What You Should Eat Before and After Your Workout
Ever get confused on what you should be eating pre and post workouts and what you should be avoiding?! With so many sports drinks, bars, supplements and powders out there it is no wonder one would be unsure of what is best for them.
What
you eat before and after your workouts can be more crucial than you may think.
Eating right before will help give you the energy to power through your
workout, and eating right after the workout will help your muscles to recover
faster and come back stronger.
Characteristics of Pre-Workout Meal
According
to this article written on WebMd, there are
an ideal 5 characteristics for a pre-workout meal: low fat, carbohydrates and
protein, low fiber, contain fluids, and made up of familiar well-tolerated
foods. Meaning this is not the time to be introducing new foods that you are
unfamiliar with how your body may react to. Also stay away from fried or greasy
foods that will be hard on your stomach during your workout.
Now
whether you are powering through a heart pumping cardio treadmill run, or
working on building up those biceps depends on the ratio of carbs to protein
you should be consuming before your workout. When you are building muscle you
need a higher supply of protein for tissue repair. While on the other hand, you
will need more carbs for energy supply when powering through a cardio session.
Pre-Workout Meal for Strength Training
Depending
how intense your strength training workout may be depends on how much protein
you’ll need. You’ll want to consume at the very least 50% of your meal as
protein, the other 50% as carbohydrates, as you still need energy to get
through any workout. If your workout is more intense, feel free to bump up that
protein intake to 75%.
You
will want to consume this meal about 1-2 hours before your workout to make sure
you have a reserve supply of protein ready to for the upcoming workout. Some
great suggestions would be an egg white omelet with toast and skim milk. Or
greek yogurt topped with walnuts and honey. Depending on if this is your meal
or snack for the day will determine how much you should be eating.
Pre-Workout Meal for Cardio
Now
with cardio sessions, you will want mostly carbohydrates to make up your
pre-workout meal to boost blood sugar levels to give you enough energy to make
it through your workout. Aim for about 75% carbohydrates for your pre-meal. You
want to still add protein to your pre-workout meal to help prevent any fatigue
that could be caused from consuming an only carbohydrate meal. Meals such as
oatmeal or whole grain cereal topped with raisins and walnuts with skim milk
should do the trick. This needs to be consumed about 30-60 minutes before
hitting that treadmill.
Post-Workout Nutrition
After
your workout there is a time period called the “recovery period”. This time is
crucial for refueling and replenishing your body with all the nutrients that
were lost in the workout. Again it depends on if you were doing a cardio or
strength training workout.
After Strength Training Meals
You
have about an hour or two after an intense strength training workout to repair
your muscles, replenish the glycogen stores, and prevent muscle soreness. This
is the prime time where protein is used to build lean muscles instead of being
stored as fat, so you will want to take advantage of this time.
Protein
shakes are always a good choice to help get in your protein as a quick fix, yet
whole foods are going to be your best option in providing you with more
nutrients. Food items such as: eggs, fish, chicken and cottage cheese will not
only supply you with ample amounts of protein for your recovery, but they will
also provide you with essential vitamins and nutrients.
Try
out this Chicken with Black Bean Sauce dish, it has tons of protein to help
your muscles recover faster, yet carbohydrates to help restore your glycogen as
well. It’s also loaded with vitamins and nutrients that protein shakes won’t be
able to supply you with. This is the sort of dish you are going to be looking
for in a post workout meal.
After Cardio Meals
When
it comes to cardio workouts your goal is again to replenish the glycogen and
energy stores. Try foods with whole grains, fruits and veggies. Piece of whole
wheat toast, banana, or small sweet potato are all great examples.
With
both cardio and strength training workouts you are going to want to make sure
you rehydrate. A large amount of water is lost through perspiration, especially
in cardio workouts. Pure water is the best source for the average exerciser.
Although if your cardio session is lasting longer than 2 hours, you will want
to rehydrate with electrolytes as well, sports drinks will be your best bet
here.
Get
to know your body and how it responds to exercise to know what you need to give
your body to perform its best. Every one’s body is different and every workout
may need different things to replenish. Find what works best for you. Eating
the right things during the right times after your workout is crucial to
keeping your energy up, your workout performance high, and your body in
fat-burning mode.
About the Author: Jentry Nielsen is a fitness nut that writes about health and
nutrition for NordicTrackCoupons.com. If you like this post, follow her on Google+
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