Workout Nutrition: The Complete Guide to Workout Nutrition

                               The Complete Guide to Workout Nutrition

Know Your Body’s Needs

Check your Body Mass Index & Estimate your calorie needs. Using USDA's online Adult Energy Needs and BMI Calculator. You can determine the number of calories needed each day to maintain your current weight. Score your current food intake and physical activity level. Using MyPlate SuperTracker. Taking a good look at your current habits will help you determine what changes you might make as well as what you are doing right.

Know Your Fitness Goal

Setting fitness goals requires a calculated approach. It may seem counterintuitive to start small, but remember that you want to set yourself up for success, not burnout or injury. The fix is to define a progressive set of fitness goals that build on one another to help propel you toward that big dream or aspiration. Breaking a big goal into smaller, realistic goals can help you both mentally and physically. The first step to setting realistic goals is to really think about your goal and write it down. Ask yourself these three questions:

1. How big is the goal? Is your goal only attainable in three months or more? If so, make a or goals to get you to that long-term goal. Ideally, you should be able to reach the smaller goal in two to six weeks.

2. What does it take to achieve the goal? This question addresses your goal's frequency. If reaching your goal requires five workouts a week, but you can only get a babysitter two days a week, then you need to scale back your goal. Be realistic about what time you have to devote to the goal and be honest about your fitness level. Building your fitness base takes time, and being smart about increasing it will help you stay injury-free. As a general rule, never increase your weight lifted or your minutes exercised by more than 10 percent in any given week. Slow and steady really does win the race!

3. Can you see yourself reaching the goal?You want a program that you can stick with for the long haul—not just this week. Be completely honest with yourself and ask if you can realistically see yourself doing what it takes to achieve the goal at hand. If you can and it meets the above criteria, then you probably have a goal!

FuelYour Workout& Timing Your Nutrition

What to eat?

✦ Carbohydratesare fuelfor your "engine" (i.e., your muscles). And, the harder your engine is working the more carbs you need to keep going.

✦ Protein to rebuildsand repairs, but also provides the right amino acids available for your muscles during exercise. Adequate proteinbefore exercise may help reduce postexercise muscle soreness.

When?

✦ If you have time, eat a larger meal 3 to 4 hours before exercise.

✦ Closer to the activity, have a small snack such as fruit 30 minutes before. This will give you the last-minute bump your body needs.

✦ It's best not to eat immediately before a workout because while your muscles are trying to do their "thing," your stomach is trying to simultaneously digest the food in your stomach. These competing demands are a challenge for optimal performance.

✦ Even more of a factor, eating too close to a workoutmay cause you to experience some GI discomfort while you train.

✦ Experiment and see what time frame works best for your body.

Needs Your Workout Nutrition:

What to eat?

✦ Carbohydratesgive your muscles the ability to replenish the glycogen they just lost through training

✦ Proteinhelps your muscles rebuild and repair with the available protein and amino acids.

✦ To replenish the nutrients lost, a 3:1 ratio of carbohydrateto protein is recommended.

When?

✦ Fuel within 15-60 minutes after exercise for optimal repair and recovery.

Tips for Weight Loss

Weight loss can be achieved either by eating fewer calories or by burning more calories with physical activity, preferably both! Here are some tips for fueling your workout without sabotaging the calorie-burning effort of exercise

Morning Workout A low-intensity morning workout such as a walk, bike ride, yoga or round of golf requires very little fuel. Concentrate on hydration and a small carbohydrate-rich snack, like 16 ounces of water and mini-bagel or a 100calorie granola bar. That will give you enough energy to compensate for an overnight fast without loading up on calories. After your workout, eat a smart breakfastof quality carbohydrates and protein. This can be a hard-cooked egg, a slice of whole-grain toast and 100-percent fruit juice, or oatmeal with berries and fat-free milk

Evening Workout If you exercise after work, plan to eat lunch 3 to 4 hours before your workout. Good choices include a grilled chicken salad, a grilled cheese sandwich with a cup of tomato soup, or a turkey sub with baked chips. A healthy lunch will provide enough calories to sustain a late afternoon workout, but give yourself a little energy boost 15 to 30 minutes before your workout by eating a banana, orange slices or a handful of grapes.

Tips for Building Muscle

Muscle is harder to build and maintain as we age. In fact, most of us start losing muscle around age 30, with a 3 to 8 percent reduction in lean muscle mass every decade thereafter. But muscle loss doesn't need to be inevitable: For adult men and women, regular resistance training exercises are key to building and keeping muscle.

Strength training For Health

Strength training For Health is an important piece of the fitness equation. Men and women should participate in muscle strengthening activities that work the major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, chest, abdomen, shoulders and arms) at least two times each week. Examples of strength training include lifting weights, using resistance bands and doing push-ups, pull-ups and sit-ups. Protein, carbohydrates and fat play a major role, as does getting enough calories throughout the day. Read on to find out how each macronutrient can help you gain muscle.

Protein and Muscle Building

While you’re working to build muscle with exercise, protein should make up 10 to 35 percent of total calories for adults. Keeping muscle mass, on the other hand, requires a lot less protein than building new muscle. Focus on high quality protein foods that contain all of the essential amino acids aid wound healing and keep your immune system strong. Eggs, low-fat cheese or cottage cheese, yogurt and plain baked chicken, all provide quality protein. Vegetarians can get quality protein from soy-based foods, as well as beans and nuts. Almond milk is popular, but it is low in protein compared to cow or soy milk A typical day that includes 3 servings of low-fat or fat-free dairy plus 3 servings of protein foods (such as lean meat, poultry, fish or beans) will provide quality sources of protein to help reach that goal.

Carbohydrates and Muscle Building

Carbohydrates are an important group of foods for fueling your muscles. That's because carbs are partially converted to glycogen, which is stored in muscle to power your workouts. Men and women who are strength-training at least twice a week need at least half of their calories from carbohydrates per day. Try adding in good quality carbohydrates that are low in fat, such as whole-grain breads and cereals for the best strength training boost. Low-fat milk and yogurt and fruits and vegetables are also good options and provide some carbohydrates in our diet.

Fat and Muscle Building

Contrary to the fat-free trend, you actually need fat in your daily diet. Your body relies on fat to supply energy to muscles during activity, and how much fat a person needs can vary. As a general guideline, fat should make up 20 to 35 percent of your total calories. Limit unhealthy saturated fats and trans fats, which can contribute to heart disease. For overall health and muscle strength, focus on the heart-healthy fats, including extra-virgin olive oil, canola oil, walnuts, pistachios, almonds, avocados and fatty fish such as salmon, halibut, mackerel, sardines and trout.

Tips for Endurance

Marathons, day-long adventure races, and triathlons are gaining in popularity. The difference between just simply participating and actually succeeding in these longer endurance events can be directly tied to your nutrition.

Fuel the Body Right

The energy needs of endurance athletes are high. Every athlete's calorie needs are different, depending on gender, age, body composition, training regimen and daily activities. As runners’ training mileage increases, so do their calorie needs, especially calories from carbohydrates. Runners need between 7 and 10 g of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight during training and closer to the upper end of this range before long runs. They require high amounts of carbohydrates to saturate the muscles with glycogen, the storage form of carbohydrate that fuels endurance exercise.

Before the Run

Pre-run snacks boost blood glucose levels, and can top offmuscle carbohydrate stores—essential fuel for longer, harder runs. The more time for digestion, the larger the snack. For a snack two hours ahead, try an option such as a bowl of cereal or peanut butter sandwich, or a small smoothie and muffin. This snack can help to delay fuel depletion during the run, and prevent hunger as well. 50 to 75 grams of easily digested carbohydrate can be consumed two hours before a run. Of course real-life schedules could require that you gently fuel up one hour before a run. When short on time, try a sports drink, or a handful of dry cereal, or a slice of toast with honey, or a waffle with jam. Aim for 15 to 25 grams of carbohydrate in the hour before a run. You can also pop in a carbohydrate gel or half an energy bar for easy digestion. Runners should aim to consume at least 10 oz of water or a sports drink two hours before exercise.

On Your Mark, Get Set, Eat

For continuous endurance exercise lasting more than 45 minutes, eating during exercise is a must. Carbohydrate, fluid, and electrolyte balance is vital to a successful run. It is important for runners to experiment with various types of foods during exercise to determine which work best.

When eating during a training run or event, a runner should consume a food item that is high in easily digestible carbohydrate and low in fat and protein. Some popular foods that athletes use to fuel continuous endurance exercise include sports bars (eg, PowerBar, Clif Bar), sports drinks (which serve a dual purpose of supplying carbohydrate and fluid), energy gels (eg, GU, Clif Shots), jelly beans, gummy bears, fig bars, bananas, and pretzels. Runners should drink at least 8 oz of water with any food consumed during exercise and aim to consume 30 to 60 g of carbohydrate per hour (120 to 240 kcal per hour) of exercise. Runners should consume between 5 and 12 oz of fluid every 15 minutes during exercise.

Post-exercise Needs

Individuals should consume calories and fluids immediately following the training run or event in the form of a 100- to 400-kcal snack (eg, sports drink, chocolate milk, orange juice). Eating a high-carbohydrate snack with a modest amount of protein in the immediate post-exercise period has been shown to quickly stimulate the replacement of glycogen that was used up during the exercise bout. This aids recovery and will allow the runner to start stocking up on stored carbohydrate for the next run. Runners should consume a real meal within two hours of run completion that contains carbohydrate and protein in a 3:1 ratio to adequately replenish glycogen stores and rebuild muscles. Aim for 12 to 15 grams protein, and 35 to 50 grams of carbohydrate. They should also consume plenty of liquids until urine is pale yellow or clear.

30-Minute Workouts

Current recommendations suggest adults get at least 150 minutes of cardiorespiratory moderateintensity exercise per week, with two to three days per week of resistance exercise also recommended. So how do we put those recommendations into practice.

Hold 10-minute mini-workouts.

Take 10 minutes in the morning, afternoon and evening to do some form of activity. This can include 10 minutes of bodyweight exercises (push-ups, crunches, lunges, squats, etc.) in the morning, a 10-minute brisk walk during your lunch break at work and 10 minutes of yoga-inspired stretching in the evening.

Involve the family in daily fitness.

Thirty minutes will fly by if you get the kids engaged in something that they, too, can enjoy. Grab the family and head out for a walk, game of tag or bike ride.

Clean with purpose.

Don’t just sweep the floor, scrub the floor. Don’t just unload the dishwasher, dance with the dishes. Minutes add up fast when you move more during your cleanup time. Look for opportunities to walk. Suggest work meetings on the go. Walk and talk in lieu of sitting in an office. If you can’t seem to find the self-motivation needed to make it happen, consider recruiting a workout partner or hiring a fitness professional. Knowing that someone is expecting you at a certain place or time can help to enhance accountability for being more active.

Easy DIY Gatorade & Recipe

There's nothing special about the many sports drinks, gels and energy bites on the market. But it is important to replace lost fluids and provide carbohydrates to maintain blood glucose levels while working out. Before you stop by the store for a Gatorade on the way to the game, try making your own natural version! It is easy, just as fast, and a lot healthier.

Recipe

• 1 quart of liquid (options: green tea, herbal teas, coconut water, ice water, etc)

• 1/8 - 1/4 tsp Himalayan Sea Salt (regular table salt will work, but it doesn't have all the trace minerals)

•1/4 cup or more of 100% or fresh squeezed juice (grape, apple, lemon, lime, pineapple, etc)

• 1-2 tbsp sweetener - honey, stevia in the raw, etc.