Whether you’re a professional athlete, a weekend warrior or a gym goer, good nutrition is vital for performance. Getting your nutrition plan right will help you optimise each training session and ultimately help you to reach your fitness goals. Knowing what to eat, and when to eat, before and after a workout can be a bit confusing, and is a problem many athletes and fitness goers struggle with at the beginning.
While workout nutrition will completely depend on the type of workout you are doing and the body composition goals you have in place, the basic principles remain the same.
Ideally, you should fuel your body 1-3 hours before your workout. A more substantial meal should be consumed 2-3 hours pre-workout, while a smaller snack can be consumed closer to the session. Food should contain both protein and carbs. Carbs are the fuel, while protein is what rebuilds and repairs. If your goal is weight loss, your pre-workout fuel will contain less carbs and more protein and be smaller in portion. If your goal is to gain mass, a bigger portion of carbs as well as protein should be consumed.
The most important thing to remember when choosing your pre-workout food is to choose something that is easy to digest and that won’t upset your stomach. This, as well as working out what time frame works best for your body will take some experimenting.
Simply put, our bodies run like a car—we need to re-fuel when our food stores have been depleted. Post-workout nutrition should therefore focus on refilling energy storages and provide enough protein to prevent muscle protein breakdown and stimulate muscle synthesis. Independent of your goals, a post-workout meal should always be consumed. As soon as possible, try to eat high quality protein and carbs (ideally 30-60 minutes after a workout).