Devoting time to a workout session is a good habit to have. This not only helps you burn more calories and aids in weight loss, there’s a load of other health benefits, too. Some of the top benefits include a healthier heart, decreasing the risk of diabetes, increasing metabolism, building muscles, improving sleep quality, making you more energetic, and boosting memory power.
While it’s true that working up a sweat will help you remain mentally and physically fit, but to reap the benefits you need to make a number of healthy decisions before and after your work out. In this article, we’ll inform you what you shouldn’t be drinking before and after a workout.
Things You Shouldn’t Drink BEFORE a Workout
1. Milk-Based Energy Drinks
Since milk contains carbohydrates, fat, and protein, it takes a lot of time to digest. Therefore, it’s better to consume dairy-containing beverages post-workout as opposed to before or during. Instead, you can try whey protein packets mixed with filtered water. This way, you’ll get the benefits of the protein, minus the fat and longer digestion time you get with dairy.
2. Sugary Fruit Drinks
When you were younger, you might have loved those squeezable Capri Sun packs, but they’re just not the best choice to drink before a workout.
These fruit drinks are full of high-fructose corn syrup, a man-made sweetener that’s been shown to initiate liver dysfunction, metabolic syndrome, and obesity. Instead, add some flavor to your water by adding basil, mint, berries, or fresh citrus fruits. Or, you can opt for coconut water, which replenishes the electrolytes you’ll lose during the workout.
3. Booze
This might sound like a given, but even sipping on a beer hours before you go the gym can mess up your workout. Alcohol is dehydrating, inflammatory, and has a negative impact on balance and decision-making. This is not ideal if you’re deciding how much weight to lift.
Therefore, if you need a pick-me-up, have some coffee of the dark roast variety (which has less caffeine than lighter roasts). This can increase alertness and improve exercise performance.
Fizzy drinks can cause bloating, gas, and abdominal pain. They also contain a lot of sodium which draws water out of the body’s cells, causing dehydration.
If you drink diet soda, it’s important to know that they contain aspartame, an artificial sweetener that has been linked to a number of side effects such as dizziness, migraines, memory loss, and mood swings.
Instead of a soda, grab an ice-cold green tea drink. It is high in antioxidants and has been shown to reduce the risk of several types of cancer.
5. Sports Drink
Most sports drinks that are on the market are loaded with sugar and contain little-to-no nutrition. You might get some added vitamins and electrolytes from some of the brands on the market, but the high sugar content goes right through your system to cause an energy crash later on. This can wreak havoc on your hormonal system and is a strain for your body to process.
Instead, gulp down some additive-free tomato juice, which will provide you with potassium, natural sugars, and healthy blood pressure.
Things You Shouldn’t Drink AFTER a workout
1. Packaged Fruit Juice
Most packaged drinks are loaded with high-fructose corn syrup, which can lead to obesity and increase your risk of metabolic syndrome diseases.
Moreover, packaged fruit juices do not contain the vitamins and fiber that you can find in real fruit. The nutritional value of the fruit gets lost in the juicing process, and you end up consuming pure sugar in the form of fructose.
2. Coffee
After a hard workout, many of us look forward to drinking a cup of hot coffee. But, since your heart is already pumping from your workout, it’s not good to drink coffee or anything that has caffeine in it.
Drinking coffee after exercise can lead to side effects such as the jitters, sleep disorders, and heart palpitations.
3. Alcohol
If you exercise in the evening and head off for a glass of wine, you’re making a huge mistake. Alcohol is dehydrating in nature and after sweating during exercise, you need to hydrate your body rather than going for a dehydrating drink. Also, the diuretic effect of alcohol in the body can cause a hangover.
Alcoholic drinks also contain empty calories and no nutrients. Drinking these empty calories will only postpone the fat-burning process and contribute to increased fat storage.
4. Smoothies from Pre-Made Mixes
They made be convenient, especially if you’re low on time and need to whip something up after a workout, but they usually contain a lot of added sugars. Your body burns through complex carbs and then fat – drinking sugary drinks stops this fat burning process.
Therefore, you should make your own smoothies from scratch with a protein base.
5. Prune Juice
This healthy drink actually serves as a laxative –something you don’t need post-workout. Running and other exercises can already have this effect on your body, so prune juice might only exacerbate this undesirable situation.
Source: menshealth and eatthis
Images: depositphotos
Go to BabaMail
