What to Eat Before and After Exercise

Transcript:

Leah: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. Today we're talking about a common question we hear from clients, especially those focusing on building strength or athletic performance. That question is what should I eat before and after exercise? What and how you eat can make a big difference in how you feel during your workouts, but also in how quickly you recover, your energy, which even bleeds over into your motivation to keep exercising consistently.

So today we're answering questions like: what foods actually improve performance? Is it better to fuel before or after exercise? How long before or after exercise should you eat? And what supplements truly make a difference versus what is not worth spending your money on?

Plus, we'll talk about how to conduct some little experiments, how to figure out what works best for you and your goals, because there is no one size fits all approach.

Now, before we jump in any further, just going to take a moment, introduce ourselves. Hopefully you've recognized our voices, but I'm Leah Kleinschrodt, I'm a Registered and Licensed Dietitian. And my co-pilot with me today is Teresa Wagner, also a Registered Dietitian.

Teresa: And I'm really excited about this topic. I find it to be very fun because personally I'm a big fan of exercise and Leah, I know you are too. And maybe both. I think we’ve been exercising our whole lives. I remember even in elementary school like going for little runs.

I mean, they weren't significant, but I remember doing them. And that bled into sports in high school and working out through college and then in twenties and thirties. And currently just on the same kick as what people are talking about is, you know, ladies, we got to lift heavy, right?

And I am loving it and I just think that this topic is just so good for all of those things, whether you are into aerobics or weight training. Or running or whatever your sport may be. It is so good to know how to fuel for performance because of all the things that you had mentioned, Leah. How do we keep going? How do we keep fueling our body so that we can continue to do this?

And for me, and I hope for everyone out there, and Leah, I know this is true for you, is I want to do this for the rest of my life, that it might change, that picture might change. But if I can continue to do this, because I've been running for my whole life, I really hope I can run for my whole life. I don't know if it's realistic, but that's the goal.

And as long as you do it right, you can continue to do it. So if I can do it today, I could probably do it tomorrow. We just keep going. So I think it's going to be a really fun topic.

When is the best time to fuel?

And in thinking about that, what I hear from clients and from people, and one of the most common questions that we probably both get for diet for athletic performance is when's the time to fuel? Is it better to do it before you exercise? And how should you time it? Should it be afterwards? How long do we need to wait? Like, how do we feel for this?

And the surprising answer is it really varies, right? It can be before, depending on what time. It can be after. Sometimes it can be during, right? We're not going to talk about endurance sports, but certainly in some endurance sports, you're fueling while you are exercising.

So your body benefits from this fueling no matter what. Our body needs nutrients before exercise and after exercise. And these nutrients, they serve different purposes in the body. Before exercise, it helps to stabilize our blood sugar, improves endurance and strength, reduces muscle breakdown, supports focus and coordination, and even can prevent things like dizziness or fatigue.

Fueling after exercise, on the other hand, helps to replenish the energy you expended, repair the muscles that you probably did a little damage to. That's how we make muscles is by making little micro tears in them. Supports the recovery, reduces soreness, and regulates appetite for later in the day. And I'm going to be honest, when it comes to exercise, I do both, before and after.

Injury prevention: another reason to fuel for exercise

Leah: There you go. And one thing I'll even tag in there too of why fueling and just being intentional about our food and our recovery and fueling for our workouts is injury prevention also. I heard this on a podcast once and it made so much sense and I hadn't really thought about it before, but that is like injuries are one of the things that, especially as we get older, that takes us out of the game for longer.

It takes more resources to recover and try to get back to that baseline. So anything we can do to kind of build that foundation and prevent some of those big injuries or prevent you from getting out of the game in the first place is going to help with the longevity, like you were mentioning, of just wanting to continue to move our bodies and be active for the long term.

Teresa: And that's what we see, right? You get an injury. The older we get, the longer it takes to recover. The longer it takes to recover, the more atrophy of the muscle, the more loss of the muscle, the less likely you're to get back into it, the more muscle you lose. And then it's kind of this vicious cycle. So that is such a excellent point.

Is working out on an empty stomach okay?

Leah: So fueling is one piece of that puzzle, absolutely. And yes, we want to think about where do we want to fuel, when the timing, like get into all those details. One thing that I do talk to my clients about, and actually they'll typically bring it up with me, is like it's about digestion, also. Like, how do people do on an empty stomach versus a stomach that's full versus having a little bit of food?

And we have to play around with that. So, one issue we might see is people exercising intensely on an empty stomach because maybe they're fasting, maybe they're trying to edge out a little extra weight loss, or maybe their stomach just doesn't feel great putting food into their system beforehand. But they might exercise intensely for 45 minutes, an hour, maybe even more, and then they get ravenous later on, like it catches up to you at some point in the day.

They may feel okay during that workout. And this is likely because now we're drumming up some of the stress hormones, we're drumming up some adrenaline and some cortisol temporarily, which suppresses your appetite. It just allows you to focus and get the work done.

But several hours later, they crash hard. And then they feel like and we hear this term a lot is okay, I have no willpower now when it comes to food. And it kind of goes back to we under fueled earlier in the day. It catches up to us later on in the day.

Teresa: We hear that all the time.

Leah: Exercising or not even. Yeah.

Teresa: Yeah. I have all this willpower. And then at the end of the day, what happens?

Leah: It's it goes to zero.

Teresa: It goes to zero. Or how can I be so successful with the workout and then “undo it”? Which I don't think you ever undo your workout, but some of the words that they say is how do I undo it with these decisions later? And like you said, it could be due to that fueling strategy.

Leah: Like it goes to zero.

Teresa: And so we should probably talk about fasted workouts then because there is a lot of hype around fasted workouts and some confusion around them. Some people claim that exercising without eating burns more fat. But what's important is understanding that fat burning during a workout does not necessarily mean more fat loss overall.

And for many people, especially women, I think that this is so true for women. Men probably do a little bit better with fasted workouts. High intensity fasted exercise can increase cortisol significantly, which may lead to more fatigue and irritability, headaches, poor recovery, increased cravings, like we were talking about, that no willpower; can disrupt the hormones, or maybe even lead to some sleep problems.

Leah: All of which that you just listed will work against that long-term fat loss. So if there is that one little piece of like maybe there's some extra fat loss during that workout, but then we have to zoom out, look at that bigger picture and say, well, one then what are we doing the other 23 hours of the day?

And are we again kind of drawing from those resources? So now if someone goes for a walk before breakfast and they feel great doing that, that's fine. But what we start to think about is if you're doing that long run, if you're doing an intense cycling class, a HITT workout, a high intensity workout, or attempting to lift really heavy on an empty stomach, often this backfires over time.

And I would say this is especially true for people who are already carrying a lot of stress in their life. And I think this extends also to women in perimenopause, typically because they have a little bit more of some of those stressors going on too.

But as we, we've talked about on other shows, as we lose some of that hormone robustness, we're losing some of that stress resiliency to be able to manage that stress. So again, just kind of like baseline, people who are operating at a higher stress level, under fueling for these workouts is going to work against you in the long run.

Good options to eat before exercise

Teresa: Okay, so let's talk about what's the best thing to eat before exercise. The best pre-workout meal depends on three things: the type of exercise, the timing, and your digestion, because we're all individuals when it comes to digestion, food, and exercise. Some people have a stomach of steel, others not so much. We're a little bit more sensitive.

Generally speaking, your body performs best with some combination of protein and carbohydrates before exercise. Carbohydrates provide quick energy for muscles and protein helps preserve and repair muscle tissue.

Leah: So if you're eating two to three hours before a workout, you can likely tolerate more of a complete meal. A couple of examples might be say you're going to work out mid-morning. For your breakfast, you might do a couple of eggs or maybe throw some egg whites in there, also. Have some roasted potatoes for some starch, and maybe a little bit of fruit in there for a little fiber antioxidants, a little bit more carbohydrate.

You might do a salad with chicken breast and a little bit of quinoa. You might do nitrate free deli turkey with avocado, slice up some raw veggies, do some fruit so you get a little bit higher carbohydrate foods in there. Again, it might look like a more well-rounded, well balanced real food meal.

Teresa: If you only have 30 to 60 minutes before exercise, you may want to have something lighter and easier to digest. Examples could include maybe some yogurt and berries, a protein shake. If you go on our website, we have a recipe for peanut butter protein balls. That's nice because it's small. It's a little bit higher in fat, but it's a small quantity. So there's not so much in your stomach. Or maybe a small apple and nitrate-free beef stick or deli meat, just some protein to add to that carbohydrate.

Leah: Right. Yeah, maybe a cheese stick or something light, just something that sits well in your stomach. It's not going to slosh around while you're working out. And let's go back to the protein shake idea, because protein shakes can be really convenient before exercise, or especially if you're working out early in the morning. You may not have a real strong appetite at that point or wanting to chew your food at that point. So I do encourage if people are open to it, making their own protein shake is going to be a more real food healthier option than some of the pre-made store bought protein shakes. I don't know that I've ever seen one of those that like completely checks all the boxes that we would look at.

But if we're putting together something on our own, you just you need a couple of simple ingredients. You need some kind of source of protein. So usually it's a quality protein powder. Some people love to mix in a little yogurt there too. That's great. You probably want some fruit for the carbohydrates and that could be berries, that could be bananas. I mean that could be a whole range of things.

And then maybe you're mixing in a little bit of fat in there, some nut butter, some a couple avocado chunks, something like that. You get a little bit of that creamy consistency, something that's going to burn with you a little bit longer. But that protein shake is a nice option for just not weighing your stomach down, gets you all those three macronutrients that you need and it just puts a little fuel in your pocket.

Teresa: Yeah. And I would say with that particular protein shake, because that one is a little bit heavier, that one would be one more I would do during the day for for me personally. And I think that this is where it comes into digestion, right? Like how does your body digest and how do you feel? Maybe half of that before in the morning and then maybe half on the way home or something. Yeah. I mean, it's just like what I'm hearing, I'm like, yeah, that would be really delicious, but it might be too much for my stomach as we're thinking about it. But midday for sure.

You mentioned some pre-made options. There are some out there. I mean, like you said, there are very few that check the boxes. I don't even know if I can name one that checks the box, so I'm not going to put a brand out there. We need to be careful with those pre-made protein shakes that you can just buy at box stores because a lot of them are loaded with sugar or if they're low sugar, there's artificial sweeteners.

If it tastes sweet, there's either a sweetener or an artificial sweetener, right? Or maybe it's stevia or monk fruit. You know, it could be something that's a little more natural. Artificial sweeteners may not seem harmful. But they're the same sweeteners that are in diet sodas and those types of drinks.

And some of them can cause bloating or GI distress during workouts, especially if that sweetener is from a sugar alcohol, erythritol, sorbitol, mannitol. Because these only partially digest in the small intestine. That's why they don't have calories, right? That's why they're sweet, but no calories. So once they reach your large intestine, they start to ferment. Hence the gas, the bloating, the potential diarrhea.

So when we want to buy a premade protein shake, we need to look at what the protein source is and what the sweetener is, because there's going to be both of those in there. So I'm probably going to be looking for a dairy based protein source. Whey protein isolate is something I'm looking for. Maybe there's casein in it. Those are really great for muscle building. If you cannot tolerate dairy, perhaps a premade protein shake might fit that bill.

What we're looking for is the amino acid content of that. And we're going to get into that in a minute. But just to see what would be the best for that workout. And for people who work out early in the morning, and I'm an early morning workout person, I either make a protein coffee or a shakeable protein shake.

So I'm not even getting the blender out. It is just powders mixed with water and shaking it up. And then if I'm doing it in coffee, it's kind of the same thing except for the base instead of water. So coffee with some vanilla protein powder and some cream, you know, half and half or heavy whipping cream or even milk, you know, if you want a little bit more protein, just shake it up and drink it.

Or a shakeable protein shake. I use our protein powder all the time. The chocolate with some powdered peanut butter or some powdered coconut. There's multiple ways just to get a little bit of calories. And what I'll drink is probably a quarter of it on the way to the workout.

And then finish it off on the way home. And in that protein shake, I'll get 30 grams of protein and I'll hit that amino acid profile that I'm looking for. We're looking for the branch chain amino acids, leucine in particular, and that is the one that stimulates muscle synthesis. You can do it and it's not heavy at all, but you can still hit those protein targets and you can still fuel the body so it doesn't feel stressed like we were talking about earlier.

Leah: Absolutely. And I like your idea too of like even if you do make a bigger protein shake or a bigger serving size of the coffee with the protein, it doesn't mean you have to drink it all right away. It means you can kind of divide and conquer around those workouts too.

Ideas of what to eat after exercise

All right, so we dished out some ideas in terms of what to fuel with before a workout. Let's talk about eating after exercise. So after exercise, we talk about recovery. This recovery nutrition becomes the focus. And one of the big priorities is protein. Protein helps repair that muscle, repair those fibers that we've broken down during exercise. And many people, especially women, we just tend to undereat protein after workouts. I would even by extension say just under eat in general.

Teresa: Don't you think that working out kind of suppresses appetite a little?

Leah: Yes. Yeah. I experience that. So it's like ten minutes later I'm not throwing food down the system. It usually takes a little while for the appetite to come back online. But you don't want to just push it off and say, well, I'm going to eat dinner in four hours. So like I'll just wait until then.

Teresa: Here are some ideas for post-workout meals. You might need to wait a little bit, as we were saying, because your appetite might not have kicked in yet. But maybe trying to eat within an hour to replenish yourself might be a good goal. Some ideas that we could do, maybe these would be better later in the day, maybe lunch or dinner, or you know, if you like non-traditional breakfast ideas, these would work as well. Salmon with some quinoa, roasted asparagus topped with some butter. Maybe we make a Denver egg scramble with onions and peppers, some diced ham, a sprinkle of cheddar, and a side of fruit.

A taco bowl with chicken, rice, lettuce, avocado, and salsa. A turkey burger with diced potatoes and broccoli in the air fryer coated with olive oil. Or maybe a fun idea like a Big Mac bowl. Right? Ground beef, romaine lettuce, sprinkle Colby Jack cheese, pickles, onions. And then instead of on a bun, put it with some diced sweet potatoes. And then the special sauce is just basically thousand island.

And we can make that very easily on our own with good ingredients. We just need to use a healthy avocado oil based mayo. I just squeeze in some sugar free ketchup or low sugar ketchup, whatever, no sugar added ketchup. And I just get it to that right color, right? I don't measure, just the right orangey color.

Leah: Yeah.

Teresa: Throw in some pickle relish, splash of lemon juice, salt and pepper. There you go. Thousand Island. And then it's a great fat to put with that. So super fun and delicious and you'll look forward to your post workout meal.

Leah: For sure. And kind of what we were talking about pre-workout. If you don't have a huge appetite or just the timing works out between when you get done with your exercise and maybe that next larger meal, you might end up actually doing more of a snack size for a recovery. And that could be simple, some cottage cheese and some fruit.

Again, maybe that other half of a protein shake, some deli meat roll-ups with a little bit of fruit. So it we can kind of again play around with this, play around with some of the timing, the portion sizes, the amount. Some people like to do the protein bars for a convenience snack after a workout. Could that work in a pinch? Sure, we could probably make it work. Probably not the optimal option. Kind of like those premade protein shakes, it just depends on what the ingredients are that are going into that protein bar. What's the protein source? Does it even have enough protein in it? I am so surprised sometimes when I see protein bars that have less than 10 grams of protein in them and they call themselves a protein bar.

What are the sweeteners that are in there? What other kind of ingredients are they using; fats, oils that are a little bit more refined. So we're just we're checking the ingredients on any kind of protein bars. Ideally, we're still trying to rely more on those real whole food options so that we're getting the fuel, but we're getting the nutrients that come along with it. So we do have to take a break. We will be back on the other side and we'll continue talking about fueling around our workouts.

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Welcome back. We've been talking about fueling pre and post workout to optimize performance and have good energy and get the most out of our workouts. So we want to continue that conversation. I feel like we've talked quite a bit about the protein side of things so far.

Carbs to include pre or post workout

But Teresa, we're going to jump over to the carb piece a little bit. Cause I think people get curious about like I think most people understand and and can get on board with the protein side of things, but carbs, I feel like maybe a little bit more murky waters.

Teresa: Yeah, I would agree. At least the point in time we're in right now. Are carbs good? Are carbs not good? We all it seems like protein is like very much accepted as like we should be doing this. Carbs, a different story. And I would say maybe it's because carbohydrates are very different depending on what we're talking about.

Sometimes when we're thinking about carbs, we're thinking about things like bread, cereal, pasta, maybe candy that can be carbs. Or when we're talking on this show, a lot of times we're talking about healthy carbs like vegetables and fruits and maybe some beans and legumes. So I do think some of the murkiness comes in that the carbs are just variable in and of themselves, whether or not they're worth eating or not. When we're thinking about exercise, what we want to think about is avoiding a lot of added sugar from processed foods and beverages that are marketed as performance, right?

And that's what I would say. I mean, yes, it is good to have some of those marketing things so we know where we are in the aisles. But if it's marked performance, I would say, well, look a little deeper. Don't just trust the front of the package. We got to see what's actually in it because it might just be a bunch of sugar. And in that case, you might as well just drink a soda.

So when it comes to carbohydrates, we don't necessarily want to understate the importance of carbohydrates when you're working out. There was a phase where carbs became almost demonized in fitness culture, but carbohydrates are actually essential for replenishing glycogen stores after exercise, especially after endurance training or high-intensity workouts.

Low carb recovery often leaves people feeling exhausted, sore, or unable to perform well the next day. However, this can be variable. Some people actually become adapted to low carb, and so they do just fine that way. Other people, though, they feel better having more carbohydrates on board.

So once again, this goes back to being an individual and experimenting and trying to figure out what's the best fueling strategy for you and your other goals that you might have. But if we are including carbs, generally I stick with about 30 grams of carbohydrate at a meal. And depending on what type of workout it might be. So if we have an endurance athlete, we may need to do a little bit more carbohydrate, but we just have to kind of see.

If it's weight training, it might be a little bit different. Duration of exercise would change it. And what meal we're talking about. Are we talking about a meal? Are we talking about a snack? So around 30 grams of carb, I think, is pretty good for a meal. What we do know though is carb loading is a thing of the past. There is no need for a big bowl of pasta prior to, you know, a workout. That is not that is not what we need. Our body does not use carbohydrates well that way. And it can lead to some of that digestive upset that we were talking about earlier.

More on timing of meals surrounding your workout

Leah: Absolutely. This isn't super frequent, but I have had people who exercise, their time of the day to exercise is in the evening. So like after work or even sometimes even after dinner. Evening exercisers, like the tendency might be to skip fueling after workouts or refueling after workouts because again like we hit that magic cutoff and like it's too late to eat or it's like this is where now we turn all those calories into body fat again like where some of those myths kind of erupt from.

But we also have to think about okay, yeah, is this going to impact my sleep if I try to go to bed under fueled or not recovered or not having anything in the system? And then how does that then knock on effect into the next day? How do I recover the next day? How do I feel?

Can I go back and do that workout again? So even if you are exercising in the evening, if we sit down with a client, we are kind of just taking inventory of like, okay, how can we still maybe put a little nutrition into after that workout so that bang, we can come back and do it again the next day?

Teresa: Let's talk a little bit more about timing, the side effects of exercising too close after eating. Especially if someone eats a large meal right before intense exercise, they can experience some really unpleasant things, right? We can experience nausea, cramping, reflux, bloating. Maybe we get some diarrhea, side aches for sure, sluggishness. High fat or heavy meals tend to be the biggest triggers for those types of things before exercise.

And as far as exercising immediately after eating, your body has to decide whether the blood flow should go towards digestion or towards your working muscles.

And I think we don't necessarily think about blood flow in this way. Maybe athletes do, maybe the general population does, but you know that feeling after you eat lunch or dinner and you kind of get a little bit of a shiver, the blood is rushing to the digestive system in order to work on digesting that food.

And so if we use that idea of your digestive system is working hard, it's taking some of that blood supply to use it towards digestion. And if we're trying to use our muscles, when we're exercising, the blood is it's fighting with it, right? The muscles are demanding some of that blood, some of that oxygen, some of those nutrients. And so there's this fight between the gut and the muscles for that energy, and it's just it can end up as a nightmare.

Leah: Yeah, the digestion sometimes ends up on the losing end of that battle.

Teresa: Absolutely. Cause the heart and the muscles are going to take priority if you keep pushing it, right?

Leah: And what about waiting too long after exercise to eat? I would equate this to any time we are talking to clients that either intentionally or unintentionally skip over a meal. When you just are under fueled in general, you run into things like low blood sugar. You might feel that shakiness, you might get a headache, you might feel extreme hunger, you might feel that irritability or that hangry type of feeling.

You just might feel like we're plodding through quicksand. And we might see this for an example, someone who maybe they're working out over their lunch hour trying to be efficient, but then okay, we just don't have enough time left over to eat a meal at that point.

So it's like, I might as well just wait another four hours till we get home and do dinner. Probably not going to end up as your best option in terms of a recovery perspective.

Teresa: Right, because you're basically crashing your blood sugar. You know, and for some people we're just more sensitive than others as far as how far down that blood sugar will go after a workout. And that's even variable with yourself as the experimenter, right? Sometimes you can crash your blood sugar and other times you'll be just fine. But then you go home and then you raid the pantry before you eat dinner and then you eat dinner because you made dinner and then it's just like, okay.

Leah: Yes, exactly. So anything we can do to preempt that or just to keep some of that locus of control within our control is helpful.

Teresa: Right. And that's where some of this experimenting and finding out what works for each of us is so important; what works for us for food, our lifestyle, for our schedules, and all those things. Your ideal fueling strategy may be completely different from your friend, from your workout partner, from your spouse.

Things to pay attention to is what's my energy like during the workout? What's my endurance? Do I recover well? How is my sleep? How sore am I? That hunger we were just talking about, how does that feel later in the day? How is my mood afterwards? Did I work out so hard and not refuel that now I'm crabby and irritable? What's digestion feeling like?

All these things can be factors that we can look at when we're looking at a fueling strategy. When we are doing these experiments, keeping the workouts consistent. So sticking with that workout while testing these variables just helps to know what's doing what, right? If there are multiple change at one time, we're going to have a really hard time pinning down which change is responsible for what outcome.

Leah: Yeah. So if you're running an experiment, I mean I could use an example with the protein shakes, but you can insert XYZ food or beverage in there. Week one, for example, maybe you exercise fasted and then make a protein shake right after the workout. Drink that. How do you do? Do that for a week. Week two would be try that shake before the workout. See if you feel any different either right after that workout or as the day marches on.

You can even take another week and do what we had talked about earlier is like try that half a protein shake before, try half the protein shake after. So you're getting a little bit on both sides of that workout. See how you feel. We're going to compare our performance, compare energy, compare cravings, hunger level, compare recovery across all those scenarios.

We can test different carbohydrate sources, we can test different protein sources, we can experiment with the timing before and after the workout. So this might be where tracking in an app or a journal, just keeping little notes. It doesn't have to be super extensive, but just keeping some notes so that we can go back, revisit what was going on in that moment can be helpful.

We don't have to be overly rigid or perfectionistic about the tracking. The idea is we're just trying to learn, we're trying to be aware. It's not about controlling every single facet of our lives or controlling every single calorie that goes in and out. It's just about learning our patterns.

Teresa : Right. And it's easy to get caught up in that with all the trackers that we have, isn't it?

Leah: Absolutely. When they're just throwing out the numbers for you to look at, it's hard not to take that as like set in stone sometimes.

Supplements to consider for exercise performance

Teresa: Yeah, and get really caught up in it and spending more time on our trackers and our journals and all those things versus things that maybe need our attention. So let's move into supplements. This is where we need to be careful about the marketing that we were talking about before. Just because something is labeled performance does not necessarily mean it's going to add to your performance.

So we just need to investigate. Many times there's lots of promises that come in this packaging. So we need to be aware. As far as maybe scientific evidence, only a handful of supplements consistently show strong evidence for performance. And the first one we're going to talk about is creatine. Creatine is probably the most researched supplement ever. It helps to improve strength, power, muscle recovery, and lean body mass. And newer research suggests even possible brain and cognitive benefits too.

Many people do well with three to five grams of creatine daily, but I would say if we, that is more on the sports performance side. If we're looking more on the brain health and cognitive performance, we're probably looking more at about ten grams of creatine or more.

So with creatine, when I was talking about that shakable shake, that's going in my shakable shake too. Or in my protein coffee drink. It just dissolves into nothing. It's just there. Shake it up and drink it. I think it's great.

Leah: I experimented with creatine also. I still use that. I will do some, like you said, in the coffee also. I find actually I have a noticeable benefit after I work out if I put a little creatine in either some water or I oftentimes I am doing like a protein shake afterwards. Sometimes I do hit a slump post workout just because I haven't quite gotten all those resources back into the muscles and up to the brain.

When I add some of that creatine, like even a half a teaspoon to a teaspoon of that creatine into my protein shake, I feel like I don't hit that slump. I feel like I have the energy to still go out on the trampoline with the kids and just like do whatever we need to do in the afternoons.

Teresa: That makes sense though because creatine helps to convert our food into ATP?

Leah: Yeah, it helps you kind of get that quick energy source back.

Teresa: Right, and ATP.

Leah: ATP being that quick energy source. Yes, exactly. So yeah, and creatine is pretty cheap. It's something worth experimenting with. I've talked about it with many clients and so I have a lot of female clients especially too experimenting with it right now.

Teresa: Yeah, it's worth the experiment. It is easy to find, easy to use.

Leah: And speaking of protein shakes, let's talk about a good quality protein powder. I mean, that would be another just really good investment in terms of performance and workouts. So when you need that extra protein boost pre or post workout, a good like say grass fed whey protein powder, that's going to be your gold standard for muscle recovery. Kind of has that best amino acid composition, those branch chain amino acids like you were talking about, Teresa.

That's going to be your gold standard. Usually mixes well, tastes good. There's lots of varieties out there. If someone cannot do dairy for some reason, then maybe we're looking more like a Paleo Protein powder that is from grass-fed beef. That would be your dairy-free option.

There are lots of plant-based protein powder options out there. I find they get a little hit and miss in terms of taste and texture, but there's certainly some good options out there. So that again, like just might be a little hit and miss in terms of finding one that you like.

Teresa: And key to that is the branch chain amino acids. With the whey protein powders, they're there. We don't have to do anything about it. We can just trust that they're there. But when we get into some of the Paleo protein powders or when we get into some of the plant-based protein powders, we just have to look.

And that's the kind of the benefit of protein powders is that they can manipulate the amino acid profile. I guess they can make it so it's more built for muscle building, right? Like that that protein powder is. Those branch chain amino acids, what those are, there's three of them. It's leucine, isoleucine and valine.

These are the critical amino acids for muscle growth and tissue repair for that recovery afterwards. When I am talking with people about those branch chain amino acids, I always talk about leucine. I've named it Lucy because it's easier for people to remember. That is the branch chain amino acid that is the rate-limiting branch chain amino acid, meaning if you don't get enough leucine, you will not build muscle.

Leah: Right. Even if you've gotten all the other ones.

Teresa: Correct. So you have to hit that three grams of leucine before it will happen. When you eat protein that comes from an animal, if you get thirty grams of protein, you're probably going to hit three grams of leucine. However, it's not strong in plant-based proteins. So we just need to be aware of that. And that's where we can bring in a supplement, right?

We can use the branch chain amino acids that come in a powdered form. They don't taste very good, but I will say if you put them in like the shakable shake that we were talking about or a protein shake where you blend it, you probably won't taste them. But on their own, they don't taste that great.

Leah: Yeah. Yeah.

Teresa: But that is a way that you could take like Paleo protein powder or a plant-based protein powder, up that leucine amount so that your protein shake that you take post workout for muscle building actually builds muscle.

Leah: Makes a lot of sense. Absolutely. Electrolyte powders are another one to think about. I don't talk to a lot of clients about electrolyte powders, but these can be especially helpful. Again, endurance athletes, like out in the elements for long periods of time. If you're out in hot climates, I mean we have summer on the horizon here coming up.

People who sweat a lot, some people are heavier sweaters than others, sauna users, things like that, like anything where we're losing a lot of fluids and some of those electrolytes and sweat, that's where I might think about, all right, let's maybe do an electrolyte powder because low electrolytes contribute to fatigue, headaches, muscle cramps, dizziness, because that's how actually our bodies send electrical signals throughout the body is actually through these electrolytes, the sodium, potassium, and things like that.

Teresa: Yeah, I would agree with you on that. I don't use electrolyte powders very often in the winter personally because I just don't sweat that much in the winter. But in the summer, when I do long runs, that's a whole different story. And I learned it kind of the hard way where I would just hit a wall in the afternoon. As soon as I started adding in electrolytes, it changed it completely.

Leah: Nice.

Teresa: So that fatigue went away. And muscle cramps are very much associated with that too. So that's another thing to keep in mind. Of course, there are supplements that are overrated. There are expensive fat burners, there's detox supplements and flashy pre-workouts that have little evidence behind them.

Some contain stimulants that can actually be a little bit dangerous or uncomfortable. I would say I tried one that made me feel very stingy or buzzy. I did not enjoy it at all. However, some people really do like that in a workout. It really helps to get them through maybe some high intensity workouts.

So I would say some of them aren't dangerous even though they don't feel that great, but I don't know if they're actually providing benefit beyond just I like the way that feels. And that's the same idea with caffeine. Caffeine actually has been shown to be good for performance, but there is a limit on that too. If you can go too far with caffeine and then it might have the opposite effect.

Leah: I think we've all probably done that at some point too. It's like you get a little too high dose of caffeine, especially later in the day, and it doesn't do you any good. And I think it's worth noting that your physical activity level, your age, your sex, other factors, all of these things influence your nutritional and supplement needs.

Again, the endurance athlete has different needs than someone who is doing a 30-minute yoga class. So just keep in mind when you are looking at some of this information that's out there, especially if it's more social media sourced, try not to compare your diet and supplement needs to Joe Schmoe, who's next door, or whoever is behind the screen on the Instagram account.

Teresa: Yes, I would agree with that very much. Influencers are there to influence you to do what? Buy things or click and like, right? They're really not concerned about you that much.

Wrapping it up

Well, in wrapping things up, if there's one thing we want listeners to remember today, is that exercise performance and recovery improve when your body is properly fueled. And if weight loss is a goal, then proper nourishment is key. We want body composition change, meaning we want to increase muscle mass and decrease that fat mass.

So many people assume that when they're losing weight, whether it's through exercising or eating less or making better food choices, or even when they're sick, that what they're losing is fat mass. But we know if we're not properly nourished, particularly if we're not getting enough protein, we may be working really hard.

But not getting that body composition change that we're looking for, where we want to increase that muscle mass or support the muscles that we have while decreasing that fat mass. So, what that fueling that we need to do, that may look a little different for you, and it might require some experimenting, as we've been talking about today.

But the best plan is one that supports stable energy, strong recovery, good digestion, healthy hormones, and consistency. Consistency, consistency, including this daily too. Exercise is one of the most important lifestyle choices we can make to live long, healthy, independent lives. It should be viewed as a celebration of what the body can do, not punishment, not extremes, not trying to earn food through exercise. So experiment, stay curious, and pay attention to how your body responds.

Leah: And if what we talked about today was of interest to you and you're needing some help in this area, we invite you to come meet with us for a one-on-one consultation.

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We see when working with clients that those who meet with us regularly for support get the best results and whatever their goals tend to be. So thank you for listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. Our goal at Nutritional Weight & Wellness is to teach people the power of real food and how life-changing it can be. It's a simple yet powerful message. We'll see you next time.