I know I have come to the right place for my question, you are all so knowledgeable here.

I have, OK tonight I am joinning a gym for 3 months. The best time for me to get there is right after work. I get off work at 4:30 and will be at the gym at 5PM. (I am not doing BFL) I usually eat breaky at 7:30, lunch at 12-12:30 NO SNACKS. what should I eat and when I am not sure I could make it till 7 to eat dinner without passing out. Then should I eat again after I work out and what should I eat......????Sorry for all the questions.

Thanks
Kim

Kim - when you say NO SNACKS, does that mean you CAN'T have a 'snack' due to work or that you won't?

You really need to eat something a couple hours before you work out. What you might want to try is having many small meals rather than three large meals, and eating every 2-3 hours during the day (which is actually BFL style eating). Contrary to what many people think, being hungry/ravenous does NOT mean you are burning fat. Check the Basic Body for Life Info sticky for some links and info on that.

Even if you're not doing BFL, eating small meals throughout the day is best - gets a steady trickle of nutrients to your muscles and keeps your body out of starvation mode (which causes it to burn muscle and hang onto fat - not good).

From your info above, here's a daily schedule you might want to try:

7:30 am - breakfast/meal #1
10:00 am - mid-morning snack/meal #2
12:00-12:30 pm - lunch/meal #3
3:00 - 3:30 pm - mid-afternoon snack/meal #4
4:30 pm leave work
5:00 pm - workout
7:00 - 7:30 pm - dinner/meal 5

For meal ideas - check the threads or go to some of the websites listed. I think that after a workout, a light dinner like chicken, some sweet potato, and veggies would probably be good.

I'm sure more folks will chime in here...

Yep, that's pretty much exactly how I do it. So far I haven't passed out. I work out at home in my gym, and sometimes it takes me a while to get home because of traffic. So if I think I'm going to be running late, I'll even toss in another light snack right before I leave work. That way by the time I get home to play with the weights, I can actually think about weights, not what's for dinner!

My snacks are usually yogurt, tuna, veggies with low fat dip, fruit ... the usual.

They're right. A snack of lean protein w/a fiberous carb will help fuel you for a good, solid workout. I often eat chicken breast w/an apple because its simple to fix and I can eat it on the run.

If you don't put enough and the right kind of gas in the tank, the engine won't run right and will conk out on you. Hate for that to happen during chest press!

After your workout, you should have a snack as well. Some of us have a shake of some kind or another. Its easily digested and gets to the needy muscles quickly.

I have a bruise on my boob today because of a pooped out bench press! tmi?

Hockeychic-

I've gotta second what everyone is saying - eat, eat, eat! Today I worked out from 4:45 to about 5:45, which is the time you're talking about...and I ate at 7 am, 10 am, 1 pm, had dinner at 6:30 and will probably eat twice again before I go to bed tonight.

Try it for a week or so - just see if it doesn't make you feel better. Since I've started eating this way, I don't have the late afternoon blahs, the late night munchies or the headache halfway through the morning which I used to get.

BethO

Thank you everyone for the advise, sounds good.