7 Tips For An Ideal Workout Meal
In this article, I will describe what to eat after working out or exercising, at lunchtime or in the evening, by offering you examples of meals and how to combine them.
By eating the right foods at the right time, you can improve the benefits of your workout sessions: gain muscle, lose weight, recover, and progress.
After working out, especially after an intense workout session, you need to feed your body with the best possible foods, without neglecting your hydration.
Article summary :
1) Hydrate with a recovery drink.
2) Eat a meal within 2 hours of training.
3) Favor complex carbohydrates.
4) Eat enough protein.
5) Eat fresh and varied vegetables.
6) Include good fats.
7) Plan snacks tailored to your goals.
- Examples of meals after sport (morning, noon and evening)
- Eat after exercise to lose weight
- Eat after exercise to gain muscle
- Estimated Daily Calories for Bodybuilding
- Estimated Daily Calories for Running
1) hydrate with a recovery drink
After exercising, you must first hydrate yourself. Indeed, if your training session was intense or long, you lost a lot of water, especially through perspiration and breathing.
Before eating, the priority will therefore be to drink enough water, and if necessary mineral salts:
- 1/3 of carbohydrates (quinoa, rice, oats, buckwheat, sweet potato).
- 1/3 protein (meat, fish, eggs, legumes, tofu).
- 1/3 cooked or raw vegetables (spinach, broccoli, kale, arugula, carrots, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers).
- Good fats (olive oil, avocado, oilseeds).
- Fresh fruit, and dairy products, for dessert, or as a snack.
2) Eat a meal within 2 hours of training
Eating the right foods soon after exercising will help your body recover faster.
To do this, eat a meal that contains both carbohydrates and protein, within two hours of your workout.
Here is an example of the composition of a meal after a training or a competition:
- 1/3 of carbohydrates (quinoa, rice, oats, buckwheat, sweet potato).
- 1/3 protein (meat, fish, eggs, legumes, tofu).
- 1/3 cooked or raw vegetables (spinach, broccoli, kale, arugula, carrots, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers).
- Good fats (olive oil, avocado, oilseeds).
- Fresh fruit, and dairy products, for dessert, or as a snack.
It is important not to skip this meal which is crucial for your recovery and your progress.
The quantities will have to be adapted to meet your energy needs, which vary according to the sex, weight, type of training, metabolism of each.
This will allow you to obtain the following benefits:
- Decrease the breakdown of muscle proteins.
- Increase muscle protein synthesis (growth).
- Restore glycogen stores.
- Improve recovery.
- Lose weight, mostly fat, if you eat less than your needs.
3) Focus on complex carbohydrates
Your body's glycogen stores are used for fuel during exercise, and consuming carbohydrates after your workout helps replenish them.
How quickly your glycogen stores are used up depends on activity. For example, endurance sports tend to use more glycogen than strength training.
Here is a list of complex carbohydrates you can eat after exercise:
- Whole al dente pasta,
- Brown rice or basmati,
- Yam,
- Quinoa,
- Lentils.
- Oatmeal.
- Buckwheat.
- Potatoes.
- Whole meal bread, rye, spelled.
I advise you to avoid simple carbohydrates, mainly grains and refined sugars. Their consumption must remain occasional, during a difficult training or a competition.
Indeed, consuming too many cereals and refined sugars can lead to the development of metabolic diseases, such as insulin resistance, then type 2 diabetes.
Finally, these refined sugars can potentially increase inflammation, and promote weight gain.
4) Eat enough protein
Protein helps repair tissue damaged during exercise and rebuild muscles.
Consuming the right amount of protein after a workout provides your body with the amino acids it needs to repair and rebuild these proteins.
Here are the sources of protein you can eat after exercise:
- White meats (chicken, turkey, pork).
- Organic and free-range eggs.
- Fatty fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel).
- Organic red meats, from grass-fed animals.
- Tofu.
- Legumes (lentils, peas, beans).
To gain muscle mass, as well as to maintain it, a total daily protein intake of the order of 1.4 to 2.0 g of protein per kg of body weight per day is sufficient for most athletes.
Favor quality protein sources with high nutritional value.
Thus, avoid the consumption of processed meats (sausage, reconstituted steak, ham or chicken, cold meats). They are linked to several modern chronic diseases.
5) Eat fresh and varied vegetables
Because far too many athletes focus mainly on proteins and carbohydrates, the intake of vegetables is too often overlooked.
This is an error that you must not reproduce and which can lead to deficiencies in micronutrients: iron, zinc, calcium and vitamins A and C…
So think about including in your athlete's diet various vegetables such as:
- Green leafy vegetables (spinach, kale, arugula).
- Crucifers (broccoli, cabbage).
- Root vegetables (carrots, radishes, beets, garlic, onion).
- Squash.
- Peppers.
They contain carbohydrates, fibers and many micronutrients and antioxidants very important for the recovery of the athlete, and for his good health.
6) Include good fats
Far too many athletes are afraid of eating fat after training. They think they will make them fat and slow down their digestion.
However, fats are a central element in the diet of the athlete, even after training.
Not all sources of fat are nutritionally equal.
You should therefore eat more monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, contained in the following foods:
- Olive oil and avocado (oleic acid).
- Oilseeds such as walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds (omega 3).
- Fish oil or fatty fish, such as salmon (omega 3).
These fats play a vital role in regulating inflammation, building hormones, energy, and muscle growth.
These functions are very important for general health and for physical activity.
7) Plan snacks tailored to your goals
Depending on your goals, it may be helpful to include snacks between your meals.
Gain muscle
If you practice weight training or cross fit and your goal is to gain mass, it is worthwhile to plan snacks before and after training.
These should include a protein dose of 20 to 40 grams, depending on your weight and the training done.
To lose weight
If you want to lose weight, it is important to find a balance that will allow you to properly recover while losing weight.
You must at all costs favor the most nutritious foods possible, containing a wide variety of micronutrients.
Your snacks can therefore include:
- Fresh fruits, such as berries and red fruits (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries) for their beneficial effects on health.
- Oilseeds (walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds), having a beneficial effect on satiety and appetite regulation.
- Green tea, rich in antioxidants.
It is not advisable to skip the snack after sports.
Of course, if you want to lose weight, exercise alone is not enough. You should eat a healthy and balanced diet, the calories of which are slightly less than your energy needs.
Optimize your performance
Your goal will be to meet the daily calorie needs necessary to optimize recovery and allow for prolonged and repeated training sessions.
Daily calorie needs are influenced by many factors including: basal metabolism (at rest), daily activity, specific training needs, body composition, and thermogenesis resulting from the digestion of food.
If your meals are not enough to meet this demand, then you should add snacks containing nutritious foods like fresh fruits, oilseeds or complex carbohydrates.
Examples of meals after sport (morning, noon and evening)
Here are some examples of meals to plan, to eat well after sport, in the morning, at noon or in the evening. The portions are to be adapted according to your objectives.
Eat after exercising on an empty stomach in the morning:
You can choose from the following breakfast options:
- Bowl of oatmeal, blueberries, nuts, almonds and cream cheese.
- Toasts of whole meal bread, scrambled eggs, avocado and sundried tomatoes.
- Toast with rye bread, almond butter and banana.
- Savory breakfast: salmon and sweet potato, or chicken and rice.
Eat after sports at noon:
You can choose from the following lunch options:
- Grilled chicken with vegetables, and brown rice.
- Omelet, avocado, and toast.
- Salmon, sweet potato, and zucchini.
- Tuna sandwich with whole meal bread, salad, and tomatoes.
- Grilled tofu, sautéed vegetables, curry soy sauce, and red rice.
- Arugula salad, lentils, quinoa, avocado, beets, carrots and olive oil.
Eat after working out in the evening:
You can choose from the following dining options:
- Tuna, tomato, corn, and red bean salad.
- Vegetable soup, 2 hard-boiled eggs and a bowl of quinoa.
- White ham, zucchini, and brown rice.
- Vegetable steak, sweet potatoes, and spinach.
- Lentils, brown rice, and broccoli.
Eat after exercise to lose weight
After your sport, eat a full meal:
- Half of your plate consists of vegetables.
- A quarter of slow, complete carbohydrates like quinoa or brown rice.
- The last quarter contains lean protein, such as fish, chicken or turkey.
- Make sure you rehydrate properly by drinking water as well.
This is because your workouts burn calories, they make you hungry. If you eat late, you risk making your hunger more intense, and therefore overeating. Try to prevent cravings that cause you to eat more than you need, and make poor food choices.
Eating after exercise, especially protein and carbohydrates, is important for rebuilding and repairing your muscles.
Protein and carbohydrates help build muscle, and consuming carbohydrates also replenishes your glycogen stores to keep enough energy for your next workout. It also helps maintain a higher metabolism, which means you'll burn more calories even after your workout.
Depriving your body of fuel after a workout also robs you of muscle and metabolic gains, and the weight loss effects that come with it.
In addition to these tips, it is important to develop good habits to promote weight loss and avoid weight gain:
Good eating habits to lose weight
Simple changes can modify the food environment to lose weight more easily:
Prepare meals at home and take them out.
- Consume natural, unprocessed, non-industrial foods.
- Learn to eat your fill, by adjusting the size of your portions.
- Learn to recognize the calorie content of foods and dishes to adapt the amounts.
- Stop smoking and reduce alcohol consumption
- Consume foods rich in fiber.
- Avoid shopping when you are hungry.
Eating habits that can promote overweight:
- Eat little or no meals at home.
- Opt for processed foods high in fat, sugars and calories.
- Opt for high fat snacks from vending machines or fast food outlets.
- Do not take a minimum of time to prepare meals.
- Eat meals in fast food restaurants or restaurants with an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Eat after exercise to gain muscle
To gain muscle, energy intake has a major effect on the ability to develop muscles. Calorie restriction should therefore be avoided, which induces a chronic decrease in muscle protein synthesis. In addition, a caloric surplus, even in the absence of bodybuilding, is a powerful stimulator of muscle anabolism (muscle gain).
So if you want to maximize muscle growth while minimizing excess fat gain, you need to make sure that you are consuming enough calories… Thus, it may be relevant to aim for a calorie surplus of between 200 and 400 calories per day.
In terms of protein, an intake of 1.4 to 2.0 grams per kg per day seems to be ideal. Eat three to six meals a day with a meal containing 0.4 to 0.5 grams per kg of body weight of protein, before and after training.
Plus, you need enough carbohydrates to get a good workout and improve your performance in the gym. But you also need enough fat to maintain your hormone levels, and your overall health.
You can consume approximately between 0.5 and 1 gram of fat per kg of body weight. Finally, the rest of your calories, removing proteins, preferably from complex carbohydrates (cereals, vegetables, fruits).
Estimation of calories in bodybuilding
In bodybuilding, experts recommend getting:
- 45-60% of calories from carbohydrates.
- 30-35% of calories from protein.
- 15-30% of calories from fat.
So, you can plan for a daily calorie intake of:
- 4 to 7 g of carbohydrates per kg of body weight, depending on your training phase.
- About 20 grams of protein, 5-6 times a day.
- Between 0.5 and 1 g of fat per kg of body weight.
Your calorie needs can then be calculated based on your current weight and training. Thus, for an athlete doing intense bodybuilding workouts, it is advisable to consume between 50 and 80 calories per kilogram of body weight.
Calorie Estimate For An Endurance Athlete
For those who wish to be precise regarding their energy needs, it is possible to rely on the estimates concerning endurance running, given by the International Society of Sports Nutrition :
- Woman (50kg) training 1 hour per day: 2100 calories.
- Woman (50kg) training 3 hours a day: 3000 calories.
- Woman (70kg) training 1 hour per day: 2600 calories.
- Woman (70kg) training 3 hours a day: 3900 calories.
- Man (65kg) training 1 hour per day: 2700 calories.
- Man (65kg) training 3 hours a day: 3900 calories.
- Man (85kg) training 1 hour per day: 3100 calories.
- Man (85kg) training 3 hours a day: 4700 calories.
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