How Do You Time Your Meals Around Your Workouts? [Help a reader out week!]

Why did the Tupperware Fairy never become A Thing? Come on, she’s awesome! And – zing! – just found my next Halloween costume. They should have given her a Tupperware Tiara though.

I could pretend that I got really backed up on my e-mail because I’m just that popular or I could ‘fess up to getting addicted to my new trivia/crossword puzzle book (nerdgasm!). (I should also note it’s hard to reply to e-mails when I’ve got a Jelly Bean permanently attached to my hip. While adorable*, she does make typing difficult.) So I’m dedicating this week to answering all the awesome, interesting, hilarious and sometimes downright weird questions that have been piling up in my inbox. I’ll do my best to give my uneducated answer but what I’m really hoping is that all you smart people will help these readers out as well in the comments!

Reader Gina wants to know all about meal timing and workouts. Is it important? Do I do it? Should she do it? What do I eat before a workout? (Forgive me for paraphrasing.)

True story: I used to be a Tupperware lady. No, not the kind that stand in the mall and sell brown and orange plastic pitchers that I swear are the exact same ones I grew up with as a tot in the 80’s. Rather I was the kind of Tupperware lady who toted little plastic tubs full of carefully portioned chicken breast, brown rice and spinach every where I went. Because I was that neurotic about my meal timing. One of the first fitness books I read had a lengthy explanation about how I should never go more than three hours without eating and gave special instructions for meals that were right before a workout or right after one. Protein, carbohydrates and fats had to be perfectly balanced or I’d enter a catabolic state where my muscles would eat themselves and I’d ruin all my hard work in the gym. (And also become a self-sustaining zombie which now that I think about it might be kind of genius.)

It made me nuts. And I’m nuts to begin with so that’s saying a lot.

So then I quit doing all of that. And I still have muscles. That’s my short answer.

Here’s my slightly longer opinion:

There are two groups of people who have a good reason to worry about meal timing and macronutrient ratios in relation to their workouts:

1. People who are training for a specific event like Michael Phelps for the Olympics (anyone else super excited for the summer Olympics in London this year??) or a bodybuilder during competition season.

2. People who are working out hard for longer than 60-90 minutes at a time.

These folks are pushing their bodies really hard and often at a very high level so small tweaks in their nutrition could make a big difference in their chosen sport. And especially for people like triathletes who are working out hard for hours at a time, meal timing is a critical health matter.

So where does that leave the rest of us non-Phelpsian folks? The scientific literature does show some advantage in certain aspects of meal timing . For example, Rachel Cosgrove recommends chugging a protein shake within 15 minutes of finishing a weight-lifting workout because studies have shown that it helps build muscle and increase recovery.  But for me it all comes down to how I feel. In my totally unscientific experiment of one – will the anecdote party please report to the front desk, your flight is about to take off!  – the differences in my muscles and how I look and perform are negligible.

But how I eat does make a difference in how I feel during my workout. When we were doing the Rachel Cosgrove Great Fitness Experiment I liked having the protein shakes because I felt like it stabilized my blood sugar and I didn’t get shaky after a workout. I kept up taking them until I got too lazy to wash out my blender every day.

On the other hand, there’s the breakfast debate. Many people will tell you to eat a hearty breakfast before you hit the gym. But there’s also a lot of research about fasted-state cardio (i.e. doing cardio on a stomach that’s been empty overnight) and while some studies do show a slight increase in fat burning, the most recent research seems to show that any effect on body composition is slight. Since I couldn’t find a clear conclusion in the research I just go with how I feel. And how I feel working out after a big breakfast is like puking. So since I do my workouts in the morning I eat something small like a piece of fruit or on some days, nothing at all. (Don’t fret – I still love my big breakfasts! I just either eat them very early if wake up on time or I eat it after I finish my workout.)

To make matters even more confusing, how I feel often changes from one day to the next (or, to be more precise, from one time of the month to the next, blargh) and so what I do is not always consistent. If I’m hungry, I’ll eat. If I’m not, I don’t. What I’m trying to do here is give you permission to just do what feels good to you. Unless you have a specific reason to worry about fine-tuning your body then in my experience this type of thing can take up too much mental space for the sake of very small outward gains.

Now, I turn it over to you guys! Help Gina out – Am I being too cavalier to not worry about meal timing? What strategy have you found works best for you? What’s your favorite summer Olympic event?

*Totally random aside: Jelly Bean has started talking in sentences and it never fails to crack me up. She calls her boots “boops” and  she says “bipped” for zipped when she wants her coat zipped up. So now before we can leave the house she demands – in her most serious face – “Mommy! I need booped and bipped!!” The first time she said it I laughed until I cried. Obviously my kid is the cutest kid ever. Or I’m easily entertained. Or both.

They forgot “Relocated by toddler to inside piano bench.”  

36 Comments

  1. My favorite fitness guy, Ben Greenfield just did a podcast about this very topic. I’d take his advice over mine any time. And he agrees with you. http://getfitguy.quickanddirtytips.com/should-you-eat-carbohydrates-before-exercise.aspx

    BTW, he wants you to interview him on his blog.

    • Ooh thanks for the tip! I’ll definitely go check him out! Although this: ” he wants you to interview him on his blog.” confuses me. ???

      • Ben is writing a book, and wants fitness bloggers to interview him about his new book. I meant to say on your blog – thus the confusion. Oops.

  2. I always have a grren smoothie with fruit and protein powder after my work-out as recommended by Rachel Cosgrove and Bredan Brazier. I don’t know if it helps (but I think it makes sense what say argue) but I am always hungry after my work-out anyway so it is nice to have something afterwards.

    • I agree. I do like having the shakes after my workout – and I do think they help – I have just gotten too time crunched (and too out of the habit) to make them lately.

  3. I’m also getting away from the “slave-to-regimented-mealtimes” but I still eat more often than most just because for me personally it works with my appetite and my fairly packed training (and life) schedule. The two things I do in terms of nutrient timing is make sure to get a meal in an hour before a workout with some good quality carbs and I still use the protein and carb shake after strength training. The shake buys me time because it’s usually a while before I can get an actual meal after returning home and meeting the needs of all the people I live with!! Otherwise, I just eat normally – even after 2-3 hour bike rides or runs. I fuel during these long workouts so no reason to go overboard afterward.

    Bottom line – I keep good, healthy food ready to go and eat to my appetite.

    • this “The shake buys me time because it’s usually a while before I can get an actual meal after returning home and meeting the needs of all the people I live with!!” is a really good idea!

  4. I eat when Im hungry and sometimes that is the “perfect” meal time according to the experts and other times it’s not.
    I am like Cort’s last sentence!! Im always prepared and eat when the spirit moves me…when the APPETITE SHOUTS AT ME 🙂

  5. I am and was just like you! Yay. Let’s be friends.

    I was super neurotic (only about food and exercise) and would carry around all my pre-planned meals and snacks and get laughed at by co-workers and cursed at by fellow commuters (when you are going as close to starving as possible whilst maintaining muscle, you HAVETOEATONTHETRAINSOMETIMES!!!!). After my life got turned upside down by that whole muscle disease thing and I was then given what I shall call a second chance at exercise being fit, I am totally relaxed. Some days I eat smaller meals every three hours, some days I have breakfast early in the morning and a workout a few hours later, other days I do fasting state cardio. I found that as long as the overall calories in and out are as they should be, all is well in my fat-burning, muscle- building world.

    Now that I’ve typed all that I think I need to update my blog about the muscle disease thing. And of course reference this article as my inspiration! Thanks!

    • It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who came through the same journey! And let me know when you get that blog posted, I want to read your update!!

  6. I am also of the ‘do what works for you’ mind set. I don’t like to work out on a full stomach, so I do try to keep that in mind and I do try to be mindful of refueling after a workout but I’m not all that regimented about it. For me, the ‘eat when you’re hungry’ rule seems to work best.

  7. That’s so funny about the lids! Just yesterday I was rummaging through the closet in the kitchen finding all containers and no lids, saying where the hell are all the lids!!!

  8. Ah, thanks for the well-researched permission to do whatever the heck I want to about meal timing!

    I have a couple of cafe au laits in the morning (with goat milk, as I seem to have gotten a smidge intolerant to cow milk) which seems to have a good balance of carbs & protein to get me through my workout. Then it’s a big-ass green smoothie with whey protein plus a plate of a scary scrambled egg white concoction I invented that no one but me would likely eat. However, it’s rare I’d have it together to eat by 15 minutes afterwards… I’d heard up to an hour, but whatever, I’m not gonna sweat it.

    Thanks for all your research, and I agree–it doesn’t matter as much what the studies say as what works best on your own body!

    • Actually I’m guessing I would totally eat your egg scramble dish! I’m kind of notorious for all of the bizarre things I throw in with my eggs (and then I throw the whole mess on top of salad greens and top it with salsa). Some day we will have breakfast together, my friend!

  9. I honestly think it is best to listen to your body and eat when you are hungry.

    There are some days when I do fasted training and there are other times I eat before and within 30 minutes of finishing my workout. It just really depends.

    And I think unless you are the top 1% of the population (aka athletes) exact workout nutrition isn’t something to worry about!

  10. Its like I wrote this post. Only I’m not nearly as funny, and didn’t do the Tupperware thing (because while I was being neurotic I worked at home and was a grad school student hermit, so I didn’t have to, but I would have otherwise.)

    I eat when I am hungry, period. If I know I am getting hungry-ish before a workout, I’ll eat a small snack, but I don’t fret over the specifics – timing or macronutrients. Eat healthy food when you are hungry, and the rest will sort themselves out.

    And I’m a doctor.

  11. Yeah. I pretty much eat when I’m hungry. Except my first thing in the morning run — I have learned it’s an uber-crappy run if I don’t eat SOMETHING before I go, no matter how “not hungry” I am. And I do think it’s a good idea to get yourself some protein after you lift (something I’m not doing right now because I don’t have awesome gym buddies like you — lame excuse, I know)… but only if you’re hungry, which I generally am, because I’m kind of always hungry when I’m working out regularly. So there’s that.

  12. Since the bulk of my workouts happen at work over my lunch hour, or immediately following my work day on my way home, it just happens that I workout on a (mostly) empty stomach each day, and eat within half an hour after (yay for batch cooknig and meal-planning!) This seems to be working for me, as I’m actually LESS hungry after a workout than I would be if I’d just eaten lunch at noon and not gone for a workout. Probably something to do with taking a lot of hard kicks and punches to the core during my kickboxing classes (noon fitness).

  13. My weekday workouts are an hour or less, so I do them on an empty stomach. Then I include a piece of fruit or a potato as part of my meal (1 or 2 hours after the workout). On long runs, I used to eat something, but I always needed to eat at least 2 hours before so that my stomach could settle. I have started to play with this, and not eat anything going into the run, then start taking gels 45 minutes in. As soon as I finish, I drink a bottle of chocolate coconut water. Then I eat 1 to 2 hours after the workout (and my body has settled again).
    Everyone has to experiment to see what works best for them with the workouts they are doing. What I wrote above works well for me, but my workouts are pretty much running related. If I did a kickboxing class, or something really high-intensity, I might have to change how or when I eat.

  14. Narnia!!!!! The one place I haven’t checked! (We don’t have a piano.)
    Jelly Bean is flippin’ adorable!!!!!
    My li’l guy made me laugh ’till I cried last week: He went to hug his teachers goodbye, but started sneezing as he walked toward them and they all hit the deck. “Good-haaah-choo!” followed by 3 full-grown women literally diving off their chairs onto the floor

  15. I usually have a protein shake after a workout as a reward, but I can’t eat before I workout in the morning or I am all out quesy. If I’m absolutely ravenous when I get up I’ll have a handful of nuts but anything more than that and I feel burpy and queasy while I work out. After I shower and get dressed and walk to work while sipping my protein shake I have breaky at my desk. For me it’s more what I eat than when, as far as having energy and not getting grumpy, altho I’ve found having an apple and nuts kicking around in my bag in case I get the munchies in the afternoon works wonders…

    • Ooh nuts are my go-to before workout snack too! And I learned the hard way that fish oil is not a good pre-workout idea;)

  16. My personal opinion – if you are training for a race or event or are in training for things like this – it is important. BUT, if you are just a casual or day to day person living life & trying to just be your best, not as much so. I am not saying that it is not better to eat this or that right after a hard core workout but if you are not training for anything, to me, less so & I worry less about it.

    I am one that does not like a lot in my stomach before working out, the eat before is not as important as those that need a little something in there. Sometimes I have a Luna bar before I run on the weekend… but there are small & easy meals if you need to eat before.

    OK – Jelly Bean & Tupperware – LOVE!

  17. The two things I do in terms of nutrient timing is make sure to get a meal in an hour before a workout with some good quality carbs and I still use the protein and carb shake after strength training.Thanks for sharing this to us..

  18. I drink some BCAA’s before and after a workout. I’ve heard enough good things about them that I decided to experiment, and it does make a huge difference for me. I have better endurance and energy, recover faster during workouts (between sets, sprints, etc.), and since you just mix them up like a powdered drink they are super fast and easy.

  19. Hi!!!! Long time I’ve been gone but great timing to read this! I’ve decided after years of forcing myself to eat (or drink a smoothie) upon awakening that I’m just going to have some milk in my coffee and see how I feel. Usually that does the trick and I’m not at all hungry after that. if I’m a bit hungry I’ll have a few sips of a shake and a garnish of cereal and sometimes a smidge of nut butter before heading to the gym. Often, it’s nothing but the coffee. I have some BCAAs before (during) and after my workout. Then later if and when I’m hungry I’ll have a green shake. This holds me for hours, so all of my meals are later and I can go longer between eating. My muscle hasn’t suffered and I no longer fight my body. It’s the first time in 47 yrs. hallelujah!

    Hope you’re doing well!! Jelly bean is too darned cute! At least she doesn’t say she wants er boobies beeped.

    • Ohmygoodness Deb! This: “My muscle hasn’t suffered and I no longer fight my body. It’s the first time in 47 yrs. hallelujah!” makes me so unbelievably happy!!! Yay! You and I have been in the diet trenches for so long together that I’m thrilled you found your way out!