Digestion rate

So I've had a long running question that nobody ever really addresses. Everyone is so focused on eating the majority of there calories or piling on carbs immediately pre/intra/post workout. But food takes 2-7 hours to digest. 2 hours being simple carbs and liquid protein. So shouldn't you eat the bulk of your meals well in advance to your workout? I mean you won't be using any of what you ate for your pre workout meal. And your post workout meal won't hit this 2 hour window that you're supposed to hit post workout.

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Originally Posted by Elite17

So I've had a long running question that nobody ever really addresses. Everyone is so focused on eating the majority of there calories or piling on carbs immediately pre/intra/post workout. But food takes 2-7 hours to digest. 2 hours being simple carbs and liquid protein. So shouldn't you eat the bulk of your meals well in advance to your workout? I mean you won't be using any of what you ate for your pre workout meal. And your post workout meal won't hit this 2 hour window that you're supposed to hit post workout.

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Where did you get those numbers?

During exercise your body pulls blood from the digestive tract and redirects it towards the working muscles. Thus in effect, it slows digestion down. Now when you eat your stomach will dump into the duodenum almost instantly depending on the food stuff you take in. Obviously liquids will cause passage faster than solids and so forth. But you will start absorbing carbs and Aminos fairly rapidly.

As far as when is the best time to eat, a lot of the research is now pointing to intra-workout consumption as the best time to eat.

There are studies all over the place, like from the US national library of medicine, that state the absorption and digestion rates of foods. Even if you were to eat pure sugar your blood sugar wouldn't spike for at least a half hour. Complex carbs take 5-7 hours to absorb and simple carbs would be faster depending on the glycemic index. Food doesn't even pass through the digestive track and get completely excreted till 48 to 56 hours on average. I'm just curious why there is no concern for this. Logic would seem that most of what you eat during and after your workout is going to be stored, given if its an excess of your basic caloric needs hours later.

There are studies all over the place, like from the US national library of medicine, that state the absorption and digestion rates of foods. Even if you were to eat pure sugar your blood sugar wouldn't spike for at least a half hour. Complex carbs take 5-7 hours to absorb and simple carbs would be faster depending on the glycemic index. Food doesn't even pass through the digestive track and get completely excreted till 48 to 56 hours on average. I'm just curious why there is no concern for this. Logic would seem that most of what you eat during and after your workout is going to be stored, given if its an excess of your basic caloric needs hours later.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Elite17

There are studies all over the place, like from the US national library of medicine, that state the absorption and digestion rates of foods. Even if you were to eat pure sugar your blood sugar wouldn't spike for at least a half hour. Complex carbs take 5-7 hours to absorb and simple carbs would be faster depending on the glycemic index. Food doesn't even pass through the digestive track and get completely excreted till 48 to 56 hours on average. I'm just curious why there is no concern for this. Logic would seem that most of what you eat during and after your workout is going to be stored, given if its an excess of your basic caloric needs hours later.

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I have done real time insulin assays on athletes (as part of doing VO2 max testing) that drink a sugary drink and their blood sugar and Insulin goes up in minutes virtually. The makeup of the food stuff obviously effects dumping rate.