When youre working out and aiming for a particular goal, its smart to pull the big levers first.
Getting enough food, enough sleep, and enough training time will have the biggest impact on your results.
If youre gaining muscle, its an important building block.
If youre losing weight, eating protein (and strength training!)
helps your body to retain as much muscle as possible so that most of the weight lost is fat.
We should all get some amount of fat0.5 grams per pound of bodyweight or more.
Carbs provide energy for activity, and they prevent your body from turning to muscle tissue for extra energy.
Finally, the rest of the nutrient content of your food matters, too.
Fruits and vegetablesshould be a big part of everyones diet.
These things support health even if they arent themacrosyou might be tracking.
I mention all this becausewhatyou eat is more important thanwhenyou eat it.
But if youve got the basics down, lets talk timing.
If we dont have enough carbs available, we can feel tired or sluggish.
So if youre feeling sluggish during your workouts, consider having some carbs beforehand.
If youre having carbs during a workout, youll want something that digests quickly.
This means you want something that is more or less pure sugar.
It becomes available to your body very quickly, the better to fuel you in the moment.
After a workout, glycogen will be depleted.
Eating a diet high in carbs helps to fill those glycogen stores throughout the day and keep them full.
(You may not get as much replenishment if you follow a low-carb diet like keto.)
That would be 54 grams for a 150-pound person.
That would be 95 to 123 grams for that same 150-pound person.
So what about timing?
Proteins make you feel full because your stomach holds onto protein-containing foods longer than other foods.
Fats tend to also make people feel full, although this can vary from person to person.
Save the toast for later, when you want to have a pre-workout snack.
