Written by top level Personal Trainer Paul Boorman

If you need to snack to keep your energy levels up, it might be worth looking at what you eat at your main meals to make sure that you're having three balanced meals a day. However, we are all different and some people, especially when training, need to use snacks as an energy boost or to stave off hunger.

You should aim for your snacks to be nutrient-dense – this means that you are getting as many nutrients as possible per calorie, with as few empty calories (sugar and refined carbs) as possible. Fresh fruit and veg, crudités with houmous, raw nuts and seeds (only a handful), smoothies with added seeds, yoghurt and a bowl of cereal or a cereal bar are all excellent snacks – packed with vitamins and minerals but relatively low in calories.

The only exception is when you are eating immediately after intense exercise – at this point your body needs to refuel quickly and replace glycogen stores. Here, the ideal snack would be a quick-releasing carbohydrate such as a bagel with jam, a tortilla wrap or a pasta salad.
A snack should always be treated as a in between meal, and not to replace a meal, your body needs at least three main meals a day to sustain itself, and one of those should be hot.

Bon appetite!

"Paul is a qualified Advanced Level 3 Personal Trainer and Independent Distributor for Forever"

Bookmark with: