5 Best Eating Habits to Maximize Your Workouts
AD | If you dream of having an excellent physique and being physically healthy, you must engage in fitness exercises. It’s essential that you discipline your body to move and exert a lot of force and effort to improve it. But discipline doesn’t only revolve around the activities that you do. It also lies in what, how much, and how often you eat. Your food intake and your workout routine go hand in hand. With proper eating practices and execution of the exercises, you’ll have a much-desired result in a lesser amount of time. Below I’m sharing 5 eating habits that will maximize your workouts.
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5 Best Eating Habits To Maximize Your Workouts
1. WORKOUT BEFORE HAVING A HEALTHY BREAKFAST
Breakfast is proven to be the most crucial meal of the day. Moreover, it’s during the early morning when some people get up to exercise and sweat themselves. If you plan to do the same, it would be better if you leave your breakfast for a while and eat them after you finish exercising.
There are many benefits you can get by exercising before breakfast. One, it can burn your fats a lot faster because of the low insulin levels, allowing the body to use up much more fats. Second, your muscles increase protein and respond better to insulin, resulting in better blood sugar level control. From that, it also enhances your metabolism.
After exercising, you can have a light and healthy breakfast. A healthy breakfast includes whole-grain cereals or bread, low-fat milk, a banana, yogurt, or pancakes. Moreover, a cup of coffee will give you enough energy to officially start your day.
2. WATCH OUT FOR PORTION SIZES
One thing that you’d want to avoid when exercising is to gain weight with fats. Unfortunately, we can get these fats from the food and drinks that we eat, especially the unhealthy variety. When we eat a lot, it is expected that we will gain weight, which is something that you wouldn’t want in the middle of your fitness journey. Hence, you must control the portion size of your meal.
There are times that our body needs a large and heavy meal. But when having one, make sure to eat those three to four hours before you sweat yourself from working out. The food will burn the contained fats there anyway. For light and small meals, eat them for at least one to three hours before you start exercising.
Balance is the key here. When you eat too much, you will feel sluggish and heavy. But when you eat a little, you will have a hard time exercising since you do not have enough energy to perform.
3. HAVE SNACKS BEFORE AND DURING YOUR WORKOUT
Most people who exercise tend to have small snacks that they eat before and during their workout. Well, this depends on the person’s mood and how they feel. Snacks do not entirely affect your energy to exercise, but they can distract you from the possible hunger pangs.
When the workout lasts longer than one hour, opt to eat and drink carb-rich food and drinks. Here are some of the good snacks you can take:
- Energy bar
- Fresh fruits
- Fruit smoothie
- Yogurt
- Peanut butter sandwich
- Sports drinks
- Juices
These snacks aren’t expensive and can easily be bought from the grocery. If you’re working out in a public gym, pack snacks according to how long and how intense your training can get. But if you’re working out with the best home gyms for your budget and needs, store them in areas where you take your exercise breaks.
4. DO NOT FORGET TO EAT AFTER EXERCISING
Eating after an intense workout should be part of your routine. With this, your muscles will have time to recover and regain the lost glycogen from the exercise. It is recommended to have a meal with carbohydrates and proteins. These two nutrients are good for your body and muscles. You may consider these healthy and balanced post-workout food options:
- Yogurt
- Fruits
- Low-fat milk
- Peanut butter sandwich
- Fruit smoothie
- Whole-grain bread with turkey and vegetables
You have to remember that you do not need to eat right after your exercise session. You can only have those food options after an hour or two max.
5. STAY HYDRATED
When engaging in intense activities, do not forget to drink water every time. Proper hydration is crucial when exercising as your body will continuously need a sufficient amount of liquids before, during, and after exercise. This will prevent you from the dangers of dehydration.
For pre-hydration, drink two to three cups of water before you start working out within two or three hours. During the exercise session, drink half to one cup every 15 to 20 minutes (but you can adjust the measurement according to your body’s needs). For post-hydration, drink two to three cups for every pound that you burn.
You can drink other beverages, such as energy drinks, instead of regular water. However, water is the most recommended drink in replacing lost fluids.
FINAL THOUGHTS
You have to remember that the amount of food you must eat depends on the intensity of the workout sessions. So, you still have the freedom to adjust these five eating practices to best suit your exercise routine.
More Posts You May Like:
- 50 Empowering Fitness Affirmations For Working Out
- The Best Fitness Tips From Fitness Influencers
- 20 Motivational Fitness Quotes To Get You To Workout
- 10 Common Beginner Workout Mistakes To Avoid
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I hope you all found these 5 eating habits to maximize your workouts super helpful!
Until next time,
Gabby Abigail
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Hi Gabby,
Very informational resource! I have been trying to get back into shape with some workouts. Since the pandemic has deemed everything close, I will be starting my journey at home. I am sure these tips will help me a lot in the process. I really appreciate you sharing information on what to eat to maximize your workout. I will be following your suggestions, and I hope I get some good results. Thanks for an amazing share.