By Korey Walz, NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist

When it comes to exercise making sure you are adequately fueled is a very important aspect of ensuring that you are eating properly to not only support your performance in your workouts but to ensure you are adequately recovering as well. Check out these recommendations for muscle gain and fat loss when it comes to pre and post workout nutrition.

Muscle Gain

Pre-Workout – 30 minutes to 1 hour prior to your workout consuming .5g carbohydrate per kilogram body weight (weight/2.2*.5). For example, if a person weighted 150 lbs. this would come out to 68.2 kg and then that value would be cut in half to get to 34.1g of carbohydrates. Food sizes for example could consist of 1 small banana or small bowl of oats to achieve this value. If consuming protein as well, the amount should be 20-30g of protein. Protein shakes are an efficient way to consume this amount of protein prior to working out but solid protein foods  may be consumed as well (i.e. eggs, lean meats, protein bars). 

Post-Workout- Immediately following your workout or as soon as you are able consuming 20-30g of protein paired with a carb source that would again equate to about .5g carbohydrate per kilogram body weight (weight/2.2*.5) should be consumed to ensure adequate recovery. 

Fat Loss

Pre-Workout – Pre-workout nutrition for fat loss is the same as muscle gain to ensure optimal performance during workout. 30 minutes to 1 hour prior to your workout consuming .5g carbohydrate per kilogram body weight (weight/2.2*.5). For example, if a person weighted 150 lbs. this would come out to 68.2 kg and then that value would be cut in half to get to 34.1g of carbohydrates. Food sizes for example could consist of 1 small banana or small bowl of oats to achieve this value. If consuming protein as well, the amount should be 20-30g of protein. Protein shakes are an efficient way to consume this amount of protein prior to working out but solid protein foods may be consumed as well.

Post-Workout- Post-Workout- Immediately following your workout or as soon as you are able consuming 20-30g of protein paired with a carb source that would again equate to about .25g carbohydrate per kilogram body weight (weight/2.2*.25) to ensure adequate recovery while not consuming as many calories from carbs to assist fat loss. Food sizes would be half of that of muscle gain so half 1 small banana or half a small bowl of oats.

Source: Haff, Greg,, and N. Travis Triplett. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. Fourth edition. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2016. Print.