By Stacy Chandler
schandler@newsobserver.com

Eating right will help you get the most out of your workout. The good news is eating sensibly is easier than you think.

There's no shortage of information out there about what to eat to maximize the benefits of your workout.

Open a fitness magazine or ask your buddies at the gym, and you're sure to get enough tips and tricks to make your head spin.

But ask an expert, someone who really understands the relationship between what we put in our bodies and what we get out of a workout, and the answer is simple: Eat right, all the time.

Sounds easy enough, but it's more fun to eat the bad stuff. And that means your exercise is all about offsetting bad habits instead of working toward better fitness.

The good news is eating sensibly is easier than you think. You just have to keep your eyes on the prize, which is a healthier, happier you.

Standard advice

For a basic overview of what the experts agree is a good diet, look no farther than Uncle Sam.

Last summer, the feds dumped the old food-pyramid format in favor of a graphic called MyPlate that focuses on making each meal balanced and healthy. Half of the ideal plate contains fruits and vegetables, while whole grains and lean protein make up the other half, with a serving of low-fat dairy thrown in as a side dish.

The icon is new, but the information is pretty much the same. Lots of the good stuff, very little of all that stuff you know is bad — processed foods, sugar and fat.

"The basic story has not changed" since the USDA started making dietary recommendations decades ago, said Jackie McClelland, a professor and nutrition specialist in N.C. State's Department of 4-H Youth Development and Family & Consumer Sciences. "Balance, moderation and variety ... And it works."

One thing that has changed since then, however, is a little thing called the Internet that can help you assess how closely in line your current diet is with the guidelines.

At the USDA's ChooseMyPlate.gov website, you'll find a full explanation of the MyPlate guidelines as well as something called the Super Tracker that's chock-full of tools to help you get on target and stay there. You can create a profile showing your ideal intake of calories and each of the recommended food groups, set and track your goals and receive related tips and encouragement via email.

For real athletes only

But what about all those magazine articles about supplements or loading up on carbs or the latest fad nutrients? Forget about all that, unless you're an elite athlete.

Those top-notch physical specimens among us, the marathon runners, the triathletes, the professionals, can tinker with their diets to unlock the full potential of their muscles and abilities because they've trained their bodies to respond to specialized nutrition.

That's the kind of person David Nieman, director of the Human Performance Lab at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis, studies intently. Much of the lab's groundbreaking work, Nieman said, has to do with "what can the athlete at the far end of the continuum add to reduce the impact of the exercise stress on their immune systems and bodies."

The cutting-edge Human Performance Lab has done studies comparing the benefits of bananas and watermelon versus Gatorade in male cyclists ("The good news," Nieman said, "is using fruit or fruit juices supports performance just as well as the sports drinks.") and is seeking just the right mix of plant molecules blended into a sports drink that will boost performance in top athletes.

But all that fancy stuff doesn't have much to do with most of us, he said.

"It's really quite simple," he said of finding a magic formula for health. "They just need a well-balanced diet based on fruits and vegetables and whole grains, and 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity on most days of the week, and for the vast majority of people, that's it."

Timing your dining

So we know what to eat, but what about when?

"In general, you really do need to eat prior to exercise in order to have stable blood sugar and a high enough energy level so that you can have a beneficial and effective workout," said Lisa Hardway, a certified personal trainer at aYMCA in Raleigh.

"Some people can eat immediately before, and some people need to eat an hour before," she said. But eating something, at some point, before working out is key.

For a pre-workout meal (and for other meals, for that matter), Hardway recommends fueling up with lean protein and complex carbs and making sure you're well hydrated.

A good breakfast before a morning workout, for example, might be some stone-ground wheat toast with a scrambled egg (try adding extra egg whites) or topped with lean cottage cheese, Hardway said. If that sounds like a little too much prep work in the morning, you can make a good — and quick — breakfast the night before.

"You can just have cold boiled eggs and toast in the car on the way to the gym," she said.

After a workout, Hardway said, the same rules of good nutrition apply.

For more health/fitness-related tales, tips, testimonials and more, visit Qcitymetro's Health page: www.qcitymetro.com/health.

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