What is meal timing?
Meal timing is the term given to the manipulation of the structure or timing of any meals or nutrients across the day to provide a benefit for performance, recovery and/or adaptation. It has become quite a well-studied topic and in this article, we will give you a brief overview. Before diving in, it is important to note that some of the prinicples of performance nutrition will vary considerably from those for general health, and should only be practiced when active.
How important is it?
Unfortunately for the fasting advocates or six-meals-a-day warriors, meal timing does not have a major impact on fat loss success, given that calories are in check. With that said, there are definitely some benefits to be reaped from structuring your meals specifically in a way that works best for you that can indirectly influence calorie balance. These include –
- Appetite – Some people prefer to have six small meals a day, because it keeps them full and satisfied throughout the day, rather than needing to go 3 – 6 hours without eating.
- Sleep – I spoke about this last week, however, structuring your meals at a certain time can help to improve your sleep quality as well as the time it actually takes to fall asleep. Best practice here is to eat no less than two hours before bed time, making sure your meal is protein and fat-based, with little refined carbs (processed, white, carbs) – wholegrain are fine! (St-Onge et al., 2016)
- Performance – Meal timing is definitely important for performance, which can help optimise your fat loss success e.g. gym session, run time, intensity, etc. As general recommendations, you should consume the bulk of your carbohydrates in close proximity to your cardio workouts, and protein before/after your resistance training.
- Focus/Concentration – Time-restricted feeding, a form of intermittent fasting, wherein you eat for 8 hours in the day and fast for the other 16 has become widely popular. One of the claimed benefits is that by fasting in the morning, you have improved levels of focus and clearheadedness. While there is little convincing evidence of this benefit in the research, it may be due to the body working off fatty acids, rather than glucose. Your body has burned through the available glucose and the brain is now using ketones from fat. This may result in a feeling of level-headedness, satiety (not hungry) and focus. Once again, this is a less-concrete effect, and one study even showed an increase in irritability after fasting (Watkings & Serpell, 2016). This should hightlight the individual preferences for fasting.
What factors need considering?
Protein
Even though the body is extremely adaptable and can adjust to various types of food consumption and meal timing routines. It is generally recommended that protein intake should be spread throughout the day (approximately every 2-4 hours or 4 meals daily) and not just eaten at lunch and dinner, this will support recovery from training, maintain lean mass and keep energy levels stable.
It is particularly important that athletes consume protein (in whatever form) after exercise to promote recovery by helping to repair damaged muscle fibres, but protein is also involved in countless other functions such as reducing muscle protein breakdown and facilitating hormone production and immune support, all vital for recovery.
This is one of the reasons that intermittent fasting is not suitable for many athletes.
What is intermittent fasting?
Intermittent fasting (‘IF’) has been described as a “diet regimen that cycles between brief periods of fasting, with either no food or significant calorie reduction, and periods of unrestricted eating”. This involves consuming all of your food and fluid calories for the day within a certain period of time, although calorie-free liquids can be consumed during fasting.
To learn more about intermittent fasting, including the 16/8 approach, 5/2 approach and our standpoint on both, take a read of this article.
Pre-Exercise Nutrition
Before diving into meal-timing strategies, we must first ask ourselves a question. What kind of athlete are you? This is an important question because some recommendations will differ based on your sporting background. Take a look below to find out more:
Protein: For gym-goers and those recreationally active, this is most likely the priority nutrient and it should make up the base of your meals throughout the day. For competitive athletes, it is not as important right before a performance, but you will need to get a balanced intake the day of your training or match.
Carbohydrate: Check out our blog articles on fuel-up strategies around performance.
Fat: Consumption should be limited before exercise as it takes longer to digest and may cause gastrointestinal distress during performance.
Post-Exercise Nutrition
A large amount of calories is difficult to expend in a short space of time, particularly if the intensity of the session you are doing is low or moderate!
Protein: You should consume 1 – 2 palm sizes within a few hours of exercise to reduce muscle damage caused by intense exercise or training. A fun fact is that you don’t need to get your protein in right away after your workout, no such anabolic window is believed to exist. Instead, we now know that hitting your daily needs, and consuming a dose of protein within two hours of training (before or after) is best practice (Aragon & Schoenfeld, 2013).
Carbohydrates: Provides our body with the energy to perform, and has a limited store of. For gym-goers, this is not as important, as you will not likely deplete your carbohydrate stores in a workout, unless it is > 120 minutes and of a high intensity. For competitive athletes, it is the most important nutrient. What’s crucially important to understand that our bodies are sensitised to carbs and will uptake them much more efficiently in close proximity to exercise. It is best to consume some simple carbohydrates in the 60 minutes
Fats: No major recommendations here, but it is definitely OK to include a source of fats in your evening meal after training. However, you might want to skip the peanut butter on your post-workout snack, as it will only hamper the absorption of the protein and carbohydrate.
With all that said, after exercise the 4 R’s of Recovery should still be a priority to optimise adaptation and improve future performance!
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Activity | 70kg person | 84 kg person | |||
Aerobics – low impact | 205 | 244 | |||
Aerobics – high impact | 360 | 310 | |||
Yoga | 150 | 178 | |||
Weight lifting – Light | 112 | 133 | |||
Weight lifting – intense | 223 | 266 | |||
Walking – 15 min mile | 149 | 178 | |||
Golf – carrying clubs | 205 | 244 | |||
Running – 12 min mile | 298 | 355 | |||
Running – 10 min mile | 372 | 444 | |||
Bicycling: 14-15.9 mph | 372 | 444 | |||
Swimming: laps, vigorous | 372 | 444 |
Is your post exercise nutrition preventing you from achieving your fat loss goal?
In this article we discuss the table above and post exercise nutrition in relation to fat loss, in greater detail.
3-in-1
The importance of a mixed meal can often be overlooked, especially when someone is trying to lose weight or focusing too heavily on consuming less carbs or fat.
A mixed meal is one that contains all three of the macronutrients; carbohydrates, protein and fat.
Consuming a mixed meal will help to slow digestion, keep blood sugar levels stable and keep you feeling fuller for longer.
A combination of carbohydrate and protein will also stimulate the release of insulin, which improves protein synthesis and prevents protein breakdown. This is particularly important around training and intense physical exercise.
Here are some simple examples of what a mixed meal can look like:
Scrambled Eggs and Salmon | Chicken Dinner |
Protein – Eggs
Carbohydrates – Bread Vegetables – Spinach Fat – Smoked salmon |
Protein – Chicken breast
Carbohydrates – Potatoes Vegetables – Broccoli Fat – Butter |
When deciding on how often to eat and what is right for you, remember :
- Meal-timing is very specific, and the strategies that may work for one individual may be completely different for you. It is about experimenting safely and in an informed way.
- The total amount of each macronutrient that you eat, over the course of the day and week, is more important for body composition and performance than meal timing.
- The performance calculator in the My Account section will help you to set these calorie and macro targets for your personal goal and your meal plans can then be customised to your needs.
- Enjoyment of food should always be a priority!
Here are some of our recent recipes you may like to try out this week:
Breakfast |
Lunch |
Dinner |
Salmon Hash |
References
Aragon, A.A. and Schoenfeld, B.J., 2013. Nutrient timing revisited: is there a post-exercise anabolic window?. Journal of the international society of sports nutrition, 10(1), pp.1-11.
St-Onge, M.P., Mikic, A. and Pietrolungo, C.E., 2016. Effects of diet on sleep quality. Advances in nutrition, 7(5), pp.938-949.
Watkins, E. and Serpell, L., 2016. The psychological effects of short-term fasting in healthy women. Frontiers in nutrition, 3, p.27.