Regardless of all the miracle cures and remedies to lose weight, exercise has no substitute. Exercise helps you remain healthy, oxygenates your body, improves your circulation and builds up energy. It also strengthens your muscles and contributes to muscle growth. If you are habituated in exercising regularly be it at the gym or at home, you need to eat healthy to nourish your body and replenish the calories that you burn. While burning calories are essential to weight loss, the right food is necessary to help support your exercise regime by supplying your body with essential nutrients for energy and muscle synthesis so that your muscles gain the right foods for recovery. Here are five foods good for workouts being healthy options for fuel and nourishment before and after exercise as compiled by weight watcher magazine experts.
Quinoa is gluten free so you don’t have to worry about the gluten issue here. Quinoa is also a rich source of magnesium necessary for energy production. The biggest advantage of quinoa is that it is one of the rare vegetarian foods that provide you with all essential amino acids required by the body for protein development. Quinoa is a fantastic substitute of animal protein and one of the best foods for workouts. You can blend quinoa into your protein shake, make quinoa bars or consume it with stuffed courgettes as a healthy post workout meal.
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For an HIIT workout (High-Intensity Interval Training), like spin classes, a post workout meal of sweet potato is a great choice as it provides you with carbs and protein for energy and muscle recovery. Sweet potato also contains vitamin C and beta-carotene good for the health of connective tissue.
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Turkey is on of the best foods for workouts and sports. Turkey is lean meat-containing important elements like tryptophan, B-complex vitamins, selenium that protects against tissue damage and phosphorous that acquires energy from food. You can use turkey in a number of dishes such as meatballs with whole wheat pasta and tomato sauce or chopped kale for fiber.
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Black beans are a good pre-workout meal that prevents you from eating too much. It keeps you satiated and is rich in fiber and ideal for a lunch time meal. Black beans are an important source of vitamins and minerals namely folate and phosphorous.
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Did you know that oats is one of the best foods to keep your cholesterol in check. As a food good for workouts, including oats in your breakfast meal is great idea. Oats has a low GIO index and will also provide you with a steady amou9nt of energy throughout your morning. Oats contains beta glucan which is a soluble fiber that binds to cholesterol-containing bile in the gut. This prevents cholesterol from being reabsorbed in the body. This also results in the body producing more bile from cholesterol in the blood which reduces it.
To have a great bowl of oats in the morning, layer it with Greek yoghurt (0%fat variety) and mix in berry compote, a banana and you’re good to go. You could even cook your oats in milk or soya milk if you’re lactose intolerant.
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