Some Tips about Meals, and Eating Before and After Exercise

• Before lifting or any other exercise you should consume 16-20 ounces of water 20 to 30 minutes before exercise, NOT a high sugar or protein drink.  These types of drinks impede the ability of the small intestine to absorb water efficiently.

• 2-3 hours before practice/game/workout, eat a meal that is high in complex carbohydrates, low in protein, and very low in fat.  A higher fat and protein meal takes   2-3x longer to digest, will make you feel sluggish and tired, and will not provide you with the adequate energy you will need to perform at an optimum level for competition.

• Within 20 to 30 minutes of ending you exercise session or practice you should consume some sort of carbohydrate to begin replenishing your lost glycogen.  Recent studies have found carbohydrate uptake into the muscles is at least 2X as efficient right after exercise. They have found that fructose (sugar from fruits) is a much better way to do this because unlike other sugars it goes form your blood directly into your muscle, not first to the liver like the rest of the carbohydrates.  So enjoy fruit following your exercise and you will be putting twice as much carbohydrate right back into you tank.  Approximately 50 minutes to 90 minutes after eating this serving of carbohydrate, consume 30-50 grams of protein for the same reason listed above.  Your body is ready to begin repairing what you just broke down during your workout. 

• Don’t consume large meals within 1.5-2 hours before an exercise session or practice because a large amount of blood will not be available for your muscles.  This will decrease the efficiency of your body's ability to remove the necessary toxins that result from exercise (lactic acid).

• Spread your meals throughout the day if possible, eat the regular breakfast, lunch and dinner, but also snack on nutritious food between meals. 

• Breakfast is the most important meal of the day because after sleeping all night long the glycogen in you liver is nearly depleted, and if you don’t refill that tank your body will start to take protein or glycogen from your muscle to maintain blood sugar levels which is the primary energy source of the brain.  Every good athlete must realize the importance of a good breakfast and include it in their daily schedule.   

• Include a multi vitamin-mineral supplement in your diet to insure that you are getting all the necessary micro-nutrients. These don’t give you energy, but if you run out of them your body will not function near its optimal capacity.

Six Nutrition Rules That Apply to Everyone Top

1. Always eat at least 5 meals a day.  Two or three meals simply are not often enough.  By eating at least 5 meals/day, your blood sugar levels will be controlled, and you will get protein in small amounts throughout the day to support growth and recovery. Most importantly the enzymes that store fat will no longer be produced, making you biochemically incapable of storing fat!

2. Remember to balance your caloric intake.  In each of your 5 meals, approximately 25-35% of the calories should come from fats, 25-30% from protein, and 50% from carbohydrate.

3. When you sit down to eat, ask yourself, “What am I going to be doing with the next three hours of my life?”  Then, if you are taking a nap, eat less; if you are planning on a training session, eat more. 

4. Another thing to remember whether you are tying to lose fat or gain muscle is to ‘zig-zag’ your caloric intake.  For example, if you want to lose fat, reduce your calories during the week, but eat normal on Friday night and Saturday.  This will (1) readjust your BMR upwards, (2) support lean tissue building, and (3) give you a psychological ‘lift’.  Remember, in rule 1 you learned that your fat storing enzymes were no longer present, so you can eat sweets once in a while.  In fact, if you want to put on lean muscle, you must do this!

5. Drink 8-10 glasses of water each day.  This will insure that you are replacing fluids lost during exercise.  Do not wait until you are thirsty, by then, you are in a depleted state. Drink these glasses of water throughout the day, not all at once.  Studies have shown that a decrease in water intake will cause fat deposits to increase, while an increase in water can reduce fat deposits. Here’s why: the kidneys can’t function properly without enough water.  When they don’t work to capacity, some of their load is dumped on the liver.  One of the liver’s primary functions is to metabolize stored fat into usable energy for the body.  But, if the liver has to do some of the kidney’s work, it can’t operate at full throttle.  As a result, it metabolizes less fat and more fat is stored in the body.  The best way to overcome the problem of water retention is to give your body more water.  Only then will stored water be released. 

There are 3500 calories in one pound of fat.  That means that by reducing your food by 500 calories per day, you should lose 1 pound of fat per week, right?  WRONG

Actually, much of the weight you will lose will come from muscle tissue, NOT fat.  Why? Because your body tends to use “excess” muscle tissue for needed energy before it reclaims fat deposits. 

The answer is to take your time with fat loss, and either preserve or build muscle tissue by integrating scientific weight training, mild aerobics, dietary manipulation, supplementation, and other technologies into your lifestyle.  Follow the rules above!

NEVER attempt to gain or lose weight.  Instead, you should always strive to gain muscle and lose fat.