Food: before or after your workout?
There is a big difference between when and how to eat. The same food eaten before and after a workout can lead to different results.
The main law of muscle building nutrition is that the amount of energy ingested with food should exceed the amount of energy expended by the body during exercise. Yes, here the reverse works, when we are trying to reduce calories to lose weight, then to increase muscle mass it is necessary to increase the caloric intake of food.
Despite the fact that the basis of nutrition for building muscle are proteins, the building material. In total they should constitute no more than 35% of the diet. The main part of the diet still consists of carbohydrates – 60%.
Here it is necessary to make digression that for “drying” (when it is necessary to lose weight quickly and to show relief of muscles), for example, at competitions this balance is temporarily interchanged. That is, temporarily proteins become a priority. But such a diet is very limited in time. It is harmful, even dangerous for health, to eat like that for a long time.
The most important meals are in the morning for breakfast and after training.
The morning
It is recommended to consume about 20-30 grams of protein within an hour after waking up. Boiled eggs are very good in the morning (a serving is approximately one whole egg and two egg whites) or protein shakes.
Before and after a workout
It’s best to eat an hour and a half before a workout. A sandwich made from wholemeal bread with meat or chicken is a good pre-training snack. If there is no such possibility, it is recommended to eat an apple and drink a protein drink half an hour before the workout.
But the main thing is to eat right after the workout.
It is the nutrition after the workout is the base that becomes the basis for building body mass. After a workout, proteins and carbohydrates are completely absorbed. And all that you ate will go to recovery and muscle building. It is important that you should eat food as early as possible, preferably within the first twenty minutes after the workout. Fats should be almost completely eliminated, because they will also be digested, and this is not necessary.
Consequently, it is important to watch what you eat.
Most trainers recommend taking special protein sports nutrition. You can also consume egg whites (cooked), but you should remember that yolks contain a lot of fat, which slows down the process of protein assimilation. Therefore, separate the yolks from the whites. By the way, egg white is almost completely digested by the body. This contributes to a dramatic increase in the formation of protein in muscle fibers.
It is very important to drink. It can be ordinary water, or better – freshly squeezed juice. That is why you can often see bodybuilders or powerlifters drinking juices after workouts almost in the locker room.
And a more substantial meal might be an hour to an hour and a half after a workout. It can be:
- lean meat,
- Egg whites with a side dish of rice or pasta.
What you should not eat within 2 hours after the workout↑
There should be no fat in the food, as it slows down the absorption of proteins and carbohydrates.
Caffeine (coffee, tea), cocoa, chocolate, cream, whipped cream – they also slow down the processes and therefore the work on muscle recovery will be incomplete.
Outside of training it is important to consume animal proteins, especially for men (we describe the nutritional needs of men and women in a separate article), because they are used to produce male sex hormones, which actively build muscles. The formation of male sex hormones is facilitated by:
- eggs,
- oysters,
- beef,
- chicken,
- Brussels sprouts,
- dairy products.
Women can do without fatty foods altogether. Although, fatty sea fish is good for everyone.
