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Pre Post Workout and Breakfast


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Given my workout (running) and when I do it (in the morning, before work), I'm a little strapped for time.

is it possible to add a little bit of food to my pre and post workout meals and just make them breakfast?

im not necessarily hungry for both and don't really have the time?

thank you in advance!

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The purpose of the PRE wo is to let your body know that more fuel is forthcoming so it's ok to burn off it's available stores.

The purpose of the POST wo is to allow protein muscle synthesis to happen - ie. let the muscles repair & grow.

If you're used to running fasted I'd say yeah, forgo the preWO, but the fat in a template meal will slow down the absorption of nutrients thereby preventing protein muscle synthesis so you'd be better to have a few bites of a lean protein as soon as you're done, then shower/get ready for work/whatever, and then have breakfast.

Hope this helps.

 

Incidentally: I'm moving this thread to the Athletes section for a better fit....

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Yeah I suppose it helps.

For context, previously I would wake up, stretch, drink coffee and eat oatmeal with apples and almond milk. Then after I'd shower I'd eat an apple. That was breakfast and pre and post workout all in one.

today I had coffee with two eggs, onions, mushrooms and peppers before I ran. Then after I had a sweet potato with some dried coconut and a quarter of a banana after. Then an hour later on my way to work I had cantaloupe and strawberry.

im assuming the move here is to just add some protein to the sweet potato?

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Might want to cut back on the fruit in general. That's a lot of sugar in the morning that isn't doing you any favors. Post-workout should be lean protein with optional starchy carbs. 

Enough eggs to count as protein in a meal might be more than you want to eat before running. For a woman, it's usually 3-4 eggs (as many as you can hold in your hand without dropping); for a man it could be more. 

Maybe take a look at the template again and get your meals moving in the right direction, then assess what you need to do for pre- and post-workout. 

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As @laura_juggles has said above you might want to cut back on the fruit a little, as well as adding some protein postWO. Depending on the length/intensity of your run you may not need the sweet potato at all, especially if you're eating of plenty of starchy veg on a daily basis anyway.

Here's the >meal template< for you to have a look at for the recommendations.

 

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I am one who loves a lot of fruit as well.  I understand the desire and the benefits of fruit, and I still eat a lot of it.  However, I have learned that to really satisfy what my body is looking for, I have to add protein.  Take yesterday's epic (for me) 11 mile run.  I was STARVING afterward.  The fruit looked fantastic and I had some (and some non Whole30 stuff; going to have to start over, but that's a story for my own thread).  What really got me to the point of not wandering around the kitchen looking at food, though, was the eggs, the cold burger straight from the fridge, the packet of tuna, and the steak at supper time.  I definitely agree with Laura that thinking through the template meal will do you some good.

ThyPeace, Yesterday was an eat-all-the-things day.

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1 hour ago, laura_juggles said:

Might want to cut back on the fruit in general. That's a lot of sugar in the morning that isn't doing you any favors. Post-workout should be lean protein with optional starchy carbs. 

Enough eggs to count as protein in a meal might be more than you want to eat before running. For a woman, it's usually 3-4 eggs (as many as you can hold in your hand without dropping); for a man it could be more. 

Maybe take a look at the template again and get your meals moving in the right direction, then assess what you need to do for pre- and post-workout. 

I'm sorry, I'm confused. Having two slices of cantaloupe, 4 or 5 strawberries and a quarter of a banana is too much fruit for the morning? It's probably all the fruit I'd have for an entire day. 

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9 minutes ago, Samuel Framley said:

I'm sorry, I'm confused. Having two slices of cantaloupe, 4 or 5 strawberries and a quarter of a banana is too much fruit for the morning? It's probably all the fruit I'd have for an entire day. 

Outside the context of a proper template meal, yes, it's too much fruit. Fruit is entirely optional in the context of a Whole30. Yes, it has vitamins and minerals, but none that you can't get in vegetables. Fruit also needs to be eaten as a part of a meal (as in throwing a handful of berries on top of your salad or chopping up an apple and sauteeing that with your pork chops to make an interesting sauce, some pineapple in a cauliflower rice stir fry, etc). 

If an hour after your post-workout food you're hungry and are turning to the fruit as a snack, we need to take a look at what your meals are comprised of because you shouldn't be hungry at that point. The goal is to have meals that get you 4-5 hours without needing to look for snacks (pre/post-workout is the exception). 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been doing an egg white fried in coconut oil and a teaspoon of almond butter with a black coffee for pre workout (it's just a little snack but I feel like it helps before a 6am gym sesh, cos I train quite early I only have half an hour to digest so don't want to eat too much. 

Then I've been having my post workout + breakfast combined cos I'm quite short on time and need to have something portable I can eat at work. That meal usually consists of some pre-made egg fritatas (2 - 3 eggs with asparagus, tomato, baby spinach) and a piece of fruit like an apple or mandarin.

Does that work? 

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10 hours ago, PaleoPrincess said:

I've been doing an egg white fried in coconut oil and a teaspoon of almond butter with a black coffee for pre workout (it's just a little snack but I feel like it helps before a 6am gym sesh, cos I train quite early I only have half an hour to digest so don't want to eat too much. 

Then I've been having my post workout + breakfast combined cos I'm quite short on time and need to have something portable I can eat at work. That meal usually consists of some pre-made egg fritatas (2 - 3 eggs with asparagus, tomato, baby spinach) and a piece of fruit like an apple or mandarin.

Does that work? 

Your question of 'does that work' is a bit of a trick question... if it works for you, then it works... however, it's not following the recommended pre and post workout options.  Preworkout is fat and protein (why not eat the whole egg??) and post workout which is significantly more important is lean protein and ideally starchy carbs, NO fat... combining breakfast and post workout means that you're robbing yourself of the extra fuel from working out and since template meal asks for protein veggies fat and post workout asks for no fat, they don't jive.  Can you take some chicken breast and a bit of sweet potato to the gym with you?  Then you can eat it on the way home, shower and then eat your breakfast at work?  The post workout doesn't need to be a whole meal, just a few bites of each.

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10 hours ago, SugarcubeOD said:

Your question of 'does that work' is a bit of a trick question... if it works for you, then it works... however, it's not following the recommended pre and post workout options.  Preworkout is fat and protein (why not eat the whole egg??) and post workout which is significantly more important is lean protein and ideally starchy carbs, NO fat... combining breakfast and post workout means that you're robbing yourself of the extra fuel from working out and since template meal asks for protein veggies fat and post workout asks for no fat, they don't jive.  Can you take some chicken breast and a bit of sweet potato to the gym with you?  Then you can eat it on the way home, shower and then eat your breakfast at work?  The post workout doesn't need to be a whole meal, just a few bites of each.

Ok yeah that's a good idea! I will try the chicken sweet potato thing + breakfast a bit later... Ive also been leaving at least an hour from when I finish my workout to when I eat that meal as well so I guess I could eat it on the run straight after gym.

With the pre workout snack, I just like the egg white with almond butter on it because I feel like I can stomach that better at 5:30am. it's still lean protein + fat so should be pretty much the same as eating the whole egg right? 

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Nuts are generally harder on your stomach than egg yolks. The majority of the great stuff in an egg is in the yolk, so you'll get more of a nutritional bang for your buck if you just eat the whole egg. Plus you won't be wasting the yolk. 

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