Laura Schoenfeld: I’d say right before working out, just having carbs is fine. The reason why you want to generally combine carbs with protein is because if you’re not working out, then your blood sugar will go up after having carbs on their own a little bit faster. It’s not always a big deal for everybody. I know for me I definitely will have a banana as a snack and not worry about combining it because I don’t really have major blood sugar issues. But if somebody is dealing with blood sugar issues, you generally want them to combine carbs with protein and fat because it helps lower the rate that you absorb those carbs from the gut. But right before working out, the reason why that’s different is because the carbs that you get absorbed are going to be used for supporting the movement. So look if somebody’s exercising, they’re going to be burning off that sugar in the blood just about as fast if not faster than their body’s actually getting it digested. So I don’t worry about having blood sugar spikes and drops if somebody is about to workout.
And some people don’t really digest proteins super-fast. So eating lots of protein right before exercise isn’t going to work. So yeah just having a banana or an apple or something right before workout, and then post-workout doing carbs and protein is going to be fine for most people.