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What to eat before and after your workout

Nutrition Tips by Leah Kriewall:

When to eat:

Before

(2-3 hours before working out)

Balanced Meal – Combine carbohydrate, protein, & fat

-or-

Before

(1-2 hours before working out)

Lighter fare – easily digestible carbohydrates (fruit, whole wheat crackers, or yogurt)

After

(30 minutes-hour after working out)

Balanced Snack – Always combine carbohydrate, protein,
& perhaps some fat

What to eat:  Easy Snack Combinations

 

• Edamame & Fresh pineapple chunks
• pumpkin seed butter on whole grain crackers
• Apple slices & string cheese
• Pecans and raisins
• Small muffin & a handful of sunflower seeds
• Kiwi and smoked salmon
• Sliced turkey (rolled up) with fresh berries
• baked pita chips with hummus
• Whole grain Bread with nut butter
• Bananas with peanut butter
• Crackers with avocado and cottage cheese
• Smoothie made of Frozen cherries, plain yogurt, & milk

Optimize your post-workout intake:

Try to choose whole or minimally-processed foods

And more information:

Macro Nutrients

Carbohydrate is the preferred fuel for endurance exercise.

• Approx. 60-75% of calories should be from carbohydrate (CHO).
• Predominant energy system for ultra endurance athletes is aerobic, with brief intermittent anaerobic activity.

 

60% -75%	CHO
12% -15%	Protein
15% -30%	Fat

 

Protein

• Endurance exercise causes training adaptations that alter protein metabolism, resulting in increased amino acid oxidation and subsequent increased mitochondrial protein content.  This causes an increased protein need.
• Recommendation is 1.2 – 1.4 g/kg body weight/day    (1 kg = 2.2 lb.)
• This increased protein need may be most important during the first 2 weeks of an intense endurance program.

Fat

• Increased lactic acid production results in decreased catecholamine-induced lypolysis, and thus a decreased supply of fatty acids to the muscles.
• There is a lower rate of production per unit time of fat oxidation vs. CHO oxidation.
• Fat oxidation requires more oxygen than CHO (77% more!)
• There is only one proven method to increase fat utilization during endurance exercise:

Training!

• Trained muscles have more lipoprotein lipase, muscle lipase, fatty acid acetyl Co-A, reductase, and carnitine acyl transferase, and 3-hydroxyl acyl CoA dehydrogenase…All or which can enhance fatty acid supply and oxidation during exercise, thereby conserving CHO stores.

Other

 Iron: 

• It is important to ensure the diet has adequate iron while in training in order to maximize hemoglobin stores.  (If iron stores are low, they take a few weeks to replenish.)
• RDA for iron is 15mg/day for adults. 

Calcium:

• Most Americans do not consume enough calcium. 
• Adequate calcium is necessary to prevent stress fractures, and for muscle contractions.
• The RDA for Calcium is 800 mg/day for most adults.  I would recommend 1200-1500 mg/day for serious athletes. (If taking supplements, take 500-600 mg 2-3 times/day; that is all your body can absorb at one time.)

Sodium:

• Adequate sodium is necessary during an expedition to replace what is lost in sweat, and to help alleviate the effects of acute mountain sickness.
• Salt tablets are not recommended
• Many sports drinks help replenish sodium and other electrolytes, while providing CHO and fluids. As one colleague put it, "powdered sports drinks are worth their weight in gold!"

(from Suzanne Girard Eberle, MS, RD; Sports Nutritionist and author of Endurance Sports Nutrition)

 Always drink water:

• Drink plenty of water the day before
• Drink about 15-20 fl oz, 2-3 hours before exercise
• Drink 8-10 fl oz 10-15 min before exercise

Keep Drinking water during exercise (you only need a sports drink if exercising continuously for over 1.5 hour)

• Drink 6-10 fl oz every 10-20 min during exercise
• If exercising longer than 90 minutes, drink 8-10 fl oz of a sports drink (with no more than 8 percent carbohydrate) every 15 - 30 minutes.