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2x's a day workouts - meal question


KarenBF

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I am starting W30 on Monday and am busy planning and prepping. I had a question on work out meals. I am a part-time fitness instructor and teach 7 classes a week. I have all of my meals planned for the week. However, one day, I teach at 6 AM and again at 6:30 PM. For days that I only teach one, it is pretty straight forward that I eat a PreWO (15-75 mins before class) and PostWO meal (15-30 minutes after class). But what about when I do two classes separated by that much? If I do the preWO and postWO meals for the morning class, I will have 5+ hours of not eating before teaching my next class (after lunch but before dinner)? Should I just add one more preWO and then use dinner as my PostWO? 

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Pre and post workout food is in addition to your template meals. When you teach twice a day, you'll have to see what works for you, but consider at least having post workout lean protein immediately following both classes. Its function is to fuel muscles and help aid recovery. Eating a regular meal won't have the same benefit exactly because of the fat that slows the protein digestion.

 

Keep in mind that pre and post workout food doesn't have to be in large quantities. I tend to workout at 6 am, and I have a couple ounces of chicken breast or tuna and cooked sweet potato asap after the workout, then go home, shower, get dressed, and eat meal one before heading to work.

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I'm also a group fitness instructor and have morning and evening classes in the same day. My regular class is later in the morning (9:30) so I get up early enough to eat and digest a proper Meal 1 and don't worry about pre-workout food. When I sub an early class (like this week doing a 6:30) I will just have a couple of eggs and have meal 1 when I get home. For my evening classes I try to eat my meal 3 at least 2 hours before I teach (again for proper digestion). After all my classes I try to have lean protein right after and sometimes starchy vegetables. I've been finding I almost always need a fist sized portion of starchy vegetable with 2-3 of my meals a day to feel my best. 

 

One word of advice...go easy on yourself the first couple of weeks. I found my workouts were harder for a few weeks when I first switched to Paleo eating. Not sure what types of classes you teach but give yourself permission to dial back a little to ensure you make it through your classes while your body makes the adjustment.

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Just wanted to piggyback on this post...I'm only on Day 2 of my W30 so I want to make sure I'm following the guidelines correctly.  Just a little background on me and my goals with W30...I'm 30 years old, 5,3', 122lbs and work as a financial analyst (so typical office job, sitting most of the day).  From a goal perspective I'm really looking to eliminate those few extra stubborn stomach pounds (I'm not saying I expect 6-pack abs at the end of this but just having a flat stomach would more than thrill me).  We have a gym right on campus so I usually hit that up every day during lunch, 2 days a week I work with a trainer and we do a combination of lifting/HIIT, the other days during lunch I'll either hop on the elliptical or do intervals on a treadmill.  After work I go to a local gym and will do cardio (if I didn't do it at lunch) in the form of spin, stairs, elliptical, run or if I did my cardio already I'll go to a yoga or pilates class.  

 

Coincidentally it's meal-time after each of these workouts...the only downfall is by the time I shower and get back to my desk for lunch or drive home and cook dinner I'm outside the ideal 15-30 minutes recommended post-workout snack/meal time window (typically for lunch I'm eating 45 minutes post workout and dinner is more like 60-75 minutes post workout).  To me it seems like overkill to eat something right after these workouts if I'm just going to be eating my main meal relatively soon.  I've got to be honest, the amount of recommended food on this diet terrifies me that I'm going to gain weight and not lose it.  Speaking of numbers, I don't necessarily care about the number on the scale (if I'm gaining muscle) my main goal through this whole thing is flattening out the stomach.

 

Based on this info do you think it's necessary to have a post-workout snack if I'll be eating my normal meal within an hour or so?  If you think so and knowing that hard boiled eggs terrify me do you have any recommendations?  

 

Thanks in advance for your insight and I apologize if I've asked some classic newbie questions that appear on the forums a lot!

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A post workout snack can be as simple as a couple ounces of plain chicken breast or water-packed tuna. Lean protein, no fat. Optional starchy veg. The point is to feed your muscles in that optimal period after working out. Let go of the calories in calories out paradigm. If I were you I would eat a few bites of lean protein after working out with the trainer and not sweat it for the other workouts. This very likely will better help you achieve your goals.

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