Fitness Myths: You Can't Eat Two Hours After Workout

The principles of nutrition after a workout are not particularly different from any other. The basis of any weight loss is a calorie deficit, which must be maintained throughout the day. If you think that eating after a workout contributes to weight gain, you are mistaken. The main thing is not to go beyond your daily calorie intake, even if you decide to eat after your evening classes.

Unlike strength training, cardio training does not require a lot of energy after exercise. Therefore, it is better to focus on the feeling of hunger. If you want, eat; if you don’t feel hungry, you can abstain.

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Food before workout

Often people deliberately do not eat not only after training, but also before, so as not to interfere with fat oxidation. These fears are not justified.

Research shows that carbohydrates during intense cardio (interval training, HIIT, etc.) have no effect on fat oxidation. Of course, low-intensity workouts (light jogging, brisk walking, cycling or stationary cycling) will be affected, but such workouts usually do not require additional energy, are low-energy in themselves, and can even be done on an empty stomach.

Moreover, carbs before an intense workout can indirectly help with fat loss - simply by allowing you to work harder, longer, and harder. As a result, you burn more calories per workout than if you could barely move from weakness and hunger.

From a weight loss point of view, the ability to train at full strength is much more important than the additional calorie expenditure due to skipping meals, especially since it is very small.

The same applies to strength training while losing weight. The ability to train hard, intensely always takes precedence over the ability to burn a few extra calories. Moreover, strength training does not consume many calories - during the workout, a person rests in total more than he trains.

The goal of strength training during weight loss is not so much to burn calories as to protect your muscles while on a diet. Spending calories is just a bonus, not a goal.

Don't exercise on an empty stomach

First, let's figure out what and when to eat before training. We dismiss exercises on an empty stomach right away: we don’t have enough strength to finish exercising to the end. Hunger disrupts coordination of movements, breathing rhythm and exercise technique (hello, injuries!), Hungry fainting may even occur.

At the same time, if you are overweight, your task during fitness is to start the process of destroying the reserves of subcutaneous and internal fat. Once it gets from the depot into the blood, in any case, after 5-7 minutes of movement, it will begin to be utilized by the working muscles and heart. After 20 minutes of continuous movement, the body will already work mainly on fat. But how to force this stubborn substance to leave its homes?

Fat reserves are broken down as a result of a complex biochemical chain that involves hormones, neurotransmitters, etc. The trigger is physical exercise for at least 20 minutes straight. Accordingly, food before training should provide energy for these 20 minutes and for the production of neurotransmitters. At the same time, food should not interfere with exercise and, most importantly, not replenish the blood with fats! Otherwise, why would they leave the depot?

Based on this, simple rules for pre-workout nutrition have been formulated.

• Eat about 1.5-2 hours before fitness.
• Choose complex carbohydrates and some protein (proteins): buckwheat + meat, rice + chicken, low-fat cottage cheese. The portion should be small so as not to overfill the stomach.
• You can supplement it with vegetables, especially watery ones like cucumbers and tomatoes, but not too much. Otherwise, you will come to class and endlessly run to the toilet - an excess of vegetables can cause such provocations during fitness.
• You can eat fruits and berries , but only a little - too many fast carbohydrates from them will make the release of fat from the depot completely unnecessary, because the muscles will already have something to eat.
• No fats - they are especially common in mayonnaise-based (white) sauces. It’s better to make a sauce from vegetables and minced meat (Bolognese type); it can also be used as a protein component of a meal.
• The calorie content of a meal is 200−500 kcal (the longer and more intense the workout, the more).

Eating after an intense workout

After a high-intensity workout, the body continues to use fat for fuel, even when you eat carbohydrates immediately after (as long as you maintain a calorie deficit for the day). Carbohydrates are used for recovery, and the body continues to use fat for energy.

Post-workout nutrition has a huge impact on the body's recovery. On a diet, recovery is worse, and if a person does not eat two hours before training, an hour during training and two hours after, stress becomes greater.

Therefore, the benefits of eating post-workout outweigh any benefits from the additional (and very modest) calorie expenditure.

How to eat before and after training?

“I have said many times and will repeat again that proper nutrition during training is three-quarters of success in building the body of your dreams. I sincerely think so. And quite often I hear the following phrases from my clients: “I don’t have breakfast/lunch before training,” “I don’t eat after working out in the gym,” “Why do I work out intensely and constantly, but I don’t feel any visible results?” You know, of course, you can work hard, increase the load, “pull” dumbbells and barbells, build muscles, lose weight or fat, but if the body does not receive the required amount of the right nutrients that ensure the internal balance of elements, then everything is yours and our efforts may be in vain.

What we eat before and after training directly affects the results we ultimately get. Therefore, if you really want to see the effect of your (and our) training, then we will achieve this only by adding adequate balanced nutrition to strength exercises and aerobic exercise. Taken together, these actions will ensure the desired result, and you will see how your body will change and your muscles will be built.

First, you should think about the goal that you want to achieve by working out in the gym. Everyone has their own goal, their own motivation, their own desired result: simply lose weight, reduce (or, conversely, increase) the numbers on the scale, or reduce the fat layer while maintaining muscle tissue. If we mean the latter situation, that is, reducing body fat by preserving muscle, then the goals that proper nutrition will help us achieve will be the following: reducing the resolution of muscle tissue proteins, reducing the depletion of muscle glycogen and reducing the level of the breakdown hormone, which is cortisol after strength training. Then, based on these goals, we will select adequate nutrition. What will it be like? Carbohydrates before training, and definitely complex carbohydrates, will provide you with the necessary energy, without which an effective workout will not occur. Proteins will be used by the body as a source of amino acids for working muscles. The fats you eat should be in minimal quantities. This is explained by the fact that fat in food slows down the absorption of other beneficial nutrients, and it takes a long time for it to be broken down and absorbed by the body. In addition, naturally, fatty foods will stay in the stomach longer and cause discomfort, interfering with the normal digestion process.

Eating before starting a workout. What should it be like?

• Firstly, it should be no later than 2 hours before physical exercise, because a full stomach will interfere with a full workout: the blood supply will be directed not to the working muscles, but to the gastrointestinal tract.
• Secondly, the amount of food eaten should be small. Imagine that all the food you eat before your workout could fit in the palm of your hand.
• Thirdly, nutrition should include: protein (this is approximately half a gram per 1 kg of ideal body weight) and carbohydrates (also approximately the same amount per 1 kg of ideal body weight). As I already mentioned, these carbohydrates should be complex: black porridge, vegetables for fiber and whole grain bread.
• When the workout is over, a lot of endorphins have been received, but physical strength is running out, the question arises: “What to do? What and how to eat? It is important here that meals should be taken 30 minutes (but no more than an hour) after training. Well, that is unless you're a fan of drinking protein shakes right after your workout. Professional athletes accept (and actively use) this “method” of nutrition after training, since protein shakes are considered very nutritious and saturate the body well with protein.

What are your post-workout eating goals?

First, it increases muscle glycogen, which was depleted during training. Secondly, reducing the breakdown of muscle tissue proteins. Because if we have a predominance of muscle tissue, then, accordingly, there will be less space left for fat. Thirdly, an increase in muscle protein synthesis, simple recovery after exercise and a decrease in muscle soreness. And finally, fourthly, the goal after training is to reduce cortisol levels. And, accordingly, based on these goals, it is already worth choosing adequate nutrition. How will he feel about it? All the same proteins and carbohydrates. Only here is it permissible to include a small amount of simple carbohydrates in the diet: fresh fruits, for example, bananas, some vegetables, a small amount of potatoes is acceptable, but its content should be small (about 0.3-0.2 grams per 1 kg of ideal weight).

Thus, we achieve an increase in insulin levels. This hormone has anti-catabolic properties. In addition, carbohydrates contribute to better absorption of protein and are used to replenish expended energy - glycogen, which will be stored in the muscles. It turns out that if the body does not receive enough carbohydrates after training, then muscle tissue will be destroyed under the influence of catabolic processes.

If the workout took place in the evening, for example, began at 18:00 or 19:00, and ended at 20:00 or 21:00, then the dinner after the workout should consist of protein foods - it could even be seafood, since they are more easily dissolved, broken down and absorbed by the body. Well, you can add a portion of non-starchy vegetables to the proteins, that is, these should not be root vegetables (cucumbers, peppers, fresh tomatoes). Seafood means low-fat fish, which should also be in the amount of 0.5-0.4 grams per 1 kilogram of weight. Yes, I also wanted to mention one important clarification: the fat burning process will not start immediately after training, that is, fats will not be used for energy supply immediately after training, but already during night sleep.

In general, of course, we should not forget that nutrition before and after training should be selected directly to suit your body. You can try several nutritional methods, because each body is individual, you need to learn to listen to your body. In fact, only it will properly tell you how, what and when to eat, so be guided by sensations. Don't be afraid to experiment. Consult your instructor. Stay young and healthy. Good luck!

Eating after regular cardio

Many people forget that weight loss occurs not only during training, but in the remaining 23 hours when a person is not exercising. Therefore, the basis of any weight loss is, first of all, diet.

If you maintain a calorie deficit throughout the day, you will lose weight even if you eat right after cardio.

Regular cardio, due to its low power, does not require a large amount of energy before, during and after exercise. Therefore, here you can rely on the feeling of hunger. If you want, eat, if you want, don’t.

How nutrition shapes our body

What we eat determines how we look. Most of the population is unhappy with what the mirror reflects, and there are two categories of people:

• those who want to lose excess weight;
• looking to gain muscle mass.

How fat loss and gain occurs

In the battle between the scale dial and delicious buns, calories are decisive. These are units of energy. Our body needs a charge to set all parts of the body in motion, to continue the non-stop work of all internal organs, we take it from food. Previously, during the period of difficult food production, a person needed more strength for daily work - for cultivating the land, for long walks. At the same time, the products were often low in calories - vegetables and fruits, vegetable oil.

Modern life simultaneously improved conditions in two directions:

• Daily energy consumption decreased - transport appeared, an elevator and an escalator were designed. To avoid unnecessary movements, they even created a remote control. Working in an office at a computer practically does not disturb a person’s state of rest.
• The calorie content in purchased provisions has increased - candy, cakes, fast food, carbonated sweet drinks - these are just time bombs in packaging. One bar of chocolate contains one fourth of the daily food requirement, despite the fact that we usually eat it with tea for dessert. And few people are interested in fruits in their pure form anymore - it’s more economical and convenient to buy juice, which contains a lot of sugar.

These two trends have led to an oversupply of unspent calories.
They are perceived by the body as reserves and are converted into fat reserves. To get rid of this safety net of fat, you need to create an energy deficit, that is, spend more than you take in. Then you will have to use up your reserves. This can be achieved in the following ways:

• Train a lot, while choosing aerobic exercise, that is, cardio exercises of moderate difficulty. This allows glucose to be taken out of cells using oxygen. You can achieve a more effective anaerobic threshold, but then the exercises will be too intense for the cardiovascular system and an unprepared person in general.
• Reduce your diet - don’t eat after 6, monitor the amount of calories, create deficit conditions for the body.

But the most effective way is to combine these two methods, that is, increase consumption and reduce energy supply.
However, this must be done gradually so that the shaking is not perceived as stress, otherwise the reverse process may occur. Instead of giving away fat reserves, the body will fight for every deposit. In winter, watch out for sportswear, choose ski suits from the Stayer brand. Due to the cost of heating the body, the energy balance may be disrupted, not to mention the fact that you may simply get sick. Dress warmly and comfortably during the winter season.

How to organize meals?

Instead of cutting out carbs before and after strength training to burn more calories, do the opposite. Eat basic carbohydrates before and after training, reducing their amount at other meals.

If you're training in the evening, it doesn't make sense to eat most of your carbs for breakfast. Moving your carbs to the evening can preserve some of the benefits of a low-carb diet during the day (due to low insulin levels), while still allowing you to exercise intensely and allow your body to recover afterwards.

Meals and snacks

The following recommendation should be followed. The daily diet requires several meals and snacks. 3-4 meals a day are recommended (at least 3 times a day).

Snacking is an important part of your routine and healthy eating. Snacking is necessary to control your hunger levels. If you have snacks between main meals, severe hunger does not occur. In addition, the body spends energy on digesting these small portions of food, which maintains the metabolic rate at a good level. Eating with long breaks leads to the fact that the body begins to sound the alarm and goes into saving mode, metabolic processes slow down. The body strives to spend as little as possible and store as much as possible.

Also, with the help of snacks, you can reduce the volume of main meals.

After what time does an employee have the right to leave on a preferential basis?

Part 3 art. 122 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation determines the list of employees who should be granted their first full leave based on their application before they have worked for 6 months.

It's about:

• about citizens who have adopted one or more children whose age is less than 3 months;
• workers under 18 years of age;
• women before or immediately after maternity leave.

In addition, a number of employees, due to their family status, must be granted leave at a time convenient for them, and therefore the rule on compulsory 6-month work will also not apply to them. These employees include:

• a parent (other legal representative) who is raising a disabled child (Article 262.1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation);
• parents who are raising three or more children under the age of 18. They have the right to leave at a convenient time until the youngest child reaches the age of 14 (Article 262.2 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

The answer to the question about the need to provide leave to a father with many children 2 months after employment is in the ConsultantPlus system. Get trial access to the K+ system and study expert opinion for free.

Speaking about how long the listed categories of employees are entitled to leave, it should be understood that the norms of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation do not establish any minimum restrictions. In practice, this means that an employee with such a benefit can apply to the employer’s management and take out his first vacation almost immediately after employment.

Principles of a therapeutic diet

Food products for food after gastric ulcer surgery are subjected to heat treatment in the form of boiling in water or steaming, stewing, baking. Liquid, soft and puree foods are easily digestible. To ease the load on the gastrointestinal tract, you can use separate nutrition, which consists of consuming one product at one meal. It is recommended to eat 5-6 meals a day in small portions. Dishes are prepared from fresh, natural products.

Rules:

1. Cereals are ground or slightly ground before cooking.
2. It is better to sweeten tea with natural honey.
3. Bread is consumed in the form of crackers or biscuits. Fresh bread has a negative effect on the stomach.
4. Porridges occupy an important place in the diet of postoperative patients.
5. Salt is consumed in very limited quantities - no more than 5-6 grams per day.
6. It is acceptable to add a little butter or vegetable oil to purees or porridges.
7. Food should be warm, not cold or hot.
8. Hunger is contraindicated.
9. Marinated, fried, smoked and salted foods are excluded.

Attention: you should not eat coarse foods with a lot of fiber.

Sample menu after surgery for a week

Eating	1 breakfast	2 breakfast	Dinner	Afternoon snack	Dinner
Monday	Rice porridge, steamed soft-boiled eggs, tea	A glass of milk or low-fat kefir	Vegetarian soup, steamed zrazy, compote	Rose hip decoction, unsweetened cookies	Boiled potatoes, boiled fish, tea with milk
Tuesday	Tender cottage cheese with yogurt or sour cream, steam omelette, tea	Pumpkin pudding	Oatmeal soup, boiled chicken or rabbit with vegetable puree, fruit drink	Banana-apple mousse	Steam cutlet with buckwheat porridge, glass of low fat milk
Wednesday	Semolina porridge on skim milk, herbal decoction	Sweet apple	Milk noodle soup, vegetable stew with baked fish, berry juice	Fruity or berry jelly	Stewed rabbit with pasta, a glass of milk Read also:  Mr. Curette Tech (Mr. Curette) – Procedure for working with MCT elevators and luxators
Thursday	Oatmeal, toast, 2 soft-boiled eggs	Fruit puree	Rice soup with chicken broth, baked vegetables with boiled fish, compote	Natural yogurt, banana	Boiled beef with mashed potatoes, tea
Friday	Cottage cheese and buckwheat porridge, tea	Berry or fruit soufflé	Noodle soup, casserole from lean meat and vegetables, fruit juice	Toasts, cottage cheese casserole	Steamed fish meatballs with boiled rice, a glass of milk
Saturday	Vegetable puree, steam omelette, milk	Fruit jelly	Oatmeal soup, pumpkin or zucchini puree with boiled chicken, berry drink	Natural yogurt, cottage cheese	Meat soufflé with buckwheat, green tea
Sunday	Milk rice soup, tea	Banana, pear	Vegetable vegetarian soup, steamed cutlets dietary meat with potatoes puree, jelly	Fruit mousse or soufflé	Boiled rice with fish, milk

What can you eat before training?

Nutrition during sports should take into account the balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. The proportions may vary slightly depending on gender, age, current physical shape and body characteristics, but in general it is recommended to follow the values:

• proteins – 30-35%;
• fats – 10-20%;
• carbohydrates – 50-60%.

Before a workout, especially a long one, focus on complex carbohydrates, which will become your source of energy:

• Brown rice;
• oatmeal;
• durum wheat pasta;
• sweet potato;
• whole wheat bread.

What to eat before training if you are losing weight

The main principle of losing weight is to burn more calories than you consume.

Therefore, before exercise, it is best to eat:

• light carbohydrate foods, such as porridge;
• vegetable or fruit salads;
• breads.

If you don’t have time to eat properly in advance, you shouldn’t go to training on an empty stomach. Drink a glass of kefir or eat an apple 30 minutes before starting classes.

If you are gaining muscle mass

To build muscle mass, you need to create a calorie surplus and consume a sufficient amount of protein: from 1.6 to 2.2 grams per kg of body weight per day.

The diet must be rich in carbohydrates so that the body is able to perform volumetric strength training with heavy weights.

An example of a daily diet for an athlete working on weight:

• Breakfast – rice with steamed vegetables, bread, protein shake.
• Snack – protein bar.
• Lunch – baked potatoes, beef stew, vegetable salad.
• Before training - a protein shake, an energy bar.
• Dinner – stewed meat or fish, buckwheat or rice.

If you want to get more energy

The issue of energy and performance during training is especially acute for athletes involved in endurance sports - swimming, running, cycling, skiing.

General recommendations for nutrient balance are as follows:

• Low-intensity workouts lasting less than 90 minutes can be done on an empty stomach.
• High-intensity less than 90 minutes - before training you need to eat 75 g of carbohydrates and 10-30 g of protein.
• Low intensity over 90 minutes – 75g carbohydrates and 10-30g protein.
• High intensity over 90 minutes – 75-150g carbohydrates and 10-30g protein.

Special pre-workout complexes and caffeine can be an additional source of energy:

• Caffeine has been shown to be effective in enhancing athletic performance in trained athletes when consumed in low to moderate dosages (about 3-6 mg per kg body weight) and does not further enhance performance when consumed in higher doses (greater than 9 mg per kg body weight). ).
• Caffeine may increase alertness during long periods of strenuous exercise or when you are sleep deprived.
• Caffeine supplements are beneficial for high-intensity exercise, including team sports.

And if you are drying

Cutting is a period of reducing the percentage of body fat in training athletes. This is a particularly stressful time for the body, since the diet often minimizes the content of carbohydrates and fats. The emphasis is on protein foods, since during the drying process it is necessary to maintain the gained muscle mass.

Products that are best suited for these purposes:

• sea ​​fish;
• chicken breast;
• skim cheese;
• cauliflower or broccoli;
• omelette;
• boiled eggs.

However, you should not completely exclude carbohydrates from your diet, especially before training, because your performance depends on it.

What is allowed

The patient is allowed:

• porridge;
• eggs in the form of an omelet or boiled soft-boiled;
• low-fat cottage cheese, kefir, sour cream;
• zucchini, pumpkin puree with the addition of potatoes, carrots;
• chicken, lean beef, rabbit, turkey;
• broths, soups;
• steam cutlets or zrazy from dietary meat;
• biscuits, white bread crackers;
• lean fish;
• cheese;
• fruit soufflés, jelly-like desserts;
• bananas, sweet apples, pears, melons.

For drinks, it is recommended to consume herbal green teas, compotes, jelly, berry fruit drinks, milk and weak black tea with milk. Soups are prepared with vegetable broth or milk, less often with meat broth. Mucus soups with the addition of oatmeal are good for the stomach. Cream soups are also welcome in the patient’s diet.

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Is it possible to smoke after tooth extraction surgery?

Smokers are used to dealing with stress with a cigarette. Removal surgery is a lot of stress. And I really want to smoke. But it is better to avoid this method of calming down for a few hours. The fact is that cigarette smoke contains chemicals and tars that can become an irritant to the wound. Chemicals can cause increased bleeding from the socket and slow down wound healing. The minimum time before the first cigarette is 2 hours. But it will be possible to smoke only if the bleeding has stopped completely, but you should not drag on too much so that the bleeding does not return.

Cigarette smoke irritates the edges of the wound. Sometimes a bad habit can cause a dry socket - that is, a blood clot necessary for the wound to heal quickly can be removed with the help of smoke. In this case, the wound remains without a barrier and becomes open to infection. A person lights another cigarette or eats food, and microbes enter the wound cavity. The inflammatory process begins. It is manifested by headache, general malaise, fever, redness and acute soreness of the gums.

If the dentist put stitches during surgery, you should stop smoking for a longer period - from two to ten days. Even 1 cigarette can cause harm and delay the healing process for a long time. Within 10 days, the wound heals completely, the sutures dissolve. And then you can afford your first cigarette. Although a forced refusal may lead to the complete destruction of the habit.

Removing wisdom teeth, as already mentioned, requires more serious measures. In some cases, the operation is complicated by a wide, overgrown root. Therefore, it is sometimes necessary to remove such a tooth in parts. In this case, it is better to immediately check with your dentists when you can smoke a cigarette and follow all the recommendations so that the wound heals without complications.

And if you nevertheless ignored the advice of doctors, and bleeding began from smoking, do not self-medicate, consult a dentist.

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What is prohibited

The patient is prohibited from:

• alcohol;
• pearl barley and millet;
• fatty foods, including fatty broths;
• eggs fried in butter;
• sausages and cheeses with high fat content;
• canned food;
• kvass and carbonated drinks;
• food with a pronounced taste - bitter, sweet, sour foods and dishes with seasonings;
• citrus;
• tomatoes, cabbage, cucumbers, sorrel;
• peas, beans, beans;
• mushroom dishes;
• garlic, onions, a large amount of herbs;
• seeds, nuts;
• fast food, chips.

You should not eat freshly baked pastries and bread after gastric ulcer surgery. Cocoa, coffee and strong tea are excluded from drinks. Foods that are difficult for the stomach cause aggressive secretion of juice, which has an irritating effect on the mucous membrane of the diseased organ.

All store-bought products that contain a lot of salt, sugar and chemical compounds are prohibited. Serious complications after gastric ulcer surgery can be caused by smoking. Tobacco smoke, and with it harmful substances, enter the walls of the gastric mucosa, irritating it and preventing healing.