I have survived only by eating cheese. And as the saying goes, You are what you eat. that old saying is especially true when it comes to your pre and your post workout meals. What you eat before and after your workout will have a big impact on how well you perform at the gym, how quickly you recover and the results that you'll see in the mirror. Regardless of whether you're trying to build muscle or burn fat. You'll be at a disadvantage if you completely ignore your pre and post workout nutrition. While many nutrient timing principles have been debunked, what you eat around your workouts continues to remain important because nailing down your pre and post workout meals can help speed up your progress more than any other meal you eat throughout the rest of the day. So let's start first with pre workout. When we work out muscle protein breakdown rates will shoot up. Whether your goal is to bulk up and build muscle or burn fat while preserving muscle, you're going to want to do your best to keep protein breakdown rates lower and protein synthesis rates higher. Since amino acids are the building blocks to your muscles. They're absolutely essential for increasing muscle protein synthesis. Without those amino acids circulating throughout your bloodstream. Not only are you missing the fuel necessary for the synthesis process, but your protein breakdown rates will stay elevated putting you into more of a catabolic mode where your body is breaking down muscles, which we obviously don't want. Now some studies show that having protein before your workout won't enhance muscle growth. Meanwhile, other studies show the exact opposite having pre workout amino acids and carbs can even provide more benefits for your muscles than having them post workout. And the reason why these studies show two completely different results is because it depends on what you already ate throughout the rest of the day. If you've already had a meal with enough protein a couple hours before your workout, taking in even more amino acids with something like a protein shake right before your workout that will really make much of a difference in decreasing muscle breakdown rates during your workout. On the other hand, if you haven't had any protein within three to four hours before your workout, it's a good idea to eat 20 to 40 grams of protein to get some amino acids into your bloodstream. You can do this by eating a regular meal if you have about an hour or two to digest it before your workout. Chicken breast eggs Turkey and fish are a couple good sources of protein that you could have but if you work out first thing in the morning Right after waking up, you can have a protein shake instead, since it'll digest a lot faster. While there may be some debate about protein, there isn't much debate about pre workout carbohydrates. Your body uses the glucose from carbohydrates to fuel your workouts. Unfortunately, the glucose stored in your muscles and in your liver is limited, and it's constantly being used so by replenishing it before a workout, it can help you postpone fatigue. Also, according to a study published in the Journal of Applied physiology, when researchers compared two groups one on a very low carb diet and another on a high carb diet, they found that the high carb dieters maintain their strength better recovered faster from their workouts and they were more in an anabolic muscle building state. While this study looked at overall carbohydrate intake for the entire day, there are other studies that looked directly at what happens when you have carbs before your workout versus a placebo. And they also find that eating carbohydrates before exercise will provide your muscles with additional fuel for your workouts. This will allow you to lift heavier weight for more reps during your workouts, which will lead to more muscle growth if you're bulking and less muscle loss if you're cutting. If you're going to be doing a short intense workout lasting less than an hour long, you should aim to have high glycemic carbohydrates like white rice, potatoes and bananas before your workout. On the other hand, if you're going to be doing a longer duration endurance type workout, you should go for low glycemic slower digesting sources of carbs like brown rice, sweet potatoes and oats. I recommend having at least 30 to 40 grams of carbs before your workout. But many bodybuilders recommend splitting 50% of your total daily carbohydrate intake between your pre and post workout meals. So if you were eating 300 grams of carbs per day, you would have 75 grams of carbs before your workout and the other 75 grams of carbs after workout, and then the last hundred 50 grams of carbs throughout the rest of the day. If your main goal is to build muscle or get stronger, this strategy can be particularly useful if you happen to be on keto and you want to take advantage of having more strength and energy before your workouts. You could do what's called a targeted ketogenic diet, where you would have 20 to 50 grams of carbs before an intense workout. If you're lifting heavy, most of that glycogen will be burned off during the workout and you'll be getting right back into ketosis. afterwards. Eating fats before a workout really won't impact performance one way or the other. So you can eat some fat beforehand, but you shouldn't expect the strength and energy benefits that you would get from eating carbs. Now what about fasting some studies show that fasted workouts can help you burn more fat during the workout. But other studies show that you'll just spend the rest of the day burning a higher percentage of carbs to balance out the fat that you already burned off during your workout. While it is still debatable if fasted training will help you burn more fat. It's a fact that some people do better while training on an empty stomach while other people do way worse. If you have no energy during your workouts unless you eat something beforehand, then you should definitely have a pre workout meal. On the other hand, if you take a long time to digest your meals and you find yourself feeling nauseous or having acid reflux during your workout, then it may be a better idea for you to work out fast that especially since some research shows that exercising while fasted will make your body like a sponge after the workout and increase the post workout anabolic response to food.
Regardless of this, you have to understand that if you exercise on an empty stomach, protein breakdown rates will spike up quite a bit. So if you're trying to burn some fat, you can incorporate fasted training but if your main goal is to build muscles, you'll be a lot better off with a pre workout meal.
The last thing before we move on to post workout nutrition is on the topic of pre workout supplementation. Pre workouts can be used as a great tool to help you break through strength plateaus, lift more weight and ultimately build more muscle but they're a double edged sword. If you take pre workouts too often you'll build up a tolerance and not only will they not give you a boost in energy during your workouts, but you'll also need to take a pre workout just to gather the motivation to get into the gym. That's why I only recommend that you take pre workouts no more than twice a week on the days that you're really planning to lift heavy and work hard. Look for pre workout supplements that contain caffeine, beta alanine, and citrulline Malley out of all of these caffeine may be the most important since studies show that when men take a caffeine supplement, they're able to bench press and deadlift more than those that take a placebo supplement. Let's now turn our attention over to what to eat after your workout. Once you finish training, the rate of muscle protein breakdown increases, unless you do something about it. It'll outstrip the rate of protein synthesis and you'll actually start to lose muscle tissue.
