Nutrition Guidelines to help you plan your pre, intra (during), and post training fueling strategies.
These are the guidelines Coach Shawna uses with her athletes to help them develop a plan to fuel their workouts and crush their fitness!
Pre-Training
If you’re able to eat before you train, shoot to consume 30 to 40 grams of easily digested carbs (think bananas, rice, toast), 20 to 30 grams of easily digested protein, and no more than 10 to 20 grams of fat 90 minutes to 2 hours before your session.
This could look like a scoop of protein, a banana, and a Perfect Bar.
Adjustments and modifications to these guidelines:
If you train early in the AM and can’t eat- make sure your dinner the night before is heavily loaded with carbs so that your system has as much glycogen (the storage form of glucose) as possible on board. You can even consider having a high carb snack before bed.
Want more insight into this? Check out Pretraining Nutrition Strategies.
During Your Workout (Intra Training)
If you’re training more than 90 minutes you should be refueling mid session. Aim for 20 to 40 grams of carbs (less if you are only doing 90 minutes, more if you are doing over 90 minutes). Options could be a sports drink with carbs in it, a banana or orange, or to supplement with dextrose or similar carb supplement.
After Your Workout (Post Training)
You should be consuming a minimum of 40 to 60 grams of protein, 40 to 60 grams of carbs, and a max of 20 to 30 grams of fat (the less the better) in your post workout meal (assuming you are training once a day).
Contrary to popular myth, your body will not excrete excess protein. If you eat more than your body needs it will simply convert it to fat, as it does carbs and dietary fat.
Carbs post training can come from any source. Coach Shawna likes her athletes to have some carbs right away (a banana or a bar on the way home) then have rice or potatoes in their meal.
Fats you want to keep low- you are trying to get protein and carbs to your muscles, and fats slow down digestion. It can be a balancing act to get in enough protein while minimizing fat, but if you don’t add three pounds of bacon and cheese to your meal, you should be okay.
Questions, comments, let us know!
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