Active living increases your body’s need for energy, so it is important to get adequate nutrition throughout the day. Whether you are exercising to get leaner, stronger, faster, to maintain good health (or for all these reasons), what you eat can affect your performance and recovery.
During exercise, your muscles primarily use carbohydrates as fuel, and your muscles can use stored carbohydrates in the form of glycogen during exercise. Including carbohydrates like fruit, vegetables, dairy, whole grains, and legumes in your exercise routine can help you meet your performance goals.
Do you need to eat right before exercise?
Current evidence has not proven that eating a meal within one hour before exercise increases performance or endurance, although some people personally note that it does.
People who regularly get adequate carbohydrates through their diet (fruit, vegetables, dairy, grains, and legumes) do not need additional pre-exercise meals.
For longer endurance events, however, try to eat a high-carbohydrate, low-protein fiber-and-fat meal about two to four hours beforehand. And remember to stay hydrated!
Focus on: Eating a balanced diet, including good sources of protein (meat, poultry, eggs, beans, meat alternatives) and carbohydrates at every meal. Plan ahead if you plan to participate in endurance events.
Do you need to eat or drink during exercise?
Eating carbohydrate-rich foods or drinking carbohydrate-rich beverages during high-intensity exercise lasting one hour or less has been found to enhance performance with speed-time trials and endurance.
When exercise lasts more than one hour, eating or drinking carbohydrate-rich items during exercise can increase endurance and maintain blood sugar levels; it can result in faster performance during time trials and decreased hunger.
Having a sports drink containing 30 to 70 grams of carbohydrates per hour will help provide your body with added fuel to enhance performance and endurance.
Focus on: Replacing losses from sweat. If you aren’t doing high-intensity exercises or activities lasting more than one hour, drinking water during exercise to maintain hydration is most important.
Do you need to recover with food after exercise?
After exercise, your body needs to recover, namely, to build muscle, store energy, and hydrate. There is strong evidence that eating protein after exercise enhances muscle building in the first few hours after exercise. Between 10 to 20 grams of high-quality protein is enough to build protein in the body. Consider adding 2 eggs, 1.5 glasses of milk, a handful of nuts, or a piece of meat the size of a deck of cards to your post-workout meal.
If you don’t have one to two days between high-intensity or endurance training, adding carbohydrates to your recovery routine may decrease protein breakdown, which helps build muscles more effectively. Eating 1.0-1.5g/kg of carbohydrates 30 minutes after exercise, then again every two hours for four to six hours also helps replenish your muscles’ glycogen stores that can be used as energy in the future.
Recreational athletes (most active adults) generally don’t need to be concerned about quickly replenishing glycogen stores if their current diet includes an adequate amount of carbohydrates.
Focus on:
For athletes: Eat a meal or snack high in protein within a few hours after exercise. Have a carbohydrate-rich snack within 30 minutes after exercise if you don’t have one to two days between events.
For recreational athletes: Eating a balanced diet with adequate fruit, vegetables, dairy, and grains will help to replenish your muscles’ fuel source within a day.