I'm often asked, "Is it important to eat before a workout?" or "What should I eat before I exercise?" or some variation of the above.

Muscles require energy. They get that energy (calories) from the food we eat. That seems simple enough but for people who want to understand more about the miracle that is part of human life, there's a story behind the story.

Energy cannot be created or destroyed. So, if we are eating calories of energy in food where do those calories come from? In short, they come from the sun. That's why I often get the attention of an audience by asking, "how much sunshine did you eat today?"

Most people know that food is composed of the macronutrients carbohydrate, fat and protein. Muscles like carbohydrate and fat best. Carbohydrates are made when the sun beams it light and heat energy on the earth and, via a process known as photosynthesis, creates a supportive environment where water hydrates carbon making simple and complex sugars called carbo-hydrates. Whether you eat simple carbohydrates (cane or beet sugar, for example) or complex carbohydrates (beans and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli) they are disassembled until they become the body's sugar energy resource, glucose. When you have more glucose than you need, some of the excess is stored in the liver and muscles as glycogen. Any other excess is converted to fat.

Meanwhile, some of the plants also have combinations of fatty acids in them. When eaten, these fatty acid combinations are also disassembled. Plants are also eaten by animals which become the source for animal fats which, when eaten, are also disassembled. If not used, they are converted to triglycerides which are nothing more than 3 (tri) fatty acids attached to a glycerol. Triglycerides get stored in fat cells all over your body.

You also eat proteins which are amino acids that are sometimes combined with the carbohydrates in the plants (beans, for example) or in the flesh or eggs or milk of those animals we eat. (Thinking about that is enough to make a lot of people choose to become vegetarians.) But, the muscles don't like to use proteins for energy. The word protein comes from the Greek, proteus-of first importance. That's a good way to remember that the amino acids that make proteins are disassembled to form an amino acid pool that the body can use to make skin, hair, your immune system, enzymes and the muscles themselves. Protein that isn't used is discarded by the body or, if you eat a lot, the excess calories get converted to fat. There is one time when protein becomes a source of muscle energy. It's when your body is low on blood sugar. It's simply easier to convert protein to blood sugar than it is to convert fat to blood sugar. That's why, when you are on a low calorie diet or over-exercising, you can lose muscle instead of fat.

The point is that when you eat carbohydrates, protein or fat your eating energy that's been transferred from the sun. That sunshine energy can be stored on your hips, thighs, belly and elsewhere, or transferred to your muscles where it's used (transferred again) to push bicycle pedals or climb stairs or walk or run to your heart's content.

You can see why asking if you should eat before you exercise is usually answered with a simple, "Yes." However, like most questions, there's additional questions that follow--the "When...?" or "How long before...?" or "How much..?" or "What.,..?" should be eaten before exercise. Each of those questions elicit questions of my own including, " how fit are you?" or "how hard and how long will you work out?" or "does eating before you exercise make it easier or harder to exercise?"

Many people find it very uncomfortable to eat before they exercise. Others can't exercise unless they eat "something" before they eat. I'm in the latter group. My exercise happens first thing in the morning. Like most people, if I don't exercise early in the day I don't exercise at all. And, since I eat an early dinner and my weight management lifestyle includes avoiding eating after dinner, when I wake up it's often been 12 hours since my body had a reminder that starvation is not the plan for the day. I also believe that my early morning meal--small if my workout happens right away and larger if it will be a couple of hours until I teach a fitness class--should be balanced. That means it contains some carbohydrate, protein AND fat.

The point is that whether you eat before you exercise and, if you do, what you choose to eat, is not, I'm sorry to say, an answer I can provide--I can only encourage you stop, pat attention to your body, and remember, what works for someone else may or may not work for you.

In other words, THINK!!