What to Eat Before & After
Working Out
After a cardiovascular workout (fat burning day), wait 30-45 minutes, and then consume a high quality source of protein (whole food) and vegetable-type carbohydrate. An example would be a spinach salad and some organic grilled chicken.
The reason why you’ll want to wait a bit after a fat burning cardio session to eat is to ride the fat burning wave of your cardio session. However, waiting more than an hour is typically too long, and can start to slow down your metabolism because your body goes into starvation mode.
After a resistance workout (muscle building day) you need a different approach. The meal after a resistance workout is the only meal that you ever want to be absorbed rapidly.
If you are not concerned about losing weight then follow that.
Why?
Because typically, when a meal is absorbed fast because of high glycemic or simple carbs, there is a good chance your blood sugar will rise too fast, and the carbohydrates will be stored as body fat. But after a resistance workout, you’ve just primed the pump with an intense workout (with weights), and you have a one hour window of opportunity to shuttle in nutrients, amino acids, glycogen, and other anabolic nutrients to help repair your damaged muscles.
If you miss this one hour window after your intense workout, the chances that your muscles will be able to repair themselves, which makes them bigger and stronger, diminish significantly.
Keep in mind that after a workout, your stomach and digestive tract do not function as efficiently. The reason is because your digestive tract is incredibly vascular and uses significant amounts of blood to do its job. The problem arises because much of your blood is in the muscles that you just finished training. So an adequate amount of blood is not available to digest food eaten after a workout. For this reason, the best post workout meal on resistance training days is whey protein and a higher glycemic (fast released, starchy) carbohydrate. You can use a banana as your carb. The potassium in the banana seems to help with recovery. The whey protein is already pre-digested so it is absorbed rapidly. I like this Whey Protein (click photo for link)
In fact, there’s a well kept nutritional secret in the competitive bodybuilding and fitness world. It is called carb cycling or zig-zag dieting. It works very well for building muscle and losing fat. It is a very simple concept. You simply add a small serving of starchy carbs to two or three meals throughout the day on resistance training days.
This helps your body and muscles to have more fuel on days that you are burning lots of energy with the resistance workouts.
Beneficial sources of protein include:
- Organic chicken (dark meat for protein types)
- Fish (as long as it is free of heavy metals and other contaminants – Such as Wild Alaskan Salmon)
- Organic free-range eggs
- Lean, grass-fed red meat
- Whey protein
- Nuts and seeds
Beneficial sources of carbohydrates (fibrous veggie type) include:
- Any vegetable (the more colorful the better)
- Dark green, leafy vegetables such as spinach
- Apples
- Grapefruit
Good sources of starchy carbohydrates are:
- Brown or wild rice
- Yams/ sweet potatoes
- Bananas
What not to eat ever but especially after a workout:
- Sugar
- Soda
- Processed foods
- Pasta
- Breads
- Dairy – cheese & pasteurized milk
See these great recipes for before and after working out:
- Best Homemade Protein Bars
- Difference between Animal & Plant Proteins
- How much Protein Should I Eat in a Day
- How To Make Kefir
Check out These Other Great Workouts
- Sprint 8 for HGH and Testosterone
- Super Slow workout for Strength Increase
- Swiss Ball for Balance and Core
