What To Eat Before And After Your Workout If You Give Up Meat

What to include in your pre-workout meal

Pre-workout meals should include protein and carbohydrate-rich foods with a minimum of fat.

Carbohydrates used for energy production. If you don't get enough carbohydrates before exercise, your body's glucose reserves will quickly deplete. As a result, you will get tired faster and will not be able to give your best.
Protein are essential for the body as a source of amino acids for muscle support and recovery. Protein protects muscles from breakdown during exercise and helps them recover from exercise.
Fats slow down the rate of absorption of other substances, and training with undigested food in the stomach is heaviness, belching and colic. Therefore, it is worth limiting their number before training.

What is the ratio of protein, fat and carbohydrates

The ratio of protein, fat and carbohydrates depends on what type of exercise you prefer. If aerobic activity awaits you - running, dancing, fitness - it is worth adding more complex carbohydrates. For strength training or HIIT, assuming you plan to build muscle, the focus should be on protein.

The percentage of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in the diet is 20-30-50, with weight gain - 25-15-60, and with weight loss - 50-40-10. From this, you can calculate the amount of nutrients you need to consume at each meal.

For example, suppose you consume 2,100 calories a day and divide them into three meals. One serving should have about 700 calories, of which 20% or 140 calories (34 g) are spent on protein, 30% or 210 calories (22.5 g) - for fat and 50% or 350 calories (85 g) - for carbohydrates.

Before exercising, you can increase your protein and carbohydrate intake and lower your fat intake. For example, if you take our calculations, you can increase the amount of protein to 40 g, and reduce the amount of fat to 15 g.

So, we figured out the ratio, and now let's talk about where to get such an amount of protein for those who do not eat meat.

Pre-workout meal options

Vegetable salads with tofu and date or banana dessert

workout nutrition: vegetable salads with tofu

In salads, you can mix tofu with different types of vegetables. Cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, lettuce, onions, sesame seeds will do.

Due to tofu and sesame seeds, you get proteins and fats, vegetables will provide you with vitamins and fiber. And the right amount of carbohydrates can be obtained from dates and bananas.

Dishes of rice, lentils, bulgur with vegetables

nutrition during training: rice dishes, lentils, bulgur with vegetables

Lentils contain 24 g of protein per 100 g of product. Bulgur and rice contain much less of them (12 and 6 g per 100 g of product), but they are rich in carbohydrates - 78 and 57 g of carbohydrates per 100 g of product.

There are a lot of recipes: from peppers stuffed with lentils and bulgur to lentil-rice pancakes and soups.

Bean salad with fried tofu and sesame seeds

This dish is high in protein from beans, tofu, and sesame seeds. True, it contains few carbohydrates, so it is advisable to supplement it with a dried fruit dessert. Dates, candied fruits from apples, pears, oranges, pineapples, dried bananas are well suited.

Look for recipes with legumes and tofu cheese, and supplement your diet with vegetables, dried fruits and nuts.

If you don't have time to cook and can't get enough protein, try vegetarian protein shakes. This is a great way to recharge one hour before and immediately after your workout.

Protein shakes for vegetarians

On the sports food market, there are protein shakes based on protein from peas, hemp seeds, brown rice. One serving of this cocktail, prepared in water, contains 15 to 25 g of protein.

You can mix protein powder with water, rice or almond milk, add chopped banana, strawberries or other berries, honey.

What to eat after training

You also need to eat after exercise to replenish muscle-building protein stores. Considering that you have not eaten for three hours before training and two hours during it, it’s time for the next meal.

Try to eat within an hour of your workout and include protein-rich foods in your diet. If you don't feel like eating, a protein shake mixed with chopped fruits and berries will help.