What to Eat Before, During and After Exercise

When it comes to achieving your workout goals, nutrition is the key. What you fuel your body with before, during and after your exercise session is going to determine whether your hard work pays off or not. In this article, we break down what you should eat before, during and after your workout to fuel your body for optimal gains.

Pre Workout Nutrition
If you are exercising to increase your lean muscle tissue, then you need to be taking in a quality source of lean protein prior to your workout. Protein does two key things to promote muscle gain – firstly, it increases muscle protein synthesis rates and secondly it gives your body the raw materials it needs to build muscle in the form of amino acids. 

So, we need to regularly eat protein to make this happen. But taking in protein immediately prior to your workout is not as important as was once thought. So long as you are taking in a high-quality lean source of protein within three or four hours of your workout, your body will be primed for muscle protein synthesis. If you don’t, your body’s muscle building machinery will remain inactive while you are training. 

You can take a whey isolate protein shake, but the body is designed to use real food. Chicken breast, eggs, turkey and fatty fish are all good choices.  

Let’s turn now to pre-workout carbs. There is plenty of evidence that pre-workout carbs will improve your workout performance. Eating a carbohydrate meal 30 to 60 minutes before your workout will give you more energy to push harder and might improve post-workout recovery. That’s because carbs provide your body with a surge of glucose to burn as energy. Because it can use the carbs from food for energy, the body doesn’t have to draw on the glucose that is stored in the muscle cell. There is evidence that keeping your muscle glycogen levels high can improve cellular signaling related to building muscle. 

Research shows that the best results come from taking in 30 to 40 grams of carbs in the hour before your workout. The best carbs to eat pre-workout are nutrient dense foods that will digest most easily in your body. They should also be low glycemic foods. Some good choices are oatmeal, bananas, white or sweet potatoes, raisins and fruit. 

During the Workout
You do not need to consume any nutrients during your workout if you have fueled your body properly before the workout. In that case, all you need is water during your training session. However, if you are unable to get in your normal pre-workout meal, it will be a good idea to sip a shake that is made up of around 50 grams of a quality dextrin powder, fortified with 20 grams of protein.

After the Workout
You should aim to take in 30-40 grams of protein within a couple of hours of completing your workout. This will help to reverse muscle catabolism and stimulate protein synthesis to rebuild muscle tissue. You can take this in the form of a post workout protein shake but whole foods like chicken or fish will be better utilised by your body.

You should also take in carbs after your workout in order to refuel your glycogen levels.

If there’s any time of the day when you’re going to take in a small portion of simple carbs, then straight after your workout is it. It will fill up your muscle glycogen stores rather being stored as fat. Just don’t go overboard because your workouts won’t actually use up that much glycogen. 

Should you eat fat after your workout? Some people think that you shouldn’t because it will slow down the digestion of protein. However, studies show that fat in a post workout meal does not affect glycogen replenishment or muscle building. In one study, it was seen that whole fat milk was actually more anabolic that low fat. So, if you want to have some healthy fats with your post workout protein, go ahead – but it’s not necessary.