Pre-Exercise Eating

In terms of timing, however, consuming carbs before, for instance, a typical gym workout actually inhibits your ability to burn fats during the exercise. Again, from “Nutrition for the Sprinter”:

Lipolysis means the release of triglycerides from your fat stores so that they can be broken down into free fatty acids (FFAs) and used as muscle fuel. Eating carbs before exercising restricts this mechanism. However, endurance athletes who are entering a fast-paced workout have to make sure that their glycogen stores are topped up, so they have a different priority vis à vis the carb meals. See the sidebar titled A Paleo Diet for Athletes for a related discussion.