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What I Eat Before The Gym
There seems to be a kind of common question among folks just getting into fitness. When you first start working out and realize you're hungry a lot, but you don't want to eat too much and gain weight, you might have an experience like me: "What am I supposed to be eating to work out?"
There are actually a whole lot of different answers to that question, depending on what it is you're doing! My goals are weight loss and strength gain, and that centers as much on diet as it does on training. A big part of it for me is making sure that my body is ready to work when I get to the gym. I prefer to go in the late morning, which means I have some time before the gym to get my nutrition kick-started for the workout and the day.
I do use some supplements in my diet. Specifically, I like to use Optimum Nutrition brand protein powders. I prefer their "Performance Series 100% Whey Isolate," or if I can't find that locally, their "Gold Standard" 100% whey. I personally believe the Isolate to be a superior product, both in nutrient content and that subjective but all-important taste factor. That said, I'm going through 6.4 pounds of the Gold Standard right now, thanks to my CostCo no longer carrying the Isolate! Boo! But truthfully It works great for recovery too. Just higher in lactose, which used to bug my stomach but doesn't anymore at all, now that I've been bombarding it with dairy for like two years. Quick shout out to a product that has helped me out. No affiliation or stake in it beyond I've been using one for like two years now and it's cool. The Magic Bullet blender kit:
Even when I'm in a hurry, which, with my 4 year old son is most of the time, I can still get everything I need to have a great workout in a low-calorie, healthy meal replacement shake thanks to this thing. I doubt it's the only thing like it on the market, so if you see something else in this vein I ought to check out, let me know - but this is what I've been using and I can vouch for its utility.
There are a lot of ways to make a shake for this purpose. I'll give you a couple examples of how I do it and hopefully you'll get a sense of what to try to do to make a nutritious shake. If there's any confusion I can do an article on that in the near future, but here's some how-to to get you started.
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Pre-Workout Meal Replacement Shake 1 (fast & slow protein mix)
3/4 Cup 2% Milk
40g (about half a cup) of oats - I prefer instant oats as they're much quicker to work with and can blend dry
1 pack Chobani fat-free Greek yogurt w/ fruit (I like strawberry for tasty blending)
1 scoop of your favorite protein powder. Vanilla and chocolate both work great, other flavors left to your discretion. As mentioned I'm using Optimum Nutrition protein, and currently their Gold Standard chocolate flavor, which gives 24g of protein / 120kcals in a scoop (rest is 1.5g fat, 3g carbs).
The nutrition facts for this shake and others will vary depending on your protein powder.
As prepared it comes out to about 500 kilocalories, about 48g of protein, about 54g of carbs, and about 10g of fat. The protein is partially from slower digesting sources as well, thanks to things that aren't whey powder in the mix. I personally don't think there's THAT much to the quick-digesting vs. slow-digesting thing as far as increasing muscle building goes, but hey, some folks swear by adding some casein protein to your diet (such as that found in Greek yogurt, and as a large portion of milk protein too) instead of just supplementing whey for more protein. I can vouch that it keeps you full longer, and that may help if you have issues with hunger pangs getting in the way of your dietary discipline.
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Pre-Workout Meal Replacement Shake 2 (less dairy, more explanation of why I'm using these ingredients)
1/2 cup 2% milk.
1/4 cup cold water or a few ice cubes - cold can improve the texture when blended
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt.
1 tbsp Peanut Butter - Pick your favorite kind, I prefer natural peanut butter with no added oils. Peanuts are already oily, quit putting hydrogenated fats in my peanut butter y'all PB manufacturers out there. There's stuff called PB2 that's some kinda powdered science peanut butter with super low calories and little fat, but for those of us without that, using half a serving cuts out enough.
1 scoop of your favorite protein powder, recommend chocolate or vanilla again as things I know work here, feel free to try others
1/2 Medium (7"-8") banana
2-4 Strawberries
The nutrition facts on this one are, as prepared, about 450 kilocalories, about 45g of protein, about 36g of carbs, and about 12g of fat.
Question: Ok, so Greek yogurt is pretty much cheating isn't it.
Answer: Yes! I eat a ton of strained (often called Greek) yogurt. The stuff is great for your body. The protein in it is primarily casein, though some brands include whey mixed back in (Chobani does, for example). It's great for smoothies since it blends very well, doesn't contribute too much to the taste one way or another, picks up flavors from other stuff nicely, and is an easy way to add a bunch of protein to a shake or smoothie.
Question: Why not use skim milk?
You can if you'd prefer. However, the difference is pretty minimal in terms of calories, and I don't like to cut all dietary fat out anyway. This will be intended to fuel recovery. I advise against fat-free for that purpose. Low-fat is great, I have lost a lot of weight and gained some muscle on my low-fat diet - but you need some dietary fat to be sure your body can balance its hormone levels among other things, and very long with no fat intake feels pretty bad in my experience.
Question: Dairy bugs my stomach. What can I do?
Answer: Make the shake with whey protein isolate instead of concentrate. You can remove the milk and use 1/2 cup of cold water and a few ice cubes. To get the calories back up and add in some more nutrients, and to help things blend together a bit better, use 2 tbsp of peanut butter instead of just one. These changes move the calories and macros around, but it will still aid recovery great (speaking from experience, have tried many different ways now) and shouldn't top 500 kcals.
Many folks who are lactose intolerant can still eat greek yogurt, but if even that is too much, you might consider adding something like powdered soy or rice protein instead to retain good recovery benefits but keep the ingredients to things your body can handle.
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Of course, there are hundreds of ways you can make a smoothie or shake even with relatively basic ingredients. If anyone wants to know more, or has a suggestion, please, feel free to leave me a comment below. I'm happy to help anyone on their own fitness journey.