What to Eat Before & After Workouts

Nutrition Advice:  What to Eat Before & After Workouts

by Monica Laird, Club Julian Trainer

Whether you’re looking to lose weight, gain strength, or improve endurance, proper nutrition is important to your personal health and fitness goals. What you eat before and after a workout should be carefully considered in order to make progress toward your goals and maximize the effectiveness of your exercise session.

Pre-Workout Food for Fuel

The meal or snack you eat before a workout should consist mainly of complex carbohydrates and a small amount of protein. Complex carbohydrates will be utilized more effectively for sustained energy during your workout. Foods high in complex carbohydrates include fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

If you plan on strength-training during a workout, then you may want to increase the amount of protein you eat in order to build lean muscle. If you are doing cardiovascular aerobic exercise such as running or biking, then you may want to have more carbohydrates. Timing of your pre-workout meal is also something to be considered. The sooner you eat before your workout, the smaller the meal should be in order to avoid gastrointestinal distress during exercise. Good examples of pre-workout snacks include an apple with peanut butter, or oatmeal with fruit.

Post-Workout Food for Recovery

The food you eat after a good workout will be the most important meal of the day. This meal is so important because after your workout the glycogen stores in your muscles are depleted. If the glycogen is not restored by eating food within 30 minutes to 1 hour after your workout, then the muscle fibers will start to break down.

Your post-workout meal should also consist of complex carbohydrates, and a moderate amount of protein. You will want to eat more protein if your goal is to build muscle. No more than 30g of protein in a post-workout meal will be necessary for proper growth of lean muscle tissue. Good examples of a post-workout meal include grilled chicken with vegetables, or eggs with a side of fruit. If you are not able to eat a meal within 1 hour after your workout, you could drink chocolate milk to replace glycogen stores. Chocolate milk is great post-workout because it provides a good ratio of carbohydrates and protein.

It is important to remember that what you eat is specific to your health and fitness goals. Feel free to experiment with the types of food you eat pre- and post-workout, as well as the timing of the meals. These components of nutrition and exercise are specific to each individual, and you need to find what works best for you!