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Could not eating after you exercise be hurting your progress?
Many people are familiar with the old adage of making sure you eat as soon as you finish your workout to make sure you refuel your body.
But what are you refueling for?
If you are not planning to workout for 2 days after your workout do you need to refuel?
If you are going to refuel, what should that look like?
Can you just wait until your next planned meal to eat and still make progress towards your goals?
As always it is impossible to give a single answer to these questions for all individuals. We need to know the individual’s goals in order to give a somewhat relevant answer.
In this blog post we will look at meal timing and composition to see what factors matter most depending on your ultimate goal.
Meal Timing For The Exercise Newbie
As with most things, there is a hierarchy of priorities when it comes to being healthy and performing your best. The topic of meal timing is very, very, very, far down the hierarchy of things you should be worried about if you are a newbie on your exercise journey.
The #1 most important thing to worry about in terms of exercise when you are just starting out is to establish a consistent routine.
Need help establishing a consistent exercise routine? Check out my FREE consistency calendar that you can use to help overcome everyone’s greatest challenge when it comes to exercise.
In the beginning everything you are doing in terms of exercise is going to have a positive impact no matter what your ultimate goal is. Your nutrition doesn’t really matter at all because the exercise you are doing is such a novel stimulus that your body will benefit from no matter what you do from a meal timing perspective.
Meal Timing For Fat Loss
I know many people have the goal of achieving some level of fat loss, so this might be the most relevant topic when it comes to meal timing.
The conventional message when it comes to fat loss is to eat less and move more. Whether this message is helpful or accurate or not, in order to lose fat we need to be in some kind of caloric deficit. Achieving a caloric deficit is much more complicated than eat less and move more, but many people who are trying to lose fat do end up restricting their calories, and this means they are likely not eating before and/or after their exercise.
Could restricting your calories around exercise be counterproductive to your goal of fat loss?
If fat loss is your goal, there isn’t anything that says that not eating before or after exercise will be counterproductive.
There are some patterns I observe with people who are looking to achieve fat loss that can be concerning at times.
The first pattern I see is choosing to leverage intermittent fasting in order to lose fat. The most common pattern for most people is to not eat until around noon. Many folks also tend to do their exercise in the morning. This means their last meal was the evening before, they exercise probably 8 or more hours after that, and then have several more hours to go before they take in any kind of calories.
This can be counterproductive from a number of perspectives.
First is a general lack of energy. People can oftentimes feel fatigue during and/or after their workout. And when people feel fatigue they might end up relying heavily on something like caffeine to get them the energy they need to make it to noon before they eat.
Caffeine in itself is not necessarily bad, but an excessive amount can cause energy crashes later in the day and disrupt sleep at night.
The other issue I see in people who may be fasting and exercising during their fast is that they end up ravenous once they start eating due to the large caloric deficit they have placed themselves in. In this situation it is not uncommon for people to then over consume calories once they start eating at noon.
For those who are restricting calories in general to lose body fat the other issue I see can be a drop in overall protein intake. An almost inevitable effect of fat loss for most people is going to be some level of muscle loss. Fat loss is a catabolic process and for many people, especially those who have been exercising for a while, losing muscle can come as a side effect. There is nothing we can do to prevent this from happening but there are things we can do to make it worse.
Not eating enough protein is on the top of that list.
In fact there is some evidence to show you need to eat more protein when in a caloric deficit then if you were eating in caloric balance.
If you are trying to lose fat then how important is meal timing? In general you don’t need to worry about it as long as you are:
- Eating enough protein over the course of the day.
- Have enough energy throughout the day without relying heavily on stimulants like caffeine.
- Are not overeating later in the day due to the caloric deficit created due to the exercise and your fat loss goals.
Related to meal timing and fat loss I would consider one thing, particularly if you are exercising in the morning fasted and don’t plan on eating a meal for several hours later. There is some research that shows consuming some protein during your exercise or immediately after exercising in a prolonged fast might be beneficial for maintaining your muscle.
In other words you could be losing muscle even if you are eating enough protein throughout the day but are not consuming any protein around your exercise in a fasted state (Pronounced Energy Restriction With Elevated Protein Intake Results in No Change in Proteolysis and Reductions in Skeletal Muscle Protein Synthesis That Are Mitigated by Resistance Exercise, 2017).
To be on the safe side I would encourage you to consume about 20-40g of protein around your exercise if you plan on not eating a meal for several hours later. This can be as easy as 1-2 scoops of protein powder or taking some 5-10 grams of essential amino acids around your exercise.
Meal Timing For Performance and Muscle Gain
If your goal is to achieve optimal performance in your physical activity goals or to gain muscle I think meal timing and meal composition becomes more of a concern.
At a high level our bodies need energy to perform and to build muscle. The worst thing we can do if we want to perform at our peak or build muscle is to have a limited supply of energy or inhibit the creation of that energy.
This is why when people are in a caloric deficit they tend to not see as much muscle gain and their workout can feel like a drag. Their body essentially doesn’t have all the energy it needs to meet its demands.
When performance or gaining muscle is your primary goal it helps to first make sure you are eating enough overall calories. Ideally your calories for performance and/or muscle gain should be around maintenance or in a slight surplus. This will ensure your body has enough fuel to perform, build and recover.
In addition to overall caloric intake the amount of carbohydrates you eat can also have an impact on your performance and the amount of muscle you build.
Carbohydrate and fats are the 2 main sources of energy when you exercise. As the intensity of exercise increases the amount of carbohydrates your body is using to fuel that exercise will increase while the amount of fat will decrease. This is because as exercise intensity goes up the body needs to generate energy quicker and carbohydrates can be used to generate energy quicker than fat can. This fact is true regardless of how “fat adapted” you are.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7928844
Timing Carbohydrates For Optimal Performance
The amount of carbohydrates you have before exercise can have a negative impact on your performance. If performance is a goal of yours, the amount and timing of your carbohydrates can be important.
In my own anecdotal experience, by adding 100g extra of carbs before doing an all out 500m row I was able to average 75 additional watts when compared to my normal 200-300g of carbs per day.
There is also evidence that delaying carbohydrate intake after exercise can impair the next day’s workout performance (Delaying Post-Exercise Carbohydrate Intake Impairs Next-Day Exercise Capacity but Not Muscle Glycogen or Molecular Responses, 2024). In this study participants who delayed their consumption of carbohydrates 3 hours post exercise as opposed to immediately upon exercise completion did not perform as well during an exercise test the next day.
https://www.examine.com/research-feed/study/d3kDzd
Carbohydrates Role In Building Muscle
What about carbohydrates and muscle gain?
The evidence is mixed on this topic. There are several studies that show eating a diet lower in carbohydrates hinders building muscle (Low Carbohydrate Availability Impairs Hypertrophy and Anaerobic Performance, 2023) (Effects of Two Months of Very Low Carbohydrate Ketogenic Diet on Body Composition, Muscle Strength, Muscle Area, and Blood Parameters in Competitive Natural Body Builders, 2021).
But at the same time there are plenty of people who have built plenty of muscle eating a lower carbohydrate diet.
This is because independent of carbohydrates, if you eat enough protein and are able to put enough stress on your muscle you will be able to build muscle. Carbohydrates don’t have a direct impact on whether you will build muscle or not.
The effect carbohydrates have on building muscle has to do with the amount of stress you are able to put on the muscle. As noted above carbohydrates generally allow you to perform better. From a muscle building perspective that might mean doing more reps/sets or lifting more weight. In general this will translate to more stress on the muscle and increasing the signal to your body to build more muscle. This is why ON AVERAGE we see better results building muscle when carbohydrates are consumed. Does that mean it is not possible to do it on a low carbohydrate diet? No, not at all, it just may become harder to do.
So for this reason, if you can tolerate a moderate amount of carbohydrate intake, I think it would likely help you build more muscle.
Is timing those carbohydrates important for building muscle?
Probably not as it is for performance.
Consuming enough carbohydrates overall will have a much larger impact than timing the carbohydrate intake.
There is some evidence that consuming carbohydrates along with protein after exercise can reduce muscle breakdown, but it was a minor effect overall (Wolfe, n.d.).
To summarize, if your goal is to prioritize muscle gain or optimize performance then I would do the following when it comes to meal timing and composition:
- Eat adequate protein.
- Eat at least at maintenance calories to make sure your body has the calories and therefore the energy it needs to fuel recovery and growth.
- Avoid training fasted if at all possible, having calories on board when exercising will likely result in better performance and the ability to do more work result in more muscle growth.
- Consume enough carbohydrates that allow you to optimize your performance and do more work when trying to build muscle.
- Consume carbohydrates within an hour of exercise to improve performance in workouts later in the day or the following day.
Note these are listed in priority order, so doing 1 and 2 are going to get you closer to your goal of building muscle and optimal performance than 3, 4, or 5 will.
How Much Is Enough Carbohydrates?
You might be wondering what “enough carbohydrates” means. It will be different for everyone so I can’t really give out numbers. I would start at least 1g of carbohydrate per pound and then slowly add carbohydrates every 2 weeks until you no longer see performance improvements or you have other negative symptoms like GI issues, excessive fullness, or energy crashes.
Don’t be surprised if you end up consuming 2g of carbohydrates per pound of body weight or more.
As you can see, the timing of your meals can range from not mattering at all to really hindering you from reaching your goals. Deciding where you fall on that spectrum depends on your goals. If your goals have nothing to do with performance or building more muscle then you likely need to care less about meal timing (other than making sure you are getting protein around your fasted workouts). The more and more performance or building muscle becomes the primary goal, the more and more your meal timing becomes important.
It is likely that you will shift goals throughout the year, meaning you might spend some time in a fat loss phase or in maintenance and then some time building muscle or optimizing performance. That means the importance of meal timing might shift with your goals as well. Keep that in mind as you periodize your goals throughout the year.
In addition, you might not care about building muscle or optimizing performance at all. THAT IS FINE AS WELL! In this case you should not really be concerned about meal timing. Just make sure you are eating enough protein, prioritizing whole foods and getting in your exercise when you can. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.
Meal timing is certainly far down on the list of things to be concerned about from a health and wellness perspective. If you just want to be healthy and look and feel good, you don’t really need to worry about it. However when you start to concern yourself with how you are performing or getting more serious about building muscle its priority moves further up the list. Even still the type of training you are doing to improve your performance and growth will have a greater impact than when you eat your meals.
If you would like some customized advice on how to reach your goals, whether it be developing a consistent exercise routine, fat loss, optimal performance, or gaining muscle fill out my free lifestyle assessment form and I will send you customized advice to help you reach your goals!
References
Delaying post-exercise carbohydrate intake impairs next-day exercise capacity but not muscle glycogen or molecular responses. (2024, September 12). PubMed. Retrieved November 11, 2024, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39263899/
Effects of Two Months of Very Low Carbohydrate Ketogenic Diet on Body Composition, Muscle Strength, Muscle Area, and Blood Parameters in Competitive Natural Body Builders. (2021, January 26). PubMed. Retrieved November 12, 2024, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33530512/
Low carbohydrate availability impairs hypertrophy and anaerobic performance. (2023, July 1). PubMed. Retrieved November 12, 2024, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37057671/
Pronounced energy restriction with elevated protein intake results in no change in proteolysis and reductions in skeletal muscle protein synthesis that are mitigated by resistance exercise. (2017, September 12). PubMed. Retrieved November 11, 2024, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28899879/
Wolfe, R. R. (n.d.). Effect of carbohydrate intake on net muscle protein synthesis during recovery from resistance exercise. PubMed. Retrieved November 12, 2024, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14594866/