What to Eat Before and After a Workout to Build Muscle

Nikkiey: You have it like 90 minutes out and you go to work out 90 minutes later, you're still going to have a sustained energy level throughout your entire workout.

Yo, yo, yo, what's up, you guys? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder. And you know what? I'm going to have to change this brand personality. I am that, but I do so many other things at WarriorBabe. But anyway, for the podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong and feel insanely confident.

I am your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome to today's episode, episode number 28, where we're going to deep dive into pre- and post-workout meals and the importance of both of them. I'm going to share some examples with you, and I'm also going to speak to the timing of when you should be having these specific meals.

I get asked this question all of the time, and it's even, I would say, a listener Q&A, because when I dropped on my story a couple weeks ago asking for questions worthy of a long answer to bring to the podcast, this question got asked a number of times. And I was like, dude, this topic is worthy of an entire podcast. So here we are. That's what we're going to talk about today. So let's dive right into it.

Let's talk about pre-workout first. And please, please, please, if there's anything you take away from this podcast today, I hope by the end of it you recognize how important it is to be eating before you work out. And I don't want to hear that you don't have enough time. I've heard that over and over and over again.

I'll tell you this story. I used to work with a client who was like, I just don't have enough time before I work out in the morning. And I was like, yes, you do. You have at least 30 minutes from the time you get up to the time you're going to go work out. And listen, you may not want to eat once you get up before you work out, because your body is so used to not eating. Right. And the first couple of days, the first week that you're trying this new thing of fueling yourself before you work out, it may be hard. It may feel like you're going to throw up in the middle of the workout. But guess what? As you keep doing it for two weeks, three weeks, your body is going to adapt to you having food before your workout.

So it's all about adaptation. Your body is conditioned one way, to not have anything before you work out. And you can easily change it and make it adapted to the fact that you have a meal before you go work out. And it is so important. By the way, that client was like, oh my God, I don't understand how I have been working out without food, because having the food in her system absolutely changed her entire workout experience.

So it is so important to have something before you go work out. I don't care how early it is in the morning. I don't care how late you are at work. You must have something before you go work out, because it's important to the muscle-building process. Right. And I think everybody who listens to this podcast wants to build muscle and wants to change their body composition. So if you want to do that, please get in the habit of eating something before you work out, because giving your body some fuel gives you the energy to perform that workout well.

It gives you the energy to lift heavier and challenging weight, which is what is going to stimulate your muscles to grow. And so this can include things like carbohydrates, which give you energy, and protein, which supports muscle building and the recovery process. Having this beforehand increases your energy levels, improves your focus and concentration during your session, and reduces the risk of injury or experiencing any type of fatigue.

So how does it do that? First, consuming a snack or a meal containing carbohydrates before exercise gives the body the energy it needs to perform well, because carbohydrates are the body's primary source of fuel during exercise. Consuming them before a workout can help you experience increased energy levels and a reduction in fatigue.

I remember this one story when I lived in Bali for six months. I was getting breakfast in the morning and, no joke, this girl passed out in front of me. She came to really quickly, and I was right there helping her. And I was like, what happened? What were you doing this morning? And she was like, I just got done working out. And I was like, did you have anything before you worked out? And she was like, no, I didn't eat anything. And I was like, dude, please eat before you work out. Right. Because that can happen.

Or maybe you've experienced this inside of your workout. You feel fatigued halfway through, or just getting started, or you feel a little lightheaded. The way you stop that from happening is making sure you eat something beforehand, so your body has some fuel to perform the workout well.

On top of that, having a snack or a meal beforehand improves your focus and concentration. I'm going to get to a couple of examples in just a second. But it improves your focus and concentration because protein and carbs are important for brain function. So eating those before a workout can help improve your focus and your cognitive performance while you're working out.

And lastly, it's super important to have a pre-workout meal because it reduces the risk of injury. Having a snack that contains carbohydrates and protein before exercise gives the body, like I said, energy, but it also helps support muscle strength and recovery. So the more you give your body things to lean on while it works out, the less likely it is that you're going to have an injury or a problem, or pass out, or feel lightheaded.

So please just make sure you're eating something before you work out. Again, I don't care if you're working out early in the morning. And let me come into the examples now. You can have something as easy as a banana with a protein shake. Literally, a banana and a protein shake. That is bomb. That will give you fuel. That will increase your energy levels and improve your focus and concentration, and it will reduce the risk of injury that you could experience if you don't eat.

So here are a couple more examples. I just mentioned the banana and the protein shake. A banana and egg whites, maybe even one whole egg and three to four egg whites. What I specifically do is I have containers of egg whites, so I just measure out 150 grams of egg whites and pour it into oatmeal. That's another pre-workout you can have: oatmeal and egg whites. I pour it into the oatmeal and stick it in the microwave for two minutes, and voila. Somebody actually taught me that way to cook it on Instagram, so whoever gave me that, shout out to you, because that is forever the way I cook my oatmeal and egg whites now. It saves having to cook anything on the stove.

Some other examples are Greek yogurt with fruit and granola, or a protein shake with fruit. Again, I said a banana, but a protein shake with any type of fruit. It could be strawberries. It could be blueberries. The thing is, though, strawberries and blueberries are a little bit lower in carbohydrates. Bananas are made up of more carbohydrates. One full banana is like 25 to 30 grams of carbs, whereas a cup of strawberries is like 11 grams of carbs. So just keep that in mind. You'll want to add more strawberries or more blueberries if you're going to choose that example.

You can even mix in a little bit of peanut butter. But here I have a little plug about fats and fiber. Fats are digested more slowly than carbohydrates and protein, which means they may not provide immediate energy during exercise. So I always tell the women I coach, or the coaches who coach the women inside of WarriorBabe, you can have a little bit of fat, like a whole egg, like I mentioned, or some peanut butter. But you don't want to have a heaping tablespoon of peanut butter, or a heaping amount of whole eggs with all of the fat content in them, because fats take longer to digest than carbohydrates and protein.

So you're not going to get immediate energy for your workout from fats. You can have a little bit, like I said, but you don't want to have too much of it, because it can slow down your energy and could also just make you feel a little more sluggish. It's more beneficial to focus on having carbohydrates and protein before exercise, because those two nutrients are digested more quickly.

And when it comes to fiber, it's kind of the same thing. Consuming large amounts of fiber, like if you have a ton of vegetables before or after your workout, is not really optimal for your performance or your digestion, because fiber takes longer to digest than other nutrients. This can cause some digestive discomfort, and it can slow down the absorption of nutrients like protein and carbohydrates, which you really want for energy. So I would just pay attention to those two things before you work out, because you may experience these types of things. Your main thing that you want to have before you work out is a protein and a carbohydrate.

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Some other examples: like I said, what I do is oatmeal and egg whites. You can do oatmeal and peanut butter, or oatmeal and protein powder. You can literally cook up the oatmeal, then scoop the protein powder on top while it's still warm and mix it all in. That's actually bomb. If you have chocolate or some cool flavor, dude, it's so freaking good. It's unreal. You can have whole grain toast with a small amount of avocado, which is why I said a small amount of fat, with some egg whites. So there's a plethora of ideas. I just gave you a ton of ideas, from something you could eat an hour before a workout to something you could eat 30 minutes before a workout.

So let's dive into timing now. Anything that consists of a complex carbohydrate, like wheat-based products, oatmeal, brown rice, whole wheat bread or whole wheat toast like I mentioned, should be consumed anywhere between 60 and 90 minutes before you work out. The reason is that complex carbohydrates take longer to digest than simple carbohydrates, and they also produce longer, sustained energy levels than simple carbs do. So if you have it 90 minutes out and you go to work out 90 minutes later, you're still going to have a sustained energy level throughout your entire workout.

Whereas if you have a simple carbohydrate, like fruits, white rice, rice cakes or English muffins, which is another really good example for you morning people who are early risers and go work out, you'll want to watch when you work out after these types of carbohydrates. With protein, it doesn't matter. But with these types of carbohydrates, it does. Simple carbohydrates are anywhere from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. You can push it to 60 minutes, but then you're dabbling with your body possibly burning through that source a little quicker and feeling a little more fatigued throughout your workout. The reason it's 30 to 60 minutes is because these digest faster, and like I just said, you'll burn through them a little faster during your workout.

I personally like to go with the complex carbs for the reasons I already stated. I personally don't work out until the afternoon. There's no rhyme or reason. It's whatever works best for your schedule. But I work out in the afternoon after I've had a couple more meals in my system, and I'll eat around 60 to 90 minutes before going to work out, and I feel solid throughout my entire workout. There have been times where I've had just a blueberry and a protein shake, I'm sorry, a banana and a protein shake, and I felt my energy levels dip pretty early on in my workout. So it is whatever works best for you. Just recognize those timeframes, because that's going to be prime for you to use these fuel sources more effectively.

Okay, so that's a little bit about pre-workout. Let's talk about post-workout now. Both of these are super important, the pre-workout and the post-workout, if your ultimate goal is to build muscle and change your body composition. The post-workout meal is important because it gives the body the resources to recover and repair your muscle after exercise.

You've always heard me say, and will always hear me continue to say, or maybe you haven't and you're new to the podcast, welcome, that during exercise your body is breaking down muscle. And in the 24, 48, 72 hours after that workout, your body is building, repairing and recovering that muscle. So you're breaking down the muscle while you're in the gym, and you're building the muscle while you're outside of the gym.

So you want to make sure that post-workout, and even in your nutrition over the next 24, 48, 72 hours, you're having a sufficient amount of protein and carbohydrates to support the process of building up the muscle. Your body needs those nutrients to repair the muscle tissue and to replenish glycogen stores, especially following your workout.

As I just alluded to, a couple of things happen after you work out, and that's why it's so important to have a post-workout meal. Your body starts to recover and repair the muscle. Having a meal also reduces muscle soreness, and it improves your performance the next time you go and work out.

Having a combination of protein and carbohydrates after you exercise promotes muscle recovery and repair because, like I've mentioned already, protein is so important for rebuilding the muscle tissue that is damaged during your workout. And carbohydrates help replenish the glycogen stores that were depleted during exercise. If you ever get to the end of your workout and you feel a little lightheaded, or you feel like, damn, my muscles are shaky, or you're driving home and, I know I've experienced this, your foot on the gas pedal is shaking after a leg day, your glycogen stores are completely depleted. So you need some type of carbohydrate to help replenish those glycogen stores.

Also, having these two fuel sources, protein and carbohydrates, after your workout can include anti-inflammatory foods, like the fruit or anything I just mentioned, which help reduce muscle soreness and inflammation. So you're going to feel your recovery process speeding up a little more when you're giving your body the nutrients it wants and needs after you're done working out.

And again, like I've already spoken to, protein and carbohydrates help with future workouts and future performance by promoting recovery and repair and improving your strength, your endurance and everything that goes into a strength training workout. So it's just so important to have a pre-workout and a post-workout meal and to implement them into your routine if your ultimate goal is to build muscle.

So as I gave you some examples of a pre-workout, here are some examples of a post-workout meal. These could include things like grilled chicken breast and sweet potatoes. That's fire. If you work out in the afternoon and you're going to have food afterwards, that's a perfect go-to: chicken and sweet potatoes.

What I personally do is I make this before I even get to the gym. It's already made and it's in my gym bag, so when I'm walking out of the gym, there are no excuses. I'm ready to eat. I'm ready to drink my protein shake. I have a protein shake made with whey protein powder, and I put some frozen fruit inside of it and some unsweetened almond milk. I have a NutriBullet, so I just make it in the NutriBullet. It's so good. It's so refreshing. It's cold and it goes down so smoothly.

And I recommend that for everybody because it's so easy to throw in. Even if you're preparing all your meals at the beginning of the day and you're not working out until the afternoon after work, you just have to put the protein powder inside the blender bottle you have, fill it up with water afterwards, and bring a banana with you. It's as simple as that. It's just doing it.

And then there are things like cottage cheese and fruit, or whole grain pasta with chicken and marinara sauce. Anything that is a clean protein source and a clean carbohydrate source, you're golden. There are even carbohydrate powders. I've used those too. Ignition by First Form is really good. The protein powders from First Form are really good too. So those are some things I would recommend, and I can put the links below the podcast for First Form protein and First Form Ignition. I think they have bundles, which are really cool too. Those are just easy go-to things you can throw into your gym bag, and boom, dog diggity, you've got your post-workout meal.

Timing-wise, I would say you have a 30-minute window post-workout that is prime for you. There are so many conflicting things about this. People say you can go hours without eating after a workout, but I truly believe, from my experience and my understanding and the way I've coached clients and our coaches coach clients inside of WarriorBabe, in a 30-minute window. That's why I say throw a protein shake into your gym bag and drink it on your way out and on your drive home. It's so simple. That's what I do, and it's so simple to make sure you get in your post-workout meal.

All right, you guys. That speaks to pre-workout and post-workout, some examples of each, and the timing of when you should have these specific things. But all in all, please, please, please, I hope you take away why it's so important to have these two meals while you're in the process of building muscle, because carbohydrates and protein play a very critical role in the recovery process, the building process, the fuel process and the performance process of everything you want to accomplish with building muscle and changing your body composition.

All right, you guys. Hope you enjoyed it, and I'll see you in the next podcast.

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