Eat This to Make the Most of Your Workout

You workout hard, you want to see results. What do you eat to get the most out of your workout?

Like all great nutrition answers, the answer to that question is: it depends.

Workout Nutrition

You do not want to sweat through your personal fitness trainers workouts 3 times a week to see zero results. Duh. We all want results.

But what you do in the gym is only part of the battle. The rest is up to you.

When I’m working 1 on 1 with a client I push them hard during our 1 hour sessions. I have control over that workout. What I don’t have control over: what they eat before, during and after that workout.

But workout nutrition plays a big role in the results you see.

Here is how to make it work for you.

Goal: General Health and Fitness

If you aren’t an athlete and you aren’t training to step onto a bodybuilding stage any time soon, your goals might fall into this range:

Get healthy, lose body fat, build muscle, feel better.

Amazing goals – rock on! If these goals sound familiar, here’s how you can hone your nutritional intake to get the most out of your workout.

Before Exercise

1-3 hours before you workout eat a meal that will help you have enough energy to crush your workout, preserve muscle mass (remember: strong is the new skinny), and help you to recover post-workout.

What that looks like:

• Protein: a serving of high- quality protein (about the size of your palm), helps to build muscle rather than break it down and never rebuild.
• Carbs: 1 cupful of carbohydrates gives your body the fuel you need to work through an intense workout.
• Healthy Fats: Although fats won’t be your primary source of fuel for the workout ahead, they will help to slow your digestion and keep you feeling fuller, longer.
• Water: You should be consuming 2 liters (8 cups) of water per day, minimum. Before you head into a workout, pace yourself but make sure that you are feeling hydrated. A cup of water prior to getting started hurts nobody.

Eating right before your workout?

If you ate hours ago or you simply like a snack before working out, you’ll want to reduce the size of your meal and you’ll likely want to turn it into a fast-digesting form of food so that you don’t get an upset stomach.

Your best bet: a well-balanced, delicious smoothie, like this one:

1 scoop high-quality vanilla protein powder (I use this one by 1st Phorm and recommend it to all of my clients)
1 fistful of spinach or kale
1/2 banana
1/2 cup frozen mango
1/2 tbsp nut butter
8 oz unsweetened almond milk

During Exercise

If your goals revolve around general health and fitness and not becoming Mrs. Arnold Schwarzenegger, your during-exercise-nutrition revolves around 1 thing: water.

Stay hydrated. Sip 2-4 cups of water throughout your workout.

Do you need that $5 sports drink from the cooler up front? Unless your workout is going to exceed 2 hours or you sweat like your life depends on it, probably not. Save your money for a post-workout snack.

After Exercise

First of all, here’s WHY you should refuel after a workout to get the most out of your effort: you’ve just depleted your body and it’d be awfully nice of you, and smart, to replenish.

Yes, to all of my fat loss fans, you should refuel too.

Post-workout nutrition helps you to rehydrate, replenish, recover, refuel, and responsibly use that $5 you didn’t use on a sports drink for a delicious smoothie.

What post-workout refueling looks like:

• Protein: post-workout protein should come in the form of protein powder. This is perhaps the ONLY time you’ll hear me preach protein powder instead of real, whole food. Why? A high-quality protein (like this one), will reach your depleted muscles faster than your body can break down say, a chicken breast.
• Carbs: A relatively fast-digesting carb is a good post-workout choice. Eating carbs after your workout will help to refuel your muscles with glycogen. This is an important step if you want to make progress! *These carbs refill your depleted muscles so that protein can get to work rebuilding.
• Fat: Fat doesn’t play as big of a role in your post-workout meal as it does during your larger meals throughout the day.

Keep in mind, you are the most important, deciding factor in the nutrition equation. Only you know how certain foods make you feel, how eating before working out affects your exercise, and whether or not you are hungry or not post-workout. There’s no universally right answer. There’s only what works for you.