Discover what to eat before during and after a workout for maximum muscle growth.
You can’t build muscle without proper fuel. Although protein is the most important macronutrient when it comes to hypertrophy, you should understand that there are different ways and tactics to properly fuel your body to make even more progress when working out.
There are many pre-workout shakes, post-workout drinks and snacks that you can eat while lifting weights. But there are wrong ways to approach it if you don’t know exactly what you are doing. And that is what Jeff Nippard wants to fix.
Jeff Nippard is a natural professional bodybuilder who shares tips and training programs on his YouTube channel.
He talked about what to eat before during and after a workout.
What To Eat Before During and After a Workout
Pre-Workout Meal
In Nippard’s opinion, the pre-workout is the most important meal of the day as it affects how your training is going to be and, ultimately, drives muscle growth.
The pre-workout meal has two main goals: fuel the workout (primarily carbohydrate) and provide anabolic environment during training (primarily via protein).
Macros for the pre-workout should be:
- 1 gram of carbs per kilogram of body weight – ideally a lower glycemic carb source
- 1 serving of fruit
- 0.5 grams of protein per kilogram
- 0 to 20 grams of fat depending on how close the meal is to the workout (the closer to the workout, the lower amount of fat you should eat)
Have your pre-workout between 1 to 1.5 hours before the workout.
During the Workout Meal
If you tend to work out in a fasted state, the during and post-workout meals become much more important.
A meal while working out is not mandatory for everyone, especially if you had a pre-workout. But you should have an intra-workout meal when:
- Train fasted
- You are in a caloric deficit and already very lean
- If workouts last longer than 1 hour
- Elite trainee trying to optimise every detail
Good meals to have during workouts are liquid carb sources such as Gatorade, kool-aid or Tang to fuel performance.
As a rule of thumb, try to get 0.5 grams of carbohydrates per minute of training starting about 30 minutes into the workout.
If you train fasted, you may also choose to drink 10 grams of whey protein.
Post-Workout Meal
According to Nippard, there is a 4-5 hour window bracketing the workout in which you should have your meals. If you have your pre-workout an hour before the workout, train for an hour, then you have about 3 hours to have your post-workout meal.
In terms of macros, this is what Nippard advises:
- 0.5 grams of protein per kilo bodyweight
- 1-1.5 grams of carbs per kilo bodyweight (0.5 grams if you are cutting)
- 1 serving of fruit
- Below 10-20 grams of fat to make sure digestion isn’t slowed down excessively
And that is Nippard’s explanation of what to eat before during and after a workout. He also exemplifies better what those meals could be. Click on the video below for more information.
VIDEO – What To Eat Before During and After a Workout
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Image Sources
- Lukas-and-Food: Photos Courtesy of CrossFit Inc
- Build good habits for life: Nathan Cowley on Pexels
