pre and post workout food

My trainer always says - carbs before, protein after. I regularly have half an english muffin with almond butter before working out - and a can of tuna post-workout.

I do 30 minutes of cardio first thing in the morning and don't eat anything before. My thinking is that my body will be "demanding energy" and I only want it to be able to find it and burn it from one place - my fat cells! I figured if I ate before I might have some easy/quick energy available and that would get used instead of burning fat. Seems like this will make it burn the fat and then have to work to turn food I eat later back into fat (if my calories are too high).

Then most of the time I don't even feel like eating after a workout. I always wait at least 30 minutes anyway, which is again about burning fat. I imagine the "demanding energy" signals above are actually chemistry/hormone levels in my blood stream and that these will take awhile to settle down after a workout and will continue to cause fat energy to be released until they do.

I also do more of a stretching/strength exercise at night (~30 minutes) and don't worry about what I eat before or after this one. That's because this one is more about being limber and toning instead of burning fat. I'm also not trying to "bulk up" so I don't pay attention to protein. If you're trying to get bigger then you may want to do the protein thing on schedule. I've been able to achieve the moderate tone-level I like without protein.

I'm no scientist and this is just my own thinking, but I did lose >70 lbs at about 3-4lbs/wk. (I was able to achieve the 3-4lbs/wk with just the cardio workout, btw.)

Best of luck!

Andrew

You might want to research what your body really uses for fuel doing fasted cardio. You may have lost quite a bit of muscle

Yep, thus the disclaimer, do your research make up your own mind. This routine works for me - I even had to cut back on some strength exercises because the wife was complaining I was getting too bulky. Nice problem to have.

Andrew