Open google and search “what to eat before and after workout” and you will see plethora of articles on this topic, many of them are misleading, some are bit flummoxing.
So, in this blog i am going to encapsulate some really cracking and authentic articles and researches to give you simple science based recommendations on what to eat before and after your workout.
Pre Workout Nutrition
As from the word “pre”, you can deduce that this is about eating before your workout.
In few hours prior to your workout you’ll want to eat something that aids you in:
- Sustaining energy
- Boosting up your performance
- Speedy recovery
How can you assure that you’re meeting your requirements:
- Protein before exercise: It helps you maintain and even increase your muscle size. It floods your bloodstream with amino acids just when your body needs it the most. This boost your muscle building capabilities and also aids in draining fatigue.
- Carbs before exercise: It fuels your strength and help with recovery. It also stimulates the release of insulin. When mixed with protein, this elevates protein synthesis and prevent protein breakdown.
I haven’t mentioned fats above because according to researches, fats haven’t shown any increase or decrease in performance. So, it’s up to you radically whether you want to incorporate them or not.
Now you know what should be there in your pre workout meal. Now how much and when?
FIRST CASE
If you’re consuming pre workout meal 2-3 hours prior to your workout:
You can take fats along with protein and carbs to slow down digestion as you’ve plenty of time for your workout.
You can consume complex(slow digesting) sources of protein. I will also prefer a serving of fruit along with meal as fructose(fruit sugar) has shown to increase performance.
In a nutshell:
SECOND CASE
If you’re consuming pre-workout meal 40-60 minutes before your workout:
Here, preferably you should avoid consuming fats as they will slowdown the digestion and this will make your stomach feel bit heavy during the workout. Protein and carbs, yes you can consume.
The only issue with this option is that the closer you get to your workout, the lesser time you have for digestion. So, i recommend having something fast digesting like simple carbs and protein.
In a nutshell:
Post Workout Nutrition
Post workout nutrition aids you in:
- Recovery
- Build muscle
- Improving future performance
Protein after exercise
Eating protein after exercise prevents protein breakdown and stimulates synthesis, leading to increased or maintained muscle tissue. So it’s a great strategy for better recovery, adaptation, and performance.
In the past, most fitness experts recommended fast acting proteins like whey or casein hydrolysate. This is because early research indicated that the more quickly amino acids get to your muscles, the better the result.
However, new research shows that hydrolyzed, fast-digesting proteins may get into our systems too fast. Because they’re in and out of the bloodstream so quickly, they might not maximize protein synthesis or maximally inhibit protein breakdown after all.
And the protein you ate before training is still peaking in your bloodstream, so how quickly this protein gets there doesn’t really matter.
In other words, there’s no real evidence that protein powders, especially the fast-digesting kind, are any better for us than whole food protein after training.
They’re probably not worse either. Which means you can choose whichever type of protein you want for your post-workout meal.
Want fast and convenient? Make an awesome post-workout Super Shake.
Want real food? Then make an awesome high-protein meal.
Carbs after exercise
Contrary to popular belief, it’s unnecessary to stuff yourself with refined carbohydrates and sugars to “spike” insulin and theoretically restore muscle and liver glycogen as rapidly as possible after your workout.
In fact, a blend of minimally processed whole food carbohydrates, along with some fruit (to better restore or maintain liver glycogen) is actually a better choice, because:
- It’s better tolerated
- It restores glycogen equally over a 24-hour time period
- It might lead to better next-day performance.
Fats after exercise
Numerous fitness enthusiasts believe in dogma that fats should be avoided after exercise because they slowdown the digestion and absorption of nutrients.
This is true in case where you’re training in fasted state in early morning when you haven’t consumed anything before your workout. So, you preferably should avoid avoid fats in post workout meal.
Barring above case, this dogma is irrelevant. Fat doesn’t reduce the benefits of carbs and protein. In fact, it might provide some benefits of it’s own.
Post-exercise nutrition in practice
While you don’t have to rush in the door and straight to the fridge the minute you finish at the gym, you shouldn’t dawdle and poke around forever before eating. Failing to eat within a two-hour window following training can slow recovery. But this is context dependent; what you ate before your workout influences things.
If your pre-training meal was a small one or you ate it several hours before training, then it’s probably more important for you to get that post-workout meal into your system pretty quickly. Probably within an hour.
If you trained in a fasted state (say, first thing in the morning before breakfast) then it’s also a good idea to chow down as soon after your workout as you can.
But if you ate a normal-sized mixed meal a couple of hours before training (or a small shake closer to training), then you have a full one to two hours after training to eat your post-workout meal and still maximize the benefits of workout nutrition.
So go ahead — spend an hour in the kitchen cooking up a feast.
That’s all about today’s blog, see you all in my next blog. Till then, stay healthy, keep exercising and be benevolent towards others.
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