What should I be eating before and after exercising?

[CFH]

Really there is tons of good information all around on the web(though probably more bad info), just make sure you have a basic understanding of what you wish to achieve through excercise. Remember it's a stressor, you are breaking down muscle tissue and deplenishing your glycogen stores every time you do any serious workout. Make sure you eat some complex starchy and fibrous carbs with lean protein and essential fats sometime not too long before you workout, Id say between an hour or two, and something much quicker to digest soon afterwards that doesnt contain fat. Since your not looking to gain muscle I won't advocate Dextrose/Maltodextrin or whey Isolate as you probably won't need it, although it's still optimal for recovery. Just make sure you eat something soon after. It's how you train that determines whether you gain muscle as much as what you eat, although obviously you will need to consume more calories to bulk up, the type of foods/supplements can remain the same regardless. Just be careful in thinking that long cardio sessions automatically equate to fat loss and weight training will only serve to bulk you up, it's really a backwards way of thinking. When you enter a catabolic state for a long duration you are burning muscle as well as fat, in turn drastically reducing your metabolism. Therefore even if you do lose weight you decrease the rate your body burns calories and are far more likely to put it back on. Look into interval training, much more effective and takes far less time to do, run sprints or jump rope with rest in between, hit up a rowing machine etc. MUCH, MUCH harder but like I say, you'll save tons of time and will burn fat and preserve muscle at the least.

I've been trying to do interval-type training, but I am limited to very low-impact forms of exercise at the moment. I'm being treated for chronic shin-problems brought about by overuse etc., and as such I can't do things such as sprinting and jumping rope. I figured going hard on the stairmasters for 20 minutes and on the bike/eliptical for 20-40 mins might be a good substitute. Even so, on those machines I never keep a constant rate, I'm always alternating between a high level and a low level in an attempt to pseudo-replicate intervals.

[robinswe01]

You could try using glutamine. It is excellent for recovery. This means that you will beable to to train harder and not pay the price the next day.

[Scrap]

Before training nothing 2hours before, after you have to replenish theres a thing called Rego. Its used a lot by Triathletes and is recommended good stuff its a good mix of Carbs and Proteins get it in before the Magic Halfhour period.

[leftylee]

After training make sure you replace the sugar levels lost.

Before training eat carbs and make sure you're fully hydrated.