When to eat before working out!

[caraib]

I'm trying to figure out when is the best time to eat before working out. I'm thinking the time frame is about three to four hours. I know this depends on what a person eats for lunch -- a typical lunch for me would be a turkey sandwich, bag of chips, small salad, apple, banana, dried fruit, and maybe cliff bar. If I eat this before noon, I'm good for workout at the gym at 5 or 6, but if I eat later than noon or some other type heavy food --like pizza or pasta --if I go to a restaurant to people or a party --I'm no good for the gym because I'd feel stuffed. Whats everybody else do?

[InclineDBPresss]

I eat an hour and a half before lifting... I couldn't even imagine having 6 hours between food and the gym, I'd have no energy at all

[samavern]

Well, this may not work for you, because I think my metabolism is so i high could eat ten meals a day haha, but my usual lunch consists of chicken or some other lean meat, sometimes the ocasonal pizza too around noon or so. Then the gym around roughly 3. What i had been doing was eating 2 table spoons of peanut butter and a shake, my problem was about half way through my work out i'd be starving and in turn would feel gased out. So i was thinking that maybe some carbs would be good too for a little more substance, so i start eating a peanut butter sandwhich and shake an hour before and ever since have felt great. This may be against all set "rules" some may have lol but hey it works great for me

[Anotherfling]

From my experience, it is different for different people, and different diets. Currently what is working really well for me while bulking is eating about a medium sized meal, (satisfied but not stuffed, could eat more) an hour and a half before I lift, and then taking an energy gel packet with dextrose right before I lift.

When I'm cutting and eating more smaller meals, it feels better to eat a light meal about an hour before lifting.

When I am going for a longer or very heavy workout, it seems to work best when I eat a earlier, huge lunch, and then have two small snacks leading up to when I lift after work.