What you eat around your workouts can make the difference between “just getting through it” and actually making progress in strength, endurance, and body composition. For most people at Portland Personal Training, that means thinking less about fancy supplements and more about simple, balanced meals that support energy and recovery.
A helpful place to start is protein. Newer reviews suggest that aiming for roughly 0.3–0.4 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight in the few hours before and after training supports muscle repair and growth, especially when you’re lifting weights. For a 150‑pound person, that’s about 20–25 grams of protein, which you can easily get from Greek yogurt, eggs, or a chicken-and-vegetable bowl.
Carbohydrates are your main fuel, particularly for moderate to hard workouts. A mixed meal with carbs and protein 2–3 hours before training seems to work well for most people, with a smaller snack 1–1.5 hours before if you’re prone to feeling low energy. Think oatmeal with berries and nuts in the morning, or a rice-and-beans bowl at lunch.
Hydration is another quiet performance booster. Even mild dehydration can make exercise feel harder than it needs to and may reduce power output. Sipping water regularly through the day, and adding electrolytes if you’re a heavy sweater or doing longer sessions, can help you feel better during and after your workouts.
Many clients ask about pre‑workout drinks and powders. Recent work comparing multi‑ingredient “pre‑workouts” to simpler carbohydrate drinks in middle‑aged adults found similar strength gains over a 12‑week resistance training program, suggesting the basics (carbs, protein, and consistent training) matter more than the label on your shaker bottle. Caffeine can help performance for some people, but timing, dosage, and sleep quality all need to be considered.
If you’re trying to lose weight, it can be tempting to “save calories” by training on an empty stomach, but that often backfires. Under-fueling can reduce training quality, which means you miss out on muscle‑building stimulus and end up burning fewer calories over time. A small, balanced snack before you train typically leads to better effort and more progress per session.
At Portland Personal Training, we don’t prescribe diets, but we do help clients match their nutrition to their training goals in simple, sustainable ways. That often means adjusting meal timing around sessions, ensuring enough protein per day, and troubleshooting energy crashes or cravings. Small changes delivered consistently usually beat extreme plans that are hard to maintain.
Surprising Fact: A 2025 trial in middle‑aged adults found that adding a vegan protein‑based caffeinated pre‑workout supplement did not produce better strength gains than a simple carbohydrate drink when both groups followed the same resistance program. In other words, the training itself—and your total daily nutrition—did the heavy lifting.