The Zone and Your Workouts: What to Eat Before and After

A workout day is different: hunger shows up at different times, you need energy at a specific moment, and afterwards your body wants to recover. The good news is that the Zone doesn't require special supplements or complicated plans. The rule is the same as on any other day — balance at every meal. You just need to arrange your meals around the workout.

Do you need more blocks?

Your daily Zone blocks depend on your lean body mass and your activity level. If you train regularly, that's already accounted for — as long as the activity level in the app matches your real week. If you start training more, update it and recalculate your blocks. We explain how they're calculated in how many blocks you need per day.

There's no need to add blocks by guesswork on workout days. What matters more is how you spread them through the day.

Before a workout

The easiest setup is to train two to three hours after a normal balanced meal. You'll have energy, and your stomach won't be full.

If more than three or four hours have passed since your last meal, have a small one-block snack up to an hour before training. A few ideas:

• Greek yogurt with half an apple and a few almonds
• a hard-boiled egg, a small piece of fruit and a few walnuts
• a protein shake with half a banana and a teaspoon of peanut butter

Avoid a big, heavy meal right before training. A lot of food, especially fatty food, digests slowly and sits heavy while you work out.

After a workout

After exercise, your muscles need protein to recover. Aim for a balanced meal within an hour or two of training, with protein as the base of your plate:

• chicken breast, a little rice and a big salad with olive oil
• an omelet made with eggs and egg whites, vegetables and a slice of whole-grain toast
• baked fish with a few potatoes and broccoli

If your next main meal is a while away, a small one- or two-block snack right after training helps — for example, a protein shake with fruit and a handful of nuts.

One important note: a workout isn't a reason to reward yourself with dessert. An hour of moderate exercise burns less than most people think, and one slice of cake easily cancels it out.

What about fasted morning workouts?

If you do a light workout early in the morning without breakfast and feel fine, that's okay. Just make sure you have a balanced breakfast within an hour afterwards. Otherwise hunger will catch up with you later in the day — we explain why in why you get hungry 2 hours after eating.

Don't forget water

You lose more fluid when you train. Drink before, during and after — how much exactly is covered in how much water you really need a day.

Plan your workout day in the diary

In your ZoneIt diary, spread your blocks so that the pre-workout snack and the post-workout meal fit inside your daily blocks rather than on top of them. If you often forget your snack before the gym, set a reminder for it. After a few weeks, you'll see which split gives you the most energy.