You plan your day.
You coordinate everything.
Kids to school.
Work.
Pre and post workout meals?
You better believe it!
But what are the best ways to fuel yourself before a workout, and after? That answer actually depends on what works best for you.
Some of you work from home, or are stay at home moms (or Dads!). You have easy access to your kitchen. Others leave the house in the morning, and are gone the entire day.
There are good options for both!
EAT WHOLE FOODS
Pre Workout
You will always hear us talk about eat real whole foods. This is no different. If you have access to your refrigerator, or have time to plan ahead, then whole foods is for you. Note that your pre workout meal isn’t necessarily going to provide you any fuel for your workout that is going to take place in an hour. Your body actually needs 4-5 hours to digest the food for it to be usable. This meal is more about blood sugar control.
Now, the food you eat needs to be quick digesting. This means protein and carbohydrates. Fat actually slows digestion down, so we need to limit or better yet reduce the fat content. You don’t want to be hitting an intense workout with food still in your belly. For proteins, this would ideally be skinless chicken breast, egg whites, or a lean beef like top sirloin. In terms of carbohydrates, we are looking for any sort of vegetable and/or starchy carb like rice or potatoes. Fruit in this instance is acceptable.
Post Workout
The post workout meal serves two purposes: replenish glycogen (carbohydrate) stores in the muscles, and reversing the effects of training on the nervous system. During exercise, cortisol (that’s your stress, or your fight or flight hormone) rises during exercise. However when you stop exercising, your body does not simply stop producing cortisol. By consuming food, cortisol production stops. Again, we want this meal to contain lean protein, carbohydrates, and no fats. Where the pre workout could contain fruit, the post workout should not. This is because we want to restore glycogen (ie glucose) stores in the muscles. Fruit contains fructose, which is not stored in the muscles, but rather the liver.
However some people do not have the time to prepare nor the means to store real food. Here you would go with the shake option.
SHAKE IT!
The shake should contain the same macro breakdown as your real food option (as prescribed by your nutrition coach). There are several different options when it comes to protein powder.
Whey Isolate. ( You can even get grass fed whey isolate!)
Hydrolyzed whey.
Milk Protein.
Egg White.
For those of you who have a hard time with whey or dairy, there are various sources of vegan proteins (rice, pumpkin, pea, hemp, etc).
There are many options and brands available. The best way to check if you have a quality protein is to check its rating on Labdoor (www.labdoor.com).
You can also make sure the content is at least 80% protein (compare overall gram serving size vs. protein content), and ensure the ingredients list doesn’t go over 5 items.
After we complete our training, there is a time period when our muscles are glycogen sensitive. Meaning the muscles are wanting to replenish their glycogen (carbohydrate) stores. So we need something that is very fast digesting. For this, go for something like a highly branched cyclic dextrin or karbolyn. Again, these are carbohydrates that are fast digesting, which is what we want to achieve after we finish our training.
As mentioned above, the post workout shake should contain very little to no fat.
So which is better? Well, it all depends on you and your schedule. Do you have time to prepare and refrigerate your pre and post workout meals? Go for the real food option then. On the road, or don’t have time to prep that meal? Go for the shake.
