Eating And Exercise

Anytime you exercise, you do so in order to try andmaintain good health. You also know that you have toeat as well, so your body will have the energy itneeds to exercise and maintain for the everyday tasksof life. For making the best of your exercise, whatyou eat before and after you workout is very important.

No matter if you are going to be doing a cardio workout or a resistance workout, you should alwaysmake it a point to eat a balanced mix of protein andcarbohydrates. What makes that determining percentageof carbs and protein you consume is whether or notyou are doing cardio or resistance exercise and theintensity level that you plan to work at.

The ideal time for you to eat your pre workout mealis an hour before you start. If you plan to workat a low intensity level, you should keep your preworkout meal down to 200 calories or so. If youplan to exercise at a high level of intensity, youwill probably need your meal to be between 4,000 and 5,000 calories.

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

For resistance exercise, you'll need to eat a mixof 1/3 carbs and 2/3 protein, as this will helpyou get plenty of energy from the carbs to performeach set you do and the extra protein will helpkeep muscle breakdown to a minimum while you exercise.

Eating after you exercise is just as important asyour pre workout meal. Anytime you exercise,whether its cardio or resistance, you deplete energyin the form of glycogen. The brain and centralnervous system rely on glycogen as their main source of fuel, so if you don't replace it afteryou exercise, your body will begin to break downmuscle tissue into amino acids, and then convertthem into usable fuel for the brain and the central nervous system.

Keep in mind that mostly during resistanceexercise, you'll break down muscle tissue by creating micro tears. What this means, is thatafter a workout, your muscles will instantly gointo repair mode. Protein is the key here formuscle repair, as you don't want muscle breakingdown even further to create fuel instead oflost glycogen.

Once you have finished a cardio session, you'llneed to consume mainly carbohydrates, preferablythose with high fiber. Rice, oatmeal, whole wheatpasta, and northern fruits are excellent sources.Also, try to consume 30 - 50 grams of theretypes of carbs after you exercise. After yourcardio workout, it is fine to eat within 5 - 10minutes.

Once you've finished a resistance workout, youwill need to consume a combination of carbs andprotein. Unlike cardio workouts, resistanceworkouts will break down muscle tissue by creatingmicro tears.

You'll need protein as this happens to build upand repair these tears so that the muscle canincrease in size and strength. The carbs willnot only replace the lost muscle glycogen, but will also help the protein get into muscle cellsso it can synthesize into structural protein, orthe muscle itself.

After your resistance exercise, you should waitup to 30 minutes before you eat, so that you won'ttake blood away from your muscles too fast. Theblood in your muscles will help the repair processby removing the metabolic waste products.