What you eat before exercise often depends upon your unique needs and preferences, but should be designed according to the intensity, length and type of workout you plan to do.
- When to Eat Before Exercise
- What to Eat Before Exercise
- Suggested Foods for Exercise
1 hour or less before hard workouts
- fresh fruit such as apples, watermelon, peaches, grapes, or oranges and/or
- Energy gels
- up to 1 1/2 cups of a sports drink.
- fresh fruits
- bread, bagels, pasta
- yogurt
- water
- fresh fruit
- bread, bagels
- pasta with tomato sauce
- baked potatoes
- energy bar
- cereal with milk
- yogurt
- toast/bread with a bit of peanut butter, lean meat, or cheese
- water
Glucose (Sugar) and Exercise Performance
If you are an endurance athlete, evidence suggests that eating some sugar (glucose) 35 to 40 minutes before an event may provide energy when your other energy stores have dropped to low levels. However, you should experiment with such strategies before competition because some people do not perform well after a blood glucose spike.Caffeine and Performance
Caffeine acts as a stimulant on the central nervous system. It had been thought to boost endurance by stimulating a greater use of fat for energy, and thereby reserving glycogen in the muscles. Research, however, doesn't seem to support that theory. When caffeine improves endurance, it does so by acting as a stimulant. Caffeine can have serious side effects for some people. Those who are very sensitive to its effects may experience nausea, muscle tremors, and headaches. Too much caffeine is a diuretic, and can result in dehydration, which decreases performance.- Foods to Avoid Before Exercise
- Is there such a thing as a pre-workout nutrition plan?
Actually, a correct pre-workout nutrition plan will be one that can supply quick energy sources, mostly carbohydrates, that can preserve your energy reserves, and also able to provide added blood flow to the muscle tissue.
- The Pre-Workout Essentials;
Carbs
When you workout for periods
longer than 30 minutes, you start using up your energy reserves. These energy
reserves are merely glycogen, it is the sugar stored in the liver and muscles.
Exercising will burn your
stored energy quickly, and it can't use the oxygen kept in the fat deposits as
a fuel. Therefore the body needs to find sugar fast, and does so in the muscle
tissue and from the blood.So, it's best to eat something with simple sugars in it just before training. This will reduce the amount of body glycogen used during your training.
An added benefit is that eating the simple sugars before training will give you a sustained performance. It must also be mentioned that keeping your glycogen levels high, along with those of insulin, make the best environment for muscle growth.
Proteins
As mentioned above, you need to get the blood flowing into those working muscles during a workout. It is very important then, to insure that you have enough available amino acids for muscle tissue.
A lot of people think that proteins are necessary after the workout. They are not wrong, but they error if they think they are not needed BEFORE the workout.
In fact, it is proven that if you can supply available amino acids to your body before the workout, it will be more easily taken up by the muscles than it will after the workout.
Research has proven "the response of net muscle protein synthesis to consumption of a protein solution immediately before resistance exercise is greater than when the solution is consumed after exercise". The reason for this is consumption of protein before the workout.
- Why to eat After a Workout?
The post workout meal (the meal you eat after a workout) is probably the most important meal of the day for anyone who is into nutrition and fitness. However, in a lot of cases this importance also leads to confusion. Maybe it's because of the many ready-made shakes available. Maybe it's the trouble with fitting it in with the rest of your diet. Maybe it's just not knowing whether you should even eat anything after you've worked out. Whatever it is, something about it confuses people.
Nutrition following a training session is one of the most important recovery factors that you can control. You've just spent the last one, two, or five hours depleting your energy stores and pounding your muscles. Not only is it important to replenish these stores so you can recover quickly and exercise again soon, but this is also critical for gaining fitness and maintaining and building lean muscle. Exercise provides the stimulus needed for adaptation, but the body will only grow stronger if you supply it with enough energy.
What to eat after a Workout?
Simply put, aside from water (which you should already know you need) your post workout meal also needs to contain 2 things, protein and carbs. Some suggestions can be:
- Dried fruit and nuts
- Fruit OR Vegetable juice along with Chicken or Vegetable sandwiches (preferably brown bread)
- Veggie omelet with toast or roll
- Chocolate milk
- Cereal with milk
- Eggs and toast
- A protein or energy bar
- A protein or energy shake
What NOT to eat after a Workout?
You should NOT be eating fat. Again, Fat slows down digestion. It would also be slowing down the digestion of protein and carbs that you had after the work out. This is the exact opposite of what you want to happen.
When to eat?
The first hour after a workout is considered the body's "golden hour." It's during this time after a workout that glycogen stores are depleted, and the enzymes that convert glucose into glycogen are in a state such that sugar (glucose) can be consumed and is rushed directly to the muscles to replace lost glycogen stores. A post-workout meal or drink is also important in replacing fluids lost through sweating to rehydrate the body. Replacement of glycogen stores, fluids, and potassium should start within 30 minutes after exercise to promote a quick recovery.
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