What and When to Eat When You’re Exercising

Listen to the accompanying podcast episode here

What will I cover in this post?

Why is working out so important as we age?
What to eat / macronutrient ratio (carb, protein, fat breakdown) and some examples of foods to eat pre and post workout.
Supplements such as protein powders and creatine – what’s the deal?
When to eat around workouts.
Common mistakes women make with food around exercise.

Why do we need to exercise?

As we age, our muscle mass is decreasing, we need to work the muscles and eat properly to fuel muscle growth in order to counteract the muscle loss that comes with age (and which typically leads to falls and disease in our older age).

Improved lean muscle mass, reduced fat mass
Better blood glucose control via greater insulin sensitivity
Cellular adaptations, works within the mitochondria to improve and grow
improved antioxidation (reduces oxidative stress)
Acute inflammatory response (because it is an exercise stress, it responds with greater anti-inflammatory release, which supports the inflammatory response that happens in peri and menopause transition.
Reduces total body inflammation!!
Improves brain health with release of BDNF that goes directly to help with brain tissue/brain health
Improved sleep
Improved bone density

What to Eat?

Carbohydrates – on days we have heavier workouts, eat more, days we have recovery, we can get by with eating less. Baseline intake is 3g/1 kg of body weight per day
Increase to and extra .8-1g/kg after a big depleting amount of exercise
Protein – dose across the day, time it so the body has a continual amount of amino acids coming in at all time, but not one big dump. Aim for 30-35g/meal or 15g/snack as a baseline, aiming to achieve 1.8-2.3g/kg per day. Post -exercise 35-40g leucine-rich protein (see leucine rich proteins below)
Fat – variety of sources, 20-30% total daily energy coming from a variety of sources (like fish, oils, avocados, nuts and seeds)
BUT, our body is not linear, our appetite needs changes on a daily basis, depending on your cycle and overall energy output that day, how well you slept, etc.
So we want carbs to come from fruit and vegetables with some whole grains. Limit refined processed carbs like breads, pasta, baked goods.

Leucine – Rich Proteins

Image source

Some other great sources not on the list above:

Cottage cheese (1/2 cup or 100 grams contains 1.27 grams leucine)
Sesame Seeds or tahini (2 tbsp or 18 grams contains .25 grams leucine)
Hemp Seeds (3 tbsp or 30 grams contains 0.65 grams leucine)

Protein

We need more protein for lean mass development. We need to affect the satellite cell through exercise stress (heavy lifting and high intensity), we also need adequate protein dosing AFTER exercise.

High Protein Contraindications:

If you have a family history of kidney issues, you need to be a little more careful with high protein, but with most people, a high protein diet shows no risk factors.

All protein powders are not the same.
Biological value = the type of amino acids that make up the protein, as well as how they are absorbed and used by the body. 100 is the gold standard (egg whites), whey protein isolate is around 104, but there is still lactose in whey concentrate (which is the cheapest and most widespread used in supplements), want to look for whey isolate or whey hydrolysate (the leucine amount is higher).
Look at the quality of amino acids in powders.
Plant based, Pea Isolate is better than soy, pea combined with hemp or rice (bigger bang for buck with complementary amino acids).

Creatine Supplementation

Beneficial for women above and beyond muscle strength, etc
ATP – need for energy, becomes ADP when broken down, when we take creatine and add it to ADP, we get ATP which can be broken down for fast energetics. The type that does not require glucose or oxygen, it is the immediate type, well used in areas that need energy quickly like gut, brain, cardiac muscle. Liver, pancreas, make about 1 gram of it per day
Creatine is very beneficial for regulating high energy needs in the body.
Can look at it from performance standpoint.
Women generally have 70%-80% less stores than men and tend to intake 20-40% less in food.
We want to boost our stores, to have an increased amount for energetics, improves strength and power but does not change body weight.
Very effective to train power/strength but not put on body weight.
Small/Maintenance dose = 3-5g/day.
Reduces inflammation because we have more fuel available, reduces oxidative stress, helps with bone reabsorption (increases osteoblast cell activity).
Helps with muscle integrity.
Improves post resistance training IGF-1 responsible for muscle protein synthesis (Which we lose around perimenopause).

When to Eat Around Workouts

Nutrient timing – We want to fuel for what we are doing and receive as much as we can from it. Maximize bodies ability to adapt to exercise stress and facilitate repair.

Relying on external stress (1. Exercise stress + 2. Protein dosing) to stimulate and maintain muscle and lean mass (anabolic state)
Nutrient timing – protein dosing within 30min post exercise helps with muscle protein synthesis, reduces cortisol and works with exercise stress to stimulate anabolic stress that we need.
Take up to 4 hours post workout (40 g Whey protein isolate OR 6 grams of essential amino acids with 3-3.5 grams of leucine = magic bullet).
Want to signal to body – yes, that was a stress, but we have the ability to repair and to adapt and get stronger
It’s not about what we eat but when we eat it
If we stay in a depleted state after exercise (catabolic= break down) state then we don’t adapt to training and we signal to the hypothalamus that we are in a low energy state, if we do this 4 days in a row, with catabolic signalling, then our body starts to downturn thyroid function (just after 4 days)
If we are eating before (150-200 cal, 15g protein, 30g carbs – not a lot before) and after (30-40g protein and some carb) training , then it decreases breakdown state = gives body ability to build back up, repair , recover and adapt to that training.
It improves glucose control because we are able to pull glucose into muscles before and after exercise, not having to fully rely on insulin.
Gives body amino acids, encourages muscle protein synthesis.
Enhancing gut microbiome support, encourages regeneration of mucosal lining of intestines.
Reduces LEA risk (if we are eating enough throughout the day but not right before or after exercise, our body perceives it as being in a low energy state (LEA).

Can split a meal and do ½ before and ½ after
Looking for 15g protein (for resistance training) / 30g carb (for cardiovascular work)
After workout immediately, here are quick hits of protein and carbs:

Common Mistakes:

LEA (low energy availability) is so common, because we see so many body composition changes as we age, the unfortunate but true thing that women do is eat less and exercise more, but that makes us fall into low energy availability. LEA symptoms are very similar to perimenopause symptoms and it can become hard to tell which is which.
Many people think they can have a shake/bar/drink to replace real food. There is a time and a place for supplementation if you are in a rush where you have it in the car on your way to work, but then you have real food. Don’t use them as a replacement every time.
Sports foods are convenient and easy and can be used during exercise, but they are highly processed. Want to look at foods that are going to encourage the diversity of gut microbiome, and these quick hits of engineered foods, we’re not getting antioxidants, fiber, micronutrients that we need
Designed to be high in sugar, and use cheap ingredients with poor nutrition (added vitamins and minerals are not the same with regards to how they are processed in the body)

I hope that was helpful! If you’d like to dive deeper, much of this information was from Stacy Sims Menopause 2.0 course, which is a very well researched course!
Leave any comments or questions below and I can address them in another post!

xx Lia