Eating and Exercise - Time your meals for better workouts
Most fitness enthusiasts remain puzzled about how to schedule their meals around their exercise. Knowing when and how much to eat is important because it can affect your overall exercise performance.
In general, one should never eat a large meal before exercise. Besides feeling full, you may develop stomach cramps, nausea and diarrhea. Furthermore, you may feel sleepy and fatigued before you even begin your workout for the day. A lot of people don’t realize how much energy the body utilizes to digest a whole food meal. If you eat a large meal before your workout, your body will be splitting your energy between digestion and physical activity which leads to less than stellar workouts.
On the other hand, if you do not eat before exercise, you may not feel too good either. You may develop hunger pangs during your workout, and worst case scenario you become dizzy due to lack of nutrients in your body. Food fuels your body, and also fuels your workout.
If you plan to exercise later in the morning, eat a decent breakfast. But, if you plan on exercising soon after you rise out of bed then a liquid meal is your best option due to the quick absorption rate. Invest in a quality whey protein and some branched chain amino acids to fuel your morning workouts. 30-40 grams of whey protein and 5 grams of BCAAs is enough to keep you going strong.
If you workout later in the day, I recommend not eating a whole food meal sooner than 2 hours before your workout, so your body has enough time to break down the food and deliver the nutrients throughout your body. As your workout approaches and you catch yourself becoming slightly hungry then a small protein shake is fine about 20 minutes before your workout.
During your workout, your body breaks down and uses a lot of resources, so post workout nutrition is extremely important. Once again, whey protein is your friend due to the quick absorption. For general post workout nutrition, a shake consisting of 25-30 grams of protein and 50-60 grams of simple carbohydrates should suffice. If your looking to gain mass, then increase the amount of protein and carbs in your post workout shake.
If you have been having sub-par workouts lately, then the problem may not be you, but your diet. Analyze your daily diet for a week and see how your eating has been scheduled around your exercise. Chances are that you will find a problem that you didn’t know existed and a quick fix can get you right back on track.
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