A familiar pre-competition meal can help settle the stomach and absorb gastric juices. If you feel that you simply cannot eat before competition, you will need to make a special effort to eat extra food on the previous day. Fasting before competition has been shown to have detrimental effects on performance. Training yourself to eat before exercise on non-competition days may help you to be able to eat before competition and improve your performance. High carbohydrate foods are best because they are easily digested, provide readily available fuel and help to ward off low blood sugar that can result in light-headedness, fatigue and indecision.
Carbohydrates are also the only dietary fuel source that can be used for maximum intensity work.
Good food sources of carbohydrates include cereals, grains, pasta, fruits and vegetables. Eating these foods will also help you to get vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants and phytochemicals that you need for health and top performance. The end product of carbohydrate digestion, glucose, is used by the brain and stored as glycogen in muscles and the liver. The amount of glycogen stored in the muscles depends on the amount of carbohydrates eaten. During the first 20 minutes of exercise, energy stores come from blood glucose, but after 20 minutes, fat stores are accessed as well and burned as fuel by the increased oxygen moving in the blood.