Practicing regular physical activity is one of the pillars of good health. Physical activity is all body movements produced by the muscles and resulting in energy expenditure greater than that spent at rest. It includes sports activities (fitness, weight training, swimming pool, etc.) and daily exercises (sitting, walking, climbing stairs, household chores, etc.).
How to organize your nutritional planning when practicing physical activity?
To best manage your nutritional timing in relation to your sporting activity, you will have to take several factors into account, namely:
- The type of meal: whether it is a classic meal or a snack
- Selected foods: rich in carbohydrates, proteins or lipids?
- The digestion time of these foods
- The caloric value of the meal or snack
- The type of effort to be performed: aerobic, anaerobic, flexibility and mobility, or balance and coordination
- The intensity of the effort: rather light, moderate, high or very high?
Eat before sport
Food is fuel for our body. It is our source of essential nutrients and energy for the entire day. As a good, self-respecting athlete, it is crucial to know how to organize your food intake to maximize your performance.
What are the benefits of eating before a workout?
Indeed, you should not train on a full stomach, but you need to have enough energy available. The key is knowing how to choose the right foods and adapting the quantity for the type of session you want to carry out. It is recommended to bring some energy if you want to do a session lasting more than 45 minutes. If your diet is properly controlled, eating before your sports session will allow you to:
- Facilitate muscle mass gain
- Avoid the destruction of muscle fibers
- Maintain physical effort for longer
When and what to eat before sport?
A balanced and complete meal can be consumed at least 2 to 3 hours before your sports session. So if you're in a rush, opt for a snack that can be had 30 minutes to 1 hour before training.
For a quick energy boost, just before your workout, carbohydrates are your best friend. They are the main source of energy for our body. Once absorbed by your body, they are converted to glucose which can be used immediately or stored in the muscles and liver for later use. And what's more, they have a relatively fast digestion time. So opt instead for fruit, like banana, or a cereal bar.
Exercising on an empty stomach
If losing weight is your goal, exercising on an empty stomach can help. In fact, you draw on your energy reserves, particularly fats. But fasted efforts should be of low or moderate intensity because you risk putting your body to the test.
What are the advantages of sports on an empty stomach?
Practicing intermittent fasting is increasingly common, that is, not having eaten for 8 to 12 hours. Exercising on an empty stomach prevents you from using the carbohydrates ingested during your last meal, instead drawing on your lipid reserves and fats. Second advantage, it prevents you from discomfort and digestion problems during your sports session.
What are the risks of sports on an empty stomach?
If practiced too intensively, sport on an empty stomach can be risky. The two main risks are obviously the hypoglycemia crisis (discomfort, dizziness, loss of balance), but also muscle wasting. Indeed, after having drawn on your fat reserves to provide energy, the body will draw on your protein stock which is located in your muscles. This increases the risk of muscle injuries. It is strongly recommended that people with diabetes do not practice sports on an empty stomach.
How to practice sports on an empty stomach with caution
It is important to know your body and its limits before doing sports on an empty stomach. To begin, it is advisable to start with short duration workouts of moderate or even low intensity. In addition, the evening before, it is recommended to eat starchy foods, rich in complex carbohydrates such as whole-wheat pasta, quinoa or whole-grain rice.
Eat after sport
What are the benefits of eating after a workout?
To recharge your batteries and regain strength, you have to eat! In fact, your muscles continue to be active for 30 minutes after exercise. We must therefore ensure that we provide them with nutrients to promote their regeneration and development. Your body having suffered heavy losses, it will be able to absorb nutrients very effectively, particularly proteins and carbohydrates for approximately 4 hours: this is the metabolic window .
When and what to eat after a workout?
If you want to consume something after your workout, wait until your heart rate drops below 80 beats per minute.
Obviously, protein intake plays an essential role in muscle development and post-exercise recovery. It is rather advisable to take carbohydrates (oatmeal, rice and fruit) but especially proteins (chicken, eggs and cottage cheese) after a sports session , because the digestion effort and the assimilation of proteins require energy to the body. Better to preserve this energy for muscular activity, which has priority. Finally, remember to hydrate yourself , especially after sport because you have lost a lot of water and minerals during exercise.
Food supplements for athletes? We did it at DIJO
Athletes often have a balanced microbiota , associated with better intestinal health and a reduction in chronic inflammation . However, excessive practice of sport can lead to digestive disorders and increased intestinal permeability . In order to avoid digestive discomfort (cramps, bloating , constipation ), optimize your sports performance and facilitate muscle recovery, it is important to take care of your stomach.
At DIJO, we have created the Essential Probiotics treatment which will repopulate your microbiota with good bacteria. Combined with the Glutamine treatment , the amino acid for athletes, in our Concrete Intestines pack , your stomach is ready to fire!
