Eating And Exercise

Anytime you exercise, you do so in order to try and
maintain good health. The other big part of being healthy is eating a well-balanced diet. By eating well, and exercising regularly,
your body will have the energy it
needs to perform the everyday tasks
of life.

No matter if you are going to be doing a cardio
or resistance workout, you should always
make it a point to eat a balanced mix of protein and
carbohydrates. What makes that determining percentage
of carbs and protein you consume is whether or not
you are doing cardio or resistance exercise, and the
intensity level you plan to workout at.

The ideal time for you to eat a pre-workout meal,
is an hour before you start. If you plan to workout
at a low intensity level, you should keep your pre-
workout meal to about 200 calories or so. If you
plan to exercise at a high level of intensity, you
probably need your meal to be between 1,000
and 3,000 calories, or so.

Those of you who are doing a cardio session will
need to consume a mix of 2/3 carbs and 1/3 protein.
Doing so will give you longer sustained energy from
the extra carbs, with enough protein to keep your
muscle from breaking down while you exercise.

For resistance exercise, you’ll need to eat a mix
of 1/3 carbs and 2/3 protein, as this will help
you get plenty of energy from the carbs to perform
each set you do, and the extra protein will help
keep muscle breakdown to a minimum while you
exercise.

Eating after you exercise is just as important as
your pre-workout meal. Anytime you exercise,
whether its cardio or resistance, you deplete energy,
in the form of glycogen. The brain and central
nervous system rely on glycogen as their main
source of fuel, so if you don’t replace it after
you exercise, your body will begin to break down
muscle tissue into amino acids, and then convert
them into usable fuel for the brain and the
central nervous system.

Keep in mind that mostly during resistance
exercise, you’ll break down muscle tissue by
creating micro tears. What this means, is that
after a workout, your muscles will instantly go
into repair mode. Protein is the key here for
muscle repair, as you don’t want muscles breaking
down even further to create fuel, instead of
lost glycogen.

Once you have finished a cardio session, you’ll
need to consume mainly carbohydrates, preferably
those with high fiber. Rice, oatmeal, whole wheat
pasta, and fruits, are excellent sources.

Once you’ve finished a resistance workout, its best
to consume a combination of carbs and
protein. Unlike cardio workouts, resistance
workouts break down muscle tissue by creating
micro tears.

You need protein as this happens, to build up
and repair these tears, so the muscle can
increase in size and strength. The carbs will
not only replace the lost muscle glycogen, but
also help the protein get into muscle cells,
so it can synthesize into structural protein to help build and/or strengthen your muscles.

After resistance exercise, wait about 30 minutes or so before eating, so that you won’t
take blood away from your muscles too fast. The
blood in your muscles helps the repair process,
by removing metabolic waste products.

Take advantage of the day everybody! Workout hard, eat well and give’em hell! YOLO!!! (You only live once)