Best Pre Workout Meal for Muscle Gain: Top Foods to Fuel Up

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Many articles focus on post-workout meals for muscle mass and recovery, but your pre-workout nutrition is equally important and often overlooked. To maximize your efforts, it's essential to consume high-quality calories that fuel your intense workouts and enhance athletic performance. Whether your goal is to shed body fat, increase protein intake, or gain muscle, incorporating a well-planned pre-workout meal can support your objectives.

Pre-workout meals don't have to be complicated, but they can significantly impact your endurance and strength in the gym, providing the necessary calories to maximize your gains. By combining the right balance of carbohydrates, proteins, and nutrients, you can optimize your performance both during and after your workouts. However, not all pre-workout nutrition is created equal. This raises the question: what is the best pre-workout meal for muscle gain?

Why Do Pre-Workout Meals Matter?

We often hear that the post-workout meal is the most important meal of the day for gaining muscle, especially if you hit the anabolic window. However, If you're an avid gym goer looking to increase muscle growth, you know that what you eat as a pre-workout meal matters just as much as what you eat after. Why does it matter?

Aside from getting in adequate calories each day, the pre-workout and post workout meals are often considered the most important when it comes to optimizing physical performance in the gym and positively influencing muscle recovery. A pre-workout meal ensures the body has the proper nutrients and energy levels to perform at its peak during intense exercise.

When it comes to building muscle mass, every single rep, set, and session you do matters immensely. These are the building blocks you need to build muscle during a training session, and directly determines how much lean muscle mass you will gain. If you are not properly fueling your body before your workouts, you may be cheating yourself out of muscle gain because you will not have the proper fuel to sustain energy throughout your workout.

To push your body to maximum capacity and performance, you must pay as much attention to what you eat before your workout as you do after your workout. Both meals are important, but the emphasis on the post workout meal always garners more attention than the pre-workout meal. It's time to give the pre-workout meal some time in the spotlight, because it may be the missing piece to the puzzle of why you can't gain muscle.

Now we have established that a pre-workout meal is important, but what makes a pre-workout meal for muscle gain great?

How To Structure Your Pre-Workout Meal

When it comes to crafting the perfect pre-workout meal for muscle gain, you'll want to focus on a few specific factors. It doesn't have to be a daunting task, but a few facets can be the difference between increasing lean body mass and maintaining your current body weight and composition.

Although it can be easy to grab a protein bar or to work out in a fasted state, pre-workout nutrition is important. It can contribute to higher muscle protein synthesis, which may lead to better muscle gain. These are a few general rules for pre-workout meals that may help facilitate muscle gain.

#1:  Consume 20-30 grams of protein

During the pre-workout window, it’s best to choose a protein source that has an adequate amount of fast-digesting protein, ideally between 20 and 30 grams. Options for ideal pre-workout protein can be anything from eggs, meat, to Greek yogurt.

If you opt for any form of animal protein before your workout, you'll want to optimize your meal by consuming your meal two to three hours before you hit the gym, as animal proteins are a slow digesting protein and may cause digestive discomfort when you're working out.

If you need a quick dose of protein before your workout, it’s best to consume protein that is faster-digesting, like a protein shake or egg whites. If you choose to consume a faster digesting protein source you'll be ready to hit the iron within 30-60 minutes.

Though experts often claim that carbohydrates are the most essential part of a pre-workout meal, protein is just as important. One study found that there is greater lipolysis and plasma fat availability following a high-protein meal relative to high-carbohydrate meals. Meaning, that after consuming a high-protein meal, the body breaks down the fats (lipolysis) more effectively and creates more fat availability for energy use during intense workouts.

#2:  Consume Carbohydrates

The ideal amount of carbohydrates you should consume during your pre-workout meal will depend on your body-weight, age, and macronutrient goals for muscle-building. Typically, the standard recommendation for carbohydrate consumption for a pre-workout meal is around 25-40% of your total daily carbohydrate intake.

That can vary slightly, but gaining muscle will require the majority of your carbohydrates to be consumed around your workout time in the pre- and post-workout window. To keep it simple, you can plan to follow a 3-to-1 ratio of carbohydrate to protein one hour before your workout. Studies have shown that when athletes consume carbohydrates 1 hour prior to a workout, insulin and blood glucose levels are reported to elevate immediately before an exercise session.

Though not absolutely essential for building muscle, carbohydrates play a useful role in helping to maintain energy metabolism to improve athletic performance and help repair muscle damage from an intense workout.

#3:  Avoid Foods High in Fat

Healthy fats are an important part of any complete meal for a muscle-building diet, but they should be used sparingly in your pre-workout meal. Fat creates delays for food leaving the stomach (the process is called “gastric emptying”), and can slow down your body’s uptake of nutrients.

Fats should be present in other meals throughout the day, but you should primarily stick with carbs and protein as pre-workout foods. When you are preparing for an intense workout, you’ll want something that digests quickly, like a simple carbohydrate and protein.

Many published research studies report no performance benefits linked to consuming a high-fat meal in the pre-workout window when compared to a high carbohydrate or protein meal.

#4 Consume Sodium

Most workouts leave you sweaty, so ensuring your hydration and electrolyte levels stay in a healthy range is important, especially in hotter months. One study found that acute sodium intake yielded improvements in exercise performance in the heat. As humans excrete sodium through urine and sweat, it's important to maintain regular salt intake for those extra tough and sweaty workouts.

#5 Stay Hydrated

Hydration levels can affect exercise performance, especially in intense heat. Staying hydrated is an important factor for optimal health and wellness, but can also make a major difference in performance and endurance. Pairing a big glass of water with pre-workout foods can be a great way to ensure you're staying hydrated throughout the day.

#6 Include Vasodilators

Vasodilators have the effect of widening blood-vessels and, during your workout, giving you the high of the "pump". Vasodilators improve blood-flow and reduce blood-pressure which, in turn, creates a more relaxed state for the muscle and allows for blood to circulate in the body. Some people will use a vasodilator as one of their pre-workout supplements. This can be included in a pre-workout powder, or is sometimes seen in form of beet root powder, nitric oxide supps, and niacin pills. Some natural vasodilators are beets, tart cherry, cocoa, and garlic.

Ideas for the Best Pre-Workout Meal

Now that we have determined what makes a great pre-workout meal for muscle, we can venture into some easy go-to's we reach for over and over. Whether this is more of a meal or a pre-workout snack is up to the portions or macros you make. Pay attention to how your body feels in the gym after you consume your meal and move timing, portions, or food types as needed for optimal results.

Whey Protein Powder and Oats

A simple, but delicious pre-workout meal with high protein content and lean protein to help you get through a grueling workout. Unrefined oats are a complex carbohydrate, which if consumed with enough time before your workout for proper digestion, may give you more energy for a longer period of time than something simple like white bread.

Protein powders are an easy way to get a high dose of protein in your oats while keeping fats relatively low. You can add fun toppings like peanut butter, fruit, and hemp seeds to dress it up and make it a bit more exciting to eat. If you hate making oats every day, meal prepping a large batch of overnight oats can help you eat a nutritious breakfast without too much hassle in the morning.

Egg Whites and Toast

Toast is a great way to get your carbohydrate stores up for when you need an extra push of energy during your workouts. There are many options for the type of bread you use ( white bread, whole grain bread, even brown rice wholegrain bread) and each will make a small difference depending on whether it is made up of complex carbohydrates or simple carbohydrates. While wheat bread is definitely acceptable in the pre-workout window (as long as you wait at least an hour before your workout), white breads are a perfect example of a fast-digesting carb--a carbohydrate source that can be ingested and used for fuel immediately.

Egg whites are a a great way to get a quick dose of protein for the body. Foods like eggs facilitate protein synthesis, which leads to muscle tissue repair after workouts, muscle growth, muscle recovery, and performance by potentially increasing function and endurance of the muscles.

Protein Shakes

Shakes are one of the easiest pre-workout meals and an amazing way to get high protein intake before a workout. Most protein powders contains branched chain amino acids, (BCAAs which also include essential amino acids), which studies have shown to reduce the risk of muscle damage that often occurs from endurance exercises. Muscle breakdown is important for muscle gain, but only if it isn't actually damaging the muscle.

You can also add a serving of creatine powder in your protein shake. Creatine is one of the most popular supplements on the market, and for good reason. Studies have shown it's intense benefits when it comes to improving performance for high intensity exercises like HIIT workouts as well as improving strength adaptations, and the ability to create more ATP, which you need for lasting energy in the gym.

Protein shakes are an extremely versatile pre-workout meal and can include almond milk, regular milk, protein powder of your choice, oats, peanut butter, and various fruit if you enjoy fruit smoothies. By adding a good source of carbohydrates, you'll maintain a low glycemic index, meaning your blood sugar will maintain instead of something with a high glycemic index, which leads to rapid energy uptake and then a crash.

Quinoa Breakfast Bowl

Quinoa is a gym goers friend, it's made up of complex carbohydrates, a nice dose of plant protein, and dietary fiber, which will keep you satiated while you work on perfecting your body composition. You can make this by mixing cold quinoa, Greek yogurt, and any toppings you like. We love cinnamon, fruit, coconut, hemp seeds, and mint. If you want to sweeten it, opt for natural sugars like honey or maple syrup to keep your energy supply from crashing. If you aren't a fan of quinoa, you can always replace it with a different base like oats or brown rice.

Protein Pancakes

Protein pancakes are a very versatile and easy meal to eat before a workout. You can make them with protein powder, sweet potato, eggs, low fat milk, or a plethora of other ingredients that you can cater to your fitness goal. Whether it's to maintain muscle mass, lose weight, or you're looking to optimize a lean physique, pancakes are easily adjustable to hit your macro goals.

Other Ways to Enhance Your Pre-Workout Meal

In addition to consuming food before your workout to fuel your performance, you shouldn’t neglect your pre-workout supplements. There are plenty of options to choose from when seeking out a pre-workout formula, but instead of just choosing anything off the shelf at your local supplement store, you should select a product that aligns with your physique goals.

We’re not going to beat around the bush--our goal has always been to develop the best “bulking” pre-workout supplement available. We don’t just throw a bunch of ingredients into a tub--we actually spend time selecting ingredients that are all backed by published scientific research.

When you look at our product labels, you’ll know why we chose the name Transparent Labs for our company. We use clinically effective dosages that contain zero artificial ingredients,

Our PreSeries Bulk product is perfect for increasing energy and performance in the gym, without all the harmful side effects of other pre-workout formulas. Each serving of PreSeries Bulk contains 17 grams of active ingredients ( including caffeine) that are designed to increase your pump (due to the increase in nitric oxide), reduce fatigue and muscle soreness and improve physical performance.

Combining ingredients in a pre-workout supplement can lead to increased energy, focus and lower levels of fatigue during intense exercise, which are benefits no lifter should ignore.

Conclusion

What you eat before a workout matters, although often overlooked, it is a crucial piece of nutrition strategy. When you properly execute the right amount of carbs, protein, and nutrients, pre-workout foods can have an influence on how well you perform during your workout, how well you can recover, and it can play a role in your journey to muscle gain. This is a fun opportunity to play around with your food and see what works best for you.

Whether it's a simple protein shake, a quinoa breakfast bowl, or egg whites and toast, the right pre-workout meal (or to some of you that may be a pre-workout snack) can provide the fuel your body needs to maximize each session at the gym. Remember, what you eat before your workout sets the stage for your efforts, making it just as vital as your post-workout meal. Embrace the power of a pre-workout meal for muscle gain and see how your efforts are rewarded.