by Mason Storm
Think you know what’s best for your body? Know what makes it tick and just what to feed it? If you’re sure you do, then read no further. However, if you have the slightest inkling that what you’re feeding your body isn’t working, or you feel that you could provide better for yourself with a bit more information, then read on.
Eating is tricky. While you want to maintain a healthy balance of nutrients, and get proper nutrition, you may also see the need to work smart rather than work hard at doing it. That’s where knowing exactly what to eat—when—comes into play. And make no mistake, knowing this is crucial to the body in terms of overall performance and well-being. In fact, it’s the whole name of the game.
Before going any further, you owe it to yourself to know the lingo of food groups and how to apply them in terms of energy and output. Can you honestly say that you know which foods fall into the categories of proteins, carbohydrates and fats? Do you know the difference between a starchy and non-starchy carbohydrate? Do you know what constitutes a healthy or non-healthy fat? This is essential to your success in knowing what to eat, and when to eat it, in order to maximize your performance in any athletic endeavor or just to enhance the good effects of a workout. Some foods, and how they are categorized, may surprise you!
Proteins: Beef, Pork, Poultry (chicken, turkey), Eggs, Cottage cheese, Whey protein
Carbohydrates (Starchy/Complex): Potatoes (most varieties), Pasta, Rice (brown and white), most other Grains, all Wheat products
Carbohydrates (Non-Starchy/Complex): Parsnips, Oatmeal (slow cooking variety), all leafy Green Veggies and some Squashes (Zucchini), Summer squash (yellow Zucchini-like squash)
Carbohydrates (Sugars/Simple): All fruits, and fructose, but particularly fruits such as apples, peaches, strawberries, bananas or pure crystalline fructose/ high fructose corn syrup, candies, carbohydrate powders
Fats (Healthy): Avocado (bet you thought it was classed as a fruit or veggie!), Flax, Sunflower and other seeds, Peanuts, Walnuts, Almonds, natural Peanut Butter, Almond butter.
Fats (Saturated/Unhealthy): Whole Milk products, Cream, Animal fats, etc.
Now that you’re aware of what comprises each macronutrient grouping, you can better select a food source for both before and after a workout, and can follow along with the directives given.
First and foremost, let’s dispel a common myth right now: You don’t load carbohydrates right before a workout! This may seem to go against everything you’ve ever been taught or have read in magazines, but it simply doesn’t work. Why? Because the food you eat now, couldn’t possibly be utilized within an hour’s time. The food you eat just prior to any workout cannot be utilized because it hasn’t even been digested yet. Or, shall we say, it mostly isn’t digested at that point Here is the exception...
Eating things like simple sugars, that contribute to an immediate rise in blood sugar, can be advantageous when added to a pre-workout meal because it provides the pick-me-up one might desire at the beginning of a workout. But long after that initial rise in blood sugar tapers off, the body must have access to energy that is more enduring and long-lasting, in order to complete a grueling or in any way lengthy workout (longer than one hour, or one that puts a great deal of stress on muscles, tendons, joints, or heart).
Does that mean that those carb drinks you find in your gym’s juice bar or pro shop is the way to go? Not necessarily. In fact, it’s always better to obtain quick sugars from more natural sources, such as fructose from the source itself: Fruit! Eating a small piece of fruit within 15-30 minutes of a workout is a good idea because it enables the body to have a rise in blood sugar which will kick-start a workout. However, eating fruit in abundance can only bloat you and slow you down.
Ingesting fructose just prior to any workout may also enable you to load up on supplements such as creatine; recognized as a superior supplement for assisting in achieving greater muscle cell volume, and therefore, facilitating a muscle’s ability to contract better and withstand heavier workouts with greater strength. It’s a great combination, simple sugar and creatine, and the only way to take this supplement. However, there’s never need for overkill in the area of pre-workout nutrition. You’re trying for subtle changes, not huge ones, because you’re trying to ingest the most effective forms of foodstuff available to enhance your workouts, not load your stomach down!
For pre-workout nutrition, this is the only combination one should ever endeavor. But, if your workouts are normally done
WHAT TO EAT
Proteins: Beef, Pork, Poultry (chicken, turkey), Eggs, Cottage cheese, Whey protein
Carbohydrates (Starchy/Complex): Potatoes (most varieties), Pasta, Rice (brown and white), most other Grains, all Wheat products
Carbohydrates (Non-Starchy/Complex): Parsnips, Oatmeal (slow cooking variety), all leafy Green Veggies and some Squashes (Zucchini), Summer squash (yellow Zucchini-like squash) Carbohydrates (Sugars/Simple): All fruits, and fructose, but particularly fruits such as apples, peaches, strawberries, bananas or pure crystalline fructose/ high fructose corn syrup, candies, carbohydrate powders
Fats (Healthy): Avocado (bet you thought it was classed as a fruit or veggie!), Flax, Sunflower and other seeds, Peanuts, Walnuts, Almonds, natural Peanut Butter, Almond butter.
Fats (Saturated/Unhealthy): Whole Milk products, Cream, Animal fats, etc.
in the late afternoon, you can do a bit of preparation earlier in the day, that will help create greater strength stores once afternoon rolls around.
For pre- Pre-workout sustenance, a good recommendation would be to eat a good amount of carbohydrates in the morning hours up until just about noon, along with some good quality protein, dispersed throughout the day in four or five mini-meals. This is a great foundation for putting in place the building blocks that you’ll need to carry you through a workout. Don’t overlook each macronutrient group. But particularly, don’t overlook the starchier carbohydrates in the morning hours. They are of particular benefit to the later afternoon or early-evening lifter.
After about 2pm, a smart bodybuilder will begin to taper the complex/ starchy carbohydrates he eats and continue eating complex carbs that are more focused on sustaining even blood sugar levels. This is because the body burns starches much more effectively in the morning hours. Starches eaten after 2 or 3 pm tend just to sit in the stomach and are eventually stored as fat. It’s when we are least active and our day begins to wind down. If you’ve eaten enough complex/ starches in the morning, you have stored an ample amount for the coming day and workout. What’s more, you’ve stored them as glycogen that will be utilized more on the following day than the day you eat them.
This is what’s difficult for bodybuilders to understand. But, like most of those involved in the sport, instant result and gratification is the name of the game. The problem is, the body has never, nor will ever, work in that manner. What we eat today, is what we will see benefit of tomorrow.
So that leaves one last question…What does one eat post-workout? After a workout, presuming it’s in the late afternoon or early evening, the best possible nutrition is to eat a balanced meal, but one that is a bit heavier on the protein, includes leafy green vegetables, and smaller servings of starch.
Why smaller servings of starch? One does need to replenish carbohydrates that have been depleted directly from stores of glycogen. Maintaining storehouses of food that have been converted into glycogen (usable energy locked within muscle cells over the course of a 2-3 day eating/storing cycle) will assure the body of continual and consistent supplies of energy when it needs it most. However, eating heavy amounts of starch in the evening will only serve as potential for fat storage and won’t feed the muscle as effectively as protein and less starchy carbohydrates.
Don’t forget to consider fat as a crucial part of the equation as well. While fat is twice as calorie-dense as protein and carbohydrate, it’s still an essential part of nutrient transport and energy storage within the body. Fat is a superior source of energy precisely because it is doubly calorie dense. What’s more, because fat never acts adversely on blood sugar levels, energy obtained from fat is steady and unwavering and cannot affect energy levels unless eaten in too large an amount. Fat, too, is stored as glycogen, and is a healthy part of anyone’s daily diet. Choose sources that are less saturated and healthier for a consistently healthy heart.
Bottom line? Eating starches early in the day, along with steady, small protein meals, coupled with small amounts of simple carbs (possibly combined with creatine) is a great lead-in for pre-workout eating. Ingesting protein, fat, and complex (but less starchy) carbohydrates, post-workout, (evening) is a winning combination that should prepare you well for the days ahead! Thinking of nutrition in these terms is how best to maximize workout effectiveness for the results you desire.