The anabolic window, honestly
The idea that you have thirty minutes after training to get food in, or the session is wasted, has sold a great deal of powder. Reviews of nutrient timing describe a considerably wider and more forgiving picture, particularly when you have eaten before training. If you had lunch two hours before the class, you are still absorbing it while you train.
That is not the same as saying timing never matters. It matters most when the gap between sessions is short, and when you trained genuinely fasted. Otherwise, eat when you are hungry and eat properly.
How much carbohydrate, and when it gets urgent
Carbohydrate is the one people skip, usually because protein has taken all the attention. Reviews of carbohydrate for training and competition put rapid refuelling at roughly 1.0 to 1.2 g per kg per hour for the first few hours when the next session is under eight hours away.
| Situation | Carbohydrate target | Rough food equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Training again in under 8 hours | About 80 to 96 g in the first hour | A large bowl of rice with chicken, plus a banana and a glass of juice |
| Training again tomorrow | No specific target, just a good meal | Your normal dinner with a proper serving of rice, potato, pasta or bread |
| Rest day tomorrow | Eat to appetite | Whatever you would normally eat, no adjustment needed |
What a good post-training meal looks like
Nothing exotic. A palm or two of protein, a decent serving of a carbohydrate you enjoy, some vegetables, and fluid. If you are hungry an hour later, that is information, not failure.
- Eggs on toast with fruit. Fast, cheap, and does the job after a morning class.
- Rice, chicken and whatever vegetables are in the fridge.
- Greek yoghurt, berries and granola when you finish late and cannot face cooking.
- A shake plus a banana, when the alternative is genuinely nothing for four hours.
The protein side of this is worth its own read: see protein for muscle repair for daily targets and per-meal amounts.
What if you train at 7pm and eat at 9pm?
Then you eat at 9pm. Eating late is not the problem people have been told it is, and going to bed genuinely hungry after a hard session tends to cost you sleep, which is a far more expensive trade.
If the late meal reliably disrupts your sleep, that is worth adjusting, and the evening-eating research is covered in sleep and pre-sleep nutrition.
