Eating before and after a workout

If you wake up early in the morning and workout for less than one hour, it’s not really necessary to eat anything. Just go do the workout and come home and eat.

After the workout, you should eat something that contains some balance to it according to the Zone Diet. Do this regardless if you are lifting weights or doing cardio. Eggs and an apple are perfect. A Clif bar, chocolate milk, a protein shake, or a high protein cereal like Go-Lean are good choices. Bad choices are toast, coffee, bagels, most cereals, and juices. This will allow your body to burn fat and not blood sugar. You’ll also have more energy.

If you are working out later in the day, eating prior to exercising is going to be a factor. If you are doing cardiovascular exercises that don’t involve a lot of bouncing (cycling, walking on a treadmill, stair-stepping) you can literally eat right before. Ideally, a zone snack would be perfect because it would allow you to primarily burn fat as an energy source. Snacks/meals such as a turkey/cheese sandwich with avocado on it could work. Eating a high carbohydrate meal right before an aerobic workout is forcing your body to use your blood sugar as the primary energy source rather than fat. This makes your exercise not as effective.

If you are doing weight lifting later in the day, it’s best to time your eating so that you are eating an hour before your workout. It’s hard to workout with a full stomach. If you get off work at 5:00 pm, don’t just run to the gym and workout. If you haven’t eaten since noon, you might lose energy. Maybe you can have some yogurt or fruit at 4:00 pm. If you are in a crunch, Gatorade and string cheese is a good pre-workout meal prior to weight lifting.