Fuel For Thought

Fuel Your Body for Optimum Performance No Matter Your Goal – Shred, Fit or Tone – Courtesy of Our Body Transformation Experts and Favourite Fitspos. 

- Katelyn Swallow

Working out how to best fuel your body for performance and aesthetic goals – particularly in the all-important pre- and post-workout meals – often requires a degree in biomed. While generalised rules concerning food types, amounts and timings do exist depending on the exercise you are about to perform, functional wellness practitioner Darren Cox (totalreformation. com) suggests prioritizing your personal body cues.

“You need to understand the importance of biochemical individuality: what works for one person, might have no effect on another person or even negatively effect their body composition or performance. When this is understood and taken into consideration, the selecting of the right foods and food ratios (macros) becomes clearer,” says Cox.

“These foods will create balance in your chemistry and fuel every single cell in the body for efficient energy production, including fat utilisation.”

This could explain why a pre-workout dose of carbs can be the perfect meal prehigh intensity workout for one person, while the mere thought makes the next person gag. Take note of the general rules, but remember that pre- and post-workout nutrition is about understanding and balancing biochemistry, such as the influence of stress, inflammation, hormones and toxicity. Cox suggests trialling different meal options and amounts to find what works best for you.

FOR CREATING CURVES (resistance training)

PRE-SWEAT

Pre-workout nutrition for a strength-based session is fairly similar to the higher intensity workouts native to fat loss, with the post-workout meal the real deal breaker. That said, tuning into how your body is affected by the particular carbs and proteins before you train may aid your performance in session.