Eating Sugar After Working Out

Ever saw someone in the gym wolfing down jelly beans, gummy bears, or some other questionable item and thought to yourself “WHAT THE BLEEPITY FUCKING BLEEP?!?!”

I’m psychic, so of course you’ve thought that verbatim!

Well, there are two reasons why eating loads of sugar in the gym is a good idea…

ONE:
Preferably, you should eat a meal high in complex carbs at least an hour prior to your workout because the slow breakdown of the sugar will help provide you with sustained energy while you train. However, if you’re only able to eat as you’re walking through the gym doors, then simple carbs like that from candy will get broken down fast enough to provide immediate energy.¹Another option is a small fruit, like an apple, orange, or banana.

TWO:
Eating simple carbs after a workout aids with the recovery process. When you work out hard, the body’s stored glycogen gets depleted. Eating simple sugar quickly replenishes those stores.²For this benefit, endurance athletes would be best served eating sugar during their long-distance runs and bike rides rather than after to provide their body with the necessary fuel it needs to continue performing for an extended period of time. The same goes for those whose workouts are approaching the two hour mark. Also, the quick release of sugar into the bloodstream spikes insulin, which helps shuttle nutrients like protein to the damaged muscles so they can begin repairing and rebuilding themselves.³As stated before, fruits are another option, as is chocolate milk, Pop-Tarts, and dextrose.

Eating sugar around a workout clearly has benefits.

Eating it prior puts it to immediate use as energy and consuming it after has restorative effects. Moreover, regardless of the reasoning behind snacking on sugary goodness pre- or post-workout, the chance of the sugar being stored as fat is minimized by the caloric effect that exercise has on the body, as physical activity causes the body to increase the rate of calorie burn following its cessation if said activity is intense enough and what’s consumed afterward isn’t overdone.

But even if sugar weren’t as beneficial around workout time as it is, there’s something else to keep in mind regarding the consumption of it.

And that something is…?!?!

That something to keep in mind is that weight management has less to do with what you eat and more to do with the amount of what you eat. So wanna cram some Sour Patch Kids down your throat?⁴That’s obviously a reference to the candy, N-O-T the potential babies in your man’s bitter ejaculate, which he should consume more pineapples, kiwi fruit, berries, and plums to sweeten up! Or maybe open a shitload of Pixy Stix straws on a desk and go Tony Montana on the stuff? Then do as you please.

…that is, as long as it fits into your total calorie budget for the day!

Glossary: calories, exercise, fat, gym, muscle, work out, workout

• Author
• Recent Posts

Monster Longe

Monster Longe is a personal trainer in San Diego. He has been lifting weights for +25 years and training clients in the gym and online for about half of that time. When not working with clients or making content that's easy to read, understand, and apply to everyday life, he enjoys long walks and leaving buildings crushed and entire city blocks decimated in his wake.

Latest posts by Monster Longe (see all)

• How To Eat Healthy During Thanksgiving - November 20, 2024
• Weight Loss Tip: no.2620 - November 20, 2024
• Is Going To The Gym Once A Week Enough? - November 19, 2024