Many athletes ask themselves: what should I eat before training? What about during exercise? What about after training?

Obviously, answering all these questions will require a case-by-case analysis, but… good news! There are some general patterns that you can follow without fear of making mistakes .

Keep in mind that there are many factors that can influence what is best to eat, such as the type of sport you play or your health and physical condition. So don’t take this text literally! In any case, reading this article will give you some basic ideas about what to eat, when to eat and how to eat.

Once we’ve cleared this up, let’s get started.

What – and how – to eat before training?

Before practicing sports we will need to have a nourished body, in a situation where our cells and muscles are able to perform well and thus minimize the risk of injury . To this end, the nutrients that we ingest (carbohydrates or sugars, fats and proteins) must be in optimal quantities and proportions.

Fats

We should know that lipids are the last element in obtaining energy, a very effective but very slow energy: it takes longer to get started to nourish our muscle cells. The oxidation of fatty acids is activated 20-40 minutes after the start of the sport and… it is almost impossible to exhaust the lipid reserves of our body.

On the one hand, we already have fat distributed throughout the body, and this means that we have practically inexhaustible stores. If we eat fats before training we will only make the stomach work and we will decrease the mobilization of blood to where we want it to be transported: the muscles . Therefore, eating fat before exercise is not very advisable as it will slow down our digestion. Apart from that, our lipid stores already provide us with this nutrient on a constant basis, so you should not have any fear of running out.

Sugars

Speaking of sugars, the truth is that we have small reserves in the liver and at the muscular level. However, these glucose stores are not large enough to cover the needs of our body in a day of training or physical, so we should eat a carbohydrate of slow absorption to load our cells with energy and not feel tired or have a lipotimia during exercise.

There are many examples of slow absorption sugars, but the most recommended are pasta, rice and bread. If they are wholemeal, so much the better! Because wholemeal foods are absorbed more slowly by our digestive system, our energy reserves will cover more and better our needs during (and after) sport, thanks in part to their fibre content.

As far as fibre is concerned, we should know that it has two basic functions: to lower the glycaemic index of food (this is related to the speed of absorption of a food and to the activation of insulin in our body) and to cleanse our intestines.

A little-known example of the perfect pre-workout food: “10 benefits of chia seeds on your body and mind”

Proteins

Last but not least, we have the proteins . These play a fundamental role during exercise to avoid or slow down the processes of muscle destruction. In the protein section, we must take into account that the reserves only last 3 to 4 hours, regardless of whether we are talking about vegetable (lentils, for example) or animal (a beef fillet) proteins.

The only thing we will look at when deciding whether to bet on vegetable or animal proteins will be in our blood group, since according to blood types we will be more tolerant or less tolerant of one protein type or another, therefore digestion will occur more quickly or less. This point of blood groups and protein assimilation I will explain in another article in more detail, I do not want to dwell on this.

Once we have seen what and how we should eat before exercise, let’s move on to the next phase: during the sports activity.

What – and how – to eat during physical exercise?

At this point in our training when we begin to sweat and notice how our muscles pump blood we will need to ingest certain nutrients that will allow us to maintain a good level of hydration and energy. It is during sweating that our body expels water and mineral components. This loss can be easily corrected by ingesting an isotonic drink . Isotonic water bottles contain rapidly absorbed sugars necessary to restore the water and glucose levels that our body demands when exercising. If the isotonic drink does not contain sugars, do not worry: you can add a couple of spoonfuls of white sugar.

As regards proteins during training, our body can only assimilate the protein already broken down into amino acids . The amino acid is the smallest unit in which a protein can be broken down, a chain of amino acids forms a protein. Two types of amino acids are responsible for repairing the microscopic muscle fibers in our body that are degraded when we play sports. On the one hand, we have glutamine (which is the most important amino acid for the subject at hand), which plays a fundamental role in the repair processes of muscle fibres.

On the other hand we find the BCAA amino acids (Branch Chain Amino Acids), formed by valine , leucine and isoleucine , three essential components in the muscular metabolism. These amino acids can be bought in specialist shops and come in a shake form, which you can prepare at home and take it easy on during your workout. Important: We have to watch where these products come from, as they are not all of the same quality.

Low quality products can be dangerous for our health, so be careful: this will also be a topic I’m saving for another article, because it deserves to be explained well. In any case, be very careful when choosing nutritional supplements: it’s better not to take them than to take one that could be harmful to your health.

Once we have explained what and how to eat during training, let’s continue: let’s learn how to nourish ourselves after sweating the fat.

What – and how – to eat after training?

Immediately after exercise we have a time span of between 90 and 120 minutes during which our body is highly receptive to all the nutrients we take in. This special time is called the anabolic window, and it also occurs in the mornings when we wake up. So watch what follows because it is very important.

The best option after exercise is to drink a quick carbohydrate shake , in order to stop the process of muscle destruction. This is produced by the continuous stress on the muscle, which slowly damages the fibers during physical exercise until it creates micro muscle ruptures. In order to achieve an improvement in muscle quality (and therefore in sports performance), we must necessarily go through this process of destruction. However, it is not convenient that the muscle fibres remain degraded and without food to repair themselves for a long time, hence the need for this first shake that I recommend.

Shortly after this first shake and before the end of the anabolic window time, it is best to have a second shake, this time of proteins , in order to recover the muscle structure. You must bear in mind that it will depend on the quality of the protein that the absorption is produced more quickly and that we feel better at the digestive level. This is because at the moment just after exercise we do not have much blood in the organs involved in the digestion process.

The blood is kept in the muscles to oxygenate them and repair the fibres, leaving the rest of the body a little bit under-supplied, as it happens with the stomach, which will have to make an over-exertion to correctly assimilate the food it receives in order to repair the muscle fibres. As a result of all this process, the quality of our muscles increases, leading to progress in our general physical condition.

Later, before the end of the anabolic window, we must ingest a fast carbohydrate to replenish the muscle stores of glucose. My personal recommendation is the one contained in boiled potato or sweet potato. As a source of protein, we will follow the same pattern as before, looking at a food that suits us according to our blood group.

Food and training: conclusions

As we have seen, feeding before, during and after sports training is key to optimizing physical performance, and muscle recovery and overcompensation. I hope that this mini-guide will help you to improve the quality of your training so that you can achieve your personal goals.

Now, the most important thing: let’s train!