When to eat during training?

**Barry Charles** · 04-13-2014, 12:56 PM

I know that endurance athletes will eat during long duration events. Recall "hitting the wall" or "bonking" for long distance runs or cycling. I also recall the old saying, eat before you are hungry and drink before you are thirsty for these sports as well.

When in strength training do you recommend eating during a session? Is tonnage a better metric than time in the gym? For reference, eating occurs to me at about the 2hr point when doing volume Training at 3-8 minutes between sets.

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**Jordan Feigenbaum** · 04-15-2014, 08:28 AM

I think eating during training is completely individualized, as it will adversely affect some and be a benefit to others. I think if your session is lasting closer to 3 hrs that some BCAAs and vitargo would be okay to give some more energy to finish off the workout, but a whole food is too slow to make a meaningful difference outside of psychological/placebo. Hell, a "rinse" of gatorade in your mouth without swallowing is likely to improve subsequent performance through this mechanism.

In general, I don't advise strength athletes to eat during training unless it's a competition and thus, lasting longer than 2-3 hrs.

**CFPeterson** · 04-16-2014, 09:16 AM

When I was a marathoner the best thing ever was the energy gel stuff. It made the wall feeling go away for a little while. But I can't imagine hitting the wall in a gym lifting weights, and my opinion is you don't want to because hitting that point is not a positive thing for your body.