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When you think about foods that can give your workout a boost, you might assume that it's what you eat just before your work out that makes the biggest difference. It's true, fueling up before you exercise is important, but the most productive workout is powered by good nutrition all day long.

A well balanced diet is the surest way to boost your workout energy. According to the USDA, if you're a woman, you need about 46 grams of protein each day for muscle growth and repair. Men need about 56 grams. We all need at least 6 servings of carbohydrates from grains, beans and legumes, or fleshy root vegetables like potatoes. Vegetables and fruits, especially those that are deep green or brightly colored, provide the vitamins and minerals your body needs to utilize protein and carbohydrates for tissue growth, essential body functions and physical activity like your daily workout.

If you balk at six servings of carbohydrates, thinking that cutting carbohydrates is the best way to cut calories, remember, your body's main source of energy is carbohydrates. In the body, starches and sugars are converted to glycogen, the carbohydrate your muscles and liver store for immediate activity. A steady supply of dietary carbohydrates your the blood stream is what guarantees your glycogen levels will be optimal when it's time to work out. One hundred percent whole grain breads and pastas, beans, brown rice, oatmeal and other whole grain cereals will provide steadier and longer lasting energy than white flour products or simple sugars, including fruit sugars and refined sugar.

Of course, while sugars and simple starches shouldn't be the mainstay of your diet, they do have their place as workout boosting foods. Because most sugars and small starch molecules are very easily digested, they enter the bloodstream quickly, giving you an instant energy surge. Bananas are favored by athletes, not only for their natural sugars and starches, but also for their high potassium content which aids muscle function. Potatoes, prepared without oil, are another high energy, high potassium food. Eat either of these 30 to 60 minutes before a workout, and you'll notice a difference in your energy level.

For endurance, you need fat in your diet. Though cutting fat saves calories, if you get fewer than 20% of your daily calories from fat, and work out more than an hour at a time, your performance could suffer. Bearing this out, research at he University of Buffalo revealed that a higher fat diet (31% calories from fat, as opposed to 16%) seemed to improve performance of endurance athletes. Of course, 31% is too much fat for the average person, but it illustrates the necessity of dietary fat for athletic performance. You'll find healthy fats in foods like olive oil, avocado, nuts, flax seed and cold water fish like salmon and tuna. Unless you've be advised by your doctor to eat an ultra low fat diet, for the most workout energy, 20% to 25% of your daily calories should come from healthy fats.

And finally, a word about packaged foods advertised as workout energy boosters. For the everyday athlete, these provide little benefit beyond what you can get from natural food and plenty of water. What they do give you though, is a lot of calories. A 32 ounce bottle of Gatorade has 200 calories and no other nutrition except salt and tiny bit (1% of your daily requirements) of potassium-hardly enough to improve performance. Other drinks and energy bars tout their vitamins and protein, but the calorie to nutrition ratio is still very high. Natural foods, on the other hand, provide a wider range of nutrients, and more nutrition per calorie. As an added bonus for your pocketbook, they usually cost less too.

Learn more about this author, Ysabel J. Doran.
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