What to eat around training

The nutrition industry has a commercial interest in this being complicated. It isn't. Three variables do almost all the work — total protein, total energy, and roughly when the carbohydrate lands — and everything else is a rounding error you can safely ignore for your first two years.

Start with protein, because it is the one people actually get wrong

Aim for 1.6 to 2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight per day, spread across three or four meals. For a 70kg person that is 112–154g, or roughly 30–40g per meal. Most people I scan at intake are eating half that and wondering why twelve weeks of hard training has not changed their composition.

Thirty grams of protein is a palm-sized piece of chicken or fish, a cup of dal with paneer, six eggs' worth of whites, or 200g of Greek yoghurt. If you are vegetarian it takes more planning, not more supplements — combine pulses, dairy, soy and grains across the day and the total looks after itself.

Before training

Two to three hours out, eat a normal meal with protein and carbohydrate. If that is not possible — the 6am class, a meeting that overran — have something small and mostly carbohydrate thirty to sixty minutes before: a banana, a couple of dates, a slice of toast with honey.

Fat and fibre before training are the two things worth limiting, purely because they slow gastric emptying and you will feel it in the third set of squats. This is a comfort issue, not a metabolic one.

Training fasted is not wrong. It is just harder, and it produces worse sessions for most people.

If you genuinely prefer fasted morning training and your performance holds, carry on. Just be honest about whether your performance is holding, or whether you have simply normalised bad sessions.

During training

Water. That is it, for anything under ninety minutes. Sip 400–800ml across the session, more if you sweat heavily or it is a Mumbai May. Add electrolytes if the session is over ninety minutes or you are a genuinely salty sweater — you will know because of the white marks on your kit.

Intra-workout carbohydrate drinks are useful for endurance athletes going long. They are not useful in a 45-minute HIIT class, whatever the label says.

After training

The "anabolic window" was oversold. It exists, but it is measured in hours rather than minutes, and it only really matters if you trained fasted or you are training twice in a day. For everyone else: eat a proper meal within a couple of hours, hitting 30–40g of protein and a decent serve of carbohydrate.

The reason we still nudge people towards a post-session meal is behavioural rather than biochemical. People who eat properly after training tend to eat properly for the rest of the day. People who skip it tend to arrive at 9pm ravenous and make decisions accordingly.

Carbohydrate is not the enemy

If you train hard three or more times a week, carbohydrate is what fuels it. Cutting it aggressively is why people feel flat in week three of a fat-loss phase and quit in week five. Put the majority of your daily carbohydrate in the meals either side of training and eat more sparingly on rest days if total energy needs to come down.

A workable day

• 07:00 — Eggs or yoghurt with fruit and oats. 30–35g protein.
• 13:00 — Rice or roti, dal or chicken, plenty of vegetables. 35–40g protein.
• 17:30 — Banana or a small handful of dates before the 18:30 class.
• 20:00 — Full meal: protein, carbohydrate, vegetables. 35–40g protein.
• Across the day — 2.5–3.5 litres of water, adjusted for heat and sweat.

What about supplements?

There is no supplement shelf at VANTA and that is deliberate. Three things have enough evidence to be worth your money: creatine monohydrate (3–5g daily, take it whenever), vitamin D if you are deficient, and whey or a plant protein powder purely as a convenient way to hit a protein target you are otherwise missing. That is the list. Everything else is marketing with a study attached.

The honest summary

Hit your protein. Eat enough total food to support the training you are doing. Put most of your carbohydrate near your sessions. Drink water. Do that consistently for twelve weeks and the difference will be larger than any supplement stack you could buy.

Book a nutrition consult →