Should You Eat Before or After Your Workout?
I'm going to be super annoying here and say…. it depends. 🙄 I’ve intentionally written a broad title, but we’re going to go over pre-workout meals, post-workout meals, and nutrient timing as a concept.
There is an overwhelming quantity of advice in the ether about “optimal meal timing” and “protein window” and “carb loading.” Is there supportive science suggesting that there ways to optimize meal and nutrient timing? Yes. However, we need to zoom out a bit and take in the whole picture.
Let’s start with the absolute basics:
What is meal timing?
Meal timing is the idea that when we eat matters just as much as what we eat.
I find this whole realm a little frustrating because there is one major thing that seems to be missed when the average gym-goer cites fitness studies…. and that is: who are the participants in these studies? I’ve read a lot of really interesting studies that have been conducted on athletes, and a few on non-athlete men, and a few that mix genders but have small sample sizes.
Does meal timing matter?
The reason why I said up top that I’m going to be a little annoying is because for the average, casual, non-competing gym-goer none of this needs to be law. We can absolutely try our best to get a meal before a workout and then after a workout, but by no means do I ever want a client to stress about numbers or shoving something into their body just to “maximize gains.”
The people who see the most benefit of rigidly adhering to the minutiae, are those who have been training for a long time and are much slower to gain muscle. And also those who train for competitive sports (as common as major league sports or as non-obvious as elite competitive powerlifters).
If you’re new to working out—or are not a competitive athlete—and you feel relatively strong, well-recovered, and energized through workouts and your daily life, you can fold in some of the principles…. or not.
I don’t want someone to hyperfocus and stress over something like meal timing, when there are other areas that can probably be improved or manipulated to better benefit health outcomes.
Meal timing before a workout
If possible, getting a meal with a good amount of protein and carb between 60-120 minutes before your first working set is a good idea.
The basis of this recommendation is that you’ll have some fuel in the tank that, but you won’t still feel like you’ve got loads of food sloshing around your belly. The carbs are a good source of energy for the workout and the protein keeps you full longer and ensures you’ve already got some of those important amino acids circulating in the blood to go to work on recovering muscle after your workout.
What if I workout too early to get a meal beforehand?
Then don’t worry about getting a full meal in beforehand. I find my workouts usually feel a little better when I’ve had that pre-workout meal. That said, if the time I have available to workout is before my first big meal, then I have a carby snack on my way to the gym, and deal with having a more substantial meal afterwards. I’m not going to let meal-timing run my life.
Meal timing after a workout
Depending on how long and rigorous the workout was, your body may be asking for food pretty soon after your workout. Or you may feel a little repulsed by food after your workout.
If you’ve had a good pre workout meal, the post-workout meal isn’t as important and you can probably get away with a post-workout snack instead.
That said, if you workout first thing in the morning and only had a snack before your workout, getting a good meal in after your workout will be more important.
Does it matter when I have my protein shake?
Honestly, not really.
I generally don’t recommend taking it before your workout because some people find that having a protein shake too soon before a workout can cause them to feel a little nauseated during the workout.
Many people like to drink protein shakes right after their workout, and I do find that this can be beneficial- more because it’s stacking one habit (working out) with another good habit (consuming protein). For the average gym-goer, its more important to make sure you’re hitting an overall daily protein goal than it is to get a specific dose of protein immediately after your workout.
So, does meal timing really matter?
It matters insofar as it can make you feel a little better during a workout if you eat something 1-2 hours beforehand. Outside of getting a little bit of an energy boost from having some food/fuel in your tank, meal timing shouldn’t be something you stress too much about. If you’re naturally a morning person, don’t switch your workouts to the evening only because you want to lean in to meal timing.
Final thoughts & TL;DR
Figure out what time you feel best working out and lean into that.
If you’re better off working out in the morning, have a small snack before your workout and a bigger meal after your workout.
If you can only workout in the afternoons or evenings, try getting a moderate meal 1-2 hours before you think you’ll be starting the hard part of your workout (if you get to the gym at 5:00, mobility and warmup done and main part of the workout started by 5:30pm - that is the time you would count backwards from).
Protein shakes are great. Not super fun to have one right before the workout. After the workout is great. If you getting a good protein-y meal after the workout, supplementing any other time throughout the day is also totally fine.
Do your best. If you’re reading this then you’re (probably) not an elite athlete, so the stuff noted in studies can be helpful guidelines, but if it doesn’t work for your lifestyle, don’t stress about it too much and do the best you can.
If you need a little guidance on protein powders :
