PRE / POST Work Out Advice

elle2bee

Ok, so I have done some research on google about what is best to put in my body pre and post work out to fuel me for cardio and weights and then for recovery and miscle sorness afterwards. Google has a million different answers and I just need some basic information.

I don't want to purchase any diet / powder drink system. I would rather use things from the grocery store.

Any suggestions?

melaniecheeks

Pre - something light, about an hour before. A handful of nuts, a piece of fruit, or a good quality cereal like nakd. Or wholewheat toast with peanut butter.

After strength training - chocolate milk! About an hour later, some complex carbs like wholewheat pasta with protein like chicken, eggs or tuna.

lt_mrcook

If you're not workout longer than 90 minutes you don't need anything special other than the last meal you ate. If you're going past 90 minutes, at about 60 minutes you'll want to add a little carb/electrolyte. Post, just eat a normal balanced meal, unless you do some serious muscle damage (heavy lifting or very high intensity intervals) then you'll want to add a bit more protien to the post workout meal. Just be VERY careful, and strict, about the actual calories you burn and take in...you can eat away a workout in a heartbeat if you're not careful.

barbiex3

i don't eat before. I have a drink with sugar or electrolights in it. like a vitamin water, crystal light, powerade, gatorade, etc.
Afterwards, eat high in protein foods: eggs, meat, beans, etc. Muscle milk or other protein shakes and bars are avaliable pretty much everywhere.

elle2bee

Cocolate Milk? Really? Isn't think considered junk food? I'm trying to put good things in my body. I've never heard this before. Can you explain about this?

meggamix

If I workout first thing in the morning I HAVE to eat or else I start getting light headed during my workout. I eat a banana and 1 cup of low fat chocolate milk, which was recommended to me by my trainer. It totally works! After a workout you have about 20 minutes to capatalize on all the work you've done and feed your muscles. So find a high protein, low calorie food if possible. I drink a scoop of whey protein powder....20 grams of protein and less than 100 calories! It really keeps my metabolism up all day!

elle2bee

I like the miscle milk, but a trainer told me this was like eating candy. Thanks for your comments. I am just trying to get everyone's take on this.

elle2bee

If I workout first thing in the morning I HAVE to eat or else I start getting light headed during my workout. I eat a banana and 1 cup of low fat chocolate milk, which was recommended to me by my trainer. It totally works! After a workout you have about 20 minutes to capatalize on all the work you've done and feed your muscles. So find a high protein, low calorie food if possible. I drink a scoop of whey protein powder....20 grams of protein and less than 100 calories! It really keeps my metabolism up all day!

Thanks.

HannahPendrigh

I always have a banana smoothie after my workouts!

melaniecheeks

Oh chocolate milk ( a low sugar version if possible) is recommended by many sources as the best combination of carbs and protein, particularly after muscle and strength workouts. Haven't got links to hand but feel free to google!

aviduser

I usually have a clif bar before workout. If I am doing a moderate cardio workout (1-1.5 hrs, 600-1000 cal), then I eat a regular clif bar. If I am doing a weight training workout (1 hr, usu. 250-500 cal), I will eat a clif mini (only 100 cal). BTW, I workout first thing in the AM.

For longer workouts, like outdoor cycling, I will fuel up differently. Distance/time matters:

25 mi -- clif bar, banana, coconut water or water
50 + mi-- protein smoothie (650 cal) OR clif bar, banana (1 or 2), dried fruit, water with electrolyte capsules (Hammer Enduralytes)

For endurance training, you also need to eat during your ride/run, etc. You have not asked about this, so I will bypass it. If you want to know more, hit me back.

Post workout:

Shorter workout (1.5 hrs or less): Usually just have my regular protein smoothie breakfast (650 cal)

Longer workout (2 hours or more): Recoverite, followed by more water, and a meal with good carbs, protein and fat within 2 hours of finishing workout. Chocolate milk is the easy answer to a recovery drink--you are trying to replenish your body's store of glycogen, which will help prevent soreness and leave you ready to rock the next day. Glycogen is glucose (sugar) and water. Especially after a long 2+ hour workout, you need to get sugar into your body. The counter-intuitive part is that foods we consider "junk" are ok at this stage. Bananas are always a great & healthy answer for refueling, but they do not provide protein. Recoverite is a more sophisticated recovery drink with a specific mix of carbs, fats, proteins and amino acids.

Hope this helps. Sports nutrition is much more complicated than you might think. I have learned some of my lessons the hard way.

elle2bee

I usually have a clif bar before workout. If I am doing a moderate cardio workout (1-1.5 hrs, 600-1000 cal), then I eat a regular clif bar. If I am doing a weight training workout (1 hr, usu. 250-500 cal), I will eat a clif mini (only 100 cal). BTW, I workout first thing in the AM.

For longer workouts, like outdoor cycling, I will fuel up differently. Distance/time matters:

25 mi -- clif bar, banana, coconut water or water
50 + mi-- protein smoothie (650 cal) OR clif bar, banana (1 or 2), dried fruit, water with electrolyte capsules (Hammer Enduralytes)

For endurance training, you also need to eat during your ride/run, etc. You have not asked about this, so I will bypass it. If you want to know more, hit me back.

Post workout:

Shorter workout (1.5 hrs or less): Usually just have my regular protein smoothie breakfast (650 cal)

Longer workout (2 hours or more): Recoverite, followed by more water, and a meal with good carbs, protein and fat within 2 hours of finishing workout. Chocolate milk is the easy answer to a recovery drink--you are trying to replenish your body's store of glycogen, which will help prevent soreness and leave you ready to rock the next day. Glycogen is glucose (sugar) and water. Especially after a long 2+ hour workout, you need to get sugar into your body. The counter-intuitive part is that foods we consider "junk" are ok at this stage. Bananas are always a great & healthy answer for refueling, but they do not provide protein. Recoverite is a more sophisticated recovery drink with a specific mix of carbs, fats, proteins and amino acids.

Hope this helps. Sports nutrition is much more complicated than you might think. I have learned some of my lessons the hard way.

OK, this was very helpful. I usually do 30 minutes if intense cardio and trying to build up more. Then I work out my legs and arms and throw some abs in. This is my typical work out routein. I really need to pick up the cardio though. Anyway, I cycle 3 to 4 times a week. Anywhere from 3 to 10 miles. So this information was very helpful. Thanks.

Brunewicz90

If you are looking to lose weight try to stay away from dairy it makes you super bloated . And with your workout routine you got to change it up because if you keep doing the same thing daily your body will get use to it .. you need some muscle confusion so your body can kick it in high gear

TrainingWithTonya

Cocolate Milk? Really? Isn't think considered junk food? I'm trying to put good things in my body. I've never heard this before. Can you explain about this?

http://www.acsm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=About_ACSM&TEMPLATE=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=14752

Here's the article from the American College of Sports Medicine. One of my exercise physiology professors actually did some of his own research on this after the ACSM study and got the same results. Turns out chocolate milk may be the best recovery drink out there.

TrainingWithTonya

I like the miscle milk, but a trainer told me this was like eating candy. Thanks for your comments. I am just trying to get everyone's take on this.

Not all trainers are educated in sports nutrition. Some aren't even certified as trainers. So, check their education before you take their advice. IMHO

TrainingWithTonya

My actual recommendation as a sports nutritionist. Before your workout you need a mix of carbs (both simple and complex) and protein prior to exercise, usually at least an hour before. The timing of eating before depends on how your body responds to food on the stomach while exercising. Some of my clients have to eat at least 2 hours before exercise or they get sick. Others can eat on the treadmill and be fine. The simple carbs will give you more immediate energy while the complex carbs will be there to help fuel the end of your workout. The protein is to be on board for recovery after exercise. After your workout, again, a mix of carbs and protein. This time the simple carbs will keep you from feeling an energy slump right after working out. The complex carbs will replace the glycogen you used, and the protein will provide the building blocks for recovery and repair of the muscles used.

As a personal trainer, I'd also recommend you switch up your workout so that you are warming up with cardio (5-10 minutes), then doing your weights, following them with your longer cardio session (30 minutes), and finishing up with stretching. This will help you get more fat burning from less cardio. Basically, weight training uses primarily glycogen or other available carbs for fuel. The process of converting carbs to ATP produces pyruvate (which can be converted to lactic acid if not used). The pyruvate is then used when we do cardio for the chemical process of fat burning. If we don't have enough pyruvate on board, then the body will continue burning carbs during cardio to make it so that it can burn fat. Weights first provides for plenty of pyruvate to be able to burn more fat with less glycogen use during cardio. Also, doing weights last means that the pyruvate that is made from the glycogen burn during weights isn't used so it is converted to lactic acid, which causes fatigue and some muscle soreness at the time of exercise. So, not only will this plan burn more fat, it will also result in less discomfort during exercise.

drandall90

I train fasted everyday.

In fact, i train at about 4pm in the afternoons and my last meal was the previous night at about 11pm.

Meal timing is completely irrelevant in the context of weight loss and weight gain. Only your overall caloric intake matter.

Most food is in a state of digestion and absorption for 16-18 hours. So the idea you need to eat right before a workout has been largely debunked. The same goes for post workout.

If you feel sluggish in the gym, might i just suggest one 200mg caffeine pill. cheap, easy, and tons of energy for the gym.

dimplz1965

Oh chocolate milk ( a low sugar version if possible) is recommended by many sources as the best combination of carbs and protein, particularly after muscle and strength workouts. Haven't got links to hand but feel free to google!

My hubby would drink chocolate milk and eat a banana after his "strength" workouts, but couldn't figure out why he was gaining weight, and I mean, gaining weight. I told him to cut out the chocolate milk and the 2-3 bananas a day and he'd lose it. Yep, I was right. I think in his case he was taking in way more calories than he was burning - cuz he never does cardio, ever!

dimplz1965

Oh chocolate milk ( a low sugar version if possible) is recommended by many sources as the best combination of carbs and protein, particularly after muscle and strength workouts. Haven't got links to hand but feel free to google!

My hubby would drink chocolate milk and eat a banana after his "strength" workouts, but couldn't figure out why he was gaining weight, and I mean, gaining weight. I told him to cut out the chocolate milk and the 2-3 bananas a day and he'd lose it. Yep, I was right. I think in his case he was taking in way more calories than he was burning - cuz he never does cardio, ever!

elle2bee

My actual recommendation as a sports nutritionist. Before your workout you need a mix of carbs (both simple and complex) and protein prior to exercise, usually at least an hour before. The timing of eating before depends on how your body responds to food on the stomach while exercising. Some of my clients have to eat at least 2 hours before exercise or they get sick. Others can eat on the treadmill and be fine. The simple carbs will give you more immediate energy while the complex carbs will be there to help fuel the end of your workout. The protein is to be on board for recovery after exercise. After your workout, again, a mix of carbs and protein. This time the simple carbs will keep you from feeling an energy slump right after working out. The complex carbs will replace the glycogen you used, and the protein will provide the building blocks for recovery and repair of the muscles used.

As a personal trainer, I'd also recommend you switch up your workout so that you are warming up with cardio (5-10 minutes), then doing your weights, following them with your longer cardio session (30 minutes), and finishing up with stretching. This will help you get more fat burning from less cardio. Basically, weight training uses primarily glycogen or other available carbs for fuel. The process of converting carbs to ATP produces pyruvate (which can be converted to lactic acid if not used). The pyruvate is then used when we do cardio for the chemical process of fat burning. If we don't have enough pyruvate on board, then the body will continue burning carbs during cardio to make it so that it can burn fat. Weights first provides for plenty of pyruvate to be able to burn more fat with less glycogen use during cardio. Also, doing weights last means that the pyruvate that is made from the glycogen burn during weights isn't used so it is converted to lactic acid, which causes fatigue and some muscle soreness at the time of exercise. So, not only will this plan burn more fat, it will also result in less discomfort during exercise.

WOW, thanks for this awesome response. All this makes sense, and I will start the new routein tonight. Thanks again!!!!!!

elle2bee

Oh chocolate milk ( a low sugar version if possible) is recommended by many sources as the best combination of carbs and protein, particularly after muscle and strength workouts. Haven't got links to hand but feel free to google!

My hubby would drink chocolate milk and eat a banana after his "strength" workouts, but couldn't figure out why he was gaining weight, and I mean, gaining weight. I told him to cut out the chocolate milk and the 2-3 bananas a day and he'd lose it. Yep, I was right. I think in his case he was taking in way more calories than he was burning - cuz he never does cardio, ever!

I eat about 3 or 4 bananas a week. Otherwise they mess up my stomach. I mainly eat them to get in my fiber intake and for a small healthy snack. Or for breakfast when I'm not feeling like really eating a meal at all. Just something to get me to lunch. As for chocolate milk, I can't see putting this in my body after all the hard work I just did at the gym. I would feel guilty.