Author: ABC Nutrition – Making Nutrition Easy
Exercise is an essential part of any well-balanced healthy lifestyle. To ensure you get the full benefit of your exercise goals it is important to maintain a healthy balanced diet, eating the right foods and fluids to meet your training and lifestyle requirements. The food you eat and drink before exercise can help support your exercise goals by:
- Providing fuel and fluid for the exercise duration
- Supply nutrition and fluid requirements to help sustain the intensity and quality required
- Reduce gut discomfort or unplanned trips to the bathroom
- Reduce hunger pains during exercise
Eating and drinking before exercise
It is important to start exercise well hydrated as this will lower your risk of becoming dehydrated during or after your exercise session. It is recommended to get to know your fluid losses during exercise by weighing yourself before and after to see how much fluid you have lost. An approximate guide is 1kg of weight lost = 1litre fluid lost, from this you can put together your fluid requirement plan. It is recommended that people sip on fluid in the hours leading up to exercise, rather than gulping down a large volume. This helps to reduce gut discomfort as well as the need for the toilet soon after commencing exercise. Eating before exercise can assist with performance and it is important to have enough fuel in the form of carbohydrate (or glycogen stores) in the muscles and liver to fuel the muscles during exercise and help maintain blood sugar levels. This becomes very important during long training sessions and endurance events.
How long before exercise should we eat?
This is variable depending on several factors including the individual, the exercise activity, the duration of the activity as well as other factors. The general consensus is that most people can tolerate a meal 2-4 hours prior to exercise and should top it up with a small snack in the 1-2 hours before commencing exercise.
Ideal food options before exercise
While everyone is different in their pre-exercise meal or snack, it should ideally be:
- High in carbohydrates to provide fuel
- Low in fibre, to reduce potential gut discomfort
- Low in fat for ease of digestion
- Something that is familiar
Some suggestions to get you started include:
- a bowl of breakfast cereal with chopped fruit, yoghurt and milk,
- fruit toast with spread
- toast with baked beans or spaghetti
- a bowl of rice or pasta with tomato-based sauce
- homemade fruit smoothie with your favourite milk, yoghurt and fruit
- creamed rice with canned or fresh fruit.
PLUS, an adequate amount of fluid to start exercise well hydrated.
Eating and drinking during exercise
Exercise 60-minutes or less
For most people, if training is 60-minutes or less, fluid replacement is the main nutritional goal. There is usually no need to eat food for exercise of this duration. Water is ideal and usually enough to help avoid dehydration. It is important to take every opportunity possible to drink during your exercise session. The aim of fluid intake during exercise is to match fluid lost. Usually around 200-300ml every 10-15 minutes suits most people.
Exercising for 60 minutes – 90 minutes
During exercise the main fuel used by your body comes from carbohydrate, in the form of muscle and liver glycogen, as well as fat. If exercise is longer than 60-minutes you may benefit from consuming some carbohydrate, as well as fluid. How much you need will depend on the intensity and duration of exercise as well as your sweat rate and the environmental conditions. The aim is to maintain appropriate blood glucose levels, ensure healthy brain function and decision making, as well as delaying onset of fatigue associated with exercise.
Exercising for 90-minutes or more
During prolonged exercise, over 90 minutes, glycogen reserves are being utilised to their capacity and will need to be topped up with easily absorbed forms of carbohydrate. Inadequate fuel replenishment can often result in early onset of fatigue, reduced performance, as well as poor concentration. The general guidelines are between 30-60 gm of carbohydrate per hour (for over 60-180 minutes of prolonged exercise) however it is important to remember that not all carbohydrates are equal, and a nutrition plan should be considered for those regularly undertaking long periods of training or events. Fatigue can often be due to inadequate fuel supplies and a carbohydrate intake of 30-60gm/hour is suitable for most people.
Sports drinks can be beneficial during prolonged exercise as they provide carbohydrate to help replenish glycogen stores, electrolytes to replace those lost in sweat, and fluid. It is a good idea to start refuelling early rather than waiting until glycogen reserves are depleted. For those exercising under 90 minutes, water is the best choice to rehydrate - no sports drinks are necessary.
Ideal food options during prolonged exercise (>90 minutes) should be:
- High in carbohydrates to provide fuel
- Low in fibre, to reduce potential gut discomfort
- Low in fat for ease of digestion
- Something that is familiar and practiced
Some suggestions to get you started include:
- sports drinks and gels
- bananas
- sports bars or muesli bars
- fruit buns or bread
- sandwiches with a basic spread – jam/peanut butter
As the duration of the exercise increases there may be more opportunity for inclusion of solid carbohydrate foods, as well as foods to replace protein and salt losses, especially in endurance events over several hours.
Eating and drinking after exercise
During training you are likely to have lost fluid from sweating, exhausted your muscles and used fuel stores. Recovery after exercise does depend on the type; intensity and duration of training you have done as well as time in-between exercise sessions. It is important to have the right nutrition to help your body recover and repair itself, so you are ready for your next training session. Four key areas to focus on are:
- Rehydration and replacing electrolytes lost in sweat. It is likely you have lost more fluid than you have replaced during exercise, especially if training in hot humid conditions. Aim to replace 1.5 times your body weight lost, calculated by simply weighing before and after exercise. Water is the preferred fluid replacement so long as food choices have adequate electrolytes to replace those lost. Milk is also a good fluid choice. Alcohol should be avoided immediately following exercise
- Refuelling the body’s glycogen stores in the muscle and liver with adequate carbohydrate is essential to ensure fuel stores are replenished before the next exercise session. Refuelling soon after exercise with carbohydrate rich foods will not only aid in replenishing glycogen stores, but also help restore any impaired immune function which may have occurred during exercise. If recovery time between exercise sessions is short, rapidly digested carbohydrates should be consumed (at a rate of approximately 1-1.2g carbohydrate per kg body weight) within an hour of exercise or as soon as practically possible. If recovery time before the next exercise session is long (at least 24 hours), then carbohydrate needs can be met through normal eating patterns (lunch, dinner etc).
- Repair of the muscles with adequate protein intake to promote muscle repair and aid in recovery. Aim for 15-30g protein soon after training. As protein metabolism is turned on for anywhere from 24-48 hours following exercise, it is important to ensure post exercise meals and snacks include a small serve of protein-rich foods.
- Revitalise to support immunity. Intense exercise can accelerate the free radical damage within the body. Ensuring your post exercise meals and snacks include a variety of fruits and vegetables high in a range of antioxidants as well as vitamins and minerals will assist immune health and support the body to fight these free radicals.
If there is sufficient time between training sessions the next meal may cover all these options but if this is not practical a recovery snack may be required. It is ideal in most cases to have a meal or snack within 1hr of training to optimise recovery. In most cases a combination of carbohydrate and protein, especially with high intensity resistance training, is best.
Post-training snacks
Ideal carbohydrate and protein snacks for recovery include:
- Fruit smoothie made with milk, banana, berries and yoghurt
- A serve of yoghurt with fruit
- Creamed rice and fruit
- Muesli bar and yoghurt
- A bowl of breakfast cereal with milk and chopped fruit
- A sandwich with protein filling such as meat, egg, cheese, chicken or fish
- Toast with baked beans
- Toasted sandwich with cheese and filling
- Tin of tuna with crackers
- A bowl of chicken pasta or a noodle salad.
It is important to tailor your diet and overall menu to meet your specific training needs, become familiar with it and find a plan that works well for you. This will ensure that you get enjoyment and the full benefits from your exercise programme.
Discussing your individual requirements with a dietitian can ensure that you are maximising your nutrient and fluid intake to support your training and competition needs. Contact one of the Registered Dietitians at ABC Nutrition to discuss your needs today.
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