Athletes and fitness enthusiasts are always looking for ways to build resilience, endurance, and athletic performance to achieve their fitness goals. Although exercise is important for weight gain, good nutrition also plays a key role in maintaining good health. A healthy diet can help your body improve and recover faster after each exercise. Moreover, a proper nutritious diet guide enriches your body with the pure energy needed to engage in stressful exercise. This article gives you an idea of what you should eat before and after exercising.
Before Exercise:
What, when, and how much before exercise affects your performance, strength, and endurance. It is necessary to have a healthy diet or snack before doing strenuous physical activity as it affects both the level of your exercise and recovery after exercise. However, practicing your diet and how long before you exercise would be best to protect yourself from hypoglycemia and fatigue.
Best Pre-Exercise Foods:
Sports nutritionists and physiologists recommend following a diet high in energy from carbohydrates (75 percent), over 25 percent from protein, and low in energy from fat. Regarding increasing endurance and exercise performance, carbohydrates play an important role as carbohydrate stores muscle and liver glycogen are limited. They are a major source of energy for the body, which reduces fatigue and performance, which is why it is important to ensure your pre-workout glycogen stores are high. However, many studies have concluded that eating carbohydrates before exercise leads to better performance than exercising on an empty stomach.
Pre-workout Snacks:
A simple pre-workout diet, as follows, should be eaten one to two hours before exercise.
- Fresh fruits
- Dried apricots, dates, and raisins
- Smoothies
- Yogurt
- Shakes
- Energy or protein bars
- Diluted fruit juices
After Exercise:
Post-workout diets are just as important as pre-workout meals; the best time to add fuel is immediately after. When you are busy, your tissues use up their glycogen, which leads to slower or slower digestion. After exercising, your body is in the ‘recovery phase’ where it depletes its glycogen stores and repairs and replenishes damaged muscle protein. . It is recommended that you eat carbohydrates through this ‘window’ to accelerate glycogen recovery.
The Best post workout Food:
The best post-exercise diet is a combination of protein and carbohydrates in a 1: 4 ratio as this is very effective in promoting glycogen recovery and the combination of muscle protein and recovery. Carbohydrates should be the basis of your post-exercise diet, which is rich in protein and healthy fats that support your recovery. This combination accelerates healing and reduces post-exercise injury and muscle pain, improving performance and endurance.
Post-Exercise refreshment:
Post-workout snacks are eaten within two hours of exercising and consider these options:
- Take one or two portions of fresh fruit with a cup of milk
- Take one cup of yogurt
- A homemade smoothie or milkshake
- A sports or protein bar
- Take one bowl of whole-grain cereal with milk
- Take dried fruits and nuts
- A sandwich wrapped with a filling of lean protein, chicken, cottage cheese, peanut butter, etc.
Fitness Goals:
An easy way to plan your daily diet Fitness Goals is to divide your day into three parts: early exercise, post-exercise, and during exercise. Moreover, participating in strenuous exercise for more than 60 minutes can help you decide how much carbohydrates you should eat to improve your performance and recovery.
Read More: Eating a Balanced Healthy Diet: Detailed Explanation
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