In recent years the study and implementation of nutrient timing has made drastic improvements in the results people get from exercise. What exactly is nutrient timing? Basically, it’s the science of when and what you eat in relation to your workout and throughout the day. By consuming different foods, or nutrients, at different times of the day, especially in relation to your workout, you can maximize the energy production and efficiency of your body, which will improve your workouts. Not only does nutrient timing improve the workout, which will improve results, it also helps speed recovery, which will allow you to workout again sooner and more intensely. A few simple changes can make a huge difference in the long run.

Nutrient timing focuses on the three macronutrients, carbohydrates, protein, and fat. The timing macronutrient consumption will change a little depending on what your specific goal is. I will focus on three different possibilities today. First I will focus on weight loss, or body fat reduction. This being one of the biggest goals people have I will spend more time focusing on this than the other two. The other two goals being, muscle gain and athletic performance. Each of these three goals shares the same basic ideas with regards to nutrient timing with a few alterations in nutrient consumption. So if you learn the basics of all three you will be able to tailor your nutrition to best meet your needs.

Guess what? I don’t want to make this more difficult than it needs to be. I love the K.I.S.S. method to everything. I feel that people will be much more successful when you simplify things as much as possible. So where do we start? The first important issue to address is that you are actually exercising. You won’t get much benefit from nutrient timing if you sit on your butt all day long doing nothing. You also won’t get a whole lot of benefit if your idea of a workout is 15 minutes on the treadmill at two miles an hour. Nutrient timing is meant to maximize the results you get from a good, intense workout. So, if you are still struggling with the workout aspect save yourself the time and read one of my other posts. I’m not trying to be mean, just realistic.

Once you have developed a good workout it’s time to start addressing when and what you are eating in relation to your workouts. To start off let’s look at what you should eat immediately before and immediately after your workout if you want to lose weight. Assuming that you are eating well the rest of the day you want to time your meals so that you have a good meal two to three hours before your workout. Then you want to have a small snack 30 minutes before you workout. When you are getting into the car, or getting your stuff together at home have the snack. A lot of people don’t eat anything within hours of working out. This can be extremely dangerous. During the workout your body can run out of fuel, which will result in a drop in your blood sugar. A drop in your blood sugar can be life threatening if it is bad enough. I can’t emphasize enough the importance eating something before you workout.

When it comes to selecting what you want to eat before the workout, you want to get a good source of protein, fiber, and a mixture of both complex and simple carbohydrates. By doing this you will ensure a sustained energy release into your body for the duration of the entire workout. This will make you feel much more energetic, which will result in a better workout. Protein will help jump start your metabolism, making you burn more calories, while also supplying your muscles to help the repair process right away. The fiber will also act to stimulate your metabolism. The simple carbohydrates will provide a quicker, short term energy supply, while the complex carbohydrates provide a long-term energy supply. What does all of this mean to you? Eat a PB & J about 30 minutes before your workout. Make sure to use organic peanut butter and jelly. Also find a good, hearty, whole wheat bread. I like Ezekial bread. It’s important to get the organic peanut butter and jelly because it doesn’t have all of the processed sugars which will throw off your blood sugar balance. The peanut butter is the protein. The jelly is the simple carbohydrate. The bread provides the fiber and the complex carbohydrate. It’s the perfect pre-exercise meal on the go. You can apply the same basic concepts to come up with any pre-workout meal you want.

Now that you have an idea of what to eat before, it’s time to address the post-workout meal. For now, let’s stick with the weight loss goal. It is important to eat something within 30 minutes of finishing your workout. Again if you aren’t spending much time in the gym, nor working out intensely this won’t apply. But if you spend about an hour at the gym you definitely want to eat within 30 minutes. Your main focus after the workout should be protein consumption. Protein will help repair your muscles while also stimulating your metabolism because protein is the hardest nutrient for your body to break down. By consuming protein you will continue the fat burning effects from the workout for a few hours after the workout. The key is to avoid consuming carbohydrates during and after your workout. That means stop drinking Gatorade or any other sports drink. Stick to water. The reason for this is that carbohydrates are your body’s go to energy source. When your body runs out of carbohydrates it will then rely on body fat to supply the energy. If you are constantly replacing your carbohydrates during the exercise your body has no need to burn body fat. Not to mention that every calorie you burn you are replacing with the sports drink. So if you avoid carbohydrates immediately after the exercise and just consume protein your body will continue to use body fat as energy.

After the workout you could grab a handful of almonds, a little low sodium jerky, or even a protein shake. Make sure the almonds are unsalted and try to find a good organic jerky (not Slim Jims). The worst thing you could do after a workout is head over to the gym’s juice bar and get a fruit smoothie with protein. You immediately flood your body with simple carbohydrates and replace all of the calories you just burned. You are almost better off not working out. The same goes for the protein bars at gyms. Most of them are glorified candy bars. Try to go to the gym prepared with your post-workout snack ready to go. The post-workout snack doesn’t have to be much; one or two handful of nuts would be fine. After the post-workout snack you want to go home and eat a good meal in within two to three hours. As with the pre-workout snack experiment a little to find what works best for you, just make sure to follow the guidelines.

There are only a few differences between people who want to burn fat and people who want to gain muscle when it comes to nutrient timing. The basic concept for people who want to gain muscle is to eat plenty of food. It’s important to increase your consumption of food in order to fuel the muscle growth. I recommend trying to consume about an extra 500 calories a day or have an extra serving at each meal. The same concept carries over to your pre-workout snack. You want to have a similar pre-workout snack as I mentioned above for the fat burners. You still want to focus on consuming protein and simple and complex carbohydrates, but you want to try to consume a little bit larger portion. Basically have a PB & J with a glass of milk. The milk will add more protein and more calories to the snack, which is important when trying to gain muscle.

The post-workout snack is a little different than it was for the fat burners. It is actually much easier for muscle builders. You can basically eat the pre-workout snack again after the workout. Since you are trying to build muscle you want to consume carbohydrates right after the workout to replace you energy stores so you can fuel the rebuilding process. You still want to focus on consuming protein because it is the building block of muscle. Aside from the previously mentioned options one of the best postworkout snacks is a big glass of chocolate milk. The milk provides a great source of natural protein, while the chocolate provides a quick source of carbohydrates to replenish your energy stores. I would recommend getting good premixed chocolate milk instead of the Nestle or Hershey’s varieties. It will be a little healthier for you in the long run. If, as a person whose goal is to build muscle, you don’t like chocolate milk or are looking for something you can get on the go at the gym you can grab a shake out of the gym refrigerators or from the juice bar. My main recommendation is to make sure the juice bar uses whole fruit and avoids fruit juices and syrups. Also stick with water or milk as the liquid. I know of a gym that uses “smoothie mix” which is pretty much liquefied sugar. When it comes to selecting a pre-made drink my only advice is to read the label. Avoid high fructose corn syrup and other artificial sugars, the more natural the better. I always would recommend the milk based drinks over the fruit based drinks. As with everything else, experiment until you find something you like.

Now for the people who want to improve their performance. Maybe you are an a basketball player, a triathlete, or just an amateur looking to boost your performance. The same rules apply here as with the muscle builders. It’s important for you to consume protein and carbohydrates before and after your exercise. When you workout intensely you will burn carbohydrates very quickly and in order to maximize performance you want to replace the carbohydrates as quickly as possible. However, in the past and still today carbo-loading was pretty big for performance. I wouldn’t recommend doing this. Stick with the well balanced meals and snacks focusing on both carbohydrate and also protein consumption. People looking to boost performance are the only people I would recommend drinking a sports drink during the workout, because there is a chance that it could boost performance. Other than that stick to pre and post-workout snacks that incorporate both protein and carbohydrates to maximize performance.

Nutrient timing can be very complicated and scientific when used to help maximize the results you achieve. I think that at first it is important to simplify the process and get used to the concepts. Over time you can study the ideas more thoroughly to improve your results even more. I have just provided the absolute basics here to start you on the road. To summarize everything I have mentioned. People looking to burn body fat should have a pre-workout snack consisting of protein, simple and complex carbohydrates, and fiber. The post-workout snack should focus entirely on protein. For the people interested in building muscle or improving athletic performance, your pre and post-workout snacks are pretty much the same. Focus on consuming protein and simple and complex carbohydrates before and after your workout. People focusing on improving performance can incorporate a good sports drink during activity. That’s the basics for now.

With any fitness goal the majority of the progress is made through the actual exercise. If you aren’t working out intensely, or not working out at all the results won’t come know matter what else you do. The concept of nutrient timing is to improve the results you are already getting. Learn to push yourself as hard as you can and make the workouts progressively harder. A small step everyday will lead to a long journey over time. Never settle for mediocrity. Always push yourself to be the best you can be.

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