For most people effective exercise related nutrition strategies are far less complicated than we often try to make them. (No thanks to you, “pop culture advice that’s only loosely based in science”.)
It’s certainly true that high-level & extreme endurance athletes, bodybuilders, and fitness competitors in the final stages of event preparation need to more finely tune their nutrition strategies. But if your goals include general improvements to your strength, conditioning, body composition, and health, then consistently following a few simple guidelines that prioritize your exercise performance and recovery will produce rather impressive results.
Prior to training
If you don’t train right away in the morning, consume a “balanced” meal 2–3 hours prior to exercise. This will give your body enough time to do a fair amount of digestion, provide you with sustained energy for your workout, and help to reduce any soreness that you may experience (reduce unfortunately doesn’t mean eliminate).
Balanced, in this case, means a combination of protein, carbohydrates, and fat. If you know that a certain food “stays with you” for awhile, then that particular food obviously isn’t the best choice. But beyond that, anything that fits the description will do the job. A few examples might include:
- Lean cut of steak or turkey burger, serving of rice, & veggie
- Chicken sandwich with lettuce & tomatoes on two whole grain pieces of bread
- Greek yogurt and a side of fruit
This general guideline still applies if you train early in the morning, but you may need to tweak the strategy a bit (assuming you don’t want to wake up three hours beforehand). Consuming your nutrition in liquid form—a protein & fruit smoothie with a dollop of peanut butter, for example—thirty to sixty minutes prior to training will speed up the digestion process and cover all the bases.
During training
If you’re training for less than 1–1.5 hours and followed the recommendation above, your main nutrition focus during training should be staying hydrated. Drink some good ol’ H2O and possibly some electrolytes (sodium & potassium) if you know you’ll be sweating a lot.
If you’ll be training for more than 1.5–2 hours, definitely consider a protein + carbohydrate + electrolyte drink to help you maintain energy. Aim for about 15 grams of protein and 30 grams of carbs every 60-90 minutes for best results.
After Training
Contrary to popular gym “knowledge”, particularly if you’re training with weights, consuming a bunch of protein immediately after exercise is neither necessary nor the most effective. To help speed up the recovery process and reduce a bit more soreness (again, reduce vs. eliminate), following the same guideline as in the Prior To Training section within 1–2 hours after training has been shown to be more effective than consuming protein alone.
Putting it into practice
Whether your main goal is improving strength, body composition (adding muscle and/or losing body fat), or conditioning, these nutrition strategies will improve your workouts. And the subsequent improvement to your workouts will more quickly move you toward your goals.
So even if the suggestions are a bit different from what you’ve done in the past, try them for a couple of weeks, evaluate your progress, and let me know how you improve!