Eating Around Your Workout: Peri-Workout Nutrition

Joe String

J Fitness

The places that you go, the events that you attend and a lot of your daily decisions surround your workout. You try your best to plan your hangouts, make your work schedule fit and of course, make it so you can obtain a good night of sleep before hitting the weights the following day. One thing that, although not extremely relevant, that seems to have been forgotten as of late is the nutritional decisions that surround the day’s workout. What am I talking about here, people? I’m talking about pre, post and intra-workout nutrition.

Whether you enjoy training in a fasted state, on a full stomach or somewhere in between, the foods that you choose to eat prior to your workout will have an impact on how that workout will be. On top of that, how you are able to bounce back from tearing apart muscle tissue and taking a chunk out of your glycogen stores will make an impact on how much energy you have for the rest of the day and can have effects on the following workout. Finally, when you’re in the gym training, there are some ways that you can manipulate sources of muscle/recovery enhancers that can keep you going harder, longer.

Before I begin, understand that all three periods of nutrition are entirely a means of personal preference. One person may not find what the same practice as efficient as somebody else. More importantly, regardless of how optimal your peri-workout nutrition may be, your daily macronutrient requirements must be hit. I am an advocate of maximizing your results with nutritional practices that work best for you, but let’s not forget the most important aspect of nutrition: overall macronutrient consumption is the deciding factor of muscle gain and/or fat loss. With that in mind, let’s discuss optimal forms of the three workout-surrounding eating slots and find what may work best for you.

Pre-Workout Nutrition

Okay, so let’s get right to it. A vast majority of people put way too much emphasis on their pre-workout meal. Some will consider their workout ruined if it is not exactly two hours before they start lifting their first weight; others believe that if it contains over five grams of fat that they will feel sluggish during their workout. Although there are many myths claiming that your meal directly before exercise should consist of high carbohydrate and high protein foods with minimal fat, I have had my best workouts taking place after meals including a serving or two of peanut butter.

The idea of high-fat foods negatively impacting your workouts comes from the fact that carbohydrate is the optimal source of energy for the body. It makes sense, but fact of the matter is, fat digestion can take up to 6 hours. Not only that, when consumed with carbohydrate and/or protein, fat takes a back seat in the digestion process. To think that dietary fat is going to be used as a source of energy two hours after its consumption is absurd.

The other argument behind avoiding the consumption of fat prior to a workout is that because it takes so long to digest and is the most satiating macronutrient; it will leave you feeling overly full and sluggish during your workout. Okay, I can agree with that thought, but like I said before; I’ve had some of my best workouts after two servings of peanut butter. Therefore, it is obvious that some people may be negatively affected after consuming high fat foods while some may enjoy the full feeling. Pre-workout nutrition is completely a means of personal preference. The technique that works best for one person may not work best for another.

There is another form of pre-workout nutrition (or lack thereof) that I want to touch on. It does not involve the consumption of food; it involves training on a completely empty stomach. Early-morning trainers usually favor this practice, known as training in a fasted state, because they enjoy the feeling. Most of the time, this technique is used during a cutting or maintenance phase because it allows for the person to only have so much time to hit their macros. This makes it very easy to allow low-calorie meals to provide a full feeling.

Intra-Workout Nutrition

There are an insane amount of different thoughts behind intra-workout nutrition. Most people (including myself) opt for plain old water, some turn to specific supplements and amino acids and a few actually consume legitimate food sources. All three sources of intra-workout nutrition have their reasons for utilization, so let’s dig in to each and try to discover which will work best for you.

Water

First, let’s cover the most basic—water. Contrary to what some believe, in the world of nutrition, water is indeed a nutrient. Although providing zero calories and containing nothing except for the molecules necessary for hydration, it is extremely important to your regimen. Water aids in gym performance, recovery and above all, general health. In terms of performance, water is absolutely essential for muscle contractions. In short, water must be present for thin and thick filaments to slide past one another in an optimal manner. Also, hydrated muscles recover much faster than dehydrated muscles. Providing enough water for your muscles to remain hydrated will speed your recovery. Finally, water is essential for proper organ function and to keep your body working properly.

Supplements

Taking it a step farther than water, some people will add a scoop of an intra-workout supplement to their bottle. These supplements, usually interchanged with the term “BCAA” are designed to prolong workouts by increasing endurance while assuring a short and speedy recovery for the next day. They do so by providing users with researched doses of branched chain amino acids. A study done by the Mile University School of Medicine and Indiana University School of Medicine showed that those supplementing with BCAA and taking part in vigorous exercise had an elevation in protein synthesis. Further, these same users had an elevation in metabolic rate and therefore, an increase in fatty acid oxidation during exercise.

Another supplement that is used while training is one that contains simple sugars as a form of carbohydrate. Users of these supplements usually do so to increase caloric intake. However, some use them simply because of the fact that the extra calories, while burning muscle glycogen, give them an extra boost of both energy and endurance, making for longer workouts and better results. In addition, these supplements usually contain electrolytes, which will better hydrate the user.

Food

Finally, and less commonly seen, there are those who consume full on sources of food while training. I’ve seen trail mix, plain oats, peanut butter sandwiches and whey shakes all consumed while in the gym. There are two conclusions that I can arrive at while speaking about intra-workout eating. One being that the overall goal of the person is to add mass and, therefore, he or she requires a lot of calories that cannot be consumed at any other time (for whatever reason.) The other thought that came to mind is that this person may not enjoy training with their stomach completely empty. Therefore, they provide themselves with solid food sources while lifting weights. There is no real benefit or negative side effect to consuming food while training. If it works best for you, go for it.

Post-Workout Nutrition

Here we go; I’m already preparing myself for the responses that could come of what is about to be said. Contrary to what many people in fitness believe, post-workout nutrition is nowhere near as important as advertisements, magazines and supplement companies make it out to be. Right now, I look to expose all myths surrounding post-workout nutrition, explain where they came from and then take a look at the practices of many people that participate in fitness.

The first thing that I really want to explain and disprove is the absolute need for a source of protein (preferably, whey) within 30 minutes of your last rep. This has been a never-ending claim that has caused countless problems in the world of proper nutrition. Establishment of this magical “anabolic window” took place after professional bodybuilders began injecting insulin post-workout to speed up the storage of carbohydrate and limit levels of satiety. This insulin injection allowed for high amounts of carbohydrate to not even faze these men and women, making it much easier to consume their up-ends of 800-1000 carbs daily.

As most of us already know, the release of insulin shuttles glycogen into the muscle cells and [slightly] elevates protein synthesis. However, after taking part in strenuous weight training, protein synthesis remains elevated for up to 36 hours. This allows us to completely eliminate the need to spike insulin because of its elevation of protein synthesis. More importantly, the faster replenishment of muscle glycogen is completely irrelevant for multiple reasons. People claim that it must be done to speed up recovery, minimize overall soreness and build more muscle. Fact of the matter is, your body will utilize and burn these calories regardless as to when they are consumed; there is no difference in consuming a meal two hours after the gym versus directly after.

The main reasons people like to have a large, high-carbohydrate, high-protein, calorie-dense meal directly post-workout are more psychological than physical. It is not because the body needs nutrients more than ever; it is because most of the time, people are very hungry directly after their workout and feel as though that the body can work with calories much better. Have you ever heard someone say, “After the gym, I eat whatever I want”?

It is a mind game. Since the myths of post-workout insulin spiking, elevations in protein synthesis and “after-burn” began to float around; fitness enthusiasts began to believe that calories consumed directly post-workout would only lead to muscle gain. This is exactly where the idea of the need for post-workout nutrition came about. The foods that are eaten post-workout can be eaten at any time of the day if overall macronutrient consumption remains the same. It will result in no difference in body composition.

Conclusion

Amidst all of the false claims, misconceptions and unnecessary practices of those looking to better their gains by timing up their food consumption, we can see the truth. At the end of the day, peri-workout nutrition is going to come down to personal preference. What you decide to consume directly before you train, while you train and after you train may differ from somebody else, and that is okay. The most important aspect of proper nutrition is that macronutrient and micronutrient goals are met—regardless of the time of their consumption.