Bloating is extremely common. A 2023 survey found that almost 1 in 7 Americans had experienced bloating in the past week, with women and those with co-occurring gut conditions being more likely to experience it. While bloating can occur at any time, especially if you have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), bloating after a workout is a frequent concern.

A number of different factors can cause workout bloating, from what you ate and drank before your workout to the type of exercise you do. So, how do you reduce workout bloating? Read on to learn why post-workout bloating happens, and how to get relief — fast.

Understanding Post-Workout Bloating

If you're wondering why bloating happens after exercise, you're not alone. It's extremely common, and a variety of factors can cause it.

What Is Workout Bloating?

Workout bloating, like the name implies, is bloating that occurs during or after a workout, in part due to changes in blood flow that occur during exercise. For most people, it feels like tightness, pressure, or fullness in the abdomen, and may be accompanied by other symptoms like gas, burping, abdominal pain, or distension (where your abdomen expands outward).

Common Causes of Bloating After Exercise

Many different factors can contribute to abdominal bloating after a gym session, but these are some of the most common things that can cause you to feel bloated:

  • Swallowing air during exercise: Taking lots of big gulps of air during an intense workout can introduce too much air into your digestive system, which can contribute to bloating. If you find that heavy breathing is contributing to your bloating, you may need to adjust your breathing technique.
  • Not getting the right amount of fluids: While it's important to drink water during a workout, drinking too much water during a workout can lead to feeling overly full or bloated. At the same time, if you're not drinking enough fluids, you may end up constipated. When stool doesn't move quickly enough through the digestive system, gas can get trapped, leading to bloating.
  • High-intensity exercise: While a high-intensity exercise routine can be highly beneficial for heart and metabolic health, it can also stress the gut and worsen gastrointestinal symptoms like bloating. This is because during high-intensity workouts, the blood vessels contract and divert blood flow from the gut. This slows down stomach emptying and movement of waste through the intestines, which can lead to gas becoming trapped and feeling bloated.
  • Wearing tight workout gear: Wearing workout gear that's too tight around the abdomen can worsen abdominal discomfort. While it may not contribute directly to bloating, a bloated stomach will feel more uncomfortable if your clothes are too tight.

Dietary Factors Contributing to Workout Bloating

Both what you eat and when you eat can have a significant impact on workout bloating. Here are some dietary factors that can cause you to feel bloated during or after a workout.

Pre-Workout Meals and Timing

Certain nutrients and types of food are more likely to trigger bloating after a workout due to their effects on the digestive tract. Here are some common culprits:

  • High-fiber foods: Most of the time, fiber is a great addition to your diet. But when you eat fibrous foods (like legumes, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables) before a workout, they can slow down your digestion and lead to the accumulation of gas in your intestines. 
  • Artificial sweeteners: Some artificial sweeteners, like sorbitol or xylitol (which are both sugar alcohols), are added to energy drinks, flavored waters, protein shakes, and protein bars as a substitute for sugar. Since gut bacteria ferment sugar alcohols, they can contribute to gas and bloating.
  • High-fat foods: Just like fiber, fat slows down digestion. If you eat a heavy meal right before a workout, the food will sit undigested in your stomach due to delayed gastric emptying and may cause gastrointestinal symptoms like bloating.
  • High-salt meals: Eating a very high salt meal before a workout can lead to fluid retention, which may manifest as bloating.
  • Carbonated beverages: Carbonated beverages, like energy drinks, introduce gas bubbles into the digestive tract, which can increase bloating.

Role of FODMAPs in Digestive Discomfort

If you're living with IBS, you may have heard of the low FODMAP diet. FODMAPs stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides, and Polyols, and refers to a group of carbohydrates that are not digested, but are instead fermented by your gut bacteria.

Many people can eat foods with FODMAPs without experiencing digestive problems, but for people with a FODMAP intolerance (such as those with IBS), eating certain foods that are high in FODMAPs can result in symptoms in the GI tract like gas, bloating, abdominal pain, constipation, and diarrhea.

How to Reduce Workout Bloating

While bloating after a workout is common, there are many strategies you can use to get rid of bloating and gas. 

Optimal Timing and Composition of Meals

Remember when we said that eating high-fat or high-fiber meals before working out can lead to bloating? That's because they slow down digestion, which can lead to gas getting trapped in your intestines. However, while some foods can cause bloating when eaten before a workout, fuelling your workout with the proper foods is key to performance and recovery, particularly if you're going to be exercising for an extended period of time.

The main goal of eating before a workout is to replenish the short-term storage form of carbohydrates known as glycogen. That's why carbohydrates should make up the bulk of your pre-workout meal — think simple carbs like pasta, rice, bread, potatoes, and higher-carbohydrate fruits like bananas. It's also important to eat a small amount of protein, which can help with performance and recovery, and may also reduce the incidence of digestive distress. Fat and fiber should be kept to a minimum in the pre-workout window to reduce the likelihood of digestive upset while you're exercising. It's also important to avoid sugary foods prior to a workout, as these can contribute to bloating and diarrhea.

The timing of your pre-workout meal is also important. Generally, it's best to eat something a few hours (typically two to four hours) before your workout. If you're eating less than one hour before working out, it's best to have a liquid meal or snack so that it empties from your stomach by the time you want to exercise (liquids empty from the stomach faster than solids — generally within about 30 minutes). A pre-workout smoothie is a good option in this scenario.

If you're having trouble with your pre-workout nutrition, speaking with a registered dietitian who specializes in sports nutrition can be helpful. They can help you plan pre-workout meals based on getting enough simple carbohydrates to fuel your working muscles while minimizing digestive symptoms.

Hydration Practices

Since body fluids are lost during exercise from sweating, it's essential to drink enough fluids before, during, and after exercise to maintain proper fluid balance. Studies show that drinking hypotonic (less salts and sugars than your bodily fluids) drinks containing carbohydrates and electrolytes provides the most significant benefit to hydration while you're exercising. 

However, many sports drinks are high in FODMAPs and can worsen digestive symptoms. To make your own low FODMAP sports drink that's gentle on digestion, combine 1.5 cups of water, ½ a cup of coconut water, two tablespoons of maple syrup, ⅛ teaspoon of salt, two tablespoons of lemon juice, and one tablespoon of orange juice (optional, for flavor). Chill in the fridge or serve over ice.

During high-intensity exercise (>70% VO2max, a measure of your maximum heart rate), reduced stomach emptying may limit how much fluid you absorb. If you regularly engage in high-intensity exercise, you may need to train your gut to improve digestive comfort. You can do this by gradually introducing small amounts of fluids and carbohydrates during workouts and increasing slowly over several weeks.

Incorporating Digestive Enzymes

FODMAPs like galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) and fructans aren't digested because humans don't produce enough of the enzymes needed to break them down. While some people can digest lactose (the sugar found in milk and dairy products), other people don't produce enough of the lactase enzyme, and may experience gas, bloating, cramping, and diarrhea when they eat dairy products.

That's where digestive enzymes come in. Digestive enzyme supplements break down FODMAPs in real time, which can prevent gas, bloating, and abdominal discomfort.

FODZYME®: A Targeted Approach to Reducing Workout Bloating

People who exercise regularly need a well-rounded diet to ensure adequate recovery between training sessions. Digestive enzyme supplements like FODZYME enable you to expand your diet to include nutrient-dense foods like dairy products, wheat, onions, garlic, legumes, and polyphenol-rich foods like artichokes, without digestive distress. If you enjoy eating these foods before a workout, using FODZYME can also help reduce workout bloating. 

What Is FODZYME®?

FODZYME is a digestive enzyme supplement that contains three enzymes:

  • Fructan hydrolase (for breaking down the fructans found in foods like wheat, onions, and garlic).
  • Alpha-galactosidase (for breaking down the GOS found in foods like legumes).
  • Lactase (for breaking down the lactose found in many dairy products).

How FODZYME® Works

FODZYME works by breaking down the fermentable carbohydrates that your body can't break down on its own. By sprinkling FODZYME on your pre-workout meal, you can enjoy a wider variety of foods with fewer digestive problems like gas, bloating, and abdominal discomfort. 

How FODZYME® Can Help Prevent Bloating During Workouts

Many high FODMAP foods, like bread and pasta, are ideal pre-workout foods because they provide a significant amount of carbohydrates in a relatively small volume. However, wheat-based bread and pasta are high in fructans, which can trigger symptoms in people with fructan intolerance. FODZYME enables you to enjoy fructan-rich foods pre-workout, without the digestive symptoms like bloating.

Additional Tips for Preventing Workout Bloating

In addition to what you eat, when you eat, hydration strategies, and using digestive enzymes, small changes to how you exercise may help prevent workout bloating:

  • Breathe evenly and deeply: Swallowing too much air while you exercise can lead to the accumulation of intestinal gas and bloating. Try a breathing technique where you slow your breathing rate, breathe deeply and evenly, and let the breath fill your belly during physical activity.
  • Try moderate-intensity exercise: A 2023 study found that twelve weeks of moderate-intensity walking three times a week led to significantly improved abdominal pain, bloating, and quality of life. Another study from 2024 found that adding 18,000 additional steps weekly was associated with significant improvements in bloating. If you regularly engage in high-intensity exercise and experience bloating during or after your workout, try reducing the intensity to see if it helps.
  • Don't skip rest days: While exercise is important for overall health, rest days to help your body recover are just as important. Be sure to factor in one or two rest days per week to ensure adequate recovery for your working muscles.

When to Consult a Healthcare Professional

While the occasional post-workout bloat is completely normal, prolonged or extremely painful bloating could be a sign of a more serious underlying condition. Here are some signs that you may need to consult a healthcare provider: 

  • Your bloating is persistent and doesn't improve with diet or lifestyle changes.
  • Your bloating is severe and interferes with your daily activities.
  • You've lost weight without trying.
  • You're also experiencing vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, or blood in your stool.
  • Your bloating worsens over time or appears suddenly.
  • You notice significant changes in your bowel habits or appetite.
  • You feel a hard or painful lump in your abdomen.

If you experience any of these symptoms along with post-workout bloat, it's important to speak with a healthcare provider to uncover the cause, as it could indicate a more serious condition like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), celiac disease, or colorectal cancer.

Experience Relief with FODZYME®

Bloating after a workout is common and can be caused by a variety of dietary and lifestyle factors. If high FODMAP foods are to blame for your workout bloating, digestive enzyme supplements like FODZYME can help. 

Get relief from your workout bloating with FODZYME today.