Gym excercise and snacks

[Carina1962]

I go to gym most days and just want some advice on what to eat before and after excercise. When i go in my lunch break, i tend to have my cup of soup with a little croutons and a wholemeal roll or sometimes i have a small bowl of porridge. After my workout i then sometimes eat a small handful of walnuts or maybe a pepperami (tomorrow i'll take some kidney beans with me) - am i doing this right? as someone at work told me that you are supposed to have carbs before a workout and some protein to repair muscles after the workout, is this correct? i appreciate any advice, thanks

 

[Copepod]

I'd ask your gym staff, Carina - they're part of the why you're paying to use a gym. All the snacks you mention are decent low carb sources of protein, and walnuts have "good" fat, pepperoni less good fat, kidney beans virtually no fat.

Personally, I only eat after exercise if hungry and / or needing glucose - so if I'm neither hungry nor needing glucose, then I'll eat a normal meal at the next time (although fish and chips soon after a long run / hike [at least 10km or 1 hour] is a favourite!) After a shorter exercise period, I find that a drink is enough - tea / coffee / sugar free soft drink / sports drink with or without sugar depending on the situation.

 

[Robster65]

I'd agree with Copepod. Whenever I used to use a gym, I'd avoid eating for a couple of hours beforehand and give it a while afterwards for stomach muscles to settle before eatign, other than carbs to compensate for BG lowering.

I'm guessing you won't be worrying about hypos so you could just have some protein such as the nuts and maybe a snack later if you can.

I'm not sure about the science of carbs before and protein after. My instincts would say it makes no difference but I don't actually know.

And well done for going so often. Beats me.

Rob

 

[Carina1962]

one of my work colleagues is into excercise in a big way ie gym workouts, cycles a lot and he told me that he has read up a lot about food and excercise (he does know i am a diabetic) and said that you have to have a certain amount of carbs about an hour to half an hour before a gym workout and then after the workout to eat some protein to help muscle repair. He is a vegetarian and i've noticed he eats a lot of pasta based meals and eats lots of pulses type foods like kidney beans, baked beans etc and he insists he's right because he said he's done a lot of research on it. I have to be careful because i'm also trying to lose weight at the same time so am wary of calorie intake in what i eat. I think i will discuss this with the gym instructors and see what they say.

 

[Robster65]

I would use their expertise.

As you'll be aware, there's a lot of amateur 'experts' (I include myself!) who will tell you this and that are the facts, but you can't beat the advice of someone who has studied and specialised in a subject.

It may be that your friend has to eat extra protein because he's a veggie or because he trains so much. If you're doing an hour's hard workout you'll need a different diet to half an hour walking on a treadmill.

But if you eat the same number of calories as you burn each time, you'll tone your muscles but not lose weight. So definfitely take the advice of the instructors.🙂

Rob