plain bagel, two hard-boiled eggs, a banana and 250 mL of 1% milk: about 78 g carbs and 28 g protein.
• 250 mL cooked white rice, 75 g of roasted chicken breast and some cooked vegetables: about 48 g carbs and 29 g protein. Add a piece of fruit if the session is long or intense.
• Two slices of whole wheat toast with 125 mL cottage cheese and a sliced banana: about 62 g carbs and 22 g protein.

Brands and portions vary, so check the Nutrition Facts table on what you actually buy. The goal is a ballpark, not a spreadsheet.

60–90 minutes before: a smaller, carb-first snack

Shrink the portion and cut back on fat and fibre. Aim for roughly 30–60 g of carbs and 10–20 g of protein.

• 375 mL cooked oatmeal with a banana and a glass of 1% milk: about 76 g carbs and 18 g protein. Have half the oatmeal if your stomach is sensitive.
• 250 mL chocolate milk and a banana: about 54 g carbs and 9 g protein. It's easy to drink on the way to class.
• Two slices of white toast with 15 mL of maple syrup or honey, plus a hard-boiled egg: about 50 g carbs and 12 g protein.

White bread instead of whole grain is on purpose here. Less fibre means less going on in your gut when you start doing burpees.

30 minutes or less: quick carbs only

Now you want something small that digests fast. Pick about 15–30 g of carbs, little protein, and almost no fat or fibre.

• A medium banana: about 27 g carbs.
• Three dried dates: about 19 g carbs.
• Two plain rice cakes with 10 mL of honey: about 26 g carbs.
• 125 mL of unsweetened applesauce or orange juice: about 13–15 g carbs.

You may have heard that carbs within an hour of training cause a blood sugar crash. The ISSN reviewed this. A proper warm-up largely cancels out any dip, and moving the snack closer to the start (15 minutes rather than 75) also reduces the risk. If you've had shaky starts after a pre-class snack, eat it right before your warm-up, not halfway through your commute.

The 6 a.m. class problem

Both Fit Factory studios open at 6 a.m. on weekdays, so plenty of members train before breakfast. You have two good options.

Train fasted, if it works for you. For a strength or conditioning class of about an hour, plenty of people feel fine on just water and coffee. The joint position paper says carbs during exercise shorter than 45 minutes are "not needed". Around the 45–75 minute mark, small amounts help. If you've trained fasted for months, you feel strong and you eat a solid breakfast afterward, there's no reason to change.

Eat something tiny if you feel flat. Some signs you need fuel: you feel light-headed in the warm-up, your lifts stall early, or you're hanging on during the last interval block. If that's you, have 15–30 g of fast carbs as you leave the house. A banana, a few dates or a small glass of juice won't sit heavy, and you'll notice the difference by the second block.

What we'd skip: a full breakfast at 5:30 for a 6 a.m. class. That's where the side stitches and nausea come from.

Didn't eat? Tell your coach before class, and take the first block at about 80 percent while you warm into it.

On fasted mornings, make your next meal count. Have a proper breakfast with 20–40 g of protein within a couple of hours of class.

Adjust for the type of session

Strength (Build classes, PSC)

Strength sessions don't use as much glycogen as long conditioning, but they still need fuel. Prioritize protein through the day, and have a moderate carb meal two to three hours out, or a small snack closer in. The ISSN notes that carbs with or without protein around resistance training can help maintain blood sugar and glycogen. This matters most when you're doing several sets on multiple lifts, like a full-body day.

HYROX and conditioning (Burn classes)

High-intensity intervals rely heavily on carbohydrate. Our HYROX-style sessions mix running, sleds, lunges, carries, rowing and SkiErg, and that adds up. Go in fed. A carb-first snack 60–90 minutes before is the sweet spot. Keep fat and fibre low, because running with a full stomach is rough.

Long sessions: Hybrid 75, simulations and race day

Once you go past an hour, fuelling during the session starts to matter too. For bouts of 1–2.5 hours, the joint position paper recommends 30–60 g of carbs per hour. The ISSN gives a similar range for sustained high-intensity work over 60 minutes. A 75-minute class doesn't need gels, but a full HYROX simulation or race might. Practise your race-day breakfast and drinks on hard training days, not for the first time at the start line.

Caffeine: how much actually helps

Caffeine is one of the few supplements with solid evidence behind it. The ISSN position stand on caffeine found it consistently improves performance at 3–6 mg per kg of body weight. The benefit may start as low as 2 mg/kg, and it's most often taken about 60 minutes before exercise. Very high doses, around 9 mg/kg, cause a lot of side effects without adding benefit.

Check that against the Canadian limit. Health Canada recommends healthy adults keep caffeine to 400 mg a day, or 300 mg if you're pregnant, planning a pregnancy or breastfeeding. For a 70 kg person, 6 mg/kg is 420 mg. That's over the daily limit in a single dose. So the practical range for most people is the low end. One or two cups of brewed coffee about an hour before class, counted toward your total for the day.

Two more things. Afternoon and evening caffeine can hurt your sleep, which costs you more than the coffee gains you. And read the label on pre-workout powders. Some single scoops contain as much caffeine as several cups of coffee.

Hydration without overthinking it

The joint position paper suggests 5–10 mL of fluid per kg of body weight in the 2–4 hours before exercise. For a 70 kg person, that's about 350–700 mL. The paper's target is pale yellow urine, with enough time left to go to the washroom before class. A salty meal or snack beforehand helps you hold on to that fluid.

Why it matters: the same paper says losing more than 2% of your body weight in fluid can hurt aerobic performance and focus, especially in the heat. For a 70 kg person, that's 1.4 kg. If you sweat heavily, weigh yourself before and after a hard session once or twice. The difference is mostly fluid, and it tells you how much to drink during and after.

Morning trainers start a little behind after a night without fluids. Drink a big glass of water when you wake up, then sip during class.

Mistakes we see most often

• Eating a high-fat meal close to training, like a breakfast sandwich, fries or a big handful of nuts. Fat slows digestion, and the joint position paper specifically flags high-fat, high-protein and high-fibre choices before exercise as a cause of stomach issues.
• A big salad, bean bowl or bran cereal an hour before class. These are great foods but bad timing.
• Skipping lunch and training at 6 p.m. on an almond and a coffee. Afternoon sessions go better when lunch included real carbs.
• Having a large shake right before burpees or running. Liquids digest faster than solids, but 600 mL of anything still sloshes.
• Trying something new on a big day. Test your food, gels and caffeine on normal training days first.

Write down what you ate, when, and how the session felt. Two weeks of notes will tell you more than any article.

These are general guidelines for healthy adults. If you have diabetes, a digestive condition, a history of disordered eating, are pregnant, or have other specific needs, check with a registered dietitian or your doctor before changing how you eat around training.

How we help with this at Fit Factory

Nutrition is part of coaching here. Our group memberships include a nutrition consultation. Personal Strength Coaching (PSC) includes customized nutrition guidance alongside your training plan. Our group classes run 55–60 minutes, and Hybrid sessions run 75, so you can plan your meals around a known session length.

The simplest next step: pick one class this week, use the timing above, and pay attention to how you feel in the last ten minutes. Our intro week is $39 + HST for unlimited group classes at either studio. Book it for Downtown (373 King St W) or Midtown (Yonge & Eglinton), and tell your coach what you ate before class. We'll help you adjust from there.