Why you should eat before a morning workout | Ep. 32

#32. If you're someone with low energy or mid-day energy drop off AND you're in the practice of working out before breakfast... this episode is for you. Bridget talks about what happens on your bod (hormonally) when you workout on an empty stomach. If you're working on healing a hormone imbalance then consider incorporating some food (ideally protein-focused) in order to set your blood sugar levels (and therefore energy levels) up for success.

You'll learn about:
- What happens in your body when you work out in a fasted state
- How eating protein before a workout can stabilize blood sugar
- The correlation between blood sugar, stress hormones, and inflammation
- Easy pre-workout food suggestions

Noted in the episode:
- @glucosegoddess on IG for blood sugar regulating tips

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Chapters

• 0:05 The Importance of Pre-Workout Nutrition
• 6:51 Impact of Blood Sugar on Energy

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Welcome to I'm Hormonal, your source of information about women's hormone health and how to support your body. Naturally, I'm your host, bridget Walton, and I'm a certified functional hormone specialist and menstrual cycle coach. I am on a mission to hold these hormone conversations with as many menstruators as possible, because you deserve easier access to accurate information about what's up with your unruly menstrual cycle and with your fertility mysteries. Don't you think it's time that we figure this out once and for all? On today's show, we're going to be talking about the importance of eating some food before working out in the morning and how this impacts our stress hormone, our insulin levels, overall inflammation, and just why. If you're somebody who is working on healing an imbalance or otherwise trying to understand what's going on with your hormones, then this can be a really valuable nugget for you. So, are you somebody who works out in the morning every day without eating beforehand, or are you somebody who has inconsistent energy levels throughout the day, has a really hard time waking up in the morning? Stick around, I think that this will be a helpful episode for you to give you some insight into what's going on in your body. How is that actually impacting your energy levels? And a good foundation for what to consider and how to observe yourself. Before we get into that juicy stuff, I just want to say hello again. My name is Bridget and I'm really glad that you found the podcast today. Thanks for listening.

Speaker 1: 1:42

I started this podcast because I think it's really important to share what we know about how our body works and really how we can feel better, like how you can feel better, how you can understand what's going on in your body, why you feel the way that you do and, of course, specifically as it relates to our menstrual cycles and our hormones. So this podcast is called I'm Hormonal, because we are all hormonal and that doesn't have to be a bad thing. It's been stigmatized to be, I suppose. Our hormones help us wake up in the morning, go to sleep at night, certainly help our cycles do their thing and cycle, but I think it can be a good thing that you can really feel empowered by understanding and by knowing how to take care of your hormones and your health as a whole. One quick reminder that I always like to give is that the information I share with you today is for educational purposes only. It shouldn't be used as a replacement for any sort of one-on-one support from a certified practitioner or your healthcare provider. Now, that being said, if you are in the market for some one-on-one support and you want that tailored help and look into your hormones in order to make the changes you want to see, then check out the link in the show notes, because you and I can work together one-on-one. If that's something you're looking for, so check that out. Also in the show notes, there is a link to my email list. I'm not going to be blowing up your emails, but if you do want to take a couple of minutes once or twice a month to read about hormone health, how you can support your hormone balance, I'll send generally more specific recommendations for products or things like that that may be good to consider. So check out the link to hop on my email list and I'd love to stay in touch with you there.

Speaker 1: 3:37

Now, all of that being said, let's come back to this topic of what's happening in our bodies when we're working out without having any food in our tummies. So you're somebody who wakes up in the morning, you go to the gym, you're eating without having had anything since, naturally, dinner last night and, as you're getting your body moving, as you're working out working hard, your cortisol levels are naturally going to rise. Out working hard, your cortisol levels are naturally going to rise. Cortisol is your stress hormone, so certainly essential and totally normal for them to rise in that situation and others like when somebody merges into our lane and we have to sort of out of the way really quick. So it's not necessarily bad when cortisol levels go up, but if it's happening all the time, all the time, all the time, then that can be an issue.

Speaker 1: 4:27

Anyway, coming back to what happens, we're working out, cortisol, or stress hormone, is going up and what cortisol does is it makes our muscle and fat tissues less insulin sensitive and therefore there's more insulin needed in order to get our glucose that's in our blood into our cells. So let me walk that one back Working out, which means cortisol levels go up. When cortisol levels are up, that means our blood sugar goes up and we need more insulin to bring that blood sugar, bring that glucose, into our cells. Now, insulin is, again, an essential hormone for a body that we need, but it's generally good to keep our insulin levels lower and more consistent, and that's something that can contribute really to inflammation. So this is really the part that we want to note about insulin levels. We want to keep our insulin levels stable and by setting a good you know a good tone, I guess for our blood sugar levels at the start of the day, then that will really help throughout the rest of the day, as our blood sugar and therefore insulin responses are kind of staying on that roller coaster of going high and then going low, and going high and going low, and that's what's making you feel hungry and then cranky, and then hungry and then irritable and low energy throughout the day.

Speaker 1: 5:58

Now that we've looked at what's happening in your body when you do a fasted workout, let's talk about why it can be beneficial to eat something before you're working out. And that would be because when you're eating something that is really protein focused, then that's going to support stable blood sugar levels. Your blood sugar is going to be responding and in a way where your blood sugar isn't actually going up really high, you're still getting that nourishment and energy into your body, but it's not something that's spiking your blood sugar first thing in the day. So by eating before working out, you're preventing your cortisol levels from really spiking during that workout. Preventing your cortisol levels from really spiking during that workout.

Speaker 1: 6:51

Let's zoom in a little bit more on. What does dysregulated blood sugar do for your energy levels throughout the day. So let me give you an example. In the morning, oh gosh, let me think about what I probably ate in like middle school for food. Not that this is related to workout, but anyway. If in the morning, you're eating a apple, cinnamon toaster strudel for breakfast right, there's a lot of sugar in that and therefore your blood sugar is going to go up quite high and naturally, as a result, your body is going to produce a lot of insulin in order to help bring your blood sugar back down.

Speaker 1: 7:22

Now, when you to produce a lot of insulin in order to help bring your blood sugar back down, now, when you're producing a lot of insulin, that can naturally lean to your blood sugar, then going down below the range where you'd want it to be, and that's why then you know you're like, hey, I just ate my yeah, my French toast breakfast 90 minutes ago. Why am I already hungry? But it's that's the signal from your body to say, hey, our blood sugar is low, we need to eat something in order to get our blood sugar back up to normal. So anyway, coming back to the seventh grade example. It's 9 am and you're hungry and eventually you get to lunchtime and I would have what? Probably a peanut butter and jelly, a Capri Sun, an apple and some Cheetos, right. So, again, these are things that are high in carbohydrates and high in sugar and which are then bringing my blood sugars up really high. Same pattern as after breakfast insulin gets spit out into our body to bring it back down, and then it's coming back down a little bit too low. That's why, in the afternoon, you're a sleepy gal right, falling asleep or having a hard time staying awake in your meetings or whatever you're getting up to. In contrast, let's think about it like this, for example now in the mornings I get up and I eat a mixed green salad that has apple cider vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, tahini on it, some seeds, super easy and quick to assemble.

Speaker 1: 8:51

I'll put a link in the show notes to the glucose goddess. Some of you may be familiar with her. She posts a lot of really great content on Instagram. I'm sure that I've mentioned her before, but she focuses on you guessed it glucose and how to support more stable glucose levels, as well as insulin. So, anyway, I like to for breakfast, I start with that veggie starter with the vinegar, which helps to support stable blood sugar levels, or rather helps to prevent a blood sugar spike, and then I eat a couple of eggs, which high protein, which is also good for preventing a big. You know, you're not getting on the blood sugar roller coaster. That helps me feel satiated throughout my whole morning because I again haven't had this like huge peak.

Speaker 1: 9:45

And then trough that I mentioned, with the toaster strudel. Somebody comment or send me a DM if you ate toaster strudels in middle school too? You know, for lunch, same thing. I'm focusing on vegetables or nuts or a protein, instead of focusing on what? Yeah, something with a lot of bread and like peanut butter and jelly, which is not the worst thing for sure that you can eat. There's peanut butter in there which has some protein, can help keep things more stable. But you see what I'm getting at. So why did I go through both of those examples and how does that correlate to working out in the morning? And the answer there is that it really is important how you start your day and what is the message that you're sending to your body when it comes to blood sugar regulation, and or not even the message that you're sending to your body, but you know what nutrients are you providing to your body in order to help keep blood sugar levels stable.

Speaker 1: 10:51

Let's look at a couple examples of things that you can eat in the morning before you're working out how you can make this easier and fit with your schedule, the amount of time that you have working in the morning to start to prep ahead. So one super easy thing you could focus on is just, you know, on Sunday, before your week starts, go ahead and boil a bunch of eggs so that in the morning you can just grab a hard-boiled egg or two and get going. Another thing that personally I like to have, if I don't have any eggs or anything on hand, would be just an apple with almond butter, really heavy on the almond butter. I'll also just mention, you know, if you're somebody who likes to make energy bites and you want to make a collagen kind of energy bite, again, with the focus being on protein and not being on something that has a lot of carbohydrates or a lot of sugar, because those are the things that raise our blood sugar, then that could be something to consider. And then let me think two more things. If you're going to spend a couple minutes at the beginning of the week, then you could make chia seed parfaits, so like add some chia seeds with almond milk or whatever milk you like and putting some almond butter or other nuts in there, then that can be a good one to just grab out of the fridge and roll in the morning.

Speaker 1: 12:13

If you never eat before you work out, then you know, give yourself a little bit of time, it'll be an adjustment. Just be curious about how you feel, both while you're eating your egg or cheesy parfait or whatever it is, but also, you know, maybe for your homework for the next couple of weeks. If you're somebody in this situation, do some experiments, like make a plan for yourself of what are you going to eat before your workouts. How are you going to note the way that you're feeling? But notice, does it help you work out better? Do you have better sustained energy while you're exercising? And note what are your energy levels like later in the day. What are your hunger levels like later in the day? And, overall, how do you feel? Is there any change to your mood or anything else?

Speaker 1: 13:06

If you're asking or thinking okay, bridget, how much protein do I need to eat. I would say that you know well when I look to see what Dr Laura Bryden who again, if you've been here before, you've heard me cite her work many times what she recommends is 30 grams of protein in breakfast, and that can be a lot. So let's think about it. An egg generally has seven grams of protein. So if you're slamming a four egg omelet, then that would meet what she's recommending. But if you're just starting out, then I would say, maybe shoot for 20 grams of protein in breakfast and start from there and see how it goes. But it'll take some time to change. That's okay, there's no, you know. Time change that's okay, there's no, you know. All you can do is make some changes and see how you feel and use that feedback to decide how you want to progress.

Speaker 1: 14:05

But a couple of other honorable mentions here, not with regards to food, but just techniques to lower your cortisol levels, which can then right, let's, I won't go down the waterfall of effects that it has, but in order to help support your stress levels by lowering them, a couple of things you could consider would be to just take five minutes to do some breath work or meditation, if you just go for a 10 minute walk. That can be really helpful to get your body moving. Gently being in nature is really important and really helpful for our stress hormones. So I think some people call it green therapy, but anyway, by that they mean nature, just get outside. And then, last but not least, you know, support, social support and connections are really important and can help, of course course, with our stress levels.

Speaker 1: 14:59

You probably don't need me to tell you that one, but just a reminder. If the other four are out of reach, all right, my friend, we have pretty much done it. Let me go through this one more time. Hopefully by this point you can say it with me. But if you're working out in the morning, doing a fasted workout, that can lead to higher levels of cortisol, which is your stress hormone, and what that can lead to is this cascading effect of higher blood sugar levels, higher insulin levels, which then leads to higher inflammation. It can impact your mood and your energy levels throughout the day, since our energy levels can be kind of governed by what cortisol is up to. On the flip side of this coin, though, if you are eating some protein before you're working out, that can help to set the tone for blood sugar and insulin levels throughout the day. A more stable insulin level and stable blood sugar levels will help lend to increased energy throughout the day, or stable energy throughout the day. You won't have those peaks and troughs.

Speaker 1: 16:09

If you found this conversation to be helpful, would you consider sending it to a friend or a sister, to your workout buddy? You would help to grow the I'm Hormonal community, which I would be super appreciative of, and hopefully your friend would be appreciative of this information as well. Also, consider subscribing to I'm Hormonal if you want these episodes to show up in your feed automatically so you won't miss an episode. You can rate and review the podcast or you can support by buying me a coffee through the link in the show notes. All right, thank you again. I'm so grateful for you listening, especially for those of you who have made it all the way to the end here. I will see you here again next week.