• Love and Chew is Delicious and Nutritious 
• Carbs Pre and Post-workout  
• The Bulking Phase
•  How Our Cookies Help you Post-workout 

You work hard. You make sure you keep your fitness and diet on track and get to that post-workout moment where you need to replenish your carbs. You find yourself eating a protein bar after a workout or a pre-workout chocolate bar, protein shakes, or another bland carbohydrate/protein mix. Some of the bars and shakes might taste good, but if they don’t taste like cardboard, they’re not far off. You even go so far as to have a fruit smoothie post-workout, but that’s a lot of noisy work that leaves you with a mess to clean up. 

So why not have a delicious post-workout snack that also delivers on the carbs your body needs? That’s where Love + Chew can help! 

Love and Chew is Delicious and Nutritious 

Love + Chew founder, Lauren Chew, created something incredible when she decided to start baking with her stepmom. Lauren began putting together vegan and gluten-free cookie recipes. She soon realized how much healthier plant-based, whole foods made her feel. Today, we’re all able to enjoy a variety of healthy snacks created with love. 

The ingredients offer the complete cookie to satisfy your taste buds and your dietary requirements. 

• They are a clean source of protein – 7 grams of protein from the almonds 
• They have minimal ingredients: the basic recipe includes almond flour, almond butter, baking soda, chia seeds, and dates for sweetness. 
• They provide 25 grams of carbs for a healthy source of energy
• They provide 5 grams of fiber 

The best part is, they taste great! Love + Chew cookies are a guilt-free snack! 

Carbs Pre and Post-Workout 

The days of elite bodybuilders being the only people to bulk up are long gone. The benefits of strength training for the average person are numerous. Weight loss, greater bone density, and longevity are just a few factors that contribute to a better quality of life. 

A healthy, balanced nutrition plan along with physical training is critical. You can’t have one without the other. Carbohydrates are a part of that balanced plan. Before we get into more details about carbs, below is a basic outline of how to approach balancing your macronutrients (1,2,3). 

• Carbs: 6 to 10 grams per kilogram of your body weight or 2.7 to 4.5 grams per pound of body weight. 
• Protein: 2 to 4 grams per kilogram of your body weight or 0.5 to 0.8 grams per pound of body weight
• Fat: 20 to 35 percent of your total energy (caloric) intake. (Dropping below 20 percent of energy from fat can impede fitness performance and desired results. Complete nutrition equals optimal results). 

On a side note, you also want to make sure you hydrate. Hydration is just as important as getting in solid meals. 16 to 24 ounces of fluid for every pound or 0.5 kg of body weight is an excellent way to ensure you’re getting the hydration you need (4).  

Carbs have gotten a bad rap over recent years. They’ve been branded an enemy to health, but the truth is, they are good for you if you decide to get the right kind of carbohydrates into your diet. Of course, it would help if you found good carbs to eat after a workout or before a workout.

There are a few approaches you can take when timing carbs pre-workout. First, ensuring that your body obtains the right amount of fuel before the strength training session will guarantee that you have the right amount of energy. You will also recover faster post-workout.

Two to three hours before your strength training workout, try to eat a meal high with healthy carbs. Doing so will maximize the maintenance of blood glucose in your body. (5) Make sure the meal is low in fat and fiber so that your stomach isn’t bothering you with gastrointestinal issues. Also, make sure you have enough protein and fats in the meal to balance it out so that it isn’t just carbs. 

30 minutes to an hour before your workout is another approach you can take. Simplified protein and carbs are the way to go so that you can easily digest and absorb the amino acids and glucose. About 70% of the snack should be a carb on the low-glycemic scale (a ranking of food on a scale from 0-100 based on how they impact the body’s blood sugar levels). Bananas are an excellent example. 

It’s also important that the snack 30 minutes or an hour before your workout is about 20% protein that is easy to digest. Nut butter is a good example of this. 

Lucky for you, many of our cookies have these ingredients in them! For example, Almond butter is excellent for protein, and bananas are great for healthy carbs! (6,7,8,9). 

Post-workout refueling is also an essential component of the process. Consuming foods that refuel 30 minutes after your strength training session will help with recovery. You’ll replace glycogen (the substance in your body that gets stored as a carbohydrate) in the muscles, repair the muscle damage from the stress of working out, and rebuild your muscles so you can be ready to improve for the next session. 

• 1 to 1.5 grams per kilogram or 0.5 to  0.7 grams per pound of bodyweight is what you are shooting for with your carb intake post-workout. 
• Say you weigh 140 pounds. That would roughly be 63 kilograms. So you would consume around 94-98 grams of carbs 30 minutes after your session. 
• A small amount of protein and carbs will help by giving your body much needed amino acids. In addition, it will help reduce inflammation and build and repair the muscles worked. 
• A good rule of thumb is the 3:1 ratio. 3 grams of carbs for every  1 gram of protein. Getting close to this will be beneficial.  

The Bulking Phase 

Bulking is a phase in bodybuilding, and both elite bodybuilders and the average person looking to be in better shape can benefit from it. Bulking is essentially the muscle-gaining phase. As a result, you typically eat more calories than required for a specific period. The idea is that these extra calories will give you the fuel needed to increase muscle size and strength (10). 

Don’t worry! If you’re doing it right, you’ll cut the fat gained during the bulking phase during the cutting phase (11). Just make sure you’re sticking to the process. 

Understanding your total caloric intake during the bulking phase and how much you should go over that number to adequately bulk is essential. It is recommended that you consume around 10-20% above your maintenance calories (12). (Maintenance calories are the number of calories needed to maintain your current weight if you’re moderately active. Multiplying your body weight by 15 is a rough estimate of this number). 

Let’s say your maintenance is 2000 calories a day. So a 20% increase would be 2400 calories. 

Balancing your macronutrients during the bulking phase is crucial (13,14). 

• 45-60% carbs
• 30-35% protein
• 15-30% fats 

If adjustments need to be made, protein should remain 30-35% while tweaking carbs and fats. This will ensure optimal muscle growth. 

It’s important to remember that bulking isn’t about eating as much as you can. It’s about eating nutrient-dense healthy foods as fuel and not about packing on the weight through any means necessary. Nut butter and fruits are two options that help you reach that caloric intake goal, like bananas and almond butter found in our cookies!

Getting that post-workout snack or meal in is vital in a routine and very important if you’re following the bodybuilding protocols where you’re bulking. You have to find ways to get those healthy calories in, and after-workout snacks are a great way to add them! 

How Our Cookies Help you Post-workout 

Love + Chew cookies are an excellent option for your post-workout snack! Not only are they delicious, but they pack nutritional components that will help you balance out your overall caloric intake. This makes them the best carbs to eat after a workout.

Let’s look at the carbs you’re receiving from Love + Chew cookies.

In terms of the 3:1 ratio of carbohydrates to protein, our cookies are in that ballpark with 25 grams of carbs per serving and 7 grams of protein. You can opt to have one of the many flavors offered and enjoy a Love + Chew cooking 30 minutes post-workout to help your body refuel. Carbs and protein after workout have never been easier! 

You can also keep this carb to protein ratio going with snacks after the initial 30 minutes post-exercise. Following the guidelines previously mentioned, you can consume the post-workout snack again every two hours for four to six hours. This will help replace your glycogen stores and make sure you’re meeting the required caloric intake to properly bulk. 

They’re also great as a dessert after a healthy balanced meal. You’re working hard to eat right and keep your meals at the proper ratio of macronutrients. It can take a lot of work to be that disciplined, and having a nice treat after a well-made, healthy balanced meal is what you deserve! These treats are guilt-free because they add to your nutritional intake value. 

Whether it’s a cardio-focused workout or strength training routine, remember to gauge your caloric intake properly. Once you have your caloric intake down, divide it into proper proportions of macronutrients. Then, create well-balanced, healthy, nutrient-dense meals and snacks that will fulfill the numbers you’re trying to obtain through your caloric intake. 

Supplements can help you reach those goals, but protein bars and shakes can get a little boring, and if we’re being honest, they don’t always taste the best. So why not have the best of both worlds? Love + Chew cookies will balance out your need for good nutrition and your sweet tooth at the same time! So treat yourself to a healthy, delicious snack.