Gym TikTok Says If You Eat Sour Candy Before You Workout You Get A Better Results, So I Tried It
Hi, my name is Chris, and I spend entirely too much time scrolling through TikTok, which often results in me stumbling upon a fascinating thing that someone said. Recently, I watched a gory horror movie that people allegedly couldn't finish and tested the 3.5 star Chinese food theory.
Today, TikTok said that eating candy before the gym enhances your workout, insisting you'll get a big energy boost and perform better.
Folks have actually been talking about this for quite some time, but recently I've seen it more often, with most people specifically using sour candy, and many insisting that it results in a better pump (muscles looking bigger from being filled with blood during workout) and more sweating.
As someone who loves sour candy and likes the gym as a friend, I really wanted to test this theory and judge whether or not it's legit.
To start this case, I needed to collect evidence, so I went to my home away from home, the 7-Eleven candy section.
Next, I brought my sour candy to a morning leg day workout. Here's why — morning workouts are difficult for me because I'm always low energy (we can't all be Dwayne Johnson'ing it up at 4 a.m.) and leg day is generally the day I go the hardest (I'm trynna build these babies into tree trunks like Groot). So, if sour candy before a workout is truly performance enhancing, it will be very evident.
EXHIBIT A. I got to the gym at like 7-something, probably closer to 8 a.m. (Dwayne would be disgusted), and I had some pieces of breakfast candy. During the workout, I felt decent, and there was a particular point where I suddenly had a burst of energy, though it might have been a placebo effect. I did sweat a lot, but I always do during legs, so that was tough to distinguish, and there was the usual "pump" of working a muscle, but nothing felt out of the ordinary on that end. To test things further, at the end of the workout, I made note of my stats.
EXHIBIT A-1. Next, I went and took stats from a previous, recent morning leg workout when I wasn't on sour candy...
Here's how those two numbers compare side by side. It's pretty clear that the workout with sour candy was better, as I worked out for 15 minutes longer, burned 102 more active calories, and maintained a higher heart rate throughout. I was a little surprised myself, because it didn't feel like a significant difference from the norm, but it made me want to compile just a little more evidence.
EXHIBIT B: I tried it again, this time on a shoulder day. Why? Because your boy has some weak-ass shoulders that gas out quickly, and I often leave the gym feeling like I didn't get a good enough workout on shoulder day. And this time, I worked out in the late afternoon/early evening instead of the morning, with some sour berry Gushers. Here's how it went.
EXHIBIT B-1: A recent shoulder workout that also took place in the late-afternoon/early evening range.
And here's how those two workouts compare. Once again, a longer total workout, this time by 17 minutes, 72 more active calories, 100 more total calories, and a higher average heart rate. This time I also felt like I did break a sweat much quicker than usual for a shoulder day, when I'm generally lifting low weight but high reps.
It's time to close the case...
The workouts after having sour candy were undeniably better than those without!
While I can't say I felt a massively different "pump," and I only saw a mild addition of sweat, the numbers are undeniable evidence in the pre-workout candy's favor. Strangely, they didn't even feel like particularly good gym days, and I've got a bum calf at the moment that's hindering my workouts, yet I've seen enough to continue trying this from time to time. Unfortunately, I'm a sugar addict who lacks discipline, so I don't trust myself to keep sour candy stashed in my car on a regular basis, but if you feel like you need a little boost, just know that it might be a handful of Sour Patch Kids away!
NBA / ESPN
