Post WO meal query

[mcbellnz]

Hi guys.

 

Just a quick newbie question.  Am planning on starting my first Whole 30 tomorrow (and have some friends who want to start on the 6th of Jan, but I figure if I start tomorrow I will be ten days down and feeling awesome), even have the credit card out to sign up to the emails.....

 

Anyway, to my question.  I usually workout at lunchtime (12:45pm - 1:30pm ish) and then have lunch afterwards - usually finish eating by 2:15pm, even though I don't feel like eating post workout.

 

How should I go about combining my post workout meal with lunch...how might that work?

 

For the next 3 workouts (Friday, Monday,Tuesday due to opening hours over Christmas) I might well head to the gym in the morning, so I guess my breakfast would be my pre - workout meal..... how do others work it?

 

Thanks all in advance for any advice you wish to share.

[jennor]

My breakfast is my postworkout meal. I workout in the early morning, so that is the most natural for me. If I get hungry later in the day I have a snack. ( Yes, I know this is not according to the original meal template, but I run long distance and breastfeed so three meals doesn't really cut it right now.)

[Tom Denham]

Pre-workout meals are not as much about nutrition as sending a signal to your body to gear up. A boiled egg is a decent pre-workout meal... Small enough to not cause trouble when you workout an hour later, but enough to be meaningful.

 

There are two purposes for a post-workout meal. One is to feed hungry muscles during the brief window of about 30 minutes after a hard workout when they are especially open to nutrition. This is why we emphasize that you need to eat at the gym while the window is open. If you wait 45 minutes after a workout to eat, the window will be closed and you will only get the second benefit of a post-workout meal. What is the second benefit? Nutrition. When you workout, your body needs extra calories above your normal daily requirements. A good way to supply those calories is to eat a post-workout meal in addition to your basic three meals. 

 

When I train at home, I eat lunch after my workout. When I train at the gym, I eat a can of tuna at the gym and then often come home, prepare lunch and eat again maybe an hour after my workout. 

 

When you eat lunch as your post-workout meal, you may need to add a fourth meal during the day to make sure you get enough. It depends upon your activity levels and how hard you train. I do pretty good collapsing the post-workout meal and lunch into one. Here is why I think this works for me: My training lasts 25 minutes (relatively brief), I am 56 years old (metabolism slower than it was 20 years ago), and I sometimes eat big meals that would choke some people. Let me explain what I call a big meal by telling you what I had for lunch yesterday... 0.56 pounds of beef liver, one half of a large yellow onion, one can of diced tomatoes with green chilies, one can of artichoke hearts, 4 slices of prosciutto, salt, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, a glass of water, and a bottle of kombucha. I don't necessarily recommend this as a post-workout meal, but it worked for me.

 

If you eat modest sized meals, are skinny as a rail, and have a galloping metabolism, you may need four or five meals per day. 

[mcbellnz]

Thanks for the replies guys!  Will be boiling an egg in preparation for it being my pre workout meal tomorrow morning.  

 

I started stronglifts 5x5 about two weeks ago (have done New Rules of Lifting for Women a couple of times during 2013, but only got up to the fourth stage).  I have a goal to do a chin up by March (hopefully it will happen much faster than that, I can re-evaluate - currently I can do two chin ups on the chin assist machine with 25kg assistance).

 

The gym is just across the road from my workplace (hence why I usually workout at lunchtime) and also 2km from home - so handy for holiday time too.  I can get home in ten minutes for post work out noms - just need to plan what I am going to eat - might bake a kumera (sweet potato) tonight so it will be ready for breakfast post gym tomorrow.

 

I am about 5kg heavier than I want to be, with body fat about 5% higher than I want it to be.  My main concern is reducing my body fat percentage and dropping a dress size - not sure what that will equate to on the scales in the end.  I do love to eat - but love to eat all the wrong things - sugar and processed carbs are my "no brakes" foods, once I pop, I can't stop....but if I remove these foods from my diet, food no longer rules my life.  I am still obsessed by food in the respect I have to be very strict about keeping processed/sugar laden foods out of my diet, but better than continually stuffing my face with junk and watching the scale number grow through my tears of desperation.  I would say I am likely to have a sluggish metabolism, probably exacerbated by a low calorie diet over the last 6months or so.

 

I guess I just need to experiment - and that is what the Whole30 is all about isn't it!

[jennor]

Tom, on work days I start my run at 15-20 min after my alarm goes off as part of my commute to work. It is less than 40 min running at an easy pace, so not really a hard workout for me.

The problem is I can't fathom getting up an hour earlier to eat a pre-workout meal/egg. That would push my wake-up time to 4:25! Does it have to be eaten an hour before? I can understand the logic since if I eat it right before leaving it would not be digested until post-run anyway. But an hour.... I can't do an hour...

[Robin Strathdee]

It totally doesn't have to be an hour before - that's just a guideline.  Anything up to 10 min before works - it's a signal to your body to prepare for the coming activity, not actually fuel for the activity.  Also, if you're feeling okay without the pre-workout food, you're fine to continue without it as well.