Pre and post workout nutrition – what should you do?

The purpose of a pre and post workout meal is to provide your body with the most effective nutrition to support your training and body composition goals, increasing the availably of those nutrients at the time you need it most. 

These two nutrients are protein and carbohydrates; protein as a building block, and carbohydrates as fuel.

The sport or activity you are participating is important, as some sports require more than others when it comes to this meal, but in this article I am referring to weight training, or gym workouts, as this is what I specialise in.

Meal timing aside for a second, the following is way more important to maximise your chances at overall success:

• Adherence and consistency when it comes reaching your macro targets,
• The quality of your training and training methods, and
• Your overall health and stress levels.

Without these things in check, it won’t matter what time of the day you eat what nutrient – your results just won’t be that good.

So, overall health and consistency first, and perfectly timing your meals second! With that in mind, here is how to time your meals around training;

THE BEST PRE WORKOUT MEAL

For pre workout, eat a carbohydrate and protein rich meal, with lower fat. This could be something like lean meat with rice or potato, oats with whey protein. Make sure to leave at least 90-mins to digest the meal before you train.

If you are training first thing, and you’re not ‘dieting’ you can train fasted, but if you ARE dieting, I recommend you have a small protein-meal before you go to the gym, to avoid stressing your body too much (especially for females). Something good for this could be protein custard, or a protein yogurt, as they digest slowly.

THE BEST POST WORKOUT MEAL

For post workout, you want to eat something that is higher in carbohydrate and protein, but lower in fat and fibre, as the faster this meal is digested, the better for recovery. Think – white rice or potato with lean beef or chicken, or rice cakes with jam and a whey protein shake in water.

In summary, dialling in your pre workout and post workout meal is great if you’re wanting to just just that little bit more from your nutrition and training.

If you’re not quite there yet, it is completely OK not to get this right in the early stages. You will still make progress. Many of my clients have competed (and won) without worrying about meal timing at all!

Jen X