What to Eat After Training
Whatever type of exercise you do, you need to support your body with good nutrition. This includes eating right before, during and after your workouts, although it’s actually not as complicated as you may have been told. Let’s dive (ha) into what you should eat after a workout and why.
Will I waste my workout if I don’t eat the right foods afterwards?
Lord, no. I want to be sure to dispel this myth because influencers often say, “STOP doing this” and “you will RUIN your PROFIT if you do this.” Post-workout nutrition is often the subject of these garbage claims.
The truth is that you can’t “waste” a workout. Exercise has many benefits, and the timing of your diet only slightly changes some of them. Even without a perfect diet, your muscles will still get stronger, your heart will still be healthier, stretching will still improve your flexibility, and so on. So no, you haven’t wasted your time. However, you may see improved results if you get your diet in order.
What does your body need after a workout?
Here’s what your post-workout meal should ideally achieve:
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Provide your body with a small amount of protein, which will help with muscle growth, maintenance and repair.
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Provide your body with some carbohydrates to quickly replenish your muscle glycogen stores (carbohydrate stores).
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Digest quickly enough so that these nutrients reach the bloodstream as quickly as possible.
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Make an appropriate contribution to your overall nutrition throughout the day.
How soon should you eat after training?
Look, there’s no law about this here. Sometimes people talk about a 30-minute or two-hour window, but the truth is that time doesn’t really matter .
The only time I would pay attention to the timing is if you are doing another workout in less than 12 hours. In this case, be sure to eat some carbohydrates as soon as possible after your first workout. There is no strict time frame, but ideally you should eat these carbs within an hour or so.
When it comes to resistance training, such as weight lifting, you should eat a protein meal within four to six hours of your previous meal. It doesn’t really matter when you train. So you can finish your climb and then have a cocktail, but you can also wait until you get home and then have a real dinner.
Why You (Might) Need Carbs Post-Workout
Carbohydrates are our body’s preferred source of energy for tough workouts. Athletes who eat plenty of carbohydrates before and during exercise, especially in endurance racing, tend to perform better than those who don’t.
We also store carbohydrates in our muscles, and these carbohydrates are available during exercise. This form of carbohydrate storage is called glycogen, and each muscle has its own reserves. Exercise uses up some of this glycogen, and over the next day or two our body will work to replenish it. Eating carbohydrates immediately after exercise can help replenish glycogen stores faster than if we simply wait to encounter carbohydrates in our regular meals.
If you’re looking to optimize your carb intake post-workout: buckle up, it’s intense. Research shows that the best way to quickly replenish glycogen stores is to eat 1 to 1.5 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight within 30 minutes after a long or hard workout. This means that if you weigh 150 pounds (68 kg), you will need between 68 and 102 grams of carbohydrates in your post-workout meal. This is five to seven slices of bread. Then you will do this again every two hours for the next six hours. Fortunately, there is no need to replenish glycogen stores after every workout.
If you want to eat a “good enough” meal after a workout: eat some carbs. A sandwich with two slices of bread is a good start. Or a smoothie with a cup of fruit. Or just your next regular meal. A cup of brown rice contains about 45 grams of carbohydrates.
Why You (Maybe) Need Protein After a Workout
Protein is a nutrient that gives us the building blocks for muscles. Eating an animal’s muscle tissue and using it to create your own is like breaking your brother’s LEGO castle and using it to build one for yourself. (Of course, plant protein will work too.)
Protein not only provides the raw material for building muscle mass, but also triggers MPS or muscle protein synthesis . Resistance training (eg, weight lifting) also causes MPS. If you want to build or maintain muscle mass, you should lift weights and eat protein. It was once thought that eating protein immediately after a workout would double the muscle-building signal, but more recent research has shown that timing isn’t that important . However, it doesn’t hurt to get some daily protein in your post-workout meal.
Protein has another benefit: it is thought to help our bodies better utilize carbohydrates from food after a workout. Some sources say the ideal ratio is 1:4: one gram of protein for every four grams of carbohydrates. (This number has led chocolate milk to the title of “ideal recovery drink,” although I’d argue that there’s nothing special about chocolate milk ; plenty of lesser-selling products can serve the same function.)
If you want to optimize your protein intake post-workout: Eat 0.4 to 0.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight (that is, about 30 grams if you weigh 150 pounds) in both your pre- and post-workout meals. Post-workout meals should be eaten within about three hours of exercise, and pre- and post-workout meals should be six hours apart from each other.
If you want to eat a “good enough” meal post-workout: Eat a meal containing protein (and carbs!) within a few hours of your workout. For most of us, eating normally is enough, without planning anything special. For example, you will have breakfast after your morning workout.
How post-workout nutrition fits into the big picture
It’s much more important to monitor your overall nutrition than it is to carefully consider the details of your post-workout meals, snacks, or shakes. If what you eat after a workout is making it difficult to achieve your goals for the day, don’t worry.
For example, if you are trying to control your overall caloric intake, eating large amounts of carbohydrates after a workout may not be appropriate or necessary. On the other hand, if your post-workout shake contains enough protein, keeping the shake in your diet can help you reach your overall protein intake goals.
I have more information here on how to determine how much protein you need per day. Carbohydrates and fats may be more flexible, but remember that a high-carb diet is generally better for athletic performance than a low-carb diet. (This doesn’t mean you can’t exercise while eating low-carb, but your body will effectively use any carbohydrates you consume.) The total number of calories you consume should also be a factor when deciding what to eat.
Ultimately, your biggest levers are how much food you eat, whether you get enough protein, and how “healthy” your diet is (for lack of a better term) – for example, you should try to eat some vegetables and variety your diet. there. It’s better to eat a post-workout meal that will help you achieve your daily goals than a meal that may seem “optimal” but makes it difficult to achieve your desired gains for the day.