Pre- and Post-Workout Nutrition: What to Eat and When
March is National Nutrition Month, and today is Registered Dietitian Day, which was created by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics to increase the awareness of registered dietitians as indispensable providers of food and nutrition services and to recognize them for their commitment to helping people enjoy healthy lives. To celebrate, Midtown Athletic Club in Rochester Nutritionist Sarah Guilbert is back to talk about how to properly fuel up for your workout, and what you should eat post-workout as well.
The Importance of Snack Planning
Pre-workout nutrition is important for ensuring that you have adequate energy stores (through carbohydrates) to fuel your workout. Consuming a moderate amount of protein before your workout is thought to increase muscle mass and strength performance. Post-workout nutrition is important for repleting your carbohydrate stores (glycogen) in your muscles, repairing muscle damage, and helping to synthesize muscle mass through protein.
How Much Do I Need?
The number of carbohydrates that you'll need will vary slightly depending on whether you are trying to lose/maintain weight (30g carbs/10-15g protein) or build more mass (40-50g carbs/15g protein). If you have a long workout day, try to get slightly higher carbohydrate repletion so that your glycogen stores are refueled optimally for the next workout.
Timing and Delivery
Pre-workout snacks should be eaten 30-60 minutes before you begin exercising. Post-workout recovery eating is optimal within 30 minutes of exercise completion. Note that liquid nutrition will get into your muscles faster than solid food because solid food has to be broken down more and has a longer transit time through the GI tract.
Which Type of Protein is Best?
Whey protein is quickly absorbed by muscles and has also been shown to have a greater effect on stimulating muscle protein synthesis than casein and soy. However, slower-absorbed proteins do have their benefits for providing repletion to muscles for a longer period of time after a workout.
Snack Ideas
Here are some appropriate pre- and post-workout snack options, whether you like to add protein to your shakes, have cottage cheese and fruit, or go old-school with skim milk and fruit smoothie. Try one and let us know what you think! Strawberry protein shake 12 oz skim milk 1 cup strawberries 1 cup ice 177 calories, 13g protein, 30g carbs Tropical fruit smoothie 4 oz vanilla non-fat Greek yogurt 1 cup mixed tropical fruit (frozen) 4 oz vanilla almond milk ½ cup ice 195 calories, 10g protein, 38g carbs Chunky Monkey* ½ large banana 8 oz chocolate soymilk 1 T peanut butter 1 cup ice 276 calories, 10g protein, 38g carbs Berry Vanilla Smoothie ¾ cup blueberries ¾ cup blackberries 4 oz light vanilla soymilk ½ scoop vanilla protein powder 1 cup ice 193 calories, 15g protein, 34g carbs 6 oz flavored fat-free Greek yogurt + ½ banana 201 calories, 15g protein, 36g carbs 6 oz vanilla yogurt + ¼ cup granola 228 calories, 11g protein, 39g carbs 4 oz 1% cottage cheese + 1 cup mango 187 calories, 15g protein, 32g carbs 1/4 cup egg whites + 2 slices toast 187 calories, 12g protein, 30g carbs *The fat in peanut butter will delay gastric emptying and may cause GI distress if you have a sensitive stomach. This one is better to have post-workout.