Fuelling intense exercise after a sleeve

Wanting to train hard but finding it difficult to manage your food and hydration around it since your sleeve? It can be tricky but all you need is a plan and some practice, and you’ll be off and racing in no time.

First things first, what is intense?

The advice in this post really pertains to exercise sessions longer than 60 minutes or something that requires you to work at a high intensity for 40-60 minutes. Think a hard circuit session, a running race, triathlon or even a long trek. If your session is shorter than about 40 minutes or you’re working hard, but at a level you could keep going for a long time (or that you’re not really huffing and puffing), then you don’t really need to worry too much about altering your nutrition. And it goes without saying really, that you should check with your team before starting more intense exercise and use professional help from an Exercise Physiologist if you’re not sure where to begin!

Why think about nutrition for intense exercise?

It’s extremely important to think about nutrition if you’re getting into more intense exercise. The simple reason is so that you can train harder and get the most out of the session rather than hitting the wall and needing to stop!   

So…. There are three things we need to consider:

• Food and hydration BEFORE exercise
• Food and hydration DURING exercise
• Food and hydration AFTER exercise

Fueling up

Eating something before an intense training session is as important as putting on your running shoes. When you are properly fueled, you’ll have energy to train harder. Go for carbohydrate before you head off as it’s your body’s preferred source of fuel and what you’ll need to make the most of your upcoming session. Avoid foods high in fibre, fat or protein as they slow digestion, delaying the time before your body will be able to use that food for energy.

Eat a meal with carbohydrates one to two hours before your session if you can so it’s had time to digest. If you have less than an hour, for example, if training first thing in the morning, it’s important to choose “fast” carbs that will be digested quickly, like a glass of juice or sports drink.

Starting hydrated is really important too. Make sure you’re sip-sip-sipping to stay hydrated before you go – even just 1-2% dehydration can reduce your performance in the session!

To make sure you don’t feel your last snack bouncing around in your stomach throughout your session, trial a few of the following options to find which suits you best.

One to two hours before:

1. Fresh or dried fruit (like a banana or dried apricots)
2. Half a piece of toast, an English muffin or crumpets with jam or honey
3. A small fruit smoothie or liquid meal supplement (like an Up & Go)

Less than one hour before:

• Half a glass of fruit juice or sports drink

A quick note… If you have trouble with dumping syndrome from sugary foods, it’s probably best to go for something like the toast which are a bit slower to digest and absorb into the bloodstream, rather than the juice or dried fruit.

During the session

If your session is going to be longer than an hour, it’s likely you’re going to need to top up on fuel and fluid while you’re on the go, so you don’t hit the wall. The intensity and length of your session will determine how much and how often you need to refuel and this takes a bit of practice to figure out what works for you. Eat easily digestible carbs and keep hydrated by drinking small amounts of fluids often (sip sip sip sip sip!). Take a full water bottle or a backpack with a bladder with you to make this possible rather than getting dehydrated and then needed to drink quickly or gulp to catch up.

Some good “pocket-friendly” snacks that are easily digestible and worth a try are:

1. 500ml sports drink or one sports gel
2. One to two bananas
3. A 30g sultana snack pack
4. 50g jelly beans
5. One to two muesli bars

Post-session recovery

Recovering quickly after a session allows you to train harder and more often. Your body needs a combination of both carbohydrates and protein after exercise. Carbohydrates help to refuel muscles and protein to mend and repair any damage from your session so you can make the most of tomorrows’ training.

Research says the golden window for refuelling is within half an hour of a session. This may mean you just eat your next meal (if training before breakfast for example), but you might need to add in a post-training snack to get the recovery process started if your next meal is a while away. It’s also important to remember to rehydrate, so a drink should be an essential part of your post-exercise plan, too.

1. A small protein shake (made on milk), a fruit smoothie or a milky coffee.
2. A small bowl of cereal, muesli or porridge with milk
3. Half a sandwich, wrap or piece of toast with ham, cheese, egg, chicken or tuna and a bit of salad or a nut butter
4. A small bowl of yoghurt and fruit salad
5. A piece of toast with Peanut butter and honey on toast and a glass of milk or milky coffee

Advice from those who have gone before you!

Lastly, we spoke about this in a Community live Q&A session and I wanted to share a couple of suggestions people had to add!

“I love that this is a sleeve group. discussing hard core exercise! Truly LIVING with a sleeve!”

“For an early morning workout, I will have a piece of toast and jam as soon as I wake up, before I head out to my session. And a protein shake within 30min of finishing workout.”

“When I was doing CrossFit (hoping to get back in a month or two) I made sure to drink enough during the day, I’d have a glass of cordial before the class and a protein shake directly after [which then becomes dinner as it’s a night session].”

“Hydration is my challenge since sleeve. It’s very hot here and so easy to get dehydrated. It took me a long time to adjust post sleeve because I couldn’t gulp heaps of water anymore. Getting into habit of sipping constantly thru out the day has taken me a while to get used to. Because otherwise when I do an afternoon workout, I’m already dehydrated aaargh!”