Is it healthier to eat before or after exercise?

Physical health is inseparable from exercise. Participating in some physical exercise plays a very important role in everyone's physical health. In fact, in our lives, many of our friends don’t know whether it is healthier to eat before or after exercise. Next, the editor will talk to friends in detail about this issue to help everyone solve this problem.

It is not advisable to exercise on an empty stomach, nor on a full stomach. When exercising on an empty stomach, the blood sugar in the body drops, causing dizziness, fatigue, and lack of energy. Especially for diabetics, they should not exercise on an empty stomach. To prevent the occurrence of hypoglycemia, you can drink an appropriate amount of sugar water or eat some easily digestible, sugary foods, such as fruits, milk, etc. before exercise. However, how much to eat before exercise depends on personal feelings. Because everyone's eating habits, exercise methods and exercise time are different, you have to experience and feel these differences yourself and find a method that suits you. For example, during morning exercise, the food supplement should be 30%-50% of the normal food amount. Exercising after a full stomach can not only cause abdominal pain, but also indigestion. Therefore, exercise should be done 1.5 to 2 hours after a meal; and eat 30 to 40 minutes after exercise.

It is not advisable to engage in strenuous exercise before or after meals. There should be a certain interval between exercise and meals.

During exercise, the activity of muscles redistributes blood throughout the body, and a large amount of blood flows to the muscles involved in the activity. The blood vessels of internal organs, such as the stomach and intestines, are in a state of relative contraction. Therefore, the digestion and absorption functions are also inhibited, the secretion of gastric juice decreases, and the digestive ability weakens. In addition, the sympathetic nerves are excited during exercise and the secretion of adrenaline is greatly increased, which can also weaken the peristalsis of the gastrointestinal tract and greatly reduce the secretion of the digestive glands. However, this state cannot be changed immediately after exercise. It takes a certain amount of rest to return to normal, so you cannot eat immediately after intense exercise. If you eat immediately after intense exercise, it will affect your digestion and absorption ability. If this continues for a long time, it will cause symptoms such as indigestion, loss of appetite, and chronic gastritis. Generally speaking, it is more appropriate to rest for half an hour or even longer before eating after exercise.

Similarly, you should not engage in strenuous exercise immediately after a meal. If you engage in strenuous exercise immediately after a meal, the blood that is currently involved in gastrointestinal digestion will be redistributed and flow to organs such as muscles, which will also affect gastrointestinal digestion and absorption.

Participating in intense exercise immediately after a meal can also cause abdominal pain and discomfort due to gastrointestinal vibration and mesenteric involvement, which is not good for the body and exercise. Therefore, you should wait at least one and a half hours after a meal before exercising.

Through the above introduction, I think everyone should now have a clear understanding of the relationship between exercise and diet. So if we want to take good care of our body, we must do it appropriately. We should not exercise on an empty stomach nor eat too much. Appropriate exercise is best.