Pre and Post Event Nutrition
Nick Fischer, Registered Dietitian
Athletes always want to know what to eat before their race or event. While this is great, I always stress that we need to focus on their overall diet first and then pre and post meals. In addition, athletes should be practicing their pre and post workout meal with most of their training days. So let us start with the over diet and then dive into the pre and post meals.
The diet as a whole should be a balanced diet that provides adequate carbohydrates, protein, and fat to fuel us and recover. It is hard to give specific details as it will depend on the athlete, the event, and their training plan. However, the meals eaten the few days leading into a race are meals that top off energy stores. This is not a “carb loading” idea (for ultra-endurance events this may apply), but rather including an extra portion of carb food, such as an extra half cup of rice with a meal or slice of bread. Portions of protein and higher fiber and fat options are controlled in the meal or 2 prior to the pre workout meal. This way these meals digest well, fill up your energy stores, and not result in the need for bathroom breaks mid run. Think of pasta meal the night before with a 3-4 oz. meat ball, 1-2 cups of pasta, small salad, and a slice of garlic bread. Again, these meals are very specific to the athlete.
Now to the pre and post workout meals. It is best to start with the general guidelines and then work to tailor your pre and post and during workout meals to your needs and likes.
The pre workout meal is not filling your energy stores so much as it is keeping it topped off. For pre workout meals we need to focus on carbs and keep protein, fat, and fiber lower since they slow digestion down. You want the fuel in your blood, not your stomach. This meal can be eaten 1-4 hours before the workout or event as you want enough time to digest and not have a lot of food in your stomach. The closer to the event the smaller the meals and the smaller the amount of protein, fat, and fiber. As a rule of thumb, you want half your weight and up to double your weight in carbs from foods that are a mix of simple and complex carbs and digest well. Protein can be limited to about 20-30 grams or less and fat lower than that and fiber lower that fat.
Again, meal size will be a very individualized and depend on how far before the workout you are eating. For example, I do not like large meals, so I like to 2 cups rice with 2 scrambled eggs 2 hours before the workout or event. My wife can eat the same meal with 3 closer the workout and be just fine. Finding your ideal pre workout meal takes time to dial in and may change depending on schedule and other factors.
Other examples of pre workout meals could be large bagel with peanut butter and jelly, burrito stuffed with rice and chicken, or a large bowl of cereal with milk and fruit.
Post work out meals are not that different from pre workout meals. They are still carbohydrate focused but make a little more room for protein, fat and fiber (don’t focus on the fiber, it will be hard to overeat fiber). The big thing to keep in mind that this meal is not a huge, gluttonous meal. Rather, it is a normal meal that will be eaten more times depending on how long or hard the workout is. This meal should have a carb range of half your weight in carbohydrates and up to 1.5 times that number.
Example: A 160 pound runner would need 80-120 grams carbohydrate in that meal.
160 / 2 = 80. This is the starting point for grams of carbohydrates
80 x 1.5 = 40. Add this to 80 g of carbohydrate
80 + 40 = 120 grams of carbohydrate. This gives you the high point for the range
80-120 grams of carbohydrate in this meal
Keep protein to about ¼-1/3 of the carbohydrates and fat and fiber lower than the protein. While digestion time is not as important with post workout meals as it is with pre workout meals, it is still important as we want to fill the lost carbohydrate energy stores fast than slower. It is important to understand that eating protein in excess will not help you recover muscle tissue better, but protein eaten in adequate amounts with consistent meal patterns will help you recover. So if a workout is long or hard you will need to have more than 1 post workout meal. To build a post workout meal use the same runner above.
160 pound runner will need 80-120 grams protein, 20-30 grams protein, and fat and fiber will need to less than the protein. Examples could be the same pre workout meal with an additional egg and veggies added.
Other examples could be a sandwich with 3-4 oz meat and 1-2 slices cheese paired with chips and fruit, stir fry with 2 cups rice and 3-4 oz shrimp with other veggies, 2 cups pasta and 4 oz meatballs with garlic bread and veggies.