You want to know what healthy foods you should eat before, during and after a workout?
Fueling your body before your workout is really important. You don’t want to faint while working out, do you? There are actually a lot of options out there on what healthy foods you should eat before, during and after a workout. Make sure the foods that you eat will keep your whole body, especially your heart running throughout your routine.
One of the foremost things to do when before we workout is to fuel up our tummy with the right amount of foods. Of course, keeping ourselves hydrated with the right fluids throughout our regimen and eating the right amounts at the right time.
Your best workout clothes for women or best men’s workout clothes and your favourite workout sneakers are on. You’re ready to workout, but you feel like you’re missing something. Maybe it’s the one crucial ingredient which is food. Eating during and after the workout are as important as the ‘before meal’.
Having such a full consideration of your meal plan before, during and after a workout will help you maximize the benefits of all your hard work at the gym.
What to Eat Before Your Workout
What you eat before a workout is important. So make sure to eat healthy carbs and keep yourself hydrated with water. Not fueling up before you work out is like “driving a car on empty,” says Platt, an American Heart Association volunteer. To maximize your workout and to limit your ability to burn calories, you have to fuel up yourself to have enough energy.
Two hours prior to your workout, hydrate yourself with water. Make sure to eat healthy carbs such as whole-grain cereals with low-fat or skim milk. You can also eat some whole-wheat toast, of course, without the fatty cream cheese, low-fat or fat-free yoghurt, whole-grain pasta, brown rice, fruits and vegetables.
Make sure to stay away from saturated fats. These will make your stomach digest slowly and it will take away oxygen and energy-delivering blood from your muscles. A piece of fruit such as banana or an apple is perfect if you only have 5-1o minutes prior to your routine.
What to Eat During Your Workout
The only thing you need to bring, except for your gym workout accessories, is your water bottle. Why so? Because you need to stay hydrated during your workout routine. Professional athlete or not, you need to keep your body hydrated with small, frequent sips of water.
Eating during your workout is not necessary. But if you’re looking forward to a long, high-intensity exercise, eating 50-100 calories of carbohydrates such as raisins, an energy bar or banana is a must every half hour of your routine.
What to Eat After Your Workout
After your workout, it’s time to refuel yourself with fluids, healthy carbs and proteins. Of course, you need to drink water. Drinking a 100 per cent juice such as an orange juice is perfect because it provides fluids, carbohydrates and potassium.
In the 20-60 minutes after your workout, your muscles can store carbohydrates and protein as energy and help in recovery. Make sure to eat some healthy carbohydrates such as vegetables, whole fruits and whole grains, and nuts to refuel the burned carbs in your muscles.
Eat things with protein to help repair and grow your muscles, including a whole grain bagel, baked potato, peanut butter sandwich, etc.
We have different digestive systems and “a lot depends on what kind of workout you’re doing,” says Riska Platt, M.S., R.D., a nutrition consultant for the Cardiac Rehabilitation Center at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York.
It’s important to know what you put in your body, the same goes for what you do with your body. Now that you know what healthy foods you should eat before, during and after a workout, do what works best for you!