Scientists have long known that what you eat before, during and after you exercise can make or break a workout and possibly affect your fitness results. So what do nutritionists recommend to munch on? It turns out that quality carbohydrates are important pre-workout and lean proteins post-workout, experts say.
What to eat before exercise
Before you exercise, eat carbs, but not too much, said Nancy Cohen, a professor in the department of nutrition at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
She recommended consuming 1 to 4 grams of carbohydrates per every 2.2 pounds of body weight if you are planning to exercise for longer than an hour. To put that in perspective, a medium banana has about 27 grams of total carbohydrates.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that if you get 2,000 calories a day, aim to consume between 225 and 325 grams of carbohydrates, according to the Mayo Clinic.
When should you eat? About an hour to four hours before working out, Cohen said.
A review paper by researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia suggests that carbohydrate ingestion can improve endurance exercise performance. The paper was published in the Journal of Nutrition in 2011.
The researchers assessed 50 previous single- or double-blind, randomized studies on carbohydrate ingestion and endurance exercise. The researchers concluded that the data in the studies provide evidence that consuming carbohydrates can enhance endurance exercise performance in adults.