Nutrition

Best Foods to Eat Before Working Out – Pre-Workout Meals

Updated on December 10, 2021 by Brad Murphy

What are the best foods to eat before going to the gym and working out?

Best Foods to Eat Before Working Out

What are the best foods to eat before working out? Should you even care? Big Hell Yeah to that one last one. You need to care a lot. The pre-workout meals you eat can make or break your workout.

This article is all about what to eat prior to working out – we have another that features what to eat after working out here

That may sound like an exaggeration, but it’s not. Seriously. Think about it. If you head for the gym with nothing in your stomach but a bag of potato chips or a Twinkie, how will you train? Junk like that ain’t exactly the food of champions.

On the other hand, how do you think you will train if you hit the gym just after you’ve eaten a big meal?

Sure you may have made food choices that can juice you up with plenty of carbs after your workout, but the chances are you will feel bloated. Maybe even a little nauseous when you lie back on the bench and try to go to work.

Why You Shouldn’t Overdo It With Your Pre-Workout Meals

The other problem with going large on your pre-workout meals is it can make you sleepy. This happens in the animal kingdom as well, cats, dogs, even lions; they all crash out and bag some Zs after a big meal.

The scientists seem to still be trying to figure this one out, but they think it could be because overdoing it with the carbs and protein may trigger the release of serotonin. [SOURCE]

There’s another reason why eating a big meal before a workout isn’t a smart idea. It can actually rob you of energy instead of providing it. The same can happen if you try to fuel-up on sugar-laden snacks and soft drinks.

In both cases, the problem is the same. Be it due to eating big pre-workout meals or trying to get a sugar rush from snacks, your blood glucose can go sky high.

When you have too much glucose circulating your liver releases insulin to bring it down. More often than not, it does the job to well and you are hit with a sugar crash that can rob you of energy and give you cravings for high-calorie foods.

The take-home point here is it’s not just about knowing the best foods to eat before working out. The size and timing of your pre-workout meals is important too.

The Role of Macronutrients In Your Pre-Workout Meal

“Macronutrients” is a term used to describe the main nutrients in food. There are only three of them: Carbohydrate, protein, and fat.

Although most foods contain a mix of macronutrients, many foods are classed by the main one they contain.

For instance, steak is mainly considered a source of protein but it contains fat too. Oats have protein, but people generally eat them to fuel-up on carbs.

	Carbohydrate	Protein	Fat
Steak (100 g)	0 g	25 g	19 g
Oats (100g)	12 g	2.4 g	1.4 g

When you workout one of the main things you need is energy, so the best foods to eat before working out are ones that provide carbs. This is because carbs are your body’s primary source of energy. It’s designed to run on carbs.

It can get energy from protein and fat as well, but carbs are easier to use. Does that mean your pre-workout meals have to be all about carbs? No. They can contain the other two macronutrients too.

The thing is, adding them to your meal may be a bad idea if the time between eating and training is not long enough. Eating fat just before training can be particularly bad.

Carbohydrate (The #1 Choice for Your Pre-Workout Meals)

Carbohydrates (The #1 Choice for Your Pre-Workout Meals)

There are two kinds of carbs:

Simple Carbs
Complex Carbs

Simple carbs are basically sugars. They can provide a quick burst of energy, but can also cause your blood glucose to spike.

Complex carbs release energy more slowly than simple carbs. They keep you going for longer so they are the best carbs to use in pre-workout meals.

As they are digested, complex carbs release glucose into the blood. Your muscles convert this to ATP and use it for energy via a process known as cellular respiration. [SOURCE]

When the supply of glucose exceeds the demand, the liver converts the excess glucose to glycogen. It’s an important fuel reserve that is stored mostly in the liver but is stored in the muscles too.

Later on, when glucose levels are depleted during exercise, the liver converts glycogen back to glucose to help keep things going. [SOURCE]

So, the best foods to eat before working out are ones that provide complex carbs.

Here are a few examples of carb-rich foods you can add to your pre-workout meals:

Brown rice
Oats
Yams
Wholewheat pasta
Quinoa

All pre-workout Meals should contain carbs.

Protein (For Increased Endurance and Faster Recovery)

The amino acids provided by protein help increase endurance. In so doing, they enable you to increase the intensity of your workout. [SOURCE]

The branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) leucine, isoleucine, and valine are generally considered particularly important. For that reason, you can find them in many pre-workout supplements.

Adding protein to your pre-workout meals will also improve protein synthesis and provide you with extra strength. In addition to this, you may find you feel less muscle soreness due to a faster recovery rate.

Some of the best protein-rich foods to eat before working out include:

Turkey Breast
Tuna steak
Eggs
Milk
Soy

However, whether or not it is a good idea to include them in your pre-workout meals will depend on how soon you are eating them before your workout.

Fat (A Good Choice, But Not Always the Best Choice)

During a short duration of high-intensity exercise, your muscles are going to be running on glucose. For longer periods of exercise, things change.

Once the glucose is gone and the stores of glycogen have run dry your body will start burning fat for energy.

Every gram of fat you eat provides nine calories. That’s a lot. Carbs and protein only provide four calories per gram.

Fat is a high-calorie food so it stands to reason it can be good for providing energy. Here’s the rub: it takes a long time to digest.

The other problem is eating foods that are high in fat can slow the absorption of other foods.

It’s best not to eat foods that are high in fat before just before working out.

If it’s two or three hours before your workout, that’s fine. Chow down with confidence. Otherwise, give the fatty food a miss.

Most importantly, if you are adding fats to your pre-workout meals go for healthy (unsaturated fats). If you go for the other kind (saturated) you won’t be doing your heart any favours.

If you are adding fats to your pre-workout meals, some good options are:

Sunflower Seeds
Avocados
Walnuts
Mackerel
Herring

Using olive oil when roasting or frying food is also a good way to add unsaturated fat to your pre-workout meals.

Pre-Workout Meals v Pre-Workout Snacks

If you are eating two to three hours before your workout you have the freedom to choose pre-workout meals that contain carbs, protein, and fat. You still need to keep things healthy though and make sensible food choices.

When your pre-workout meals are only one to two hours before working out it’s best not to eat foods that contain fat. Eating them may hinder your workout instead of helping it.

Stick to carbs and proteins and think about making the portion size a little smaller so it will be lighter on your stomach.

If you are eating less than an hour before working out you will need to forget about eating a pre-workout meal. You need to be looking at pre-workout snacks instead.

Ideas for Pre-Workout Meals (2 – 3 Hours Before Training)

If you are eating two to three hours before training you have more options. There are fewer restrictions regarding fat.

Idea No. 1

Idea No. 2

Lean Grilled Steak (protein + fat)

Boiled Potatoes (Carbs)

Green Beans (Carbs)

Poached Salmon (Protein + Fat)

Boiled Brown Rice (Carbs)

Boiled Peas (Carbs + Protein

Ideas for Pre-Workout Meals (1 – 2 Hours Before Training)

If you are eating one to two hours before training, the best foods to include in your pre-workout meals will contain less fat. You won’t be looking at anything too complicated either, so it should be quick and easy to prepare:

Good choices include:

A light salad with bulgur wheat or couscous
Wholegrain cereal with skimmed milk
A small bowl of porridge topped with strawberries
Protein shake with a little mango

Pre-Workout Snacks (Eaten Less Than 60 Minutes Before Training)

When choosing your pre-workout snacks try to go for something small and simple and concentrate on carbs.

Some good choices for pre-workout snacks include:

An apple, pear, or orange
Half a cup of dried mixed fruit
Cereal bar

Good pre-workout snacks should provide an ongoing supply of glucose during your workout and do so without making your stomach feel bloated and full.

The Bottom Line

Choosing good pre-workout meals involves more than known the best foods to eat before working out. You also need to get the timing right and put some extra thought into the portion sizes.

If the idea of having so many restrictions regarding the foods you eat before working out seems a little daunting, it may be best to concentrate on the benefits a little smart pre-workout meal planning can provide.

Eating the right pre-workout meals or snacks at the right time can help you feel more energized in the gym. It can also help prevent muscle damage, speed up recovery, and generally support your ambition to build a strong, lean physique.

What Foods to Eat After Your Workout – Post Workout Snacks

Updated on May 3, 2021 by Brad Murphy

So you have to the gym and worked out. What are the best foods to eat when you need to eat something after training.

Best Post Workout Snacks for After the Gym

If you are short of time after your workouts you may have to go with post-workout snacks in preference to post-workout meals. There’s nothing wrong with that sometimes the easy things work best.

Whether you take your nutrition in the form of post-workout meals or snacks is not so important. However, knowing what foods to eat after your workout is very important indeed.

The foods that you eat after your workout play a vital role in muscle recovery and growth. Whether you are snacking or sitting down to a full meal, you need to get it right.

This article is primarily about post-workout snacks, but it could be equally applicable to post-training meals. In this case, the main difference between a snack and a meal is likely to be the time it takes to prepare.

Post-workout snacks are quick and easy to make. Post-workout meals often require a little more time to prepare. In both cases, the only important thing is the nutritional value.

We’re talking muscle fuel here and regular fuel is not good enough. You need to go premium all the way. We have written an article about pre-workout foods here

The Importance of Correct Post-Workout Nutrition

Depending on the choices you make, your post-workout snacks can help move you forward or hold you back. You need to get it right. These foods can also help you reduce your belly fat.

Like everything else in your body, muscles require energy. Although your body can store energy, it originally gets it from food.

The food we eat releases glucose into our blood. The muscles use it for energy after first converting it to ATP. [SOURCE]

When the food provides more glucose than is needed, the liver converts the excess glucose to glycogen. It stores most of this within itself. The rest is stored in the muscles. When glucose runs low, the stores of glycogen are converted back to glucose and put to work. [SOURCE]

However, after any form of intense exercise or workout activity, the muscles’ are normally running on empty. The glycogen stores are practically gone.

Exercise hits the muscles hard in another way as well. All that intense physical activity breaks down muscle tissue.

By the end of your workout, your muscles are in a pretty bad way. Not only do they need to replace all that lost glycogen, they need to repair the damaged tissue too.

The only way the muscles can do these things is by using the energy and nutrients provided by food. Your post-workout snacks need to get both these things to them and they need to do it fast. [SOURCE]

It needs carbs to replace energy and protein for muscle repair. Your post-workout snacks will need to provide both. A little healthy fat can be good as well, but it’s not as vital as carbs and protein.

Post-Workout Meal Benefits

A good post-workout meal provides a number of benefits. You’ll be more aware of some of them than others because a lot is happening behind the scenes.

Three less obvious benefits are:

Better protein synthesis
Glycogen restoration
Faster post-exercise recovery

When the foods you eat after your workout provide these benefits, you will feel it because your muscles will not feel so sore. Additionally, any soreness you do experience will only be short-lived.

There are also foods that help you gain muscle – these are bulking foods.

You will also see the benefits, but that could take some time. Because good pre-workout snacks improve protein synthesis and faster recovery, they help your muscles grow. It’s going to be a while before you see that benefit in the mirror.

However, presuming you’re training correctly and your overall diet is okay, you should find you are getting stronger every week.

Fast Carbs After a Workout? Carbohydrates are the present day villain of the macronutrients.

The Role of Carbs and Protein in Your Post-Workout Snacks

Bodybuilders often tend to become overly obsessed with protein, but it’s only one half of a winning team. Eating carbs after working out are important too

Due to differences in the way they work their muscles, bodybuilders require a greater amount of protein than other athletes. There’s no arguing with that.

Swimmers and runners, on the other hand, will likely require post-workout snacks that have less protein and more carbs.

No matter what the sport though, the foods you eat after your workout need to provide both important nutrients.

Protein is needed for protein synthesis. Carbs replenish glycogen. They are powerful allies that can get your muscle growth moving in the right direction.

Eating post-workout snacks or meal that contain both nutrients improves body composition and boosts physical strength. That’s a fact and research proves it. [SOURCE]

Try beginning with post-workout snacks that include carbs and protein in a 3:1 ratio. See how you go, don’t be afraid to experiment, and take it from there.

The Debatable Value of Fat in Post-Workout Snacks

Fat provides nine calories per gram. A gram of carbs or protein only provides four. Fat is a high-calorie food and you need to bear that in mind before adding it to your post-workout snacks.

Seriously, if the idea of growing bingo wings gets you in a flap you need to go steady with fat. Your heart will thank you for it too.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat it. The truth is your body needs it, just not in copious amounts.

You may have heard fat slows down the absorption of other nutrients. That’s true. It does. Fat is very hard to digest. It takes some time and when it gets mixed in with carbs and protein their absorption rates can take a hit.

That’s a good reason not to overdo it with fat, but it doesn’t mean you should avoid it entirely. If the foods you eat after your workout contain a little fat that should be fine.

In fact, it may even improve protein synthesis. A study comparing the abilities of full fat and skimmed milk certainly suggests this is so. When consumed after resistance exercise, the fat in the whole milk increased amino acid uptake, leading to improvements in protein synthesis.

Tips on Timing Your Post-Workout Snacks

Just after training, there is a short window of time where “feeding your muscles” offers the greatest benefits.

Most experts agree this window starts to close around 45 minutes after you cease training. So, eating your post-workout snacks around half-an-hour after your workout should help you get the optimum benefits.

A Few Good Foods Options for Your Post-Workout Snacks

The foods you include in your post-workout snacks provide your body with the nutrients it needs. The problem is, some foods release their nutrients too slowly to provide the muscles with the fast nourishment they need.

Below are some food suggestions to help you make some effective snacks to eat after your workout.

CARBOHYDRATE	PROTEIN	FAT
Potatoes Fruits Bulgur wheat Oatcakes Brown rice Wholemeal Pasta Yams Chocolate milk Leafy green vegetables	Tuna Turkey Chicken Eggs Salmon Cottage Cheese Greek Yogurt Protein bar Whey protein powder	Peanut butter Avocado Walnuts Sunflower seeds Trail mix Olive oil

Some Post-Workout Snack Ideas

Here are some post-workout snack ideas:

Peanut butter and beetroot sandwiches
Crispbread with tuna and sweetcorn
Bulgur wheat salad garnished with olive oil and vinegar
Protein shake and mixed fruit smoothie
Cottage cheese and pineapple on toast
Greek yogurt with walnuts and berries or fruit
Rye bread and turkey salad sandwich

Some Final Post-Workout Considerations

The foods you eat after a workout are important. They help you heal and grow. Whether you take your nourishment in the form of a post-workout meal or a snack is less important. It’s the nutrients that count, not the way you chose to take them.

However, it makes sense to always choose healthy food options. Especially when it comes to fats. Unsaturated fats are always preferable to the saturated kind.

Although it’s a bit of stretch to include advice on hydration in an article about the foods to eat after your workout, the subject is too important to omit. [SOURCE]

The body of the average adult is 55 to 60 percent water. During a workout, you lose a some of that water in sweat.

You also lose a lot of important minerals the body uses as electrolytes. Allowing yourself to become dehydrated during exercise can make you feel dizzy and ill. It can cause a lot of other problems too. Loss of electrolytes can cause lethargy, nausea and disrupt your heartbeat.

A good workout is hard on the body in a lot of ways, it’s going to need some nurturing afterward.

If your post-workout snack is suitably rich in vitamins and minerals you will probably only need to top up with water. Though, there is a lot to be said for sports drinks. Vitamin and mineral supplements are good too.

Want the bottom line? Be as hard on your body as you want during your workout, but be extra kind when you stop. Feed it well, make sure it’s adequately hydrated, then sit back and watch those muscles grow.

What Foods are Good for Bulking Up and Gaining Muscle Mass

Updated on March 15, 2022 by Brad Murphy

There is a lot of conflicting information as to what you should eat if you want to bulk up and gain muscle muss. This article cuts through the fluff and gives it to you straight. here are the foods you should eat if you want to bulk up.

Foods for Bulking Up and Gaining Muscle Mass

Do you know what foods are good for bulking you up? If you do, you probably won’t need to read any further. Having said that, my list of ten muscle-building foods may give you a few ideas you would not normally consider.

When I’m on a quest to gain muscle mass, I eat the foods that can help me the most and anything is fair game—even horses. I combine this with a bulking SARM – if you don’t know what SARMS are the read this

That doesn’t mean I don’t consider the vegetarian-friendly sources of protein. There can be a life without meat and there are some very good plant-based proteins out there.

It’s not good to rely on meat all the time. Eating too much of it too often is not healthy. That’s why I like to mix things up a bit and eat plenty of plant-based proteins too. Apart from anything else, it adds a little variety to my diet and keeps life interesting.

Read on and I’ll share with you some of my top foods for bulking up and gaining good, high-quality muscle mass.

Must Read: Natural testosterone booster supplement – rediscover lost libido, gain muscle mass and restore the energy of your youth – read about Testo Prime

1. Steak

When it comes to foods that are good for bulking up, steak is an obvious choice.

Every 100 g of steak you eat will provide you with around 25g of protein and, as with all red meats, it will be a complete protein. Steak is also an ideal food to eat to increase testosterone levels.

Complete proteins provide all the amino acids your muscles require for growth. Steak takes a little longer to digest than some of the other foods that are good for gaining muscle mass. It can also be higher in fat but, as a “muscle food”, steak is one of the best.

Apart from being high in protein, steak is also a good source of iron. Iron is one of the nutrients your body needs for manufacturing hemoglobin.

The red blood cells need hemoglobin to carry oxygen around the body. This may not sound important, but it is. Your muscles need oxygen and the harder you work them the more they need. So, by providing the iron your body needs to produce hemoglobin, steak helps you to workout with greater intensity. [SOURCE 1]

2 Turkey Breast

Turkey is also one of the best high-protein foods for bulking you up and increasing muscle mass. All turkey meat is good, but the breast is the best because it’s incredibly lean. In fact, it’s normally only around two percent fat and a 100 g serving will give you up to 30 g of protein.

Turkey breast is also very low in calories. That means you don’t need to worry about gaining a lot of extra body fat alongside your improvements in muscle mass.

As a muscle building food, turkey breast ticks all the right boxes because it helps with bulking up while keeping you lean.

However, although the breast is good, the skin that covers it is not. If you eat the skin you will be giving yourself a lot of unnecessary fat. You will also risk pushing up your cholesterol level. So discard the skin and boil the meat instead of roasting or frying.

3. Tofu

Okay, we’ve already got two of the best foods for bulking up out of the way and both of them were meats. This seems like a good time to start talking tofu.

Eating tofu is a very good way to boost your protein intake and don’t go thinking it’s not a complete protein. Apart from being one of the best vegan-friendly proteins, tofu has all the amino acids included.

If you’re not a vegetarian or vegan, don’t dismiss this nutritional powerhouse out of hand. A typical serving of tofu is around eight percent protein and it does not contain any cholesterol at all. It does provide reasonable amounts of iron, magnesium, and calcium though.

If you can’t remember why iron is important, skip back to the section on steak. If you don’t know why magnesium and calcium are important I’ll tell you. Both minerals have the ability to boost natural testosterone production. [SOURCE]

4. Tuna

No list of foods that are good for bulking up would be complete if it didn’t have tuna. It’s high in protein and very low in fat. Even if you forgo fresh tuna steaks and go for the canned variety instead, a 3-ounce serving of tuna that has been canned with water provides roughly 20 g of protein.

Lots of bodybuilders swear by canned tuna and it has the advantage of being very easy to prepare. All you need to do is open the tin, drain off the water, and you are good to go. It goes great with a salad and can make a quick and nutritious sandwich. Alternatively, you can combine it with sweetcorn and low-cal mayonnaise and serve it on top of a baked potato.

The other good thing about tuna is it provides omega-3 fatty acids. Research suggests Omega-3 fatty acids can help prevent the decline of muscle mass and strength that is often a normal part of aging. So, apart from building muscle, tuna may also help you hang on to it for longer. [SOURCE]

5. Beans on Toast

The problem with baked beans is, although they are a good source of protein, the beans are not a complete protein. However, a slice or two of bread contains the amino acids the beans lack. That means a serving of beans on toast can serve all your muscles’ protein needs.

If you can, it’s best to use wholemeal bread for the toast instead of white. Wholemeal bread is higher in fiber and a good source of complex carbohydrate. Choosing wholemeal bread to accompany your baked beans will make the meal better for providing ongoing energy.

Due to it’s higher fiber content, wholemeal bread is also more filling. Eating it should help you avoid the urge to snack in between meals. If you want a good vegetarian-friendly alternative to steak, beans on toast fits the bill.

6. Cottage Cheese

Cottage cheese is another good vegetarian-friendly source of protein. It also provides a reasonable dose of testosterone-boosting calcium. It’s a good food choice for anyone who is busy bulking up and it also has the benefit of being a low-fat protein option.

Like all dairy proteins, cottage cheese is a complete protein so there is no need to worry about a lack of amino acids.

Additionally, this lumpy-looking cheese curd provides a hefty dose of selenium. If you don’t know why that’s good, don’t worry, I do and I’m willing to share the information.

Selenium is a vital mineral and antioxidant that helps protect the body from oxidative stress. Rigorous training causes oxidative stress, that’s why the selenium content of cottage cheese is worth mentioning. [SOURCE]

Cottage cheese is also a versatile food option. You can have it on toast at breakfast time or with a baked potato at lunch. It also works well with a salad and is a healthy low-fat sandwich filler you can enjoy any time of the day.

Need a good food to help get you gaining some serious muscle mass? Squeeze some cottage cheese into your day.

7. Milk

When it comes to dairy protein, milk is king. Cheeses and yogurts are made from milk. It’s the primary source of their protein-packing power. Milk is also probably the only real food you serve in a glass.

Food? Milk? How can this be so? Apart from being a complete protein, milk also provides all the other nutrients your body needs. It’s got the lot. If you wanted to you could live on milk. That makes it a “complete food“.

The chances are I don’t need to tell you that, when it comes to bulking up, this dairy king of foods is as good as it gets. Milk has always been one of the main go-to bodybuilding proteins.

Milk is also a muscle-builder that keeps you looking lean and mean by helping your body to burn fat. That’s not just me saying that. It’s the men in white coats over at the University of Tennessee.

They ran some clinical trials and discovered milk’s rich calcium content allows it to help you lose fat from your trunk region. [SOURCE]

8. Eggs

Do you know what works incredibly well alongside milk? Eggs. Of course, they are also a good food for bulking you up when you eat them alone, but they make a kick-ass combination too.

Both are complete proteins that are easily assimilated and get to work fast. Bodybuilders have been using milk and egg protein shakes for years.

However, you may have heard the scare stories that mixing these two proteins is a dangerous thing to do. Don’t worry, it’s not. It’s only dangerous if you use raw eggs to make your shake. Doing so is unhealthy because there could be implications with bacteria. If you make your shake with boiled eggs everything is safe as houses.

Apart from their other virtues, eggs are a damn good source of choline. Two eggs can provide up to 300 mg.

Choline is a precursor to the neurotransmitter Acetylcholine. That’s interesting because research suggests acetylcholine precursors of this nature can boost human growth hormone (HGH) production. [SOURCE]

I’m sure I don’t need to explain why that’s good. We’re talking growth here and growth is what gaining muscle is all about.

9. Beetroot

If you are surprised to see beetroot on a list of foods that are good for bulking you up, don’t be. These little, red wonders are good stuff. Okay, they turn your pee pink, but nothing is perfect and there’s nothing wrong with adding a little colour to your life every once in a while.

Beetroot is high in nitrate. That allows it to function as a natural NO (nitric acid) booster. Many supplements contain ingredients chosen for their ability to boost NO because higher levels of NO relax the walls of the blood vessels and, in so doing, increase blood flow to the muscles.

The blood has the job of providing the muscles with the nutrients they need to grow. By increasing nutrient flow to the muscles, beetroot speeds up recovery times and helps your muscles to grow. [SOURCE]

10. Horse Meat

Yeah, I know. I’m a terrible man. It’s not cool to suggest you should eat the flesh of dead horses. But how does that taboo work anyway? Unless you are a vegetarian, eating the flesh of dead cows is a socially acceptable practice. Fluffy white sheep too.

Most animals are seen as fair game, why are horses supposed to be different? Personally, I blame TV shows like Champion the Wonder Horse and The Black Stallion.

However, even if you can get past the taboo, taking advantage of this excellent source of protein may not be an option. In many countries, horse meat is not easy to obtain. In others, all it takes is a trip down to the local supermarket.

If you can get it though, horse meat is a really good food for bulking you up. Apart from being high in protein, it contains around 50 percent less fat than beef does and twice as much iron.

As for the taste, it’s pretty good and, where horse meat is available, there may be smoked options too. I can’t say I care too much for smoked horse meat, but many horse eaters love it.