To get the most from your workout:
- Eat a healthy breakfast. Wake up early enough to eat breakfast. If you don’t eat, you may feel sluggish or lightheaded while exercising. If you plan to exercise within an hour after breakfast, eat a smaller breakfast or drink something to raise your blood sugar, such as a sports drink.
- Don’t skip meals, as this may cause low blood sugar, which can make you feel weak and lightheaded. If you’re time-strapped, snack on yoghurt and a banana – it’s better than nothing.
- Eat after your workout. To help your muscles recover and to replace their glycogen stores, eat a meal that contains both protein and carbohydrates within two hours of your exercise session.
Fuel up
- Carbohydrates: your body’s chief source of fuel. You’ll feel better when you exercise if you eat foods high in carbohydrates and low in fat. Your body stores excess carbohydrates as glycogen — primarily in your muscles and liver. Your muscles use stored glycogen when needed for energy.
A diet containing at least 50 percent of kilojoules from carbohydrates allows your body to store glycogen, but if you’re a long-distance runner or you exercise for long periods of time, you might want to consume more carbohydrates regularly and consider carbo-loading before a big event.
Good carb sources include cereals, breads, vegetables, pasta, rice and fruit.
Consider drinking your fuel: you can have you carbohydrates in the form of sports drinks or fruit juices.
- Protein and fats: Important, but not your body’s top fuel choice. Protein isn’t your body’s food of choice for fuelling exercise, but it does play a role in muscle repair and growth. Good sources include meat, dairy products and nuts.
Fat is an important part of your diet. Try to get most of your fat from unsaturated sources such as nuts, fatty fish and vegetable oils.
- Don’t eat foods high in fibre and fructose right before an intense workout, it may cause problems. High-fibre foods, such as beans and lentils, bran cereals and fruit, may give you gas or cause cramping. Fructose, a simple sugar found in fruit, can increase the tendency for upset tummy with high-intensity exercise.
- Drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration
Your body uses the water in your blood to carry nutrients such as sugar (glucose) to cells and to remove waste products from the cells. The presence of water in your body ensures that you can safely sustain physical activity. As you exercise, your body produces heat. This heat leaves your body as you perspire, taking with it electrolytes — elements, such as potassium, calcium, sodium and chloride. If you don’t replace the fluid you lose during exercise, your heart rate increases and your temperature rises, putting you at risk of dehydration as well as compromising your workout.
To stay well hydrated, you need to:
- Drink enough fluid to balance your daily fluid losses. You’ll likely need more on days when the temperature and humidity are high.
- Drink roughly 2 to 3 cups of water before and after your workout.
- Drink about 1 cup of water every 15 to 20 minutes during your workout. You may need more the larger your body is or the warmer the weather is.
Water is generally the best way to replace lost fluid, unless you’re exercising for more than 60 minutes. In that case, sip a sports drink to help maintain your electrolyte balance and give you a bit more energy from the carbohydrates in it.
When it comes to eating and exercise, everyone is different. So pay attention to how you feel; let your body’s in-built safety mechanisms be your guide.
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