If I have the oportunity to lift weights (or weight train) but it is far from convenient to eat the right foods before during after the workout would I be doing myself more harm than good?
In other words… If my eating during the day is typical and not geared towards muscle mass increasing, would weight training be futile, or even counter productive?
Or to make it even more simple a question… I’f I’ve had a turkey sandwich and bag of crisps at 5pm, then lift some weights at, say, 7pm, then have a microwaveable curry at 9pm, and maybe some toast or bran flakes when I get home at 1am… would the weight lifting at 7pm have been a waste of time?
Does weight training HAVE to include nutrition timing to be of any benefit at all?
No, just lift the weights. You’ll see gains. People have done it that way for years and years without worrying about micro-managing their nutrient timing. Honestly, don’t even think about your diet until you’ve been lifting for a solid three months and have the routine down. Then maybe you should look at how much protein, etc. you’re getting and tweak your diet some. The ultra-controlled nutrient timing sutff is only for when you’ve been training for while and have goten really, really into it.
IANAnutritionist nor a personal trainer, but I do work out, and I agree with tremorviolet. Working out will benefit you regardless of any changes in your diet. Now, your diet can amplify those beneifts, but if that’s a battle for another day, then so be it. Don’t pass up the opportunity to get the exercise.
I’m with the others, with some minor differences. The way I see it, there are three factors that account for progress–your diet, your training, and your lifestyle–and the most important one is whichever one needs to be improved the most. So start lifting, get used to it, and then spend some time getting your diet squared away.
You’ll get benefits from lifting weights whether you eat perfectly or not. If you’re not eating correctly you’ll still lose unwanted body fat and get the muscles used to fatigue/breakdown. The problem may even resolve itself since working out will make you hungrier for the correct foods.
Yes, and no. You will work up a bigger appetite from working out. If you satisfy that increase in appetite to an equal or greater degree of caloric intake than your workout expends (or, if you’re building muscle, to a greater degree than your resting metabolism rises), you will still pack on the fat.
In other words, working out does not give you carte blanche at the dessert buffet, at least not at the usual level of an “I’m starting to work out” workout.
It also depends on what your current “typical” diet is. If you’re currently in a big calorie surplus (taking in more than you expend), that is your primary problem; beginning a weight training regime while on a calorie surplus will result in you gaining weight. Even if it’s the good kind of weight (muscle), you won’t be losing weight by burning fat at the same time as you’re gaining weight by building muscle.
The bottom line is, if one of your goals in lifting weights is to burn fat and lose weight, you will have to pay attention to what you eat. You can keep your diet “typical” (you don’t have to down protein shakes and eat nothing but egg whites, and can still eat cookies and ice cream from time to time), but do make sure that your “typical” diet is at the right level of caloric intake to meet your goals.
If the diet you describe is at all typical, you’ll be fine. It is NOT necessary to overload on protein to make gains, and there is more nonsense preached about nutrition than any other subject besides religion and politics.
You do not have to eat a perfectly healthy diet to make significant gains in lifting. One of the joys of my life is coming home on Thursdays after my workout to pizza and beer. And I benched 225 for ten reps a few weeks ago.
Also, don’t forget that packing on muscle mass increases your resting metabolic rate - meaning that when you do flop down on the couch to watch TV, you’ll be burning more calories doing that, too.
IANA(whatever) but unless your goal is professional and/or competitive then diet really isn’t going to be that great a factor so long as you’re eating reasonably sensibly. Your body will naturally trade off fat mass for muscle mass up to a point. You don’t say how old you are, but most people naturally put on a layer of padding as they get older so eventually you’ll get to the point where you’re building and toning muscle under that layer and you won’t be “seeing” your gains. At that point you might want to start looking at altering your diet if you want to strip that padding off.
If your goal is just general health and cardiac fitness I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
Right, and you can reshape your body even without losing much fat. If you have a pot belly, some back exercise (especially for the trapezius) and crunches can make you stand taller and draw in your abdomen so you look better even without much reduction in belly fat. Likewise, making your shoulders wider will make your waist look smaller.
It’s much the same all over. You can’t spot reduce, but if your arm muscles are larger, then they will look better because the muscles will show more thru the remaining fat.
Any improvement tends to snowball, in my experience. You start to look a little better, so you do more of what makes you feel better.
Nutrition “timing” is of very little importance for non pro bodybuilders, and even then the importance of timing is scientifically open to question.
When intake timing is important (IMO) is in how your body reacts to food blood sugar wise. I tend to get quite sleepy after eating even moderate amounts during the day (morning and night meals do not have this effect for some reason) and working out when your blood sugar is whacked out while your body is handling digesting food is very poor time to work put. In fact it can be downright dangerous as your mind is not at optimum sharpness and you can potentially injure yourself through sloppiness.
If you are really concerned about getting some calories pre or post workout, you can go to a place like GNC (or the multiple cheaper options online) and buy drinks, gels, bars that you can just throw in your gym bag.
While I agree with the general sentiment that exercise is always good, and you shouldn’t avoid it due to a concern about “perfecting” your nutrition, you should be aware that nutrition has a huge impact on your body composition. Remember that workouts just generate the impetus for muscle development; the actual repair/growth of the muscles comes while your body is resting. During this down time, you’ll limit yourself if you don’t give your body all of the key ingredients for growth.
So, while I’m not looking to start a debate on what type of nutrition you need, I will say that successful bodybuilding (i.e. changing your body’s composition, no matter how serious you take it) is a three pronged approach: rest, nutrition, and training. If one of the three suffers, you will limit your development*
*Obviously, you may not care. I’m not trying to be preachy. For some, just being active is reward enough, and the changes you will see may be enough to satisfy you. But nutrition is going to be key to maximizing your progress, IMHO.
