What decides the share of carbohydrates and protein you need to consume is whether or not you are doing cardiovascular or resistance and the power level you will be working at. The best time to eat your pre workout meal is one hour before you start.

If you’re working at a lower power level, keep this meal down to around 2 hundred calories or so. If you’re working at a higher power level, you might need this meal to be as high as four hundred to five hundred calories. If you’re doing a cardiovascular session, you’ll need to eat a mixture of around two / three carbohydrates and 0.33 proteins. This will give you longer sustained power from the additional carbohydrates with enough protein to keep muscle from breaking down during your workout.

If you’re doing a resistance session, you need to eat a mixture of around 0.33 carbohydrates and two / three protein. This will give you sufficient energy from the carbohydrates to perform each set you do and the additional protein will help to keep muscle breakdown low during your workout. It’s been shown that your body most effectively uses protein during exertion implying that taking in more protein before resistance workouts helps in quicker recovery also. Now, eating after a workout is of similar importance as the pre workout meal. Remember that when you exercise if it is a cardiovascular or a resistance session, you exhaust energy in the form of glycogen. Our brain and central nervous system depends on glycogen as their major source of fuel so if we do not replace it after exercise, our bodies will start to break down muscle tissue into amino acids, then convert them into serviceable fuel for the brain and central nervous system. Also, often during resistance workouts, you break down muscle tissue by making micro tears. This suggests that shortly after a workout; your muscles go into a correct mode. Proteins are the key macronutrient for muscle correct and so you do not want muscle breaking down further to make fuel in the place of lost glycogen. If you have just finished a cardiovascular session, you’ll need to consume typically carbohydrates, ideally ones with high fiber.

Attempt to consume around thirty to fifty grams of these carbohydrates after a cardiovascular session. After cardiovascular, it is ok to eat within five to ten minutes of completion. If you have just finished a resistance session, you’ll need a mixture of carbohydrates and protein.

Because unlike cardiovascular workouts, with resistance workouts you are breaking down muscle tissue by making micro tears. The protein is wanted to build up and fix these tears so that the muscle can increase in strength and size. The carbohydrates not only replace the lost muscle glycogen, but also help the protein get into our muscle cells so it can synthesize into structural protein, or muscle itself.

Chicken or fish with a potato, whites of the eggs with a chunk of fruit, or a protein shake with fruit mixed in are good meals after resistance workouts but don’t forget to keep the fiber low here. High fiber slows down digestion, meaning the protein will take more time to reach the muscle cells. After resistance, it is endorsed to attend 30 minutes before eating in order not to take blood away from your muscles too shortly. The blood in your muscles helps with the fix process by removing metabolic waste products from them.