Before a workout?
Very little. Maybe some trail mix or a handful of almonds or pistachios.
During workout? Only water.
After workout? Maybe a light dinner (I work out after work in evenings) but that is it.
-brickboy240
I prefer to take some veggies foods, protein foods, and protein shakes as pre workout meal.
These foods are the best for the weight training and getting rich amount of the energy.
Whey protein mixed with a dextrose drink.
I didn’t read all the replies so this might repeat what someone else said, but here is my personal routine.
Due to my current job, I am forced to lift in the mornings instead of the afternoons like I prefer. So I wake up at 0500 do my Basic Daily Routine then drive into work which happens to have the gym co-located. I usually arrive around 0600 and do a quick warmup of my shoulders and whatever muscle group I happen to be working that day. (shoulder injury that healed improperly several years ago in Iraq)
I usually lift for about an hour and a half and I never eat before a workout in the morning.
When I used to lift in the afternoon I would usually go around 1600 that way my lunch had fully digested so it didn’t work at odds with my pre-workout supplement. (which along with a post workout whey protein shake is the only supplements that I take.)
I would recommend trying a small whey protein shake an hour to an hour and a half before you work out that way it has has some time to feed your muscles but make its way out of your stomach. Trust me halfway through a work out you do not want to be urping a cliff bar or something like that.
Everyone reacts to a workout differently and different concepts work for different people. For instance you personally may digest protein more slowly than me or you may not be able to drink them at all. You know your body the best but you definitely need a pre-workout snack or even a supplement that you can take during your workout since your workout is so long.
3 hours!!! You are obviously more man than I am… Unless I am running (which I hate with a passion) I just can’t force the old body to work out that long. Maybe if I quit supersetting everything I could stretch it that long…
I personally have discovered that my body quits on me long before my mind is ready to stop working.
I hope this helped a little bit. I realize that I was rambling a bit.
I usually go to the gym about an hour after I wake up. Lately I’ve been taking a pre workout stim drink on an empty stomach, then have a bowl of oatmeal with milk and a few egg whites. By then I have to shit from the caffeine and then I hit the gym.
That’s just the way I’ve been doing it on my current work hours. When I work later I have a bigger breakfast, eggs, toast, some bacon maybe. And I’ll workout a couple hours after breakfast. That’s the ideal way for me.
I like to take a bowl of oatmeal (raw), mix up some peanut butter and then add whey “milk” (vanilla ice cream).
Probably my favorite meal.
Pre - Muscle Pharm Assault + Scoop of Cytosport Creapure Creatine.
During - Water
Post - Rotate between ON Platinum Hydro Builder & Cytosport Monster Milk + Scoop of Cytosport Creapure Creatine.
Throughout Day - ON Gold Standard Whey.
Once Daily - GNC MegaMan Sport Vitapaks.
Mixed with a decent diet and lots of water.