If you’re someone who is including some steady state cardio into the mix as you move through your 8 pack ab workout routine, you might come to ask what nutritional protocol you should be following after these workout sessions.
You know that after an intense weight lifting workout or an interval sprint training session you do require protein and carbs in order to promote optimal recovery and ensure you feel your best at all times.
But, what about something lower in intensity? What’s the deal there?
Let’s have a look at what you need to know.
Consider The Duration
The very first thing that you need to take into account is what the duration of that cardio session is. Are you just going for 20-30 minutes or are you looking at doing a 60 minute plus workout?
The longer the workout, the more energy you’re going to be burning up which means the more depleted your body will be.
While it’s true that for the most part the body can use fat as a fuel source for lower intensity cardio training, you are still burning calories and if the deficit gets too high because your overall calorie intake is too low, this can cause problems.
In addition to that, if you’re not eating anything long before you do the cardio and waiting too long to eat afterwards, you could risk losing lean muscle mass, especially if you’re already on the very lean side.
Consider Your Overall Diet Strategy
The second thing that you should be doing is thinking about your overall diet strategy. Are you on a very low carb diet? How high is that calorie intake?
If you’re either taking in very few carbs or very few calories, eating around the cardio, regardless of the form will become more important.
Too low of a calorie intake does increase the chances your metabolism slows down significantly and adding long duration workouts to this is only going to make the matter worse.
Consider Your Preferences
Finally, you need to think about your preferences. Do you feel better eating before that cardio or eating after? Do you notice that if you don’t eat after you get runaway hunger a short while later and just want to binge?
If so, it’s time to eat up. Remember that it’s the total calorie balance that you achieve at the end of the day that’s going to most determine whether you lose fat or not, so don’t think it matters too much how long you wait to eat.
As long as you account for the calories and adjust other places in your day, eating at this time isn’t going to be an issue.
So there you have the top things to remember about eating around moderate intensity cardio. It’s definitely not a must but in many cases it does make sense to do so.
