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Jul 7

7 Diet Habits That Can Help You Get More From Your Workouts – menshealth.com

Diets that Work Comments Off on 7 Diet Habits That Can Help You Get More From Your Workouts – menshealth.com

If youre trying to be the most swole version of yourself but arent focused on diet, youre doing yourself a serious disservice. The benefits of exercise are only partially determined by what you actually do at the gym. Other factors like your diet affect your physical resultsand your health, too.

Nutrition is what powers everything you do. Its gas in the car, says Albert Matheny, RD, CSCS, the co-founder of SoHo Strength Lab, Promix Nutrition, and Arena. If you eat welland get the timing rightyoull have more energy, making it easier to work out, Matheny says. But the opposite is also true, he adds. Meaning, filling up on the wrong foods and missing certain key eating windows can make it harder to go all out during workouts and reach your fitness goals.

Read ahead and keep our back-to-basics diet habits in mind, so you can get maximum output from your workout, every time.

Making food an afterthought is an easy way to torpedo your fitness goals. Too many people dont plan their nutrition out and then make poor choices when they get hungry, says Joey Gochnour, RDN, NASM-CPT, a board-certified specialist in sports dietetics at Nutrition and Fitness Professional. Consider the times youll actually have time to eat, what your physical needs will be for the day, and when you need to have peak energy for a workout. (Pro-tip: Before hitting the gym, reach for a simple carb, like sweet cherries. Think: Bing, Lapin, and Sweetheart.) Then create meals around your schedule. (More on actual timing later.)

Just keep this in mind: These meals and snacks dont have to be complicated. You don't need to have extensive cooking ability to put peanut butter on a bagel, pour a bowl of cereal or oatmeal, or make a sandwich with a piece of fruit and a glass of milk, Gochnour says.

2. Make sure youre eating enough.

Undereating is a surprisingly easy trap to fall into if youre regularly beast-moding at the gymand one that can quickly catch up with you. If you are chronically undereating calories and protein, you may not be able to recover properly between bouts of working out, says Spencer Nadolsky, DO, chief physician of Renaissance Periodization. That means you may not be able to work out as hard as youd like, whether its running faster or longer or lifting heavier weights with more reps.

To calculate how much fuel youll need on any given day to meet your goals, Nadolsky recommends checking out the National Institutes of Healths Body Weight Planner tool. There, you can enter your current stats, such as height, weight, and activity level along with your goals. The planner will help you determine exactly how many calories you should eat in a day.

In terms of protein goals, you can simplify things and shoot for around .75 grams per pound, he says. So, if you weigh 180, strive to eat about 135 grams of protein each day.

Some inflammation in your body is a normal part of the healing process post-workout, but too much can actually interfere with your recovery, says Samantha Cassetty, MS, RD, a nutrition and wellness expert who is the co-author of Sugar Shock. Food can be a powerful way to control exercise-induced inflammation to help you recover faster and potentially reduce pain and soreness, she says.

Anti-inflammatory foods tend to be high in antioxidants, Cassetty says. So, veggies and fruits are biggiesespecially sweet cherries (which shouldnt be confused with their tart counterparts). Research published in the Journal of Nutrition found that eating sweet Bing cherries, specifically, can significantly decrease inflammatory biomarkers in the body. (Bonus: Eating them on the regular can even help to prevent chronic inflammatory diseases like heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and cancer.)

Every person and their needs are slightly different but, in general, you want to think about the digestion time of what youre eating, Matheny says. Typically, you want to eat something before your workout that will digest faster, like simple carbohydrates, Matheny says, listing off PB&J and oatmeal as possible options. This increases your blood sugar and will give you an energy boost for a little bit. Foods to avoid pre-workout include those that are high in fat, protein, and fiber because theyre slower to digest.

Timing matters, too. If youre having carbs, Matheny recommends eating 20 to 30 minutes before a workout to get maximum results. If youre having something a little heavier, one to two hours before go time is best.

It used to be that we told everyone to eat [a meal] immediately after workouts to help recover, but if youre eating [something] within a few hours before a workout, you dont have to rush to get that meal, Nadolsky says.

Ideally, though, youll want to eat within two hours of your workout, and youll want to go big on protein. Your muscles need protein to help them repair and rebuild, which will help maximize your strength gains, Cassetty explains. Your body also needs carbohydrates to replace what was used for energy during your workout. If you neglect to eat, youre missing the chance to replace that muscle tissue, so youre not going to get the maximum benefits from your workout, and it may even interfere with your ability to recover.

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Proper rest and recovery can help you get back at it tomorrow. Diet and sleep patterns are intertwined, Cassetty says. She points to a small study of 26 adults that found people who ate a high-fiber diet spent more time in deep sleep than other participants while those who regularly chowed down on sugary foods were up more at night.

A nutritious diet has also been shown to help reduce the time it takes to fall asleep, Cassetty says. Basically, if you arent eating well, your sleep may suffer. And if you eat nutritious, fiber-rich whole foods in the context of a healthy diet, youre less likely to suffer from sleep problems.

Worth noting: The same sweet cherries that can lower inflammation also contain melatonin, the hormone that controls your sleep-wake cycle. While Cassetty says eating a bowl of cherries alone wont automatically make you conk out, cherries can help when you couple them with good sleep hygiene, like keeping your room dark and not spending too much time on your phone before bed.

Being even a little dehydrated can make you feel off at the gym. The American College of Sports Medicine said in a joint position statement with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that 2 percent or more dehydration can compromise cognitive function and aerobic exercise performances, particularly in hot weather.

While hydration during your workout is important, Matheny says its especially crucial leading up to the main event. Its not going to do it if youve had one coffee all day and then chug a bottle of water before you work out, he says. You need to be drinking all day.

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7 Diet Habits That Can Help You Get More From Your Workouts - menshealth.com

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