What To Eat Before And After Workout

It is best to work out for 30 minutes, five days a week to maintain a healthy weight. 

It’s your workout that will help keep you healthy and fit.  However, depending solely on your gym hours isn’t a good idea. You need a good diet to help you, and a lot depends on what you eat pre-and post-workout.

If you want to get the best out of your workouts, you need to pair your exercise with the right kind of diet and eat at the right times during the day. Some people assume that they shouldn’t eat anything after the exercise and must wait until the next meal. However, the truth is working out burns a lot of calories, draining the muscles. Eating after a training session is essential to stay energized, build lean muscle, and help recover from the fatigue.

Keep it light before a workout. The body burns the same amount of energy during a workout, whether you work out after a meal, or on an empty stomach. On the other hand, the downside to working out on an empty stomach, is that it may result in muscle loss. Proteins in the muscles get metabolised because of the absence of another source of energy. 

Losing muscle mass, in turn impacts the metabolism, and if the goal of your exercise is to lose weight that becomes a distant dream. Here are the best foods to eat before a workout:

• Bananas

• Fruit yogurt or parfait

• Oats

• Eggs and whole meal toast

Ideally you should eat about 15- 45 minutes before your workout and include light carbs and a protein rich snack in your pre-workout meal. This will help you achieve maximum muscle growth and strength.

What you eat after a workout is important too. Glycogen is the energy reserve of the muscles, which deplete quickly during a workout. Breakdown of glycogen also deprives the muscles of oxygen. Hence, it is recommended that you intake something that is rich in proteins and carbohydrates. 

You need to consume food about 30 minutes to an hour after your workout. It will replenish the energy, and build and repair the muscles. If you wait for 2 hours, you will have depleted 50% of the muscle stores. Here are some super foods that you can consume after a workout:

• A Protein Shake

• Protein Powder

• A balanced meal like fish or meat with salad or vegetables and rice or potato

Your muscles need at least 10-20 grams of proteins after a workout.

If you are in for a heavy workout session, it is always a good idea to load yourself up on carbs. You may also consume these as you are body building to give you sufficient energy to train.

You can also include sports drinks in your workout session, but make sure you stick to a lighter version if losing weight is your goal. It is also important that you maintain the fluid balance of your body during exercise.

These tips should help you plan your meals around your work out to achieve maximum affects.