What should you eat before, during, and after your workout


What should you eat before, during, and after your workout to maximize muscle growth and body composition? This question refers to what's called peri-workout nutrition, which just means the timing of nutrients around a workout.




Let me start by saying that, while I will be giving detailed meal examples in this Blog , it's important that we start with what the science actually says about this question in the first place: Why does peri-workout nutrition matter at all?






Well, in a now infamous paper titled Nutrient Timing Revisited, Aragon and Schoenfeld challenged the classic view of post-exercise nutritional intake with respect to anabolism. Many science lovers took this single paper to be the nail in the coffin for the bros' now-outdated anabolic window concept. Apparently, nutrient timing didn’t matter after all.

Well, it turns out many of the science guys may have jumped to conclusions a little too quickly. Because even in this very paper, the authors suggest that pre- and post-exercise meals shouldn’t be separated by more than 3 to 4 hours — or maybe 5 to 6 hours if you eat a large pre-workout meal.

Let’s just meet in the middle and say 4 to 5 hours between the pre- and post-workout meals is the true size of the science-based anabolic window. So, the peri-workout window definitely does matter — but it matters more for some people than it does for others.

It’s more important if you’re leaner, because you have a lower nutrient supply. It’s more important if you’re on lower total calories, because you’re at a higher risk of muscle loss. And it’s more important for those who do higher-volume, bodybuilding-style training — which depletes more nutrients than lower-volume, powerlifting workouts.

All right, so the pre-workout meal is the single most important meal of the day in my opinion. That’s because it'll ultimately determine how effective your training is, which ultimately drives muscle growth.

There are two main purposes of the pre-workout meal. The first is to fuel the workout, primarily via carbohydrate. The second is to provide an anabolic environment during training, primarily via protein.

Now, when it comes to the macros for the pre-workout meal, I aim for about 1 g of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight — ideally coming from a lower glycemic carb source — plus a serving of fruit. This combination of carb sources will provide more sustainable energy through the workout since different carbohydrates use different transporters, meaning different rates of absorption and more sustainable performance during training.

I'll also aim for about 0.5 g of protein per kilogram of body weight, and 0 to 20 g of fat depending on how close the meal is to the workout itself. Because dietary fat slows digestion down, meals eaten closer to the workout should contain less fat, and meals eaten further from the workout should contain more fat.

Which brings me to the next question: When should we eat the pre-workout meal?

Well, up front, I was a bit surprised to learn that 33% of you don’t eat a pre-workout meal at all because you train fasted — and that’s okay. I’ll have some advice for you guys here in a minute.

First, for the other 67%, eating 1 to 1.5 hours before training is usually ideal. Because if you eat the pre-workout meal too close to training, the food might still be digesting, and that can cause you to feel lethargic or bloated. On the other hand, if you time your meal too far from training, you run a higher risk of having low energy or feeling flat. So that’s my sweet spot.

But sometimes it’s just not possible to wait an hour or an hour and a half after eating because of time constraints. Sometimes, you’re just forced to hit the gym on short notice — in which case you’ll want to focus on eating a lower calorie meal with faster-digesting foods.

And by the same token, if you know you’re going to train more than 1 to 1.5 hours after eating, you want to have a higher-calorie meal and prioritize foods that digest more slowly.




Pre-Workout Meal Example (80 kg Male)

So let’s start with a pre-workout meal example based on a 175 lb (roughly 80 kg) male who plans to train in about an hour to an hour and a half. Based on his body weight and the macro targets that we laid out, he’ll want about 80 g of carbs, 40 g of protein, and 10 to 15 g of fat.

For this meal, we’re making a good old bowl of protein oatmeal. So basically, cook 80 g of oats and mix in one scoop of protein powder. I use PE Science Select Protein, which is a blend of casein and whey, and it mixes really well with oats. (Full disclosure: I am sponsored by them.)

Shout out to my girlfriend Stephanie for the cake pop flavor idea!

Top the oats with a sliced banana, half a tablespoon of peanut butter, a pinch of cinnamon (which may help keep blood glucose levels more stable into the workout), and a sprinkle of sea salt — especially if you sweat a lot during training.

You can see the full calorie and macro breakdown of the meal here, which of course you can tweak to fit your body weight and total daily calories.

Oh, and if you wanted to make this meal vegan, you could just easily swap out the whey-casein blend for a vegan protein like a pea and brown rice blend. If it doesn’t give the right consistency in the oats, you can just drink it separately as a shake.




Pre-Workout Meal Example (55 kg Female)

Next, let’s look at a pre-workout meal for a 120 lb (or 55 kg) female who will be training a bit later — so in roughly 2 hours. Again, based on her body weight, she’ll want about 27 g of protein, 55 g of carbs, and 10 to 15 g of fat.

And because this meal is being eaten 2 hours before training, it’d be smart to have a bit more fat than usual and a bit more fiber than usual to slow down digestion and ensure nutrients are still available for fuel into the workout.

So for this meal, we’re doing 4 oz of salmon, a medium-sized sweet potato, a mixed green salad with some light goat cheese, plus some apple slices with cinnamon. And here you can see the full calorie and macro breakdown for this meal.




Pre-Workout (Quick Snack Example)

As a third example, let’s consider someone who’s in a rush and needs to train within the next 20 to 30 minutes — and hasn’t eaten for hours. They should definitely eat something, but if they have a big meal, they might feel bloated or sluggish.

So in this case, I’d recommend something light and quick — like a whey protein shake and a banana. These nutrients need to be absorbed quickly, so we don’t want much fat or fiber. And here you can see the full macro breakdown for this quick snack on the fly.

What If You Train Fasted?

All right, but what if you’re one of the 33% who trains fasted?

Well, let’s remember the two reasons why pre-workout nutrition matters in the first place: to fuel training performance and to create an anabolic environment.

When it comes to fueling the workout — yes — generally speaking, having at least some amount of carbohydrate before training will benefit performance. However, I know from my coaching experience that some people simply perform better when they train on an empty stomach. That’s usually because they train very early in the morning and either don’t have the appetite or feel sick and nauseous if they eat right away.

This isn’t a deal breaker. World-record-holding powerlifter Russell Orhii trained fasted for years. While I think he’s recently switched away from that, he was still able to reach truly elite-level strength and size without a pre-workout meal.

However, if you are planning on skipping the pre-workout meal, then the intra-workout and post-workout meals suddenly become much more urgent.

Intra-Workout Nutrition

So on that note, let’s cover intra-workout nutrition — or what you should consume during the workout itself.

Now, up front, I’ll say that intra-workout nutrition definitely isn’t required for everyone, especially if you’ve already had a well-timed pre-workout meal.

But there are a few circumstances where it does make sense:

  • If you train fasted

  • If you’re in a caloric deficit and already very lean

  • If your workouts last longer than an hour

  • Or if you’re an elite-level trainee trying to optimize every little detail

If any of these apply to you, I definitely recommend having some kind of liquid carb source during your workout, such as Gatorade, Kool-Aid, or Tang to fuel performance.

As a general rule of thumb, I recommend 0.5 g of carbohydrate per minute of training, starting about 30 minutes into the workout. So, if your workouts last 90 minutes, you’d consume 30 g of carbs starting 30 minutes in.

However, if you’re cutting and you’d rather not waste that many carbs on liquid sugar, then even just 5 to 10 g of carbohydrate can go a long way for stabilizing blood glucose and turning a bad workout into a good one.

And if you do train fasted or just want some extra anabolic insurance, you can optionally add 5 to 10 g of EAAs (essential amino acids). Or if you don’t want to drop any extra cash on EAAs, just sip on about 10 g of whey protein.




Post-Workout Nutrition

Okay, so the urgency of the post-workout anabolic window has definitely been exaggerated by some gym bros. Remember that there is, in fact, a 4 to 5 hour window bracketing the workout — meaning if you ate your pre-workout meal 1 hour before training and then trained for an hour, you’d theoretically still have 2 to 3 hours to play with for getting in that post-workout meal.

On the other hand, if you ate your pre-workout meal 2 hours before training and then trained for 2 hours, you should get your post-workout meal in as quickly as possible.

So, same as with the pre-workout meal, I recommend consuming 0.5 g of protein per kilogram of body weight post-workout. So, if you weigh 180 lb (or 82 kg), you’d want about 40 g of protein.

Carbs are relatively less important in the post-workout meal because you no longer need to use them as an immediate energy source — and most typical weight training sessions don’t actually deplete as much glycogen as some bodybuilders lead on anyway. Plus, research shows that any lost glycogen should be replenished within 24 to 48 hours as long as you’re eating some carbohydrate at some point after training.

However, because rates of glycogen resynthesis are at their highest within the first few hours following training, it would be smart to include at least some carbohydrate in the post-workout meal — especially if you do full-body training or two-a-day workouts where you’ll be hitting the same muscle again within the next day or two.

Assuming you have plenty of carbs to spare, then 1 to 1.5 g of carbs per kilogram of body weight is a good target. However, when cutting, you may be more limited on carbs — in which case something around 0.5 g per kilogram may be more appropriate.

And I’d recommend including another serving of fruit in the post-workout meal as well.

When it comes to fats, I don’t think they’re as big of a deal in the post-workout meal, simply because the rate of digestion is of relatively less importance. The workout has already been fueled, and there’s typically no major urgency to get those nutrients absorbed as quickly as possible.

Still, if you do find yourself on the outer edge of that 4 to 5 hour anabolic window, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to keep fats down below 10 to 20 g just to ensure digestion isn’t slowed down excessively. Under most circumstances though, this isn’t something I personally nitpick over too much.







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