![\"When-to-Eat-to-Build-Muscle\"](\"http:\/\/www.nutritionly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/When-to-Eat-to-Build-Muscle.jpg\")
What to eat is not the only variable in building muscle. The timing of nutrients plays a big part. When to eat will depend on the individual. This guide will help you out big time!<\/p>\nWhat to eat is not the only variable in building muscle. The timing of nutrients plays a big part. When to eat will depend on the individual. This guide will help you out big time!<\/p>\n
Perhaps, the most critical time to consider your food options are pre- and post workout. It is important to consider your individual circumstances surrounding your training.<\/p>\n
If you workout early in the morning, it\u2019s not necessary to eat before you go. Ideally, a pre-workout meal<\/a> should be consumed at least 90 minutes beforehand. A meal eaten right before you enter the gym may do more harm than good. Unless you want to wake up early to have a meal, it\u2019s okay to just skip it. It\u2019s inconvenient and not necessary so don\u2019t sacrifice on sleep to eat a pre-workout meal.<\/p>\n If your workouts are mid-day (i.e. 10AM – 2PM), you have the option to have a pre workout meal. Personally, this is the time of day that I workout and choose to skip a pre workout meal and train fasted. Totally your call on this one. If you choose to have a pre-workout meal, make sure it\u2019s one that sits well on your stomach.<\/p>\n On a typical diet, pre-workout meal should consist of protein & carbs. I like to keep it to a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio (protein:carbs). For most people, 20-30g of protein and 20-30g of carbs will be enough. Carbs should come from quality sources, ideally. Potatoes, rice, oatmeal, are good sources of carbs. The 90 minutes allows for the nutrients to be readily available when you begin working out. Protein should come from a complete source. Beef, chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, or a quality protein powder like as outlined here (\u201c<\/strong>Best Protein Powders: What to Look for<\/a>\u201d)<\/strong> will suffice for protein.<\/p>\n If you are on a ketogenic diet (which will be discussed more in depth in the future), carbs will be absent. The ratio then becomes 1:2 or even 1:3 (protein:fat). Protein sources will remain the same as above. Fat should come from MCT Oil, Coconut Oil, or synthetic ketones.<\/p>\n In order for you to minimize catabolism during a fasted workout, consume 10g of BCAAs before you lift. This will allow you to reap the benefits of fasted training while minimizing muscle catabolism.<\/p>\n If your workouts come later in the day, you may have 2-3 pre-workout meals. In which case, the one your workout will immediately follow will be the same as outlined above. You and your goals will determine the meals that are not immediately before.<\/p>\n We will next\u00a0talk about The Post Workout Meal.<\/p>\n Post workout protein is critical. It\u2019s a good idea to use a protein powder following a workout, as it will be available for your muscles quickly. If you\u2019d rather eat post-workout<\/a>, that\u2019s fine too. A good whole food meal with quality protein will still serve you quite well. I\u2019ve even waited as long as 2 hours to eat my post-workout meal with no repercussions.<\/p>\n Keep the same ratio of protein to carbs as you did in the pre-workout meal. While this might not be the ideal ratio for everybody, it\u2019s a good place to start. If you\u2019re trying to put on some serious mass, the post workout meal is the one to go BIG<\/em><\/strong> on. Keeping the majority of your carbs in this time frame will insure that your muscles replenish and begin the growing process. In my opinion, the post workout meal is the most important meal of the day.<\/p>\n The “30 minute anabolic window\u201d is a bit over-hyped, in my opinion. There is a window of time that is important to consume adequate nutrition, but it\u2019s closer to 4 hours than 30 mins. There are some unique fat metabolism mechanisms that happen if you continue to fast a short while after your workout. These will mostly be available to those who also train fasted. If you don\u2019t find yourself hungry after working out, don\u2019t choke down a meal or shake. Just wait. When you become hungry, eat. You won\u2019t be missing out on any gains. It\u2019s important to listen to your body and figure out what it prefers. The more in-tune you become with your body the better you\u2019ll be able to adapt your training and nutrition to get the results you desire.<\/p>\n The above strategies work well and allow for some individualization. The program that you stick to 100% of the time will be better than the perfect<\/em> program you stick to only 50% of the time. Figure out what works best for you and stick with it, or let us\u00a0build the perfect diet plan for you<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What to eat is not the only variable in building muscle. The timing of nutrients plays a big part. When to eat will depend on the individual. This guide will help you out big time! Perhaps, the most critical time to consider your food options are pre- and post workout. It is important to consider …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[98,118,117],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutritionly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2332"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutritionly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutritionly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutritionly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutritionly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutritionly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutritionly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutritionly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutritionly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutritionly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Post Workout Meal<\/h2>\n