- REST DAY NUTRITION
If you are someone who trains a significant amount and is striving for health, performance and a change in body comp, you should not only be taking rest days, but in our opinion you should be eating the same amount of food (or similar) on rest days as you do on training days.
Why?
Because rest days are exactly that – rest and recovery days. If you are not refuelling adequately, you will not recover.
All macros (carbs, protein and fat) all contribute to helping the body recover and if you reduce intake on rest days, you are limiting your body’s ability to recover.
Even though you may be skipping that hour long gym class on a particular day, you will still very much very churning through calories by going about your day to day tasks as well as recovering.
Simply put, on rest days your body is in repair mode and is going to need some of those calories to repair muscles. This also explains why sometimes you are also probably a little hungrier on rest days.
Note: Some people feel less hungry on rest days, as they are expending less energy, if this is you, at a minimum, try to hit protein at a minimum. - POST WORKOUT NUTRITION
Post workout nutrition / what you eat post workout, can positively impact performance and increase recovery. (This is why we aren’t huge lovers of fasting, especially if you have trained in the morning).
Here’s what to focus on after you have worked out:
1.Carbohydrates are the primary source of energy used during exercise. During exercise these stores are depleted and need to be replenished. Eating a meal rich in complex carbohydrates after you have trained, will help replenish these stores.
2.Protein: During exercise, especially resistance training muscle tissue is damaged. Protein helps muscle repair, growth, and adaption. Note – it’s also hugely important to ensure you are enjoying protein, every 3ish hours through your day.
3.Hydration: It’s important to replace fluids lost during exercise from sweat losses (continued sweating post workout) to avoid dehydration.
Please note recovery strategies should be individualised based on the intensity, type and duration of exercise and individual goals.
But, we recommend you use this as a guide if you are unsure where to start. - PRE TRAINING FUEL
Tell us, how do you like to get yourself ready for a big training session?
Whether you’re an early riser, an afternoon gym goer or a night owl, what you eat (or don’t eat) before exercising can have a big impact on your energy levels, your strength and your performance.
The perfect pre-workout snack (in our opinion) is fat + fibre-free (or as low as possible) and higher on the carbs.
What carbs? Well, we want easy-burning fuel that our bodies can access quickly, and we want to be eating it around 45 minutes before we need it, so we’re not feeling full and heavy when we start moving around. Think, bananas / fresh fruit, wraps, LCM bars, PBJ, toast, dates, juice, even banana wrap, LCM/Rice Krispies Treat, PB+J etc.
Coffee is another popular choice if you need a little pick-me-up and a bit of help with mental alertness (as well as other energy drinks, like Red Bull) but just ensure you are combatting this caffeine with adequate water too.
Now, we hear you early risers “what about me, I get up at 4am, train 4.30am.. its too early to eat” etc etc – well, for our inspirational early risers, some of you might be in to fasted training, and that’s OK, too! Lots of people report better performance first thing on an empty stomach, then refuelling like a boss, afterwards. Or, you could experiment with liquid carbs eg orange or apple juice – just as effective, and easier to digest / sip on, on the way to training. If you’re not sure what to eat, how much and when, let us know!
This is Fika’s bread and butter . Food is fuel and we love supporting people to properly care for their bodies, especially when you have the butterfly effect comps on the horizon!
