Hey guys! My fellow Health Coach Virginia is back to share with us about workout nutrition! If you remember in Part One, she showed us how to eat before and after a strength training workout. Workout nutrition is important in order to achieve specific goals, so today she is talking all about cardio. Grab a cup of coffee and read up!
The Three W’s of Workout Nutrition: Part Two, Cardio
Welcome back! In Part One we talked about figuring out which body type/metabolism you fall under (endomorph, mesomorph, ectomorph) and how that affects the balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates that suits your body best. We also discussed when and how to eat to best fuel a strength training workout. In case you missed part one or if you want a refresher, read it here.
Today the focus is all about what to eat for a cardio workout, when to eat it and why it works. As you read, keep your specific body type in mind. Use that along with this information to help you choose the best way to eat to fuel YOUR cardio workouts. Remember, we are all unique individuals. Just because something works great for me or your cousin or your neighbor, doesn’t mean that exact same food or exact same approach will give you the same results.
In Part One, we learned that it’s important to fuel your body prior to a workout for sustained energy and immediately afterward in order to facilitate growth and recovery of the muscle. Cardio works a little differently and has a different effect on the body so naturally eating to fuel your cardio workouts will be a bit different.
Pre-workout: Long Distance
First, it’s important to determine what type of cardio you will be doing. If you’re doing a marathon, 1/2 marathon, 10k, etc. then you may benefit from fueling up for your race starting the night before as well as the morning of and prior to your event. If you’re headed to a spin class or running on the treadmill, you probably just want to focus on eating 60-90 minutes beforehand. When you’re doing cardio, you want your meal to be mostly digested before your workout unless you really the love the feeling of your food sloshing around in your stomach as you run. If your pre-workout meal of choice is a smoothie or protein shake, I would recommend eating 90 minutes or so prior to your workout. If you’re eating a sandwich, chicken and brown rice, oatmeal and egg whites or something a little more solid, you can probably get away with eating 45-60 minutes in advance. Ultimately it comes down to choosing the timing that works for you and eating in a way that won’t cause discomfort as you exercise. Listen to your body and make notes in your food journal /exercise log. Over time you can pick up on your individual patterns and further your nutrient timing from there.
If you’re running a marathon or other long-distance endurance cardio, focus on using real foods to provide sustained energy beginning the evening before your event. Your body type will determine if your meals should cater more toward fats or low-glycemic vegetables. If you’re an ectomorph, then your body does well with carbohydrates. So a chicken breast with veggies and a sweet potato or brown rice would fit the bill nicely. If you’re an endomorph, your body prefers fat as a fuel source. Salmon and vegetables or grilled chicken with a salad with nuts and avocado would provide your body with what it needs. A mesomorph does better with a fairly even mix of the 3 macronutrients, so a lean cut of steak with a sweet potato and vegetables or grilled chicken on a salad with 1/2 an avocado would work well.
The morning of your event, you’ll want to eat for energy. Eggs are a great source or protein, and oatmeal with raw honey or whole grain breads or bagels topped with almond butter can provide some more carbohydrates as well. You’ll want to eat your final pre-race meal at least an hour beforehand. Coconut water or regular water in small amounts through the morning can help you hydrate. Be aware that you just want a little at a time to in order to prevent sloshing or other discomfort as you run.
Pre-workout: Shorter Time Frame
If you’re headed to spin class or hitting the gym for some time on a cardio machine, pre-workout fuel is a little simpler. Aim to eat your pre-workout meal approximately 1 hour prior to your workout. As with the earlier example, you want your food to have time to digest before your workout so it’s not sloshing around as you exercise. If that’s something that bothers you, you’ll definitely want to eat something more solid and well so in advance of your workout. If that doesn’t affect you much, you would probably be ok with a small meal or even a protein shake or smoothie and you could get away with eating a little closer to your workout (30-60 minutes). Listen to your body and follow suit. If you like to start your day off with a cardio workout, you might be interested in fasted cardio. In this instance, you would skip the pre-workout meal. This is not a good option for long-distance running, but if your cardio workout will be less than an hour, it could be an option for you. If you’d like to learn more about fasted cardio, here is an article to get you started: https://www.muscleforlife.com/fasted-cardio/
Post-workout:
With strength training, the biggest calorie burn and effective window is the 48 hours post-workout as your muscles repair themselves. With cardio, the biggest burn is during the activity itself . There is some degree of afterburner when you do cardio, but the most effective time frame is the time spent actually doing the cardio activity. In order to maximize this process, Dr. Mercola recommends waiting 30-60 minutes post-workout before eating a post-cardio meal. This allows your body to burn as much as possible before slowing things down with the digestive process. If you just did fasted cardio, you will likely want to eat closer to the 20-30-minute mark.
Now that we’ve covered when to eat, let’s talk about what to eat! Ideally, you should consume a lean protein source along with vegetable-based carbohydrates to refuel from your cardio session. This can be done with a spinach salad with grilled chicken, as suggested in the mercola.com article listed below, my tuna salad lettuce wraps, eggs or egg whites scrambled with veggies and hashbrowns or oatmeal, or whip up a smoothie or protein shake with lots of spinach or kale in there.
Put It All Together
When it comes to lifting weights and cardio, most people tend to love one and hate the other. However, they are both important components of a well-rounded physical fitness regimen. Personally, I love lifting weights and dread doing cardio, but I still need both in order to be well-rounded. I try to do both in the same workout. When doing weights and cardio, it is recommended to do the lifting first and cardio last. If you reverse that order and do more than a 5-10 minute warmup before lifting, you risk pre-fatiguing the muscles you need to use to lift. That makes yourself more susceptible to training injuries. So as a general rule, plan on lifting first and finishing with cardio.
On days that you are doing both types of exercise at the same session, I would recommend eating according to the pre-liting plan highlighted in Part One, bring a protein bar (or shake if your body tolerates liquids well prior to cardio) to consume immediately after lifting but before cardio. After cardio, wait the 30-60 minutes and follow the post-cardio recommendations.
Again, I cannot stress how helpful it is to keep a food journal and use it to track what you eat, how much, and when you eat it. Observe your mood and energy levels. After tracking for a couple of weeks you can look back over your entries and start seeing what patterns stick out to you. Use that information to better hone your training split and your pre- and post-workout nutrition and timing. Remember these are just basic guidelines. There is room to play with the specifics in order to dial in on what works best for YOU.
Reach Your Goals With The Right Support
If all this seems overwhelming to figure out on your own, reach out to a professions who can help guide you in the right direction. Working with a Certified Health Coach such as Carrie or myself, a Registered Dietitian, or Nutritionist, or Certified Personal Trainer with a background in nutrition can be just what you need to sort through the conflicting information out there, figure out the specifics that work best for you as an individual, and support you as you implement new strategies and habits.
Virginia Gray is a railroad engineer, mother, and figure competitor. She is also a dual-certified Health Coach who specializes in helping busy people with irregular schedules find ways to seamlessly integrate healthy diet and fitness habits into their busy lifestyles in order to achieve their health, physique, and energy goals. You can learn more about Virginia and her approach to Health Coaching on her website, www.essentialedgewellness.wordpress.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/EssentialEdgeWellness, or follow her on Instagram @healthcoachvirginia
Sources:
https://fitness.mercola.com/what-you-eat-after-a-exercise-matters
https://www.health.com/fitness/workout-food
https://riordanclinic.org/fuel-sources-during-exercise
https://precisionnutrition.com/eat-right-for-your-body-typ
