Eating after a work out.

witchy_wife

Ever since discovering that breakfast isn’t the most important meal of the day, and at least for weight loss meal timing is irrelevant, I haven’t been eating breakfast. Well I have…but I just have it at around 10am (I get up at 5am).

But I’ve figured out that I need to do my work out early in the morning. I’ve always been a morning person, and by the time I am home from work and have cooked, cleaned, played with my kids and then got them to bed…. I just don’t have any energy left to exercise.

I’m happy to get up and work out first thing, but do I need to eat straight after working out? Or is it still ok to still wait until 10am? At the moment I wake up at 5 and other than a glass of water while working out and a coffee after my shower the first food I eat is around 10am as that is when I first start to get hungry. Is this ok or should I be taking in some protein after my work out?

My main goal is weight loss so I have been following the idea that I should only really eat when hungry. But I just don’t want to do myself more harm than good. Weight loss is important to me but I want to try and do it in a healthy sustainable way. Thanks for any advice!

cityruss

For 99.9% of the population who aren't elite level athletes nutrient timing comes down to personal preference.

You'll see a lot of outdated rote crossover advice from strength training circles and supplement companies telling you different, talking about arbitrary one hour anabolic windows, ignore it.

Meet your calorie, micro and macronutrient goals through the day and you're golden.

Neanbean13

Yep. Eat when u want. If you find u have no energy to get thru workouts first thing, adjust.

witchy_wife

Cool, thanks! I do find that when I do a strength work out (rather than cardio) I do get hungry nearer to 9am instead of 10am. So I will just let my body guide me and if I am hungry at 9 will eat then, otherwise just wait until 10.

LivingtheLeanDream

It depends on the individual, if you are lacking energy for your workouts then you know you need to fuel them, either before or after.
I can't run on empty so I know to fuel up before I get started

callsitlikeiseeit

doesnt matter when you eat.

i get up at 4 or so, dont eat breakfast, work out around 7, eat lunch around 10, dinner around 4 or 5 (depending on when Sir gets home and/or how hungry I am) and if i want something later, eat later.

witchy_wife

Thanks for your replies