Opting for midday exercise requires fueling fully before your workout—give yourself at least two hours after eating before you work out (adjust menu amounts as needed). And following your run or heavy lift, opt for both refueling carbs to build glycogen and protein to support muscle health.

Exercise type—cardio or strength training—also makes a difference when it comes to menu planning. Running, cycling, rowing, or other continuous forms of exercise (cardio) put your body into a metabolic shift as muscles demand more carbs as fuel. Muscle glycogen or “carbs” must be replenished with food carbohydrates after sessions of running and cycling to ready your body for more physical activity.

Strength training such as lifting weights or doing bodyweight type exercises (jumping jacks, pull-ups, and sit-ups) create a resistance within the muscles prompting microscopic muscle fiber tears that rebuild with proper refueling, which includes additional dietary protein. Over time your muscles gain strength and even mass.

Cardio-Intense:

• Breakfast: High-protein waffle (toaster style or from a mix) topped with blueberry jam and chopped walnuts; 1 cup vanilla Greek yogurt with cinnamon and fresh apple bits stirred in
• Mid-Morning: Coffee with gingersnap cookie
• Workout: Noontime run (4 miles plus stretching)
• Lunch: Bowl of veggie soup, personal pizza topped with broiled chicken and tomatoes
• Afternoon Snack: Pre-made small green smoothie
• Dinner: Lean beef tacos with all the veggie fixings, black beans, polenta, and spinach salad

Strength-Based:

• Breakfast: 2 whole eggs plus 2 egg whites; 1–2 slices whole grain toast with jam; cup of fruit salad (berries, bananas, apples)
• Workout: 45-minute strength workout with bodyweight exercises (lunges, push-ups, pull-ups, burpees, etc. plus weights)
• Lunch: 1 cup Greek yogurt topped with nuts and seeds; ½ turkey sandwich with plenty of produce
• Afternoon Snack: Apple and pretzels
• Dinner: 4 ounces grilled halibut, steamed broccoli, baked winter squash, brown rice; oatmeal cookie

More of a morning person or marathoner? Check out the Morning Workout Meal Plan and Endurance Day Workout Meal Plan!