When to eat your meals to get the most out of your workouts.

Meals higher in carbs and protein should be eaten before your workouts to help your body

Ideally, a person should eat a meal rich in complex carbohydrates and protein around 2–3 hours before exercising. Waiting a few hours after eating allows the body enough time to digest the meal. Alternately, a person may prefer a smaller meal that is mostly made up of simple carbohydrates.

The best things to eat 30 minutes before a workout include oats, protein shakes, bananas, whole grains, fresh fruit, and rice cakes. An ideal pre-workout meal should be low in fat, moderate in protein, and high in complex carbs.

I recommend 1 gram of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight 1 hour before working out, and 2 g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight if 2 hours prior to exercise.

Your body needs carbs to fuel your working muscles and protein to keep you satiated and build your muscles while tearing them down during training. Having a mix of the protein and carbs in your body 1 to 4 hours pre-workout and within approximately 60 minutes post-workout will help you get the most out of your workout.

While complex carbohydrates burn slowly, protein burns even more slowly. Protein takes more energy for you to digest than refined carbohydrates, and also gives your body a feeling of satiety. This means you won’t feel hungry when you’re lifting and you can increase the amount of muscle mass gained from a resistance workout. Intense bouts of resistance exercise damage the muscles, but consuming protein increases the number of amino acids in the body. These work to reduce deterioration, synthesize muscle proteins, and stimulate growth.